The week after Easter doesn’t have a lot of firepower in the way of home entertainment releases, but there is a coffin-shaped complete set of the original Dark Shadows, two classic Doctor Who sagas, as well as the DVD debut of the short-lived Logan’s Run TV series, along with the latest Naruto Shippuden collection.

 

 

The big release this week is Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series: Limited Numbered Edition (MPI, 5000 min., $599.98), which is coming out just in time to benefit from Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s dark comedy revival of the long-running gothic TV soap opera. This massive 131-disc set is signed and numbered and includes a card autographed by Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins).  The original Dark Shadows may be an acquired taste, but it also appears to inspire fanatical devotion in those who do enjoy it, and this coffin-shaped complete collection would seem to be just the right item to appeal to the show’s devoted followers.  An unlimited version of the 131-disc coffin set will be available in July.

 

Fans of the original Doctor Who series also have some reason to cheer this week with the release of Doctor Who—Story #059: The Daemons (BBC, 100 min. $34.98), a two-disc collection that includes the five-part fifth and final serial of the eighth season of Doctor Who that featured Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor) and was originally broadcast in 1971.  Even more intriguing perhaps is Doctor Who—Story #066: Carnival of Monsters (BBC, 98 min., $34.98), which also stars Jon Pertwee in a saga that was originally broadcast in 1973, and was the first series since The War Games in Season Six in which the Doctor was allowed to pilot the Tardis on his own.

 

Other offerings of interest to science fiction fans include the 1977-1978 TV series, Logan’s Run: Complete Series (Warner Bros., 658 min., $39.98), which was based on the 1976 film.  Star Trek alum D.C. Fontana was the story editor and wrote a number of the scripts for the series (along with other former Trek scribes).  Also of possible interest to those who fly the geek flag is Night Gallery: Season 3 (Universal, 390 min. $29.98), which includes the final offerings of the anthology series hosted by Rod Serling.

 

Of less interest is Ghost Stories (Timeless Media, 924 min., $29.98), which includes all 44 of the episodes of the late 1990s Fox Family series narrated by Rip Torn—a show that was supposedly based on real events, but one which is often made tiresome (and stomach churning) by unnecessary nausea-inducing camera movements.

 

The major contemporary show to debut this week is One Tree Hill: The Complete 9th Season (Warner Bros., $39.98), which contains the final season of the long-running family saga of two half-brothers, who begin as sworn enemies, but develop a lasting friendship.  While it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, One Tree Hill was one of the best and most successful young adult/teen serial dramas of the modern era.

 

Vintage TV series due this week include Laverne & Shirley: The Complete 5th Season (Paramount, 653 min., $39.98), The Gene Autry Show: The Complete 3rd and 4th (Timeless Media, $24.98), the cop show Adam-12: Season 7 (Shout Factory, 600 min., $34.94), and Car 54, Where Are You: The Complete Second Season (Shanachie, 780 min., $39.98).

 

 

The tenth complete, uncut box set of Naruto Shippuden tops a strong week of anime releases. Naruto Shippuden Box Set 10 (Viz Media, “16+,” 300 min., $49.95) includes episodes 113-126 of the popular long-running ninja series that airs on the Disney XD channel and remains the most popular manga property in North America.

 

Also new to North America this week is Infinite Stratos + Encore Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes episodes 1-12 plus the encore OVA (and a bonus music CD) from the 2011 anime series based on science fiction, romantic comedy, harem property created by Izuru Yumizuru.

 

Another new release is the single-disc Puella Magi Madoka Magica Vol.2 (Aniplex, “13+,” 100 min. $39.98, BD $49.98, BD/CD Ltd. Ed. $94.00), which collects episodes 5-8 of the new magical girl series produced by Shaft that aired in Japan in 2011.

 

Re-packed, re-priced series include Oh! Edo Rocket Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 650 min., $59.98), one of the few anime series that has its origins in a stage play, a fourth-wall breaking comedy that has developed a cult following.  On BD for the first time is the initial Sekirei Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 300 min., $49.98), a lusty harem comedy filled with battles between voluptuous vixens in various stages of undress.

 

 

The highest profile theatrical release of the week is The Iron Lady (Weinstein Company, “PG-13,” $29.98, BD/Combo $39.99), the screen biography of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that is notable more for Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning performance than for breaking any new ground in one of the cinema’s most timid genres, political biographies.

 

The Darkest Hour (Summit Entertainment, “PG-13,” $26.99, BD $30.49, 3D BD $34.98) is an effects-heavy alien invasion thriller filmed in Russia with a talented cast of young actors and a less-than-expansive budget.  The Darkest Hour earned just $21.4 million domestically and a sorry 11% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

 

The best, if not necessarily the most entertaining film, out on Tuesday is Werner Herzog’s documentary Into the Abyss includes an interview with Texas multiple murderer Michael James Perry that was conducted just eight days before he was executed.  But this film, which contains lots of other interviews with relatives of the victims, is no simplistic attack on capital punishment.  The saddest, more heart-wrenching conversation in the film might be the one with Captain Fred, a Texas State Executioner, who quit his job and walked away from his pension, when he could no longer continue after overseeing over 100 executions. 

 

Art house movie fans might enjoy Sleeping Beauty (MPI, “Not Rated” $24.98), a film directed by Julia Leigh and produced by Jane Campion that features Emily Browning as a college student, who is drawn into a strange corner of the sex trade as a “lingerie model.”  There’s plenty of nudity in this film, but it’s more of a post-modern feminist fable of exploitation than an example of gauzy soft focus art house porn.  Critics on the art house-friendly Rotten Tomatoes site were evenly split on this film, which means that it won’t appeal to all art house film lovers, but its does have a certain rigor to its point of view that will find favor with some.

 
--Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.