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Hollywood’s home entertainment garden lies largely fallow this week with the exception of the fifth and final season of the Arthurian fantasy Merlin plus the Blu-ray debuts of the most faithful adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan on film and the first season of the groundbreaking sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show.
TV on DVD
There’s a gradual slowdown in releases in this category in the spring. One of the few offerings of interest to pop culture fandom is Merlin: The Complete Fifth Season (BBC, 536 min., $49.98, BD $59.98), which includes all 13 episodes of the final season of the Arthurian fantasy series that began airing here in the States on NBC and then moved to Syfy. The show’s two-part finale aired last December and makes a fitting climax to the series.
The only other new series out this week is Boss: Season 2 (Lionsgate, 563 min., $39.97), which stars Kelsey Grammer as the powerful mayor of Chicago, who has recently been diagnosed with dementia. This well-produced political drama aired on the Starz cable channel, but was cancelled after Season 2, though there is talk of a cable movie to tie up the show’s plotlines.
Vintage TV series include the inaugural Blu-ray release of the classic Dick Van Dyke comedy series, The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete First Season (Image Entertainment, 750 min., $59.98). There’s not much more to be said about this classic series from TV’s black-and-white period, but the fact that it is one of the first shows from its era to appear in the high-def Blu-ray format speaks volumes about this show’s quality.
Other vintage TV releases include the Michael J. Fox sitcom Family Ties: The Complete 6th Season (Paramount, 661 min., $45.98), the 1990s Nickelodeon western comedy series Hey Dude: Season 4 (Shout Factory, $19.93), plus Embossed Tin Edition “best of” collections of Adam 12 (13 episodes), Leave It To Beaver (20 Episodes), and Route 66 (10 episodes). Each full color tin collection has a retail price of $11.49.
The only U.K. show debuting here this week is Inside Men Season 1 (Warner Bros., $29.98), a four-episode serial drama about the armed robbery of a secure money counting house in Bristol that aired on BBC One in 2012, but was not renewed for a second season.
Classics on Blu-ray
All sorts of vintage films are starting to get high-def Blu-ray releases, something that should warm the hearts of film buffs everywhere. Geek viewers should be especially excited about Hugh Hudson’s 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (Warner Bros, “PG,” BD $21.99), the most poetic movie adaptation of ERB’s classic jungle hero yet. Christopher Lambert and Andie McDowell (who was dubbed by Glenn Close) have definite limitations as actors, but this film, which, at least for its first half, is remarkably close to Burrough’s original narrative, is one that Tarzan fans have to see, and this new Blu-ray edition is the best home entertainment version yet.
For the art house movie lover there is David Cronenberg’s 1991 adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch (Criterion, “R,” BD $39.95). Cronenberg’s streak of bleak black humor mirrors his subject’s almost perfectly, and the director’s love of the bizarre never found a more suitable subject.
Anime
A limited number of releases in this category this week led by Hanasaku Iroha/Blossoms for Tomorrow Set 1 Premium Edition (NIS America, 308 min., $69.99), which includes the first half of the 26-episode anime TV series created by P.A. Works that aired in Japan in 2011. This coming-of-age, slice-of-life romance follows the ups and downs of a pretty teenage girl, who is forced to live with her grandmother where she finds that she is the owner of a Taisho period hot spring inn. But she soon finds that not everyone at the inn, where she is sent to work by her grandmother, is happy to work with a teenager, and she has to come to terms with herself in order to create a strong working relationship with the people she works with. This Premium Edition includes a 36-page hardcover art book with sketches, character info, and interviews.
Also new this week is the Inu x Boku Secret Service Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 300 min., $59.98), includes a 13 episode (12 broadcast plus an OVA) 2012 anime series from David Production that is based on the shonen manga by Cocoa Fujiwara that tells the story of teenage girl who goes to live a high security mansion where all the residents have special bodyguards and everybody has both human and non-human ancestors.
Also new is Tegumi Bachi: Letter Bee Reverse—Season 2 Part 1 (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 325 min., $49.98) includes the first half of the second season of Studio Pierrot adaptation of fantasy adventure manga by Hiroyuki Asada (published here by Viz Media) that takes place in AmberGround, a world of nearly perpetual night.
Theatrical Movies
It’s light week in this category as well. The only major release is Hyde Park on the Hudson (Universal, “R,” $29.98, BD $34.98), a wispy biopic about a love affair between Margaret Suckley, whose journals and diaries are the film’s source, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The film takes place on the eve of World War II in June of 1939, but this is more of an intimate story than an epic historical drama. Bill Murray and Laura Linney give strong performances, but neither critics, who gave the film just a 37% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, nor audiences (the film earned just under $8 million) found much significance in this modern “chamber play” of a movie, which sacrifices grand themes for intimate gestures.
Tom Flinn
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Tom Flinn
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.