It’s another light week for home entertainment releases with the exception of the latest season of Netflix’s most popular original series, Orange Is the New Black, a superb old school period horror film, and a couple of edgy anime series, the sci-fi fantasy Assassination Classroom and the Toonami-airing action-packed dark fantasy Akame ga Kill!.

TV on DVD

This week’s top release is Orange Is the New Black: Season 3 (Lionsgate, 783 min., $34.98, BD $37.98), the latest 13-episode season of the Netflix series based on Piper Kerman’s prison memoir.  This comedy drama remains Netflix’s most popular series, and so far it has remained remarkably consistent with Season 3 scoring an excellent 94% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Season 3 garnered numerous accolades include the Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Ensemble Comedy Performance.”

The only other contemporary show due on Tuesday is Angie Tribeca: Season 1 (Warner Bros., 220 min., $24.98), which includes all 10 episodes of the first season of the TBS comedy series written by Steve and Nancy Carrell that is a Naked Gun-like parody of police procedurals that features Rashida Jones (writer of Oni Press’ Frenemy of the State) as the eponymous policewoman.

Vintage TV offerings include all eleven episodes Steven Bochco’s 1990 musical police procedural opus Cop Rock: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 480 min., $29.93), which TV Guide ranked as #8 on its list of the “50 Worst TV Shows of All Time,” which may be a little harsh, but there is no doubt that this singing and dancing cop series was definitely one of the most bizarre TV series ever; a single-disc collection, The Carol Burnett Show: Carol +2 (Time Life, 90 min., $12.95), which includes the comedienne’s TV specials with Lucille Ball and Zero Moste; The Facts of Life: The Complete 9th Season (Shout Factory, 540 min., $29.83), the final season of the long-running 1980s sitcom; and most interesting of all the geek viewers, Xena: Warrior Princess—Season 6 (Universal, 977 min., $22.98), the final season of the syndicated sensation (developed by Sam Raimi) that starred Lucy Lawless.  All 134 episodes of Xena are available in Xena: Warrior Princess—The Complete Series (Universal, 5923 min., $129.98).

The lone U.K. offering this week is Mr. Selfridge: The Complete 4th Season (PBS, 420 min., $39.99, BD $49.99), which includes all ten episodes of the period drama (Season 4 takes place in 1928-1929) written by Andrew Davies and based on the life of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the American who founded the Selfridge & Co. department store in London.

Anime

This week’s top release is Assassination Classroom: Season 1, Part 1 (Funimation, 275 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98), which includes the first 11 episodes of the 22-episode first season of the adaptation of Yusei Matsui’s manga series about a powerful alien creature who destroys 70% of the moon and then makes a strange wager with humanity, taking a job as a junior high school homeroom teacher for a year, providing his students with a chance to assassinate him before he obliterates mankind in 12 months.  Funimation simulcast the series when it aired in Japan back in 2015, but it is now available with an English dub as well as extras including cast interviews and commentary on two episodes.

The other major release this week is Akame ga Kill!: Collection 2 (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes the final 12 episodes of the 2014 series from White Fox that is based on the action-packed dark fantasy manga by Takahiro and Tesuya Tashiro that is published here by Yen Press.  Akame ga Kill! aired on Adult Swim’s Toonami block from August of 2015 until late February, 2016—and exposure on Toonami is typically “golden” for hard-hitting series like Akame ga Kill!.

Theatrical Movies

Not much doing here this week with the exception of Robert Eggers’ The Witch (Lionsgate, “R,” 111 min., $19.98, BD $24.98), a literate and suspenseful horror movie set in colonial New England that builds its suspense slowly in the classic old school horror film fashion, eschewing cheap jump scares in favor of a gathering sense of existential dread.  Those who like their horror films fast-paced, raw and bloody should stay away from The Witch, but those who enjoy carefully crafted historically-based psychological drama film find much to admire.

The Witch, which won the “Best Direction” award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, also earned a respectable $25.1 million, which is quite a bit less than the $35.5 million pulled in by the R-rated comedy Dirty Grandpa (Lionsgate, Unrated, but movie was “R,” 108 min., $29.98, BD $39.99), which stars Robert DeNiro in a crude “dirty old man goes along on Spring Break” saga that could muster only a 10% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 

Those who enjoy art movies are in for a real treat with Theeb (Film Movement, “Not Rated,” 100 min., $24.95, BD $34.95), a Jordanian film directed by Naji Abu Nowar about a young Bedouin boy coming of age during the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916, who helps a British officer on a secret mission.  This beautifully photographed film, which is a sort of Lawrence of Arabia from the point of view of the Bedouins, features a cast of talented non-professionals who were rehearsed for almost a year.  Theeb has a sterling 97% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is very good even accounting for the positive bias that a film like Theeb typically receives from the critics.