This week’s home entertainment offerings include the megahit The Secret Life of Pets, the uncensored 14th season of Family Guy, the MTV adaptation of The Shannara Chronicles (from the producers of Smallville), the first season of a new Lego Star Wars series, the second OVA episode of Attack on Titan, and the best new American TV production of 2016.

Theatrical Movies

This week’s highest-grossing release is the megahit ($366 million domestic) The Secret Life of Pets (Universal, “PG,” 174 min., $29.98, BD $34.98, BD 3D$44.98), a shallow, but funny cartoon feature that shamelessly trades on the inherent cuteness of our companion animals.  Don’t expect the emotional depth of a Pixar production here, but kids and adults will likely enjoy this predictable, but ultimately funny production.

The other blockbuster due on Tuesday is Jason Bourne (Universal, “PG-13,” 246 min., $29.98, BD $34.98, 4KBD $44.98), which earned $162 million here in North America.  As usual Matt Damon is excellent as Robert Ludlum’s amnesiac assassin, but even more than in the previous Bourne films, the performances and the location shooting are negated by the jerky, headache-inducing camera style of director Paul Greenglass.   Modern cellphone videos are more stable than these shots, to say nothing of actual handheld news photography.  Supposedly the jerky camerawork lends “authenticity” and a “documentary” element to the movie, but documentaries haven’t looked this bad for 50 years.  Greenglass’s style is an annoying affectation with no link to reality.

Mike Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice (Universal, “R,” 184 min., $22.98, BD $29.98) only made $4.3 million in North America, but this comedy drama, which stars Keegan-Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs, is a fascinating look inside the world of improve comedy that manages to be both very funny and bittersweet.

John Krazinski’s The Hollars (Sony, “PG-13,” 88 min., $25.99, BD $30.99) is a much less successful indie slice-of-life drama about a “graphic novelist,” who returns to his hometown when his mother falls gravely ill.  The conflicted hero has to deal with a number of stock indie movie “problems” including a dysfunctional family, high school rivals, and old girlfriends—and that’s the problem with this earnest effort that will simply  seem overly familiar to anyone who has seen a few indie “family dramas.”

TV on DVD

After a slow session last week, there are several geek favorite series due on this Tuesday starting with The Family Guy: Season 14 (Fox, $29.98), which contains 20 uncensored episodes of Seth MacFarlane’s cartoon series including such gems as “Peternormal Activity,” "Candy Quahog Marshmallow," and “A Lot’s Going On Upstairs.”

Also of great interest is the Miles Millar and Alfred Gough-produced The Shannara Chronicles Season One (Paramount, 411 min., BD $29.98), the MTV series that is based on Terry Brooks’ popular series of fantasy novels; the horror movie-based Scream Queens: The Complete First Season (Fox, $29.98), the Kristin Kreuk-starring Beauty and the Beast: The 4th and Final Season (Paramount, $45.98), and the Oprah Network’s first scripted series, Greenleaf: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 589 min., $34.98, BD $34.97), which takes place the inside the world of bigtime evangelism.

Special mention should be made of Braindead: Season 1 (Paramount, 500 min., $55.98), a whip smart mélange of politics and science fiction from the creators of The Good Wife that is enlivened by a megadose of black humor and superb performances from Tony Shaloub (Monk) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim).  Braindead was by far the best network series of the summer, and probably of the entire year—don’t fail to check this one out—it explains so much about the activities of the current Congress.

This week’s top TV animated offering is Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures—Season 1 (Disney, 199 min., $38.99, BD $42.99), which follows the adventures of a family of scavengers who make a living out of the remains of the ships and weapons destroyed in the conflicts presented in The Empire Strikes Back.

Other animated offerings include the single-disc Angry Bird Toons—Season 3, Vol.2 (Sony, 36 min., $12.99); the Disney Princess saga, Elena of Avalor: Vol.1—Ready to Rule (Disney, 88 min., $19.99); the Saturday morning staple, Sonic X—Collection 2: Season 3 (Discotek, 650 min., $44.95), and the 1980s Hanna-Barbera series Snorks: The Complete 3rd and 4th Seasons (Warner Bros., 960 min., DVD-R, $34.99).

The best offering from overseas is the BBC’s excellent dramatization of Joseph Conrad’s groundbreaking novel about political terrorism, The Secret Agent (Acorn Media, 189 min., $34.99).  Hitchcock filmed Conrad’s novel in the 1930s, but the longer format of this miniseries allows for a fuller and more detailed adaptation of Conrad’s intense psychological thriller that remains as relevant today as it was when originally published in 1907.

Anime

This week’s anime offerings include the original net animation, the Ninja Slayer From Animation Complete Collection (Funimation, 390 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98), which collects the 26 fifteen-minute episodes of the cyberpunk series based on the Japanese light novel series created by American authors Bradley Bond and Philip Morzez; and the Show By Rock!! Season 1 Collection (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98), which collects the 12-episode music-themed Bones series from 2015 that is based on the first Sanrio game for teen males.

Also new to North America this week are the Little Busters! EX: Complete OVA Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 192 min., $39.98, BD $49.98), which collects the 8 OVAs created by J.C. Staff in 2014 that are based on the fantasy romance visual novel (game) created by Key, and the Bikini Warriors Complete Collection (Funimation, 58 min., BD/DVD Combo $29.98), which collects 12 four-minute episodes (and 2 5-minute OVAs) produced by Hobby Japan in 2014 and based on a series of fetching bikini-armored heroines.

The most interesting “subtitles only” release of the week is the Attack on Titan DVD that is included with the Attack on Titan, Vol. 20 graphic novel (Kodansha, $19.99), which contains the OVA “The Sudden Visitor” produced by Wit Studio in 2014 (the second of five AoT OVAs).

Other “Subtitles Only” releases due out this week include the 1997 Studio Deen series Eat-Man: The Complete Original Series Collection (Discotek Media, 300 min, Subtitles Only, $44.95), which is based on the cyberpunk manga series by Akihito Yoshitomi; Lupin the Third: Operation Return the Treasure (Discotek Media, 75 min., Subtitles Only, $24.98), the fifteenth Lupin the Third TV special from 2003; the behind-the-scenes anime series Seiyu’s Life Complete Collection (Funimation, 350 min., $34.98), which was produced by Gonzo in 2015 and based on the four-panel manga written by voice actress Masumi Asano; and  a new blu-ray edition of the Kawai Complex Guide to Manors & Hostel Behavior Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, Subtitles Only, BD $59.98), which was released here on DVD in 2014.

Also new on Blu-ray this week is Black Jack the Movie (Discotek, 97 min., BD $24.95), which contains the 2005 anime film based on Osamu Tezuka’s masterful manga about an outlaw surgeon.