This week’s big release, The Walking Dead: Season 3 comes from TV, but there are interesting releases in every category including a time-traveling early 1980s series from the UK, Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic The Great Gatsby, Tales of the City, one of the best TV miniseries of all time, and for the classic movie fan, Ernst Lubitsch’s funniest film in spectacular new Blu-ray package.
 
TV on DVD
 
The action in this category really heats up with the release of The Walking Dead: The Complete 3rd Season (Starz, 678 min., $69.98, BD $79.98, Ltd. Ed. $149.99).  The most popular live-action series on cable just keeps building in intensity.  In Season Three just as it appears that Sheriff Rick Grimes and his band of survivors have found a safe haven, all hell breaks loose as the group learns that its major threat doesn’t necessarily come from the undead.  Season Three set new viewing records as colorful characters such as The Governor and Michonne were introduced to great effect.  So far Robert Kirkman and the folks at AMC have made sure that this series keeps viewers on edge as they warily await what is in store next for the show’s formidable band of survivors.  The pricy Limited Edition comes with a special “zombie head tank” package created by McFarlane Toys that is sure to have collectors salivating.
 
Other contemporary series of special interest to geek viewers that are due out this week include Elementary: The First Season (Paramount, 880 min., $55.98), which includes all 24 episodes of the contemporary Sherlock Holmes saga starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, and the gutsy motorcycle gang saga Sons of Anarchy: Season 5 (Fox, $59.99, BD $69.99).  Also due this week is the soapy medical drama Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete 9th Season (Disney, $45.99).
 
The only animated release this week is the “pig-in-a-poke” collection, the Best of Warner Bros. 25 Cartoon Collection: DC Comics (Warner Bros., 550 min., $26.99), a 3-disc collection of episodes from various DC Comics-based cartoon series, a good value for the casual fan perhaps, but definitely not for the serious collector.
 
Vintage TV releases include the oft-rerun mystery series Diagnosis Murder: The 4th Season, Part 1 (VEI, 545 min., $19.99), and Diagnosis Murder: The 4th Season, Part 2 (VEI, 545 min., $19.99), which star Dick Van Dyke.  In addition to the Fourth Season VEI is also releasing Diagnosis Murder: The 5th Season, Part 1 (VEI, 550 min., $19.99) and Diagnosis Murder: The 5th Season, Part 2 (VEI, 545 min., $19.99).
 
American science fiction fans might want to check out Sapphire and Steel: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 870 min., $39.97), a science fiction fantasy series that starred David McCallum and Joanna Lumley as inter-dimensional operatives who guard the integrity of time.  This series, which aired in the UK from 1979-1982, is somewhat dated, but not without its charms.
 
Other more contemporary UK series are also of interest.  Helen Mirren is simply brilliant as Detective Jane Tennison battling crooks and the “old boy network” in the superb police procedural,  Prime Suspect: The Complete Series (Acorn Media, 1501 min., BD $119.99), which is now available in a gorgeous hi-def Blu-ray version that is well worth the investment for those who can afford it.
 
Also of great interest (and of some importance in TV history) is the Anglo-American production Tales of the City: 20th Anniversary Edition (Acorn Media, 321 min., $49.99), which collects the 1993 miniseries based on the first of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series of novels.  Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, Billy Campbell and Thomas Gibson are simply excellent in this slice-of-life saga that has been voted one of the ten best miniseries of all time.  The show seamlessly combines location work in San Francisco with a massive set for the quirky apartment building that was created on a soundstage in Hollywood.  With its rampant references to pot smoking and homosexual as well as heterosexual activities, this series was way ahead of its time, and still might be too much for some viewers, while others will find its frank dealing with such subjects highly refreshing.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
This week’s highest profile release is Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $28.98, BD/Combo $35.99, 3-D BD/Combo $44.95) fared better with audiences (it earned $331 million worldwide) than it did with the critics (it could manage just a 49% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes).  This film has a superb cast, and if you can get past Luhrmann’s theatrical, over-the-top staging, there’s some good work here, but there is a bit of a disconnect between the quiet poeticism of Fitzgerald’s 1920s text and the heightened visual rhetoric of Luhrmann’s camerawork and design.
 
It’s a rare week indeed that sees the release of a watchable Michael Bay film, but this is one of those occasions thanks to Pain & Gain (Paramount, “R,” $29.99, BD $39.99),  a sleazy crime drama set in South Florida.  Pain & Gain has an excellent cast that includes Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony Mackie, Rebel Wilson, and Ed Harris.  Those easily offended by casual vulgarity, torture, and violence should stay away from this dark comedy.
 
A serious film about the plight of the American farmer in this age of cheap corporately-processed food is as rare as a watchable Michael Bay movie.   At Any Price (Sony, “R,” $30.99, BD $35.99) features a strong performance by Dennis Quaid in a film that might not be completely successful, but which is far more adventurous in its subject matter than most contemporary slice-of-life dramas.   The critical reviews were mixed on this film (51% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), and almost no one saw it during its theatrical run, but anyone interested in big screen social dramas should check it out.
 
 
Anime
 
The top release of the week here is Guilty Crown Part 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 220 min., DVD/BD $64.98, Ltd. Ed $89.98), a 2011 anime series produced by Production I.G. that aired on Japan’s late night noitaminA block.  This 22-episode science fiction fantasy series centers on a high school boy who obtains “The Power of Kings” and uses it to help Japan restore its independence.  It is especially interesting since the show’s portrait of a weak Japan at the mercy of powerful neighbors and powerful international organizations mirrors a current political trend in Japan that has gained strength due to aggressive actions by China and North Korea.  In Guilty Crown it is a virus that forces Japan to seek outside help from a UN-type agency known as GHQ that restores order, but effectively ends the country’s independence.  A resistance movement known as the Funeral Parlor springs up, and the series hero (Shu) steps up to help them in the uneven struggle with the powerful GHQ.  The plot of this science fantasy series is complex, but fast-moving and ultimately satisfying.  Funimation streamed the original series, which is now being released with an excellent English dub.  The Limited Edition comes in a box capable of holding the entire series and includes two 108-page art books that catalog the series stunning designs.  Funimation is also releasing the Guilty Crown Part 2 (Funimation, “14+,” 250 min., $59.95), which includes the final 22 episodes of the series, so there’s no waiting for the rest of the story.
 
Also new this week is the Medaka Box Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 300 min., $59.95, BD $69.95), which contains all 12 episodes of the first series based on the shonen manga series written by Nisio Isin about a bright student council president who disrupts plans to experiment on students in this interesting action comedy saga.
 
Fans of vintage anime have a treat in store with Captain Harlock: Space Pirate, The Complete Series (Eastern Star, 1000 min., $69.95), which presents all 42 episodes of the 1978 anime series by Leiji Matsumoto, which will be available In their original uncut form (with English subtitles) for the first time in North America.
 
Video gamers might be interested in Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (Media Blasters, “14+,” 120 min., $19.99), a 2006 production that utilizes the animation created for the ONimusha samurai-themed video game produced by Capcom while adding a few scenes to tell the story of the game from Akane’s perspective.
 
Classics on Blu-ray
 
Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be Or Not To Be (Criterion, Unrated, $39.95) didn’t strike the right note with wartime audiences in 1942, who were in no mood to attack the Nazi’s with satire.  But in retrospect Lubitsch’s film about a heroic troupe of Polish actors led by the deliciously hammy Joseph Tura (Jack Benny in his best performance ever) is spot on in its skewering of the Nazis' robotic respect for authority, their childlike worship of the Fuhrer, and their casual, matter-of-fact dealing in murder and torture (here Lubitsch clearly anticipates Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil.”).  To Be Or Not To Be is also one of Lubitsch’s funniest films with clever running gags and delightful twists throughout.  Not only is this Criterion hi-def transfer the best version of the film we are ever likely to see, the extras, which include Jean-Jacques Bernard’s excellent 2010 documentary “Lubitsch le Patron,” Lubitsch’s 45-minute 1916 silent film “Pinkus’s Shoe Palace,” and critic Geoffrey O’Brien’s essay, make this package nearly irresistible for the true cinephile.

Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.