Many shows have potential, although it is rare in this era of network executive with attention-deficit-disorder that enough time is granted. Fringe, presumably by virtue of the pedigree of creator J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Felicity), was given the time and, despite some early season meandering, grew in leaps and bounds.
For those already fearing the void that Lost will leave and even those among us who are still pining for the glory days of X-Files, to which this series owes much, Fringe is the heir apparent (although new series Flash Forward is a comer, or so I’m reading).
Fringe started out with only potential. Many loved the premiere, in which we meet FBI agent Olivia (Anna Torv); former visionary scientist Walter (John Noble), pulled from his cell in a psychiatric hospital; and his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson), who is charged with wrangling Walter out of his institutional stupor to save the world.
Many loved it but, while I loved Walter and Peter’s tentative reunion, I found the elder’s eccentricities (he pees himself, he shoves “crazy” non sequiturs into every pause longer than three seconds) distracting, and I found Torv’s portrayal to be robotic and flat. There was no denying the story and structure had potential, but the alternating freak-of-the-week bizarre science (it starts with the arrival of a plane full of disintegrated corpses) and grand conspiracy (What is the Pattern? Who is behind Massive Dynamic and are they evil?) was ripped right from the scripts of X-Files.
Even so, I took off my X-Files watch and started giving it a chance and by the excellent finale, I was hooked by the drama behind Olivia’s cool exterior (evil stepfather, dependent sister and nephew), by Blair Brown and then Leonard Nimoy as the heads of the is-it-evil-or-is-it-not mega-corporation called Massive Dynamic. Even Walter’s eccentricities grew on me. And there is believable warmth among Peter, his father and Olivia.
Is it over the top? Of course, but, to hark back to the X-Files, I want to believe in this show and so I do believe in a series that now straddles two worlds connected by a portal, the fear of a grim future and the small band of wierdos who are trying to make it all right.
Season 1, available now on DVD and Blu-ray, comes a week before the Season 2 premiere. I consider it essential viewing. I command you: Go out and buy or rent, as I will, to fill in the blanks on what is to come. I am particularly looking forward to the extra called Deciphering the Scene on a number of episodes. If you know your way around the web, watch at least the finale to set up what is to come on Sept. 17 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
Other extras: gag reel, Roberto Orci’s production diary, a featurette on Gene the cow, the other member of the investigative team.
Here is the promo for Season 2.
Here are some other releases of TV on DVD this week.
Worst Week: The Complete Series
The Office: Season 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Criminal Minds: Season 4
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Harper’s Island: The DVD Edition
Adventures of Robin Hood: The Complete Fourth Season
Wiseguy: The Complete First Season
Smallville: The Complete Season 1-8
One Foot in the Grave: The 1996 and 1997 Christmas Specials and The Complete Series
Mr. Belvedere: Season 3
Meteor (TV movie)
Dog the Bounty Hunter: The Best of Season 5
Important Things with Demetri Martin: Season 1
Oh Dear. I’ve been caught with my DVDs down once again. It’s a slow week. And the only DVD that critical attention demands I review, well, I didn’t watched a single episode of Flight of the Conchords’ second season. It was clever in the first go ’round, but I found myself drifting toward the end. Sorry lads, your tale of two New Zealand singers trying to make it in NYC just didn’t click with me. Of course, you, with your much more advanced appreciation of this very dry humour will shame me by explaining how good it is and how wrong I am. The lines are open. My operators are standing by. Until the first call, here is the pitiful little list of releases this week.
Flight of the Conchords: Season 2
The Love Boat; Season 2, Vol. 2
Project Runway: The Complete Fifth Season
Robin Hood: Season 2
Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Show
Kate & Allie: Season 6
– Denise Duguay
“Mad Men pulled off an amazing feat in the second season, managing to keep up the quality of the series with such high expectations coming off of its first critically acclaimed outing. Like the first season DVD release, the Season Two set is a very strong one. A few more features would have knocked this one out of the park, but as it is, it’s still an easy recommendation for fans.”
I wish I’d had time to get through (or had time to catch up with Season 2; for which I have no excuse because episodes are still online. What am I doing talking to you. I gotta go.)
Here are some other new releases of TV on DVD.
ER: Season 11
Shark Week: The Great Bites Collection
Wire in the Blood: The Complete Sixth Season
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations — Collection 4
The State: The Complete Series
Arab Labor: The Complete First Season
National Geographic: The Great White Odyssey (Blu-ray)
The Best of Make Room for Daddy
Bewitched: The Complete Eighth Season – Denise Duguay
Lazy days of summer. And a lazy week for distributors of TV on DVD, who have coughed up only a measly few light-weight releases (Reba: Season 6, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Collection 3). So I took that as a sign to look at what’s ahead. I’ll post a link to this post at the top of the page and try to keep it updated.
JUNE
Eastbound and Down: Season 1, June 30
Eureka: Season 3.0, June 30
Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season, June 30
JULY
Mad Men: Season 2, July 14
ER: Season 11, July 14
Prison Break: The Final Break, July 21
Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season, July 21
Dollhouse: Season 1, July 28
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5/Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (DVD and Blu-ray), July 28
Life on Mars: Series 1 (U.K.), July 28
AUGUST
Flight of the Conchords: Season 2, Aug. 4
Californication: Season 2, Aug. 11
90210 (2.0): The Complete First Season, Aug. 11
Dexter: The Third Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Aug. 18
Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
The Beast: Season 1, Aug. 18
Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
Eli Stone: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season, Aug. 25
House: Season 5, Aug. 25
Lie to Me: Season 1, Aug. 25
Life: Season 2, Aug. 25
NCIS: The Complete Sixth Season, Aug. 25
thirtysomething: The Complete First Season, Aug. 25
SEPTEMBER
Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fifth Season, Sept. 1
Heroes: Season 3 (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 1
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The Complete First Season, Sept. 1
Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season, Sept. 1
Fringe: The Complete First Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 8
Grey’s Anatomy: Season 5, Sept. 15
Private Practice: The Complete Second Season, Sept. 15
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season, Sept. 15
My Name Is Earl: the Complete Fourth Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 15
Castle: Season 1, Sept. 22
30 Rock: Season 3
Law & Order: SVU: The 10th Year, Sept. 22
The Mentalist: Season 1, Sept. 22
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sept. 22
How I Met Your Mother: Season 4, Sept. 29
Life on Mars: The Complete Series (U.S.), Sept. 29
DECEMBER
Lost: Season 5/Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiation Kit (DVD and Blu-ray for both), Dec. 8
With thanks, as every DVD Tuesday, to amazon.ca and tvshowsondvd.com.
“I’m convinced the shoes have something to do with it.”
Now, if you walked by my desk about 10 days ago and heard me make this statement to a colleague, would you know what “it” I was talking about?
And THAT, my friend, is the difference between you and sad nerds like me who, nearly a month after the last new episode of Season 5, are still quite fixated on the series Lost.
The shoes, of course, are Locke’s, the ones that Ben, I think it was, tells Jack he must put on Locke’s dead feet so they can recreate as many of the details of returning to the island as possible.
The shoes also, because there is never only one level of meaning for Lost, also referred to the sneakers worn by Jack’s father, Christian, when Jack sees him in the island jungle for the first time (Season 1, Walkabout) and by Jacob?/Christian? in the cabin in Season 4.
Fortunately, I am surrounded by other nerds who are obsessed with Lost. So much so that not only could I keep a colleague pinned to my desk while I spouted on and on about shoes and such, but another sad, nerd colleague walked by and, cued by the word “shoes”, asked furtively, dropping his head and lowering his voice, “Are you guys talking about Lost?”
He listened intently for a second and then said, “I’m going to look up Lost and shoes. I’ll get back to you.”
Now, you’re asking, what’s all this about shoes? Indeed, you are right. There are much more pressing questions when it comes to Lost, even though there are, gaak, seven months before the final season begins.
Some of these questions are spoilers so I will link only. Click at your peril.
Another character was apparently falsely rumoured to be returning… but will appear elsewhere on ABC.
The shoes have been confirmed as a link between Lost and the 1969 Kurt Russell movie, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Russell’s last line of dialogue in that movie is the key to understanding every twist in five seasons of Lost.
One of the above is highly fictional.
Also fictional, I am sorry to say, is my promise to have sawed through the first two seasons of Lost, reissued this week on Blu-ray. Sometimes, my friends, life intervenes. I am plugging away.
I am loving the experience of rewatching Lost from the beginning, though I admit I feared seeing the little man behind the curtain, to use a reference to the L. Frank Baum classic so often drawn from in Lost.
However, having gotten about halfway through Season 1, I can say that the great and powerful Oz is terrifyingly alive and well, right from the epic two-hour series premiere. The booming hi-def sound, afforded by the remastering and the Blu-ray watchamajiggery, does not hurt either.
But the control of the story is what is really satisfying.
Take an exchange between Locke, saved from his wheelchair by the island, and Walt, the boy with vaguely defined special powers.
On the beach, Locke is fiddling with a backgammon set, explaining the game to Walt and holding up two game pieces: “Some are dark and some are light.”
Okay, now maybe this is another nerdy shoes moment, but the scene put chills down my spine. References to a game and to dark and light, all set on the beach — it rockets through to the rivetting Season 5 finale, in which Jacob and the unnamed character played by Titus Welliver tackle the same topics, but with stakes, while yet undefined, much higher.
Back to Locke and Walt on the beach, where Locke asks Walt if he wants to know a secret, which we do not get to hear.
Later, Walt admits to his suspicious dad Michael that Locke said he’d experienced a miracle on the island. Michael irritably cuts him off, saying their survival was a miracle, but what was it that Locke told Walt? Was it merely about the restoration of his legs? Or some other magic business between two very potent characters?
Fast-forward to the end of Season 1, where Locke is snatched by the smoke monster, which nearly drags him into a huge pit. Jack tries to save him but Locke tries to resist, saying that it’s okay, to just let him go.
So is Locke the dark game piece? Is he the smoke monster? WILL you stop laughing?
Locke has always been a spooky, pivotal character in this series, the man of faith to Jack’s man of science, but the two-Lockes at the end of Season 5 has only encouraged a reviewing of his role. I have assumed this mission.
Clearly, I spend too much time on my own. I know that. Unfortunately, people keep hanging around my desk at work and only encouraging me. So I will persist.
I am also checking out the progress of other Lost nerds via The Lost Rewatch: June 2009 to January 2010.
Let the judging begin.
Here are some other new DVD releases, and don’t forget my ramble about the great show Saving Grace, which releases its second season this week.
Family Guy, Vol. 7
Transformers: The Complete First Season
Burn Notice: Season 2
Everywood, the Complete Second Season
Jesse Stone Thin Ice
Murdoch Mysteries: Series 1
Trailer Park Boys: Seasons 1-7
Saving Grace: Season 2
Family Guy 100th Episode
The FBI Files: Season 3
The Secret Lilfe of the American Teenager: Season 2
Generation Kill (DVD and Blu-ray)
John Adams (Blu-ray)
Oooooh. This is a tough week to choose just one DVD release to favour.
My practical mind is going with Wallander, a new release of the three recently aired made-for-PBS movies starring Kenneth Branagh and based on the excellent (in a morbidly depressing way) detective series by Swedish writer Henning Mankell. The movies are called Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind. Sure, I can catch up on the movies by going to pbs.org’s gorgeous new video player (free! even to Canadian IP addresses! although — please note — the Wallander films will be bumped off the video player after June 7), but the DVD comes jammed with extras, including featurettes Who Is Kurt Wallander?, Branagh’s Wallander, The Wallander Look and a Branagh and Mankell interview. Tempting.
There is also Jon and Kate Plus Ei8ht: Season 4. Remember when this reality show was notable only for the herculean efforts of the parents to not lose their minds in the face of soooo mannnny children? Nah. Too tawdry now that they’ve gone all tabloid with the word adultery sullying the hard-earned family bliss vibe and hard-bodied Kate rumoured to have accepted a free tummy tuck (I heard it on eTalk). No. This week my vote goes to… the lunch box. The 1974-77 series Land of the Lost is now available on DVD… and for a few extra beans you can upgrade to the Limited Edition Gift Set which includes a lunch box. The show? Barely remember it though I seem to recall and imdb backs me up here, that it’s about a family thrown back to a time of dinosaurs, ape men and some big-eyed lizard men called Sleestacks. It’s being dragged out of mothballs now to promote Will Ferrell and Danny McBride’s new film of the same name, hitting cinemas Friday, June 5. But I’m all about the lunchbox. The hinge on my Scooby Doo just broke. Sweet.
Here is more practical information: other TV releases new on shelves this week:
Prison Break: Season 4
Weeds: Season 4 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Quincy, M.E.: Season 3
Blood Ties: Season 1
Army Wives: The Complete Season 2
Cannon: Season 2, Vol. 1
The Jetsons: Season 2, Vol. 1
The Hunger: The Complete first Season
Raising the Bar: The Complete First Season
Highlander: The Complete Animated Series
Holmes on Holmes: Bathrooms (or Basements or Kitchens…)
– Denise Duguay
Bad news: Despite the best of intentions, and the boyfriend who has monopolized the DVR with episodes of Ultimate Survival: Everest, I completely missed Showcase’s airing of the second season of Saving Grace,
Saving Grace: Season 2
the brilliant cop drama starring the wee, tiny explosively intense Holly Hunter as damaged-goods Det. Grace Hanadarko. Oh yeah, and her pain-in-the-ass angel Earl (Leon Rippy) and the death-row inmate Leon Cooley (Bokeem Woodbine) she sees in her dreams, Grace’s sainted nephew and, although she’s visually absent from every scene but present in many things our heroine does and does not do, Grace’s sister, who died in the Oklahoma City bombing. There’s all that and lot’s of sweaty sex, sometimes with Grace’s “boyfriend” Hamm (Kenny Johnson). Oh, and violence that is more terrifying for being bookended by ragged humour (Grace to one suspect, “Let’s take the stairs.” Insert the sound of a body taking the fast route.).
So bad news that I missed it. But good news that Season 2 will be out on DVD on June 16.
Now this doesn’t help you, who are so sweetly helpless without my advice, to decide what new TV on DVD to buy or rent right now. I’m sorry. It’s spring. I’ve been a little distracted watching Lost’s finale again. And again. (Advice: Do not, ever, watch any episode of Lost with your mother. Or at least not with my mother. Very hard to keep straight your Jacobs from your Ilanas and your dose-of-bad-Dharma-canned-food from your God-playing-chess-with-Satan theories.)
But back to you. I’m no good to you this week. But in two weeks, oh yeah you’ll thank me. And maybe next week, I’ll be back in the game. Oh yeah.
Now here is a list of new TV on DVD that I have no strong enough opinion of to fake my way through.
The Closer: The Complete Fourth Season
Law & Order: SVU — Year Nine
Designing Women: The Complete First Season
The Universe: The Complete SEason 3
Degrassi: The Next Generation:Season 7
Gunsmmoke: Vol. 2 — Season 3
Mod Squad: Vol. 2, Season 2
Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete Series
Greek: Chapter One
Futurama: Vol. 4
Kyle XY: The Complete First Season
Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season One
The Invisibles: Series 1
Ice Road Truckers: The Most Dangerous Episodes
Dark Angel: Season 2
Cities of the Underworld: The Complete Season 3
Five reasons to rent the new DVD True Blood: The Complete First Season, the hit cable series based on Charlaine Harris’s series of Sookie Stackhouse novels about an average waitress (who can read your thoughts) who falls in love with the new guy in town who is a member of the newest minority group, vampires, fighting for public respect, legislative protection and social acceptance.
1. Despite early fears that Anna Paquin was not a believable blonde (!!!!), the actress grabbed control of the series as the waitress Sookie. Her co-star Stephen Moyer started out flat in his portrayal of the vampire Bill Compton, but quickly caught up, making for steamy, teary love and sex scenes not too far into the first season.
2. Excellent supporting cast:Rutina Wesley plays Tara Thornton, Sookie’s best friend in the series but, in the book, a background character absent from the otherwise excellent first novel. Watch her. She has a crazy mother, an intriguing cousin, a witchy late-series adventure and enough something-something for her own series.Lois Smith is the uber grandmother and soul of the series as Adele Stackhouse, Sookie’s beloved Gran. She makes a great pie and gives vampire Bill an almost human side.
3. The opening credits, set to the tune of Jace Everett’s (I Wanna Do) Bad Things (To You). Creepy. Funny. Brilliant. Worth its own disc.
4. Commentary that, while I haven’t yet sampled it, will be tragically disappointing if it’s anything but charming and funny by exec producer and series creator Alan (Six Feet Under) Ball and Paquin. I’ll get back to you on this as soon as I can wade through.
Now then. Here are some more new releases of TV on DVD.
Friday Night Lights: the Third Season
24: Season 7
8 Simple Rules: Season 2
Hilarious House of Frightenstein: Grizelda’s Eat Drink and Be Scary
Peyton Place, Part 1
SeaTek: Season 1
World of Wonder: Season 1
Caught on Tape: Complete Series
The New Detectives: Season 3
I have GOT to start pulling some strings and muscling publicists into sending me more of those advance DVD review copies. I must. But what with the damn day job and the mother and the intolerable return visit from the cold-flu virus, well … okay the dog ate my DVD review of Caprica, this week’s exclusive DVD-only release of the debut episode of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff. The series will hit Canadian TV’s Space channel in 2010.
I even tried squeezing out a tear in HMV, where the young clerk admitted the goods were in the building. I made my case. That it was for my bedridden mother, whose only solace was quality sci-fi. But she refused, heartless wench. And perhaps I should say that Mother is not bedridden. Just grouchy. And sci-fi does nothing to improve her mood.
And so. I will have a review of Caprica as soon as I am able. Otherwise, I might be tempted to write at great length and with considerable venom about My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series and how the ridiculousness of the spy-with-two-warring-personalities plot was matched only by the series’ unwillingness to die a quicker death. Christian Slater, hang your head.
Until then, make do with this list of other DVD releases.
Dallas: The Complete 11th Season
Hawaii Five-O: Season 6
Rhoda: Season 1
My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series
Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season
American Experience: A Class Apart
Life of Ryan: The Complete Series
Wolverine and the X-Men: Vol. 1, Heroes Return Trilogy
I’m in a forward-thinking DVD state of mind. And so.
Only one week until Caprica, the DVD-only (so far) debut of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff series coming to Space: The Imagination Station in 2010. Thank you Space.
Next month’s hotly anticipated releases include: Dexter Season 2 (May 5) and True Blood: Season 1 and Friday Night Lights: Season 3 (May 19).
Aaaaaaand, while we’ll have to wait until Sept. 29 for the full-series DVD of the cancelled U.S. adaptation of Life on Mars, July 28 will be the release date of Season 1 of the original Brit series of the same name. Thanks for B.G. for passing along the date of the Brit series. She, like many of you, haaaaaaated the U.S. series, never more than in the spacey finale.
But enough about this future stuff. Here are some new TV-on-DVD releases for this week.
Wolverine and the X-Men: Season 1, Chapter 1
Knots Landing: The Complete Second Season
Intelligence: Season 2
Wings: The Complete Series
Ruth Rendell Mysteries: Set 4
Dennis Miller: The HBO Comedy Specials
Exosquad: Season 1
Route 66: The Complete Second Season
Backyard Cookin’: Season 1
Cook Like a Chef: Season 1, Vol. 1
Sugar: Season 1, Vol. 1
Taste of Life: Season 3
Frontline: My Father, My Brother and Me
Nova: The Odyssey of Life — The Ultimate Journey – Denise Duguay
Oh sure, you eat crab. Maybe even do hand to hand combat with the can opener to get at the crab. But do you know how hard the poor devils work to bring you the crab?
Of course, if you watch Deadliest Catch, I’m preaching to the converted. While the Discovery Channel series that follows a handful of fishermen into the building-high waves of the Bering Sea is always thrilling, Season 4 was particularly suspenseful. The daredevil captains were awed by one of their own, whose disregard for his health nearly killed him. None of the hype that characterizes some other so-called reality series. It would be easy to find out which of the crazed captains I’m talking about, but if you don’t know, don’t bother looking on the Net. Watch the season, out now on DVD (or repeating on Discovery). It’s gripping. Maybe even gripping enough to make up for the fact that you’re probably too late to register for CatchCon, a gathering of Deadliest fans in Seattle on April 25.
Definitely gripping enough to set the stage for Season 5, coming April 21 at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery Channel Canada.
Want still more? Greedy bastard! Fine. Here are some other new TV DVD releases. And that’s all I’ve got.
Beverly Hills 90210: Season 7
Dynasty: Season 4, Vol. 1
The Paper Chase: Season 1
Alias: Season 5
Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth
Blade the Series: The Complete Series
Davey and Goliath: The Lost Episodes
I keep telling myself I’m on vacation and yet here I am, ignoring another gorgeous blue sky for the pale blue glow of the computer screen. Frak it. After these five sentences about my beloved Battlestar Galactica — and the 2 skimpy TV on DVD blog posts that I have “post” dated to appear over the next two weeks — I am gone fishin until April 6.
1. Battlestar Galactica wraps up its four-season run Friday, March 20 with a two-hour finale starting at 9 p.m. ET on Space: The Imagination Station, which follows with a live fan forum at 11 p.m. ET which offers “An in-depth chat about the series finale of Battlestar Galactica and the legacy the show leaves behind.”
2. If you are a sometimes fan, you can catch up by watching or recording a repeat of the final run of episodes leading up to Friday’s finale. The marathon starts at 11 a.m. ET Friday on Space.
3. If you don’t know anything about this show, forget about the Friday finale. I’d love to say you should watch and appreciate it for the spectacular head trip/social commentary/inspirational drama that it is. But I am a little lost myself and I think it would just wreck it for a band-wagoneer. Go back to the miniseries that launches the series. It’s worth all four seasons. So say we all.
4. Stop your shaking. The next fix of the BSG universe will come April 21 when Caprica will be released exclusively on DVD. That’s the pilot episode of the series set in the time when the Cylons are created, focussing on the Adama and Greystone families. Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz are among the stars. The full series is set for release sometime in 2010 (Space has not yet committed to the Sci-Fi Channel Syfy Channel series, but we live in hope). On April 21, we’ll get the Caprica series pilot plus a load of extras.
5. Still trembling? Here’s a little something about the post-BSG Cylon-centred movie (bcast date eta) called The Plan. It’s an interview with director and BSG vet Edward James Olmos, courtesy of E! Online.
You kids are more likely to know Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, the lovable ogre character in the Harry Potter movies.
But back in the olden days of the early ’90s, Coltrane was, and could only ever be, Fitz, the cranky, boozing, adulterous, bastardly, self-loathing, big-hearted and brilliant forensic psychologist working with the Manchester police. And you think House is tortured?
Cracker was the series and the full collection (all three seasons, plus two standalone movies) has been released on DVD with an extended interview with cast and crew.
The crimes stories are rocking. The supporting cast is spectacular: Christopher Eccleston (Heroes, Dr. Who) as the police boss, Geraldine Somerville as “Panhandle” Penhaligan and sometime apple of Fitz’s jaded eye, Barbara Flynn as the ferociously wounded and loving wife). But the reason to watch this is Coltrane’s rivetting character study of Dr. Edward Fitzgerald.
He’ll break your heart and make you laugh and all over again.
Pretend the U.S. version, starring the late Robert Pastorelli, did not happen. This Cracker is the real article.
Here are a couple more TV on DVD releases.
South Park: The Complete 12th Season
Get Smart: Season 2
Family Ties: The Fifth Season
Berserk: Complete Series (remastered)
The Baron: The Complete Series
Caroline in the City: The Second Season
The Best Years: The Complete First Season
The Starter Wife: Season 1
Forgotten Ellis Island – Denise Duguay
It had me at the cast list: Marg Helgenberger (CSI), Alfred Molina (Frida, Spider-Man 2), Virginia Madsen (Smith, American Dreams), Nathan Fillion (Firefly, upcoming Castle), David McCallum (NCIS) and even the bouncy, bouncy Keri Russell (Felicity). But apparently, the new animated Wonder Woman origin story — new, straight-to-DVD and on shelves as of today — is as good as its voice choices. Or so says Wired and who am I to question the wisdom of the geek magazine’s critics squad. Although reviewer Ken Denmead does advise that parents pre-screen this for viewers younger than, well the U.S. rating is PG-13. It’s a cartoon, but it’s not for kids because of scenes of rape and murder. Yet apparently? Tons of laughs as well.
Here are some other new titles of TV on DVD:
7th Heaven: the Eighth Season
ER: the Complete 10th Season
Nash Bridges: The Second Season
Rick and Steve: The Complete Second Season
The Hills: The Complete Fourth Season
The Return of Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Hotel Babylon: Season 3
My Two Dads: The Complete First Season
Kennedy: The Complete Series
Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares
Breaking Bad, the best series that you can’t see up here in Quebec because it’s on AMC, the U.S. channel behind Mad Men and which is available in other parts of Canada. I am somewhat mollified though, by the fact that we can see some nasty funny (content warning: “No Abu Ghraib-y hands!”) little webisodes on the U.S. AMC’s website. Season 2 of this series about a science teacher (Malcolm in the Middle’s Bryan Cranson won the 2008 Emmy for this role) with a terminal illness and a strong desire to break any laws necessary to provide for his family, starts in the U.S. on March 9. But we can finally savour Season 1 when it’s out on DVD this week (here’s the full episode, online, of the Season 1 pilot episode to whet your appetite).
That’s what I’ll be watch on this, my week of winter vacation. Try to get by without me. I’ll see you next week. In the meantime, here are some other TV on DVD titles, new on shelves this week.
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder
Summer Heights High
Girlfriends: The Sixth Season
Dirty Jobs: Collection Four
Dangerous Assignment: The Complete Television Collection
It’s another weak week in new releases of TV on DVD, but know this, thanks to the good people over at tvshowsondvd.com: no matter how baffled you were by the two-hour (whaaaaaatf?) Season 5 opener of Lost, you KNOW you want the DVD. If only in the hopes that you can tie a string to Daniel Faraday and by following him maybe know for a second what the hell is going on. But I digress. Thanks to tvshowsondvd, I know that you can pre-order the Season 5 DVD right now on Amazon.ca. No release date yet (Season 4 came out in December), of course. But then if you’re a Lost fan, you’re used to waiting. Season 5 continues on Wednesday at 9 on ABC (and A Channel if you’re lucky enough to get that infuriating channel denied to Videotron subscribers. Why? Why?).
If that’s not enough DVD news for you, this week marks the release of the full series of M.A.N.T.I.S., the short-lived superhero series starring Carl Lumbly as a scientiest who, after a paralyzing accident, builds himself an exoskeleton that not only gets him to the corner Starbucks and back, but fights crime along the way. Devote geeks only please.
Here is some other stuff new on shelves this week.
Cheers: The Final Season
The Invaders: The Complete Series
The Love Boat: Vol. 1 Season 2
Instant Star: Season 2
Blossom: Season 1 and 2
Make Em Laugh: The Funny Business
My Uncle Silas: Series 1
Meerkat Manor: Season 4
Planet Earth: The Complete Collection Blu-ray
The All-New Superfriends Hour: Season 1, Vol. 2 – Denise Duguay
I gotta be honest. I’m faking a sick day here on the blog. I got nothin this week other than this feeble list. And judging by how misled, misled! I was last week regarding the release date of Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of Amerca (now expected Jan. 27), I am feeling entitled to loaf. Plus Lost is back and some other promising new TV (see: United States of Tara) and I got this other real job, see (as copy editor on the arts desk at The Montreal Gazette). Anyway, apologies for extending the misleading to you last week, dear chickens. It will definitely won’t happen again.
Somebody somewhere says these here TV titles are available on DVD this week but they lie, they lie. But it’s TV so you gotta believe, right? And who wouldn’t want to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the phenom called The Powerpuff Girls? If only I weren’t taking an official fake sick day. Oh well.
Mi-5, Vol. 6
Moonlight: The Complete Series
Emergency! Season 5
The Rockford Files: Season 6
Waking the Dead: The Complete Third Season
Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Complete Season 4
Jonathan Creek: Season 3
Paranormal State: The Complete Season 2
My Three Sons Vol. 2, Season 1
Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger
The Last Detective: Complete Collection
The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series, 10th Anniversary Collection
Daniel Boone: Season 6
Monsterquest: Season 2
The FBI Files: Season 1
– Denise Duguay
Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America is a new television miniseries on PBS that looks at the evolution of humour in the U.S. I, having been raised in front of the tube in the 1960s by Clem Kadiddlehopper and Carole Burnett, am keen to see it: it starts Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and continues for a few Wednesdays.
But what does this have to do with DVDs you ask? Well, bizarrely, the series is being released on DVD today (Jan. 13), a day before its broadcast premiere. It contains all episodes, listed below, and I might just spend the money and buy it. Part of the reason I am so enthused, other than the promise of interviews with the great George Carlin and Burnett, is that I’ve been able to preview the series on the show’s excellent website, which also provides a half-hour episode called Teh Internets*. The episode is hosted by Amy Sedaris, who I must admit I don’t always get, but this mini-doc is a great and edifying look at how the Internet has influenced comedy, culminating in the phenom of viral videos (regarding 2 Girls, 1 Cup, I am inept and depraved enough to say I’ve looked and can’t find the real vid, but the viral reaction videos featured in this doc are absolutely great).
Watch the episode online. And then check out the rest of the excellent website’s interviews with many but not all of comedy’s greats.
And then turn to the good old fashioned TV to watch the series, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, starting Jan. 14 with the episode Would Ya Hit a Guy with Glasses? Nerds, Jerks & Oddballs. Here are the Montreal listings.
*(Wondering about the spelling? Oh, it’s correct all right, and it’s also some of that wierd Internet lingo that I don’t even bother investigating anymore. pwns? I mean really. But I digress.)
Here are some other TV-on-DVD releases new this week, starting with an online video hit in its own right. Enjoy.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Reba: Season 5
Dallas: The Complete 10th Season
Little Britain USA
Matlock: Season 2
Walker Texas Ranger: Season 6
Lovejoy: The Complete Season 4
Man vs. Wild: Season 2
Black Lagoon: Season 1 Box Set
House of Payne: Vol. 3
Til Death: The Complete Second Season
Made in Spain (with Jose Andres): Season 2
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins
The Best of Benny Hill
The Best of Benny Hill: The Early years
The Lucy Show Collection, Vol. 1
The Beverly Hillbillies: Vol. 2
The Best of TV Comedy: Vol. 1
The Best of TV Detectives: Vol. 1
The Best of TV Westerns: Vol. 1
The Bonanza Collection: Vol. 2 – Denise Duguay
I think what you really want with your favourite serial killer is to see the gore in HD and to really hear the knife plunging.
Well then, thank god that Dexter: Season 1 has finally been released on Blu-ray. On shelves Tuesday, Jan. 6, the new release comes a year and a half after the regular DVD release of the first installment of the story, which chronicles the efforts of serial killer, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), to channel his bloody urges into a productive direction. Blu-ray or not, it would be worth re-watching Season 1 of Dexter, knowing what we regular watchers now know about Dexter, his traumatic origins and, especially, his father. Harry Morgan (James Remar) begins as a pillar of kindness and caring and a firm hand where Dexter — veering dangerously in flashback toward blood frenzy — needed it. Using Harry’s “code”, Dex learned to satisfy his need to kill, his father’s need for him to not get caught and society’s need for a human trash disposal engineer. But over the course of Seasons 2 and 3 we, and Dexter, learn a bit more. If this were audio, I’d do a really scary “Mooah-ah-ah!”
As for the Blu-ray release, in addition to crisper image, it will of course deliver the format’s best feature — super intense sound. I (ghoullishly) want to hear how much chillier the action sounds with that heightened audio and (geekishly) want to listen even to the scraping of the razor on Dexter’s throat in what is the best opening title sequence of any television series, ever.
Extras: The Academy of Blood – A Killer Course; Witnessed In Blood – A True Murder Investigation; Michael C. Hall podcast; First Episode of Dexter, Season 3 and — super bonus — the first two episodes of United States of Tara, which premieres later this month on The Movie Network.
Enjoy. Here are a few more new releases of TV on DVD.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
The Waltons: Seasons 1-8
Duckman: Seasons 3 and 4
Frisky Dingo: The Complete Second SEason
Mannix: The Second Season
Secret Diary of a Call Girl: The Complete First Season
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Collection 3
Transformers Animated: Season 2
Dexter: Season 1 (Blu-ray)
Tripping the Rift: The Complete Third Season
Red Skelton Christmas
Laredo: Season 2, Part 2
The FBI Files: Season 1 – Denise Duguay
Here is a 
No. This week my vote goes to… the lunch box. The 1974-77 series Land of the Lost is now available on DVD… and for a few extra beans you can upgrade to the Limited Edition Gift Set which includes a lunch box. The show? Barely remember it though I seem to recall and imdb backs me up here, that it’s about a family thrown back to a time of dinosaurs, ape men and some big-eyed lizard men called Sleestacks. It’s being dragged out of mothballs now to promote Will Ferrell and Danny McBride’s new film of the same name, hitting cinemas Friday, June 5. But I’m all about the lunchbox. The hinge on my Scooby Doo just broke. Sweet.
