The latest season of Orphan Black, a new Mythbusters collection, and several other current TV series are on Blu-ray and DVD this week.
Orphan Black: Season Three (BBC/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes, featurettes, bloopers). How is it that Tatiana Maslany has not won an Emmy for playing umpteen clones in three seasons of this amazing sci-fi thriller series? Its a genuine travesty.
Meanwhile, Season 3 of this offbeat Canadian show is no letdown, keeping up the high level of quality achieved in the first two seasons, with Maslany continually astonishing as several distinctly different characters. This season, Sarah, Alison, Cosima and Helena team up to learn their origins but run into militaristic male clones! (A fourth season is promised next year.)
Mythbusters: Collection 13 (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, two discs, eight episodes). This collection kicks off with Titanic Survival, the shows most-requested episode, in which Adam and James replicate the climax of Titanic to see if Jack could have survived, then deliver the news to James Cameron. These are the last eight episodes of this highly entertaining reality shows 2012 season. (Seasons are not calculated or numbered in the usual fashion for this program.)
Person of Interest: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014-15, four discs/six discs, 22 episodes, featurettes, bloopers). The plot of this CBS sci-fi series has a billionaire (Michael Emerson) teaming up with a presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) to use The Machine to prevent crimes before they happen. This season the team takes on The Samaritan, an artificial intelligence that is dangerously evolving, as well as a gang known as The Brotherhood. Sarah Shahi and Enrico Colantoni co-star. (Season 5 will premiere this fall.)
How to Get Away With Murder: The Complete First Season (ABC/DVD, 2014-15, four discs, 15 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette, music video, bloopers). Viola Davis has justly been lauded for her fearless performance here as a tough attorney/law professor who uses her students to solve cases. But the show itself is a bit more problematic, with huge lapses in logic and characters (including Daviss) that vacillate a bit too starkly between strong and weak. Shonda Rhimes co-produces, and this series has a touch of the craziness that also informs her other show, Scandal. Still, it has an addictive quality and a huge following. (Season 2 premieres next month.)
Scandal: The Complete Fourth Season (ABC/DVD, 2014-15, four discs/five discs, 22 episodes, extended episodes, featurette, bloopers). Shonda Rhimes created this CBS show, a completely bonkers thriller set against White House corruption, which also benefits from a strong female lead, in this case Kerry Washington. This season, she returns to D.C. after a couple of months off the grid and faces off against some rich and powerful enemies, including her father (Joe Morton). (Season 5 begins next month.)
2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner/DVD, 2014-15, three discs, 22 episodes, deleted scenes, bloopers). The charisma and chemistry of Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs bolsters this sometimes-raunchy sitcom as they play waitress friends/roommates who make like Lucy and Ethel, coming up with get-rich-quick schemes that invariably fail. This season their cupcake business gets a boost with T-shirt sales, and after a rocky romance, Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge) eventually marries Oleg (Jonathan Kite). (Season 5 begins next month on CBS.)
Dig: Season One (USA/Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, two discs/three discs, 10 episodes, alternate pilot, deleted scenes, featurette). Biblical overtones and echoes of The Da Vinci Code inform this USA cable action-thriller, yet another show that depicts the religious faithful as fanatics. Jason Isaacs stars as an FBI agent investigating the murder of an American in Jerusalem, which leads him to a cult. Anne Heche co-stars. (The show has been canceled after one season.)
The Knick: The Complete First Season (Cinemax/HBO/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014, four discs, audio commentaries, featurette, digital book). This is a very R-rated fiction series based on a real-life doctor with a drug problem who developed innovative surgical techniques around the turn of the 20th century, starring Clive Owen, with all 10 episodes directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. The title refers to the primary setting, New Yorks Knickerbocker Hospital. (Season 2 begins Oct. 16.)
Last Days of the Nazis (History/Lionsgate/DVD, 2015, three episodes). This fascinating documentary miniseries (three 90-minute episodes) traces the rise and fall of the Third Reich through testimony gathered from Nazi Party members after the war. Actors are used for re-creations, and the usual talking heads are on hand, but theres also newsreel footage of the war, some of it quite disturbing, which, combined, make for informative and very disturbing viewing.
Shark Week: Dominating the Deep (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes). More chills in shark-infested waters with great whites, hammerheads, whale sharks, etc., are examined documentary-style with vivid cinematography.
Fast n Loud: Speed Demons (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, 2015, five episodes). Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufman at the Gas Monkey Garage are on the hunt for dilapidated classic cars to restore in this reality show. These are fan-favorite episodes, including the two-part Chopped and Dropped Model A.
Sabans Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The Complete Series (Shout!/DVD, 2000, five discs, 40 episodes). This is the American live-action series with new Power Rangers using top-secret technology to take on Diabolico, who has escaped 5,000 years of incarceration, aided by an army of demons.
Sabans Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Legendary Battle (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2014). This is the hourlong extended version of the final episode in this series, as the Megaforce team members are aided by every Power Ranger that preceded them over the past 20 years to battle Emperor Mavro when he launches a strike against Earth.
Max Steel: Go, Turbo! (Lionsgate/DVD, 2013). This is an hourlong feature episode of Max Steel, a cartoon series on Disney XD about 16-year-old Max, who has Turbo Energy, and his alien friend Steel, a being that helps him harness his power. Together they are Max Steel, here taking on Elementors and Trans-Human Industries.
Lalaloopsy: Band Together (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015, cartoon shorts). This new animated movie (45 minutes) has the Lalaloopsy girls getting a little help from singer Jewel as they develop their own band, The Buttonettes.
Blaze and the Monster Machines: High-Speed Adventures (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2014, four episodes). Episodes from the cartoon series about monster truck Blaze and his driver AJ as they solve problems with science.
Super WHY: Cinderella and Other Fairytale Adventures (PBS Kids/DVD, 2015, five episodes). Five cartoon stories designed to get kids reading: Cinderella, Cinderella: The Princes Side of the Story, Snow White, The Prince and the Pauper and The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
The Very Fairy Princess and more imaginative tales (Scholastic/Cinedigm/DVD, 2010, four episodes). Four animated stories, with the title tale read by Julie Andrews. The others are Extra Yarn, The Amazing Bone and My Garden. It's aimed at children ages 3-8.
Orphan Black: Season Three (BBC/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes, featurettes, bloopers). How is it that Tatiana Maslany has not won an Emmy for playing umpteen clones in three seasons of this amazing sci-fi thriller series? Its a genuine travesty.
Meanwhile, Season 3 of this offbeat Canadian show is no letdown, keeping up the high level of quality achieved in the first two seasons, with Maslany continually astonishing as several distinctly different characters. This season, Sarah, Alison, Cosima and Helena team up to learn their origins but run into militaristic male clones! (A fourth season is promised next year.)
Mythbusters: Collection 13 (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, two discs, eight episodes). This collection kicks off with Titanic Survival, the shows most-requested episode, in which Adam and James replicate the climax of Titanic to see if Jack could have survived, then deliver the news to James Cameron. These are the last eight episodes of this highly entertaining reality shows 2012 season. (Seasons are not calculated or numbered in the usual fashion for this program.)
Person of Interest: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014-15, four discs/six discs, 22 episodes, featurettes, bloopers). The plot of this CBS sci-fi series has a billionaire (Michael Emerson) teaming up with a presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) to use The Machine to prevent crimes before they happen. This season the team takes on The Samaritan, an artificial intelligence that is dangerously evolving, as well as a gang known as The Brotherhood. Sarah Shahi and Enrico Colantoni co-star. (Season 5 will premiere this fall.)
How to Get Away With Murder: The Complete First Season (ABC/DVD, 2014-15, four discs, 15 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette, music video, bloopers). Viola Davis has justly been lauded for her fearless performance here as a tough attorney/law professor who uses her students to solve cases. But the show itself is a bit more problematic, with huge lapses in logic and characters (including Daviss) that vacillate a bit too starkly between strong and weak. Shonda Rhimes co-produces, and this series has a touch of the craziness that also informs her other show, Scandal. Still, it has an addictive quality and a huge following. (Season 2 premieres next month.)
Scandal: The Complete Fourth Season (ABC/DVD, 2014-15, four discs/five discs, 22 episodes, extended episodes, featurette, bloopers). Shonda Rhimes created this CBS show, a completely bonkers thriller set against White House corruption, which also benefits from a strong female lead, in this case Kerry Washington. This season, she returns to D.C. after a couple of months off the grid and faces off against some rich and powerful enemies, including her father (Joe Morton). (Season 5 begins next month.)
2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner/DVD, 2014-15, three discs, 22 episodes, deleted scenes, bloopers). The charisma and chemistry of Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs bolsters this sometimes-raunchy sitcom as they play waitress friends/roommates who make like Lucy and Ethel, coming up with get-rich-quick schemes that invariably fail. This season their cupcake business gets a boost with T-shirt sales, and after a rocky romance, Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge) eventually marries Oleg (Jonathan Kite). (Season 5 begins next month on CBS.)
Dig: Season One (USA/Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, two discs/three discs, 10 episodes, alternate pilot, deleted scenes, featurette). Biblical overtones and echoes of The Da Vinci Code inform this USA cable action-thriller, yet another show that depicts the religious faithful as fanatics. Jason Isaacs stars as an FBI agent investigating the murder of an American in Jerusalem, which leads him to a cult. Anne Heche co-stars. (The show has been canceled after one season.)
The Knick: The Complete First Season (Cinemax/HBO/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014, four discs, audio commentaries, featurette, digital book). This is a very R-rated fiction series based on a real-life doctor with a drug problem who developed innovative surgical techniques around the turn of the 20th century, starring Clive Owen, with all 10 episodes directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. The title refers to the primary setting, New Yorks Knickerbocker Hospital. (Season 2 begins Oct. 16.)
Last Days of the Nazis (History/Lionsgate/DVD, 2015, three episodes). This fascinating documentary miniseries (three 90-minute episodes) traces the rise and fall of the Third Reich through testimony gathered from Nazi Party members after the war. Actors are used for re-creations, and the usual talking heads are on hand, but theres also newsreel footage of the war, some of it quite disturbing, which, combined, make for informative and very disturbing viewing.
Shark Week: Dominating the Deep (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes). More chills in shark-infested waters with great whites, hammerheads, whale sharks, etc., are examined documentary-style with vivid cinematography.
Fast n Loud: Speed Demons (Discovery/Cinedigm/DVD, 2015, five episodes). Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufman at the Gas Monkey Garage are on the hunt for dilapidated classic cars to restore in this reality show. These are fan-favorite episodes, including the two-part Chopped and Dropped Model A.
Sabans Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The Complete Series (Shout!/DVD, 2000, five discs, 40 episodes). This is the American live-action series with new Power Rangers using top-secret technology to take on Diabolico, who has escaped 5,000 years of incarceration, aided by an army of demons.
Sabans Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Legendary Battle (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2014). This is the hourlong extended version of the final episode in this series, as the Megaforce team members are aided by every Power Ranger that preceded them over the past 20 years to battle Emperor Mavro when he launches a strike against Earth.
Max Steel: Go, Turbo! (Lionsgate/DVD, 2013). This is an hourlong feature episode of Max Steel, a cartoon series on Disney XD about 16-year-old Max, who has Turbo Energy, and his alien friend Steel, a being that helps him harness his power. Together they are Max Steel, here taking on Elementors and Trans-Human Industries.
Lalaloopsy: Band Together (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015, cartoon shorts). This new animated movie (45 minutes) has the Lalaloopsy girls getting a little help from singer Jewel as they develop their own band, The Buttonettes.
Blaze and the Monster Machines: High-Speed Adventures (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2014, four episodes). Episodes from the cartoon series about monster truck Blaze and his driver AJ as they solve problems with science.
Super WHY: Cinderella and Other Fairytale Adventures (PBS Kids/DVD, 2015, five episodes). Five cartoon stories designed to get kids reading: Cinderella, Cinderella: The Princes Side of the Story, Snow White, The Prince and the Pauper and The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
The Very Fairy Princess and more imaginative tales (Scholastic/Cinedigm/DVD, 2010, four episodes). Four animated stories, with the title tale read by Julie Andrews. The others are Extra Yarn, The Amazing Bone and My Garden. It's aimed at children ages 3-8.
