After a potent session last week that saw Avatar set a new Blu-ray sales record in just four days, it’s back to the spring doldrums this Tuesday, though there are some compensations, notably Nancy Meyer’s critically underrated It’s Complicated, Heath Ledger’s last performance, a “Samurai vs. Aliens” anime comedy, and a raft of excellent TV offerings from both sides of the Atlantic including the first season of Garry Shandling’s idiosyncratic sitcom, Murphy’s Law, the best TV police show you’ve never heard of, a post-apocalyptic classic from the creator of Doctor Who’s Daleks, and the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, the finest TV or movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece ever.

Anime

Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau is about to begin production on Cowboys and Aliens, but Hideaki Sorachi pitted aliens against Edo Period samurai long ago in his Gintama manga (published here by VIZ Media) that has now reached 32 volumes.  This week Sentai Filmworks is releasing Gintama Collection 01 (13+, 325 min., $39.98) the anime version of Sorachi’s action/adventure/comedy.  Above all else Gintama is comedy and its humor, which involves lots of puns, is hard to translate, but this remains an enjoyable, high concept anime series.

Also out this week is the second half of the 24-episode 2008 series, Rental Magica.  Rental Magica Part 2 Collection (Nozumi Entertainment, 13+, 400 min., $49.99) continues the intriguing fantasy anime, which is based on the light novel series by Makoto Sanda and is available only in an English subtitled version.  The head of the Mage’s Society: Astral is a charismatic young man, but he isn’t a Mage.

Media Blasters continues to release lower priced versions of it best anime series.  This week it’s the Rurouni Kenshin Complete Collection (13+, $159.99), which includes two thousand, three hundred and seventy-five minutes of bloody samurai action based on Nobuhiro Watsuki’s classic manga, and Magic Knight Rayearth Season 1 Remastered Set (13+, 500 min., $39.99), which contains the first portion of the 1994 anime series based on the manga created by Clamp.

TV on DVD

As is often the case these days most, but not all, of the best new “TV on DVD” releases this week come from the U.K.  In Murphy’s Law: Season 2 (Acorn Media, 302 min. $39.99), a maverick Irish cop takes on London’s underworld in a 6-episode season that finds him tangling with a serial killer, a “suicide” in a convent, a young cop’s death and other difficult situations in a hard-hitting crime drama that features adult language and some nudity..  James Nesbitt (Match Point), who plays Murphy, excels in role written specifically for him by novelist Colin Bateman.

Not all the great British series this week are of recent vintage like Murphy’s Law.  The BBC is releasing Survivors: The Complete Original Series (1878 min., $79.98), which includes all three seasons of Terry Nation’s post apocalyptic saga that aired from 1975-1977.  Nation, who created the Daleks for Doctor Who, was at the peak of his powers when he penned this epic about the severe consequences for all of society when a deadly virus is released due to a lab accident.  The three series cover the outbreak of the pandemic, which destroys the world as we know it, then the founding of new settlements, and finally the rebirth of civilization.

But perhaps the best U.K. release of the week is the masterful 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.  A& E is putting out Pride and Prejudice Restored Edition (300 min., $39.95), and if any DVD ever needed restoration, it would be the hastily produced, grainy discs that A&E previously released of Pride and Prejudice.  Although the visual quality was bad, the actual miniseries itself was close to perfection, especially Colin Firth, who was so good at playing Mr. Darcy that he did twice again in the Bridget Jones movies.  It could be argued that there have been better screen incarnations of Elizabeth Bennett than Jennifer Ehle, but Firth’s Darcy has never been topped.

Not every series from U.K. is a classic.  Last of the Summer Wine Vintage 1982-1983 (BBC, 381 min., $34.98) is a geriatric comedy about perpetual adolescents that is an acquired taste to say the least.

There are also some excellent American “TV on DVD” selections out this week including the highly original, neurotically self-aware, fourth wall-breaking, It’s Gary Shandling’s Show: The Complete First Season (Shout Factory, 430 min., $39.97), Tales From the Darkside: The Third Season (Paramount, 476 min., $36.98), 22 chilling episodes from 1986 supervised by George A. Romero, and I Love Lucy: The Movie (Paramont 81 min. $19.99), a never-released film cobbled together in 1953 with extra bridging footage added to three classic episodes (The Benefit,” “Breaking the Lease,” and “The Ballet”).

Animated “TV on DVD” offerings include G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Season 2 (Shout Factory, 660 min. $29.93), which includes the second 30 episodes of the classic 95-episode 1980s TV series produced by Marvel and Sunbow Productions, and Sony’s The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 8 (86 min., $19.94), a single-disc, three-episode collection from the 26-episode Kids WB series, which concentrates on Peter Parker’s high school years and draws from the original Stan Lee Steve Ditko Spider-Man comics as well as from the Ultimate Spider-Man reworking of Spidey’s early career.

Theatrical Films

Nancy Meyer’s comedy of romance among the affluent and the geriatric, It’s Complicated (Universal “R,” $29.98, BD $36.98) didn’t fare all that well with the critics (only 57% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences loved it.  It earned $215 million worldwide and  $112m domestically.  Sure it has more than a little tinge of the middle-aged divorcee’s revenge about it, but Meryl Streep is incredibly appealing, while Alex Baldwin manages humanize his role as a narcissistic heel, and Steve Martin’s mild-mannered architect proves to be the perfect foil for Baldwin’s Porsche-driving lawyer

Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (Sony  $28.95, PG-13” BD $34.98) did better with the critics (65% positive) and features the final performance from the talented Heath Ledger, but the strain of Ledger’s premature demise shows on the film in spite of the fact that it has an interesting high-concept Terry Gilliam premise.