Don’t expect Hollywood to release any blockbusters on disc to compete with the summer tentpoles wending their way into the theaters, but there are some great TV releases including the first 12 episodes of Nickelodeon’s hit series The Legend of Korra, a magnificent collection of two seasons of the Cartoon Network’s Regular Show, plus some very interesting genre movies including an excellent Robert E. Howard adaptation that never got a proper U.S. release.
 
TV on DVD
 
After a couple of relatively fallow sessions, it is a very big week in this category with a full load of geekcentric releases topped by The Legend of Korra—Book 1: Air (Paramount, 289 min., $19.99, BD $35.98), the first release from the very hot Nickelodeon TV series sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender.  This series garnered the largest audience total of any animated series in the U.S. in 2012.  Originally planned as a 12-episode miniseries, Korra will now be a complete 52-episode show spanning four years.  With its female protagonist The Legend of Korra has demonstrated to the skeptics in Hollywood that boys as well as girls will watch an adventure series built around a female central character if the show has a compelling narrative.  Here’s a chance to acquire the first 12 episodes of this highly popular saga that is clearly the TV category’s “Pick of the Week.”
 
Also due this week is another strong candidate for that award, the Emmy Award-winning Regular Show: The Complete First and Second Seasons (Warner Bros., 440 min., $36.94, BD $39.98).  Created by J.G. Quintel, Regular Show is the often surreal slacker saga of two “regular” guys, a bluejay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby, who are “employed” as groundskeepers in a park where their boss is an irascible gumball machine.  Even though it airs in primetime rather than on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Regular Show is a series that clearly targets young adults (15-30) rather than children. The Blu-ray edition is loaded with tons of extras included an unaired pilot episode, commentaries on all 40 episodes, the 2010 Comic-Con trailer, pencil tests and much more.  This is a “must-have” collection for fans of the series.
 
In contrast to the Regular Show, The Smurfs cartoons are clearly designed for kids and with a new Smurfs animated/live-action hybrid movie set to debut in the next few weeks, it makes sense to release The Smurfs: Smurfs to the Rescue (Warner Bros., 150 min., $14.97).  Other kiddie-oriented animated release include the second volume from the new CGI TMNT series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. 2: Enter Shredder (Nickelodeon, 168 min., $14.98), the educational PBS series produced by DIC Liberty’s Kids: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 999 min., $12.98), and the DC Comics-based Young Justice: Season 2, Vol. 2 (Warner Bros., 220 min., $19.97).
 
A live-action TV show with definite interest for Superman collectors is Superboy: The Complete 3rd Season (Warner Bros., 560 min., $29.95), a DVD-R release of the third season of the 1988-1992 syndicated live-action show that starred Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduki.  The show was actually renamed The Adventures of Superboy during its third season in an attempt to link it with the classic Adventures of Superman TV series.
 
Other live-action shows aimed at kids include the 1990s Nickelodeon series Hey Dude: Season Five, The Final Season (Shout Factory, $19.93) and Power Rangers Samurai: Season 1, Vol. 5: The Ultimate Duel (Lionsgate, 92 min., $14.98).
 
This week will be bittersweet for the cult audience developed by the Syfy series AlphasAlphas: Season 2 (Universal, 562 min., $44.98) contains the final 13 episodes of the show that was cancelled in January, including the final episode, which ends with an unresolved cliffhanger.  Created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow, Alphas is the story of a group of super-powered individuals who attempt to prevent crimes committed by other similarly endowed uber-humans.
 
Fans of superpower-themed TV series will have plenty of choices since Misfits: Season 3 (BBC, 276 min., $24.98) is also due out this week.  This dark comedy/drama follows the story of a group of young offenders who gain superpowers when exposed to a strange storm while doing community service in lieu of jail time.  The BBC has renewed Misfits for a fifth and final season that will air next year.
 
Other series of interest include Hell on Wheels: The Complete 2nd Season (eOne Entertainment, 430 min., $39.98, BD $49.98) the AMC series that follows the building of the transcontinental railroad in the turbulent aftermath of the Civil War, Damages: The Fifth Season (Sony, $45.99), the final season of the legal thriller that started out on FX, and Femmes Fatales: The Complete 2nd Season (eOne Entertainment, 360 min., $29.98), the sometimes sexually explicit 2011 Cinemax series that is fairly oozing with a sleazy men’s magazine vibe in its one-note sagas featuring nasty ladies who work their feminine wiles on a succession of hapless males.
 
Vintage series due this week include 1960s WW II series Combat! The Complete 4th Season (Image Entertainment, 1461 min., $39.98), The George Lopez Show: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros. 448 min., $29.98) from 2005-2006, the Andy Griffith-starring geriatric lawyer saga Matlock: The 9th and Final Season, the 1950s western Sugarfoot: The Complete 1st Season (Warner Bros., 982 min., $47.99), and the 1960s feature-length western series The Virginian: The Complete 8th Season (Shout Factory, 1820 min., $59.97).
 
In addition to Misfits, the U.K. series debuting here this week include Endeavour: Series 1 (PBS, 458 min., $44.99), the new series currently airing on PBS stars Shaun Evans as the young Endeavour Morse, who is well known to mystery fans through previous series based on Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse detective novels, and Orphan Black: Season 1 (BBC, 450 min., $34.98), an interesting high-concept, near-future science fiction saga about a character who discovers that she is a “clone” and that there are plenty more out there just like her.
 
It’s rare that a UK series gets the budget release treatment over here, but with an American version spin-off going strong, Shameless: Seasons 1 & 2 The Original UK Series (Mill Creek, 869 min., $24.98) will provide Americans with an opportunity to savor the vicarious delights of this series at a very reasonable price.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
Of course the studios don’t generally release major films on DVD during the summer.  Why compete with the expensive tentpoles in theaters?   But there are some delights for geek viewers in the parade of star-crossed genre films that are making their way to disc.   Chief among them is the 2009 film Solomon Kane (Starz, “R” $22.98, BD $26.99), which stars James Purefoy as Robert E. Howard’s Puritan avenger.  While Puritans are not the most sympathetic of historical figures (except perhaps to hardcore American Protestants), this film adaptation gets around this problem by having Kane battle against murderous demons and other dark supernatural forces, rather than against ordinary humans who fall victim to temptation or have the temerity to believe in another religion or have no faith at all.  Colorfully photographed in the Czech Republic, Solomon Kane is all very fantastic and ahistorical, but loads of fun for genre movie fans.  This film earned $19.6 million overseas but never received a proper U.S. release, though it did manage a 65% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating (very good for this sort of genre film) following its U.K. release.
 
Genre movie fans may also be interested in Evil Dead (Sony, “R,” $30.99, BD $35.99) Fede Alvarez’s remake of the Sam Raimi original.   The film earned a solid $54.1 million domestically and managed a solid 63% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes (again this is a very good mark for a remake of a horror film).
 
Less successful was Erased (Anchor Bay, “R,” $22.98, BD $26.98), which wastes the talents of Aaron Eckhart in a thinly-veiled rip-off of Taken.   Eckhart plays an ex-CIA agent who discovers that he and his daughter are the targets of an international conspiracy.  The hopelessly derivative Erased could only muster a 28% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
This week’s most popular theatrical DVD release will likely be the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $28.98, BD $35.99).  Written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who wrote the screenplays for L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, this baseball saga earned $94 million at the domestic box office and a solidly respectful 76% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
Anime
 
Topping this week’s offerings is Naruto Shippuden Uncut Box Set 15 (Viz Media, “16+,” 300 min., $44.82), which presents episodes #180-192 of the long running ninja action franchise that remains extremely popular here in both its manga and anime form.
 
Lovers of classic anime are in for a treat with the Blu-ray release of the classic Patlabor TV Series Collection I (Maiden Japan, “14+,” 300 min., $69.98, DVD $59.98).  This classic 47-episode mecha/police sci-fi series from 1989-1990 was produced by Sunrise follows the adventures of a young police cadet Noa Izumi and her comrades at Division 2.  The only problem here is the cost--this collection contains only the first 12 episodes of the series, which was previously released here on DVD by Central Park Media.
 
All 24 episodes of the Special A Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 650 min., $69.98) have also been released here before (in 2009 and 2010 by Sentai’s precursor Section 23), but the new complete collection of this 2008 AIC/Gonzo series based on Maki Minami’s shojo high school romance manga features a new English dub as well as a cost savings over the two previous 12-episode releases, which each had an MSRP of $39.98.

Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represnt those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com