The “TV on DVD” category leads the way again this week with the DC Comics-based Human Target, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the innovative comedies, Modern Family, Bored to Death, and Community, and the BBC horror/fantasy drama Being Human.  Also a science fiction classic debuts on Blu-ray, and a rare relic of the pre-World War I era that had a huge influence on the surrealists makes its American DVD debut.

 

TV on DVD

 

The first season of the DC Comics-based Human Target (Warner Bros., 504 min., $38.98 BD $49.98) contains all twelve episodes of the action-packed series that has been renewed for a second season.  Mark Valley plays Christopher Chance, an ex-assassin turned security specialist, bodyguard-for-hire.  A strong supporting cast that includes Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley makes Human Target one of the best comic-based TV series of recent years.

 

Another show with strong appeal to fans of genre-based TV series is Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz, 640 min., $59.97, BD $79.97).  Produced by Sam Raimi and Robert Tappert (Xena: Warrior Princess), Spartacus: Blood and Sand is potent gladiatorial saga set in the late days of the Roman Republic with all its attendant brutality in the arena, which is matched by the rampant treachery, corruption, and decadent pursuit of pleasure on the outside.

 

New series debuting on DVD include the innovative sitcom Modern Family (Fox, $59.99, 528 min., BD $69.99), which finds humor in the lives of three wildly diverse families.  Equally innovative is Bored to Death: The Complete First Season (HBO, 240 min., $39.99, BD $49.99), which stars Jonathan Schwarzman, Zack Galifinakis, and Ted Danson in the story of a Brooklyn novelist who moonlights as an unlicensed private detective.

 

Also debuting this week is Community: The Complete First Season (Sony, 550 min., $39.95), the ensemble comedy that takes place at a community college in Colorado.  The series, which stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, and Ken Jeong, airs on NBC and represents one of the best ensemble comedies to debut in decades.

 

Releases of continuing series include the comedy/mystery Castle: The Complete 2nd Season (Disney, 1032 min., $45.99), the vintage prime time soap opera Falcon Crest: Season 2 (Warner Bros. 1320 min., $39.98), the ensemble sitcom How I Met Your Mother: Season 5 (Fox, $39.99), the long running Law & Order Special Victims Unit: The 11th Year (Universal, $59.98), the “psychic” detective series The Mentalist: Season 2 (Warner Bros., $59.98), the vintage Mary Tyler Moore spin-off Rhoda: Season 4, and the highest-rated contemporary sitcom Two and One-Half Men: The Complete 7th Season (Warner Bros., 484 min., $44.98).

 

Star Wars fans will want to check out the documentary series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (Acorn Media, 342 min., $49.99), which includes Bill Moyers interviews with Star Wars creator George Lucas, who talks about Campbell’s influence on the multi-billion dollar franchise as well as Moyers’ interviews with Campbell for the popular PBS series on the nature and power of myths.

 

U.K. “TV on DVD” offerings this week include Being Human (BBC Video, 345 min., $49.98, BD $$59.98), the fantasy series about an attractive trio of 20 somethings, who just happen to be a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost.  Being Human airs on BBC America and has developed a strong following.

 

Also out this week is Taggart: Set 3 (Acorn Media, $59.99), eight great episodes from the U.K.’s longest running police drama.  Created by Glenn Chandler, this gritty police drama is set in Glasgow (and yes the DVDs have subtitles for anyone who has trouble deciphering the Glaswegian accents).  The eight feature-length episodes in Set 3 aired on ITV in 2005 and feature the  show's modern quartet of protagonists that includes DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton), DC Stuart Fraser (Colin McCredie), DI Robbie Ross (John Michie), and Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff).  Reid described herself, Burke, Ross, and Fraser as "three divorcees and a celibate homosexual."  Taggart has remained popular due to the clever plotting of its cases, its no-nonsense police procedural approach, and the gritty authenticity of its well-photographed Glasgow locations.

 

In addition to police dramas, the British also do spy sagas very well as is demonstrated by the Mr. Palfrey of Westminster: Complete Collection (Acorn Media, 501 min., $49.99), which stars Alex McCowen as a master of counterespionage caught up in the Byzantine complexity of the cold war, spy versus counter spy battles of the 1980s.  If you like your spy dramas cerebral and clever rather than action-packed and linear, Mr. Palfrey of Westminster is definitely your cup of tea.

 

Anime

 

Two new series debut in both Blu-ray and conventional formats this week.  Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings Complete Series (Funimation, 14+, 325 min., $59.98, BD $64.98) includes the entire 13-episode series that aired in Japan in 2009.  Animated by Production I.G. and based on the Capcom video game, the Sengoku Basara anime is set during the warring states period and is chock full of samurai action.

 

The other dual format release is Xam’d: The Complete Series (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98).  Produced by Bones, Xam’d is a mecha fantasy romance about a young boy, who lives on an isolated island.  When he is involved in a in a mysterious explosion on a school bus, a mysterious light enters his arm transforming him into a powerful mecha called Xam’d.  The second half of the series will be released in November.

 

There are lots of re-priced bargain sets being released this week including Dragon Ball GT Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 1,600 min., $69.98), Ghost Hunt Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 625 min., $29.98), and Samurai 7 Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 605 min., $39.98).

 

Also out this week is Initial D: Stage 1, Part 1 (Funimation, “13+,” 300 min.,$39.98) the first 13 episodes of the 26-part “Initial Stage” of the street racing anime series based on the manga by Shuichi Shigeno.  Originally released here by Tokyopop, this popular series is now available once again.

 

Classics

 

Kino, which has released two superb Blu-ray versions of silent Buster Keaton classics, is issuing a superb version of even earlier material with Fantomas (Kino, 368 min. $34.95), which contains superbly restored and tinted versions of five feature films directed by Louis Feuillade and released in 1913 and 1914.  These last gasps of French cinematic culture of the La Belle Epoque are an amazing reflection of the pre-World War I era.  Based on a series of pulp novels about a murderous super thief who is a master of disguise and who enjoys tormenting the police and society in general, the Fantomas films were enormously popular and influential.  While they are in no way cutting edge in terms of their cinematic techniques, Feuillade’s film have a wonderful dreamlike quality about them that made them a favorite of the surrealists--a stark formality that, aided by the sharp visuals and excellent symphonic score on the Kino editions, makes these pioneering features uniquely enjoyable among movies from that very early pre-WWI era.  This set is a "must-have" for anyone interested in the history of the superbly symbiotic relationship between pulp fiction and the movies.

 

Out this month on Blu-ray for the first time is the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (Warner Home Video, “G,” $24.98), a clever adaptation of The Tempest with a witty screenplay by Cyril Hume, the first all-electronic movie musical score, and a fascinating mechanical marvel known as Robby the Robot.  Basically the new Blu-ray version contains the same visual material as the 50th Anniversary edition, including the full-length 1957 feature The Invisible Boy, which also features Robby.

 

Theatrical Movies

 

The top release of the week based on which movie was most often illegally downloaded in the past week via bit torrent is Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (Universal,  Single-disc $29.98, 2-Disc Collector’s $34.98, BD $39.98), which stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.  Scott’s Robin Hood concentrates on the early part of the Robin Hood legend to describe how and why the Saxon yeoman first became a forest bandit.  But this 40-something Robin was evidently a very late bloomer and Scott’s (and Crowe’s) serious approach to the material have drained all the fun out this saga of the outlaw of Sherwood Forest and his band of “merry” men.

 

The best new movie by far this week is The Secret in Their Eyes (Sony, Rated “R”, BD $39.98), the Academy Award-winning film by the Argentine director Juan Jose Campanella, which ICv2 reviewed when it was released on regular DVD (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of June 1st”).

 

Also out this week is Ondine (Magnolia Home Entertainment, $26.98, BD $29.98), a soulful Irish drama directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto).  Jordan is the man who Neil Gaiman wants to helm the adapation of The Graveyard Book.  Certainly there is no denying that Jordan has a way with fantasy and both Colin Farrell and Polish actress Alicja Bachleda make this one of the most interesting romantic fantasy dramas since Alfred Lewin's Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of August 3rd”).