This week’s DVD releases are perhaps the weakest of the summer, but there is a great collection of the Nickelodeon series The Angry Beavers, all 22 episodes of the sci-fi conspiracy series The Event, as well as the original Prime Suspect and the excellent Eden of the East anime movie on Blu-ray.  In the battle of the beavers, low art (The Angry Beavers) trumps high concept (Jody Foster's The Beaver) yet again.

 

 

Once again the top TV release is an animated show, The Angry Beavers: Seasons 1 & 2 (Shout Factory, 572 min., $29.93), a deluxe 4-DVD set, which includes 26 episodes of the popular Nickelodeon series from the late 1990s that was created by Mitch Schauer. The only other animated TV release this week is the single-disc Garfield Vol. 4: Spooky Tails (Vivendi, 72 min., $14.93), which is recommended only for devotees of the lasagna-loving cat.

 

The top live-action release is The Event: The Complete Series (Universal, 928 min., $59.98), which includes all 22 episodes of the sci-fi, conspiracy series that mixes some of the mystifying elements of Lost with the political urgency of 24 and the conspiratorial bent of the X-Files.  Perhaps that was one too many ingredients in the stew, since NBC cancelled The Event after just one season, but the show did develop a following. Also of interest is Off the Map: The Complete Series (Disney, 359 min., $29.99), which includes all 13 episodes of the uplifting medical series about doctors who find themselves by doing good deeds in the far corners of the world.

 

Continuing series out this week include a number of popular series: NCIS: The Complete 8th Season (Paramount, $64.99), Gossip Girl: The Complete 4th Season (Warner Bros. $59.98), NCIS Los Angeles: The Complete 2nd Season (Paramount, $64.99), and the family drama Brothers and Sisters: The Complete 5th Season (Disney, 946 min., $45.99).

 

The top UK release and easily the best live-action release of the week is Prime Suspect Series 1 (Acorn Media, 207 min. $24.99) the superb police procedural starring Helen Mirren.  Prime Suspect is coming to NBC this fall in an American version starring the wonderful Mario Bello, but it’s hard to imagine that the U.S. version can be better than the original, which combines the approach of a gritty police procedural, with a consistently superlative performance by Helen Mirren as a detective who (especially in the early episodes) has to deal with both criminals and the entrenched sexism of the police establishment.  Prime Suspect: Series 2 (Acorn Media, 207 min., $24.99) is also available and is also highly recommended.  These reasonably-priced collections are an excellent opportunity to check out the U.K. version.  

The other major U.K. release this week is Upstairs, Downstairs: Series 4 (Acorn Media, 659 min., $49.99) a 4-disc, 13-episode collection of the classic Masterpiece Theater series, which was really hitting its stride at this point in its long-running narrative. Series 4 takes place during World War I, which left no one from either the Bellamy family or their servants untouched by its overwhelming tragedy.

 

 

It’s very slim pickings this week with the Paul Giamatti-starring indie Win Win (Fox, “R,” $29.99, BD $39.99) easily the best of the lot. Giamatti plays a cash-strapped New Jersey attorney who moonlights as a wrestling coach in this slice-of-life comedy drama written and directed by Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent). Strong performances from Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Carnavale raise this movie well above the ordinary, as does its plot, which deals with the moral complexities faced by ordinary people with a deftness and sophistication seldom seen in American films.

 

Jodie Foster’s The Beaver (Summit, “PG-13,” $26.99, BD $30.49) is a high concept movie about a troubled suburbanite played by Mel Gibson who find salvation from debilitating depression thanks to a ridiculous hand puppet, which allows him to communicate with the world. It’s hard not to think about Gibson’s off-screen problems when looking at The Beaver, but that’s not enough to sustain interest in this curiously flat movie, which bombed at the box office where it made less than million dollars.

 

Considerably better is Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Every Sold (Sony “PG-13,” $30.99, BD $35.99), which dissects the use of product placement in movies and often manages to be quite good humored about doing so. The problem with this cinematic exercise in shooting fish in a barrel is that moviegoers with any sense of discernment at all are well aware of product placement, which has become embarrassingly obvious these days.  Plus no one should ever have to listen to Ralph Nader bloviating about such an obvious example of corporate malfeasance for more than 10 seconds—his pontifical tone is clearly cruel and unusual punishment.

 

 

This week’s top release is Eden of the East Movie II: Paradise Lost (Funimation, “17+,” BD $34.98). Directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and produced by Production I.G., this is a high quality anime feature production that simply looks especially good on Blu-ray.

 

Also on Blu-ray this week (as well as conventional DVD) is the Samurai Girls Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 300 min., $59.98 BD, $69.98), which includes all 12 episodes of the 2010 anime series produced by ARMS and based on Akira Suzuki’s light novel series. This fan service-filled series takes place in an alternate history Japan where the Tokugawa shogunate remained in power and has managed to keep Japan isolated from the rest of the world.

 

Other key releases include Sgt Frog Season 3 Part 2 (Funimation, “13+,” 300 min., $39.99), which includes episodes 66-78 of the popular action/adventure/comedy series that deftly parodies science fiction anime (and a few other genres along the way), and Beyblade: Metal Fusion DVD 4 (Nelvana, 154 min., $14.97), a single disc release that contains 7 episodes of the popular Saturday morning cartoon series.