This week’s entertainment offerings have a decided biographical slant, starting with the gangster film Black Mass, which features an extraordinary performance by Johnny Depp, the underrated biopic Steve Jobs, which is driven by Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the Apple founder, and Trumbo in which Bryan Cranston plays the blacklisted screenwriter, but there are other delights too including the latest season of Lena Dunham’s Girls, the most faithful adaptation ever of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, plus the complete live-action Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Theatrical Movies

Those who enjoy true crime dramas will want to check out Black Mass (Warner Bros., “R,” 120 min., $28.98, BD $35.99), which stars Johnny Depp as Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, who played the FBI like a violin, informing on his enemies and continuing to perpetrate murder and mayhem in spite of his “no killings” pledge to the Feds.  Depp is fearless in the way he ignores personal vanity in his portrayal of the reptilian Bulger, a performance that deliberately avoids the likeability that Depp brought to some of his other gangster roles such as John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s 2009 Public Enemies.

The critics loved Black Mass, which has a 74% positive rating (very good for a gangster film) on Rotten Tomatoes, but that rating pales beside the 85% positive notices for Steve Jobs, the Aaron Sorkin-penned biopic of the Apple founder, which earned just $17.8 million at the box office, a far cry from Black Mass’s $62.6 million, and far less than Sorkin’s biopic of Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network, which earned a solid $97 million back in 2010.  It is a bit puzzling that the Jobs biopic performed so poorly, Michael Fassbender is excellent as always in the title role, and Danny Boyle’s film deserves a better fate than it received at the box office.  Future generations will no doubt study both The Social Network and Steve Jobs for insights into the computer-driven “information revolution.

Another biographical film featuring one of today’s top actors also disappointed at the box office in 2015.  Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) played blacklisted Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo in the biopic Trumbo (Universal, “R,” 125 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which earned a 72% positive rating from the critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes, but just $7.7 million at the box office.  Part of the problem with the film is its attempt to sanitize Trumbo’s political convictions and portray him as a New Deal liberal rather than a communist who backed the Hitler/Stalin pact, as well as the insinuation that the Blacklist was created by Senator Joseph McCarthy (McCarthy was indeed guilty of publicity-seeking, career-destroying, wildly improbable charges about communists in the State Department and other Federal agencies, but it was the right wing studio chiefs in Hollywood who were responsible for the Blacklist).

This week’s other major release is also “reality-based.”  The 33 (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” 126 min., $28.98, BD $35.98) tells the story of the 2010 mining disaster at the San Jose Mine in Chile in which 33 miners were trapped underground for more than two months.  The 33 is too conventional in its storytelling and in its formulaic juxtaposition of crises occurring both above and below ground, and in spite of its inspirational narrative, the film received less than stellar notices from the critics and earned just $12.2 million in North America.

This week’s releases also include a new edition of Brad Bird’s 1999 directorial debut, the animated feature, The Iron Giant, which features the vocal talent of Vin Diesel as the eponymous robot, is based on The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, and won no fewer than 8 Annie Awards.  The Iron Giant Signature Edition (Warner Bros.,” PG,” $12.97), has been completely remastered and includes two all-new scenes that were storyboarded by Bird, but which were never animated originally because of budget constraints.

TV on DVD

Among the most interesting releases in this category this week is Girls: The Complete 4th Season (HBO, $29.98, BD $39.98), which finds Lena Dunham and her 20-something friends gradually gaining some maturity and giving some shape to their careers in this groundbreaking series, which presents the lives of its sophisticated urban females with a candor and realism that is largely unmatched on the small screen.

Other releases of interest to geek viewers include the 2004 miniseries Frankenstein (Mill Creek, 999 min., $8.98, BD $14.98), which is perhaps the most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel to appear on any screen, big or small (for example it begins like the novel with scenes involving the Polar explorer Captain Robert Walton), and Togetherness (HBO, 400 min., $39.98, BD $49.99), the Duplass brothers first TV series, a comedy/drama about two couples living under one roof on the fringes of Los Angeles—a show that is highly recommended to those who enjoy the Duplass brothers’ indie films.

One vintage release of special interest is the comic book-based live-action Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Complete Series (Paramount, 3900 min., $59.98), which includes all 162 episodes of the fantasy series starring Melissa Joan Hart on seven discs.

On disc for the very first time are The Brady Kids: The Complete Animated Series (Paramount, 528 min., $29.98), which contains all 22 episodes of the early 1970s animated series based on, The Brady Bunch sitcom, and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! Season 1, Part 1 (Warner Bros., 286 min., $19.97), which includes the first 13 episodes of the new Scooby-Doo animated series from Warner Bros. Animation.

Those who enjoy stop-motion TV animation might want to check out Bump in the Night: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 660 min.,$14.98), which collects all 27 episodes the 1990s series featuring Mr. Bumpy, Squishy, Molly Coddle and the other household monsters who protect their humans from all sorts of domestic dangers.

Vintage releases of note include the wonderfully bucolic sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount, 6,397 min., $84.98), which includes all 249 episodes of the show on 39 discs, the Steve Urkel- featuring Family Matters: The Complete 5th Season (Warner Bros., 548 min., DVD-R, $29.99), and the 2009 crime drama The Beast (Mill Creek, $9.98), which features the final performances of Patrick Swayze.

Two powerful crime dramas from overseas are among this week’s best offerings: the gritty U.K. period crime drama Peaky Blinders: Series 2 (BBC, $29.98, BD $34.98) that stars Cillian Murphy as the ambitious leader of a gang in Birmingham in the wake of World War; and The Trials of Jimmy Rose (Acorn Media, 143 min., $34.99), a powerful slice-of-life drama starring Ray Winstone (The Departed) as an ex-con, who is determined to go straight after serving a 12-year stretch, but who finds that he has to take some extraordinary chances to safeguard his family.

Anime

This week’s top release is Free! –Eternal Summer (Funimation, 325 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98, Ltd.Ed. $69.98), which collects the second season of the TV anime produced by Kyoto Animation and based on the light novel High Speed by Koji Oji about four boys who win prizes in a swimming tournament and later create a swimming club in the town of Iwatobi (based on the real town Iwami, Tottori).  This first season of the slice-of-life sports drama was released (with English subtitles only) by Discotek Media.

Also of interest are the Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma*Illya Zwei Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), an alternate universe spin-off of the popular Fate/stay night visual novel by Type-Moon with Illyasviel von Einzbern as the chief character, and Space Brothers: Collection 7 (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., $49.98, BD $59.98), which includes episodes 73 to 84 of the 99-episode hard sci-fi slice-of-life series about two brothers who become astronauts in Japan’s space program.

This week’s re-priced re-release comes in the form of a single-disc double feature that should please fans of Tite Kubo’s action-packed supernatural manga Bleach.  Bleach Movies: The Unforgiven Double Feature (Viz Media, 180 min., $14.98), which includes Bleach the Movie #3: Fade to Black, and Bleach the Movie: Hell Verse, both of which had previously been released here in North America as single features at the same list price as this new double feature.