Top releases this week include the second season of the popular Clone Wars cartoon, the first half of the 4th season of the zany Venture Bros. animated series, the funniest Canadian-produced TV series ever, the second half of the anime cult hit Hetalia: Axis Powers, and Blu-ray editions of The Exorcist and the Back to the Future Trilogy (though you might want to wait before buying the latter).

 

TV on DVD

 

It’s a very busy week for TV on DVD releases with a number of prime offerings led by Star Wars: The Clone Wars—The Complete Season 2 (Warner Bros., 484 min., $44.98, BD $59.99), which collects all 22 episodes of the popular Cartoon Network series that has spawned all sorts of toys, comics and games.  Another prime science fiction offering is The Twilight Zone:  Fan Favorites (Image, 480 min., $29.98), which contains 19 prime episodes of the groundbreaking series including “The Invaders,” “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “A Game of Pool,” “I Sing the Body Electric,” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” 

 

Certainly one of this week’s best offerings is The Venture Bros: Season 4, Volume 1 (Warner Bros., 285 min., $23.98), which collects the first half of the fourth season of the popular Adult Swim animated series created by Jackson Publick (aka Christopher McColloch), who was one of the primary writers of The Tick animated series.  He brings the same zany sensibility to The Venture Bros., but thanks to Adult Swim’s late night timeslot, on The Venture Bros., Publick doesn’t have to labor under the constraints of Saturday Morning television--and he's brought his friends along--Ben Edlund, the creator of The Tick, has written an episode of The Venture Bros. and co-written two others.

 

There is no doubt that The Venture Bros. series is a real hoot, but “the funniest release of the week tag” has to go to Slings and Arrows: The Complete Collection (Acorn Media, 900 min., BD $79.99), which collects all 18 episodes of the darkly comic Canadian series that follows the outrageous fortunes of a very dysfunctional Shakespearean repertory company.  Created by former Kids in the Hall stalwart Mark McKinney, playwright Susan Coyne, and comedian Bob Martin, this series is spot on from its Season 1 opening Music Hall ditty “Cheer Up, Hamlet” to its concluding credits theme “Call the Understudy.”  In each 6-episode season the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival puts on a different play (Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear) with equally hilarious results.  You don’t have to be a fan of the bard to enjoy this hugely inventive and thoroughly addictive backstage romp, which features a very strong cast headed by Paul Gross, who plays the zoned-out artistic director of the festival, who is haunted by the ghost of his predecessor (extremely well-played by Stephen Ouimette).  Guest stars include Rachel McAdams, Colm Feore, and Sarah Polley, but it’s the whole ensemble that makes this series, which aired in the U.S. on the Sundance Channel, really shine.

 

Hardcore science fiction fans might want to check out War of the Worlds: Season 2 (Paramount, 990 min., $39.98), which collects all 22 episodes from the final season of the 1988-1990 syndicated series based on the H.G. Wells’ novel and Paramount’s 1953 film

 

Talk shows would appear to be the most ephemeral of TV productions and the least deserving to be viewed again on DVD, but as always there are exceptions such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: 4 Decades of The Tonight Show (Respond 2, 1,800 min., $119.99), which includes 50 of the best episodes of the long-running series selected by one of the show’s producers.

 

There’s not much in the way of animated “TV on DVD” offerings this week, though Hanna Barbera completists might want to check out Funky Phantom: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., 510 min., $29.95), which collects all 17 episodes of the Scooby-Doo clone series produced for Hanna Barbera by the Australian company Air Programs International in 1971, as well as Goober and the Ghost Chasers: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., 480 min., $29.95), yet another Scooby-Doo-like series from Hanna Barbera that aired on ABC in the 1970s.  Note: both of these series are being released in the DVD-R format, which is not compatible with all players and may not have the longevity of standard DVDs.

 

For fans of classic TV westerns there is The Deputy: The Complete Series (Timeless Media, 1900 min., $89.98), which features all 76 episodes of the series starring Henry Fonda that aired on NBC from 1959-1961.  Continuing series out this week include CSI: New York: The Complete Sixth Season (Paramount, $62.99).

 

TV documentaries due on Tuesday include On the Road With Charles Kuralt: Set 3 (Acorn Media, 294 min., $39.99), which contains a great collection of homespun vignettes from the heartland collected by the avuncular Charles Kuralt, who toured the country in a motor home looking for the kind of offbeat, often slightly askew human interest stories that typically have a good deal more resonance than the glossy “feel good” features that dominate network news these days.  Set Three includes an hour-long interview with Kuralt’s longtime cameraman that is full of insights on their working methods.  Also making its debut on Blu-ray this week is the excellent How the Earth Was Made: The Complete Season 1 (A&E, $49.95), which is not recommended for fundamentalists.

 

There are two excellent U.K. offerings this week including a Blu-ray edition of Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (Acorn Media, 93 min., $29.99), the latest feature-length episode of the long-running Poirot series starring David Suchet as the Belgian sleuth.  Superbly produced with excellent production values and picturesque locations that really come through on the Blu-ray edition, this is the definitive version of the often filmed Christie classic—and unlike many previous films based on Christie’s works, this version of Murder on the Orient Express starts fast and never loses momentum.

 

The second U.K. release worthy of mention is Poldark, Series 2 (Acorn Media, 683 min., $69.99), the second half of the classic swashbuckling 1970s mini-series based on the novels of Winston Graham about an English officer who after serving in the American War for Independence returns to Cornwall where he faces all sorts of challenges on the home front.

 

Also out this week is Law and Order: U.K.: Season 1 (Universal, 572 min., $39.99), the transplanted Dick Wolf series that suffers in comparison with a number of native born U.K. police procedurals, but which nevertheless does have the “ripped-from-the-headlines” appeal of its many American iterations.

 

Anime

 

Blu-ray releases this week include Slayers Season 4: Slayer’s Revolution (Funimation, “13+,” 312 min., $59.98) and Slayers Season 5: Slayers Evolution-R (Funimation, “13+,” 312 min., BD $59.98), the two most recent seasons of the popular D&D-like fantasy anime from J.C. Staff that were originally supposed to be released on September 14th, and the Canaan Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “!3+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), a 13-episode action adventure series about female assassin/terrorists from P.A. Works that aired in Japan in 2009.

 

Out for the first time with an English dub track is Birdy the Mighty: Decode Part 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $59.98), while a new portion of the vintage 1980s anime that formed the basis for Voltron, Armored Fleet Dairugger Collection 3 (Media Blasters, “13+,” 400 min., $34.99) makes its U.S. debut this week, but the hottest new release will undoubtedly be Hetalia: Axis Powers Season 2 Collection (Funimation, “17+,” 130 min., $34.98), the cult hit that is gaining momentum in both anime and manga iterations (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of September 14th”).

 

Also new this week are One Piece Season 3 Part 3 (Funimation, “14+,” 325 min., $49.98), which includes the next 13 episodes of the most popular anime series in Japan, which is now getting its due in this well-produced uncut version from Funimation, and Pandora Hearts Premium Edition Vol. 1 (NIS, “13+,” 330 min., $59.99) from newcomer NIS.

 

Bargain-priced releases include the once hugely popular Trigun Complete Collection (Funimation, “14,” 650 min., $49.98), Pani Poni Dash Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 625 min., $29.98), Naruto Uncut Season 04 Box Set 1 (Viz Media, “13+,” 650 min., $49.98), Genshiken DX Litebox (Media Blasters, “13+,” 375 min., $34.98), and Fullmetal Alchemist Season 2 Box Set (Funimation, “3+,” 600 min., $49.98).

 

Classics on Blu-ray

 

Making their debut on Blu-ray are two key genre properties that had enormous influence, The Exorcist and the Back to the Future Trilogy.  The Exorcist (Warner, “R,” $34.99) comes in a 2-disc Blu-ray edition that includes both the 122-minute 1973 theatrical cut and the 132-minute expanded edition that was released to theaters in 2000.  The longer version is not a “director’s cut,” since the extra material it includes largely consists of the kind of exposition that director William Friedkin liked to avoid.  Overblown and effects heavy, The Exorcist brought a new in-your-face “realism” of presentation to the horror genre, which in subsequent years has proceeded down the path charted by The Exorcist to ever more graphic depictions of increasingly far-fetched narratives.

 

With its unlikely DeLorean time machine, the Back to the Future Trilogy: 25th Anniversary Edition (Universal, “PG,” $79.98) took time-traveling science fiction in a direction that was both comedic and full of nostalgia for the 1950s, something that was definitely part of the Reagan-era zeitgeist.  While The New York Times might refer to the original 1985 Back to the Future as “a classic black comedy,” it’s really much more of an audience-pleasing nostalgia bath.  The film’s only real semi-kinky feature was the attraction that teenage Marty McFly’s mother felt for him after he had been transported back to 1955 when she was a teen. 

 

Fans of this series may want to wait to purchase it on Blu-ray however, since Universal made a huge error in the production of the discs for the second and third movies, which instead of the original widescreen framing, just have black bars placed over the pan-and-scan versions.   Universal will replace the discs, but customers will have to send the offending discs in to get replacements.  With all the care lavished on the production of this 25th Anniversary Edition, the use of the execrable pan-and-scan versions of the second and third films in the trilogy is inexcusable.

 

Theatrical

 

This is perhaps the weakest slate of theatrical releases in the entire fourth quarter.   The best bet is The Girl Who Played With Fire (Music Box, “R,” $29.95, BD $34.95), the second installment in the excellent trilogy of Swedish films based on the popular novels by Steig Larsson.  The gifted Noomi Rapace is back as Goth girl hacker Lisabeth Salander, while the talented Michael Nyquist returns as the leftwing journalist Kalle Bloomquist.

 

The other theatrical releases this week include the light weight sequel Sex in the City 2 (New Line, “R,” $28.98, BD $35.99), and the much more interesting independently-produced Winter’s Bone (Lionsgate, “R,” $27.98, BD $29.99), the gritty story of a 12-year-old Ozark girl who has to track down her criminal father who put the family home up as collateral for a bail bond and then skipped.