With the new TV season just weeks away, it’s the "TV on DVD" category that provides most of the interest this week with the release new seasons of The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, the final 37 Japanese Transformers episodes, plus one of this summer biggest box office bombs and a brilliant stop-motion animated film from Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit).

 

 

The top release in the strongest week of the year so far in this category is The Walking Dead: The Complete 2nd Season (Starz, 578 min., $59.99, BD $69.99), which includes all 13 episodes of the record-breaking sophomore season of AMC’s excellent adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series from Image.  Walking Dead ubergeeks should check out the The Walking Dead: Complete 2nd Season Limited Edition, which comes in a sculpted zombie head with a screwdriver in its eye-not the easy set to store, but it sure is a heck of an attention getter and it’s a likely winner of ICv2’s 2012 Blu-ray packaging award.  Whether you spring for the Special Edition or not, Blu-ray is definitely the way to go with this set to get the most visual impact from your favorite zombie series--and it also contains some great behind-the-scenes features.

 

Fantasy fans will also want to check out Once Upon a Time: The 1st Season (Warner Bros., 946 min., $49.99, BD $59.99), the popular ABC series that brings fairy tale characters into the modern world in 22 mind-bending fantasy sagas. 

 

But there are also some superb mainstream TV releases this week headed by Showtime’s Homeland: The Complete First Season (Fox, $59.99, BD $69.99), the Golden Globe winning serial drama about a Marine who has been held captive by Al-Qaeda and the CIA officer who believes that the former captive is now a terrorist, and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Second Season (HBO, $69.98, BD $79.98), which collects the last season of the excellent gangster series starring Steve Buscemi that is set in Atlantic City during Prohibition.

 

Comic fans who enjoy Anthony Bourdain’s Get Jiro! might also be interested in Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations--Collection 7 (Gaiam, 646 min., $24.98), which includes more of his globe-trotting culinary insights.  But of course those looking for a sleazier sort of reality show can check out Jersey Shore: Uncensored, Season 5 (MTV, 462 min., $29.98).

 

Other contemporary series out on DVD this week include In Plain Sight, Season 5: The Final Season (Universal, 340 min., $29.98), the always entertaining motorcycle gang series Sons of Anarchy: Season 4 (Fox, $59.99, BD $69.99), and the popular sitcom Two and a Half Men: The Complete 9th Season (Warner Bros. 450 min., $44.98), which features the replacement of Charlie Sheen by Ashton Kutcher.

 

There are also a number of excellent animated TV releases this week including the debut of Transformers Victory: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 810 min., $29.93), which includes 37 more episodes from the Japanese Transformers series that has never been previously released  on DVD in this country.

 

Equally interesting to many is Green Lantern: The Animated Series Season 1, Part 1: Rise of the Red Lanterns (Warner Bros., 310 min., $19.97), the first substantial 13-episode release from the popular new Cartoon Network series featuring the exploits of one of DC Comics’ most popular heroes.

 

For fans of master animator Chuck Jones there is The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Hour Chuck Jones: Mouse Chronicles (Warner Bros., 133 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which includes 19 short cartoons featuring rodents with endearing names like Sniffles plus Jones’ great mouse duo of Hubie and Bertie.

 

Other animated releases include Danny Phantom: Season 2, Part 2 (Shout Factory, 300 min., $19.93), which contains 14 episodes from the Nickelodeon series that aired from 2004 to 2007, The Amazing World of Gumball (Warner Bros., 132 min., $14.97), the surreal Cartoon Network series for young viewers, and a special Halloween single-disc SpongeBob SquarePants: Ghouls Fools (Nickelodeon, 88 min., $14.97).

 

The top U.K. release here this week is Poirot: Series 6 (Acorn Media, 415 min., $39.95, BD $49.99), which contains four feature-length Agatha Christie adventures starring David Suchet as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.  "Murder on the Links" and "Hercule Poirot’s Christmas" are exceptional for their deft use of humor and clever plotting. This series with its beautifully rendered between-the-wars art deco settings is the definitive version of Ms. Christie’s most famous character, and it is so beautifully mounted that it is definitely worth it to spring for the Blu-ray versus the standard DVD edition.

 

Even more interesting than Poirot to those who enjoy the more modern English mystery series like Foyle’s War and Midsommer Murders series is Injustice (Acorn Media, 223 min., $39.99), an ingenious five-part thriller created by Anthony Horowitz, the writer/producer behind Foyle’s War.  This taut saga of a defense barrister who leaves London to live the quiet life, but returns to defend an old friend, is not for the faint of heart.  It contains strong language and disturbing images, but it will hold your attention throughout.  The five-part drama is brilliantly shot with none of the ridiculously common shaky camerawork that afflicts so many contemporary series that are trying to be "arty."  The art in Injustice lies in the clever elliptical narration that hooks the viewer into the plot with tantalizing jumps backward and forward through time.  The object of this series is not to find who the killer is--the murderer’s identity is made clear in the first episode--but to ascertain why the crime was committed.

 

 

The biggest release this week will probably be the pathetic Battleship (Universal, "PG-13," $28.98, BD $34.98), the board game-inspired alien invasion film that was swamped at the spring box office by The Avengers.  Universal spent more than $225 million producing and promoting Battleship but probably took at least a $150 million hit when the movie bombed at the domestic box office where it made only 21.5% of its global total.

 

Far more interesting to animation fans at least is The Pirates Band of Misfits (Sony, "PG," $30.99, BD $45.99), the latest stop-motion animated feature from Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit.  Based on a series of delightful books by Gideon Defoe, Pirates features a superb vocal cast and it earned a solid 86% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

Those who don’t mind sentimental movies (or enjoy cinematic treacle as the cynics would say) should take note that The Lucky One (Warner, "PG-13," $28.98, BD $29.98), which is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, is due out this week.

 

One of this year’s surprise hits was director Tim Story’s Think Like a Man (Sony, "PG-13," $30.90, BD $35.99), a romantic comedy based on comedian Steve Harvey’s self-help advice book that cost just $12 million to produce and took in $91.5 million in theaters while managing to score a 54% positive rating, which isn’t bad for a romantic comedy these days.

 

 

The top new release this week is K-On! Season 2: Collection 2 (Sentai Filmworks, "14+," 350 min., $59.98), which includes episodes 13-26 of the second season of the popular series created by the hip anime studio Kyoto Animation plus the final OVA episode of the series for a total of 15 episodes in all.  This popular anime is based on the four-panel seinen manga series by Kakifly about four high school girls who join their high school music club and form a band.

 

Re-priced re-releases are led by the Koihime Muso Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, "14+," 975 min., $89.98), which includes all three seasons of anime based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  Each of these series was previously released by itself.

 

Also out this week is the Ergo Proxy Complete Series (Funimation, "17+," 575 min., $39.98), the Kaleido Star Season 1 Complete Collection (Funimation, "14+," 650 min., $29.98), and the Texhnolyze Complete Series (Funimation, "17+," 550 min., $49.98).

--Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.