There’s only one theatrical release this week, but it’s a big one, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and there are plenty of key TV-related offerings including recent seasons of The Walking Dead, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Supergirl, Lucifer, Ash vs. the Evil Dead, plus for music buffs, an insane punk rock TV talk show co-hosted by Blondie’s Chris Stein.

Theatrical Films

This week’s top offering is James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (Disney, “PG-13,” 136 min., $29.99, BD $39.99, 4K $42.99), which, even if it doesn’t quite match the magic of the original Guardians film, manages to deliver an entertaining story with a great soundtrack thanks to the “Awesome Mix Vol.2 mixtape.”  Gunn’s good-natured Guardians formula succeeded once again at the box office where the film has earned $862 million worldwide, which makes it the fourth highest-grossing film of the year so far, and still the #1 superhero film of the summer worldwide (Wonder Woman has been more successful here in North America).

TV on DVD

With the advent of the new fall TV season just around the corner, the pace of releases in this category has really picked up and there are lots of offerings of serious interest to geek TV viewers due on Tuesday led by The Walking Dead: The Complete 7th Season (Starz, $69.98, BD $79.98), which finds Rick and his intrepid group of survivors facing their greatest challenge yet from the despotic Negan.  The Blu-ray in particular is loaded with extra features of interest to fans including commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes plus no fewer than nine featurettes.

Ltd. Ed. Due in Oct.
Still hardcore fans may want to wait until October for the release of the Limited Edition 7th Season of The Walking Dead, which will come with a dazzling “Winslow Spike Walker Statue” and soft touch Digipak.  So far no precise date (and no MSRP) has been released for the Limited Edition.

But The Walking Dead is hardly the only series of interest.  Also due on Tuesday are the excellent Netflix Marvel series Daredevil: The Complete Second Season (Disney, 780 min., $29.99, BD $39.99), and Jessica Jones: The Complete First Season (Disney, 780 min., $29.98, BD $39.99), The Jessica Jones series streamed in 2015, while Daredevil Season 2 debuted in 2016.  Netflix has renewed both of these Marvel series with both Daredevil Season 3 and Jessica Jones Season 2 currently slated for release in 2018.

But there are also two other comic book-based series due this week, both of which are based on DC Comics properties.  Supergirl: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., $49.98, BD $54.97), which spent its first season on CBS before switching to the CW where it quickly became that network’s number 2 series behind The Flash; and Lucifer: The Complete 2nd Season (Warner Bros., 760 min., $39.99, BD $47.99), which includes the 18-episode second season of the Fox TV series that is based on the character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg for the DC/Vertigo Sandman comic.

Also of serious interest to geek viewers is Ash vs. Evil Dead: The Complete 2nd Season (Starz, 341 min., $34.98, BD $43.97), which contains all 10 episodes of the second season of the comedy horror series created by Sam Raimi that is set in Raimi’s Evil Dead Universe and stars Bruce Campbell as the iconic Ash Williams.

Other contemporary series that are due out before their fall premieres include: the police procedural/family drama Blue Bloods: The 7th Season (Paramount, $44.99); the Fox cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 4 (Universal, 477 min., $39.98); and the place specific military police procedural NCIS: Los Angles: The 8th Season (Parmount, $41.99).

Vintage TV releases include on that those interested in 1980s pop music should definitely not miss: TV Party: The Complete Series (Brink, 3,390 min., BD $79.98), which collects all 60 episodes of a NYC Public Access series hosted by Glenn O’Brien and guitarist Chris Stein from Blondie that features key musical, performance art, and art world figures from the era in a sort of “punk rock” talk show format.

The only other vintage TV release this week is Ironside: Season 4 (Shout Factory, `1,260 min., $44.99).  This police procedural, which starred Raymond Burr, aired in 1970-71 and features the series final episodes with Barbara Anderson, the blonde actress who played Eve Whitfield for the first four years of the series’ run.

Anime

All of this week’s anime offerings are “subtitles only,” a sign of things to come, save for Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here (Sentai Filmworks, 180 min., BD/DVD Combo $49.98), which collects the two anime films produced by the stylish Kyoto Animation studio in 2015 and based on the urban supernatural light novel series by Nagomu Torii.

The Japanese-only releases this week include the slice-of-life romantic comedy Rainbow Days: Complete Collection (Funimation, 312 min., Subtitles Only, BD/DVD Combo $54.98) contains all 24 fourteen-minute episodes of the 2016 series from Production Reed that is based on the shojo manga about a group of four high school boys, who don’t belong to any club, but hang out together; and the Bakuon!! Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98), a 2016 series from TMS that is based on the seinen manga by Mimana Orimoto about four girls who join the motorcycle group at their high school.