This week it’s the “TV on DVD” category that leads the way with new releases from Smallville, Supernatural, Chuck, and The Office, plus a bevy of great British series including one that contains one of the great continuing performances in the history of television and three classic Doctor Who episodes.

 

TV on DVD

 

The latest releases from a number of high profile TV series are the prime DVD offerings this week.  Four series are being released simultaneously on Blu-ray and regular DVD, which is a prime indicator of superior sales.  Smallville: The Complete 9th Season (Warner Bros., 1012 min., $59.98, BD $69.97) includes every episode of the penultimate season of the long-running DC Comics-based series.  Also out this week and of interest to genre-loving TV fans is Supernatural: The Complete 5th Season (Warner Bros., 924 min., $59.98, BD $69.97), which includes all 15 episodes of the CW series. 

 

Also debuting on Tuesday is The Office: Season 6 (Universal, $59.98, BD $69.98), which contains all 14 episodes the American version of the single-camera comedy.

 

The fourth show getting the Blu-ray treatment is Chuck: Season 3 (Warner Bros., 817 min., $59.98, BD $69.97), a five-disc set that includes all 19 episodes of the cult series.  Chuck undergoes a transformation as the nerd herder of the previous two seasons discovers the martial arts master side of his personality.  In Season 3 it’s “No more Mr. Nice Spy” as Chuck’s pursuit of the scrumptious Sarah shifts into high gear.  Unfortunately “Superman” Brandon Routh shows up as a glamorous rival.  With its music video set pieces Chuck might be more style than substance, but it is perfectly calculated to appeal to the wish fulfillment side of the American otaku—and the Season 3 set contains a hilarious gag reel, deleted scenes and two entertaining featurettes.

 

Other series out this week include The Guardian Season 2 (Paramount, 1029 min., $49.98), which contains all 23 episodes of the CBS series, the police procedural Criminal Minds: The Fifth Season (Paramount, $62.99), and The Four Complete Ed Sullivan Show Episodes Featuring the Beatles (Universal, 250 min., $19.98).

 

The British excel in the creation of historical and documentary series, but it is also clear that they have created some of the finest crime series in television history including Foley’s War, Midsomer Murders, and a series that debuts this week and features one of the greatest continuing performance in TV history, Prime Suspect: Complete Collection (Acorn Media, 1,500 min., $124.99).  Created by the procedurally-minded Lynda La Plante, the typical Prime Suspect mystery is the equivalent of a 5-6 episode mini-series.  While the supporting cast that includes top flight actors such as Ralph Fiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Zoe Wanamaker, David Thewlis, and Ciaran Hinds is uniformly brilliant, it is Helen Mirren, who stars as DCI Jane Tennison who delivers a series of performances for the ages.  From the first episode during which she battles the entrenched sexism of Scotland Yard’s “old boys” network to the later years when her own battles with alcoholism take center stage Tennison’s private life and struggles are just as compelling as the crimes she works doggedly to solve.  Yes the style of the show shifts from a grainy documentary look in the first few seasons to a slicker, hi-def sheen in the later episodes, which may lack the bite of the earlier offerings, but every episode of this gory, adult, unsparing, expansive, character-driven series is television of the highest order.

 

Another crime series that originated in the 1990s, Pie in the Sky: Season 3 (Acorn Media, 254 min., $59.99) features Richard Griffiths as Detective Inspector Harry Crabbe, a long serving police officer who dreams of retiring from the police and opening his own restaurant.  He ends up as the head chef in his wife’s restaurant, but still attached to the police and able to use his considerable intellectual gifts to solve crimes in this offbeat and delightfully eccentric show.

 

Three other British releases featuring classic Doctor Who episodes should have considerable appeal to science fiction fans.  Doctor Who--Story 106: The Creature from the Pit (BBC, 100 min., $24.98) features the popular 4th Doctor Tom Baker and was originally broadcast in 1979.  Doctor Who—Story 129: The King’s Demons (BBC, 50 min., $14.98), which was broadcast in 1983, introduced the Kamelion as a companion to the 5th Doctor Peter Davison.  While Doctor Who—Story 135: Planet of Fire (BBC, 100 min., $24.98), which aired in 1984, also starred Davison and introduced Nicola Bryant as the Doctor’s newest companion Peri Brown.

 

Anime

 

The only “new” release this week is My Bride is a Mermaid Season 1, Part 2 (Funimation “14+,” 300 min. $49.98), which includes the final 13 episodes of the 26-episode 2007 series from Gonzo.  Funimation released the first half of this quirky harem comedy romance with its surprising yakuza subplot in July (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of July 20th”).

 

Also this week, the Right Stuf’s Nozumi Entertainment is bringing back an anime classic from the 1990s, El-Hazard: The Wanderers Collection (“13+,” 650 min., $39.98), a 26-episode TV series from AIC that aired in Japan in 1995 and 1996.

 

Budget-priced re-releases out this week include Coyote Ragtime Show Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $19.98), Magic Knight Rayearth Season 2 Remastered Set (Media Blasters, “13+,” 725 min., $44.99), and Genshiken 2 Lite Box Collection (Media Blasters, “13+,” 300 min., $39.99).

 

Theatrical Films

 

This may be the weakest session of the summer for theatrical movies.  MacGruber (Rogue Pictures, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.98), which made only $8.5 million at the box office is easily the worst Saturday Night Live spin-off movie ever, and that’s saying something.  Killers (Lionsgate, “PG-13,” $29.95, BD $39.99) pretty much wastes the talents of Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in a movie that defines the concept of the “lightweight script,” but it’s a masterpiece compared with MacGruber.

 

Altogether better is Solitary Man (Anchor Bay, “R,” $29.98, BD $34.99), which overcomes its shaky premise, which is based on the rather unlikely exploits of Michael Douglas as 65-year-old Lothario.  Douglas gives one of his best performances and manages to make a character with many obnoxious characteristics rather sympathetic, which is no mean feat.