tv on dvd

Wildly hit or miss, but this season contains standalone episodes that rank with the series’ very best.

Comedian Kathy Griffin’s observations of the perils and pitfalls of sorta-fame… pile up into a hilarious puncturing of celebrity lifestyles and the public’s obsession with them.

Constantly surprising and endlessly inventive, this is sketch comedy at its wild best: aggressively silly, unafraid to take chances, and deliciously absurd and nonlinear…

Tensions and emotions run high, but this ain’t no “reality” game show: these are talented, ambitious people whose only opponents are themselves.

Actually deals in a refreshingly frank way with the wide variety of adolescent experiences, from making mistakes about having sex to coming to terms with religious faith. Still, it’s likely to appeal only to teens…

Every single one of these 15, 15-minute episodes across two discs is an outrageous satire on the absurdity of dogma and the terrifying power of unquestioning faith.

Robin Hood: bad (except for one Guy). Hex: devilishly good.

A divorced mom and her schoolage son. The greaseball super. The newlyweds keeping secrets from each other. The Chinese-American extended family who runs the convenience store in the lobby. They’re just a few of the denizens of Robson Arms, a Vancouver apartment building faded from its former elegance but still home to an eclectic group … more…

Nothing on American TV could possibly prepare viewers for the earthy, frank rawness of this British series about a wild, reckless Manchester family and their sexcapades, antisocial antics, and general distracted anxiety over the just keeping their *bleep* together. But without the bleep. The shockiness of The Sopranos perhaps comes closest, but the unambiguous sense … more…

Save this Cartoon Network series, which debuted last fall in the Saturday-night Toonami block and is now being dribbled out on DVD, for the kiddies: only unsophisticated fans of animation, comic books, and superheroes will be captivated by this tired trotting out of the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and, um, the other two mutated crime fighters … more…