tv on dvd

The buzz is that devoted fans of this sci-fi series got so frustrated waiting for this long-time-coming DVD release, they made this the most-bootlegged series ever, with homemade discs burned from videotaped episodes selling like hotcakes on eBay. Additional buzz has it that this set was rushed out in an attempt to cut off that … more…

I mean it as the highest of compliments when I say that the return of the campy 1960s daytime serial is deliciously, histrionically goofy: the performances are hilariously awful, the plot ridiculously soapy, the general outrageousness of it just gloriously absurd. This is the entirety of the short-lived 1991 NBC series, 12 episodes of steely-eyed … more…

It’s kinda the TV version of those cheerfully cornball old-fashioned movies in which someone chirps, “Hey, kids, let’s build a stage in the barn and put on a show!” Here the kids are students at New York’s High School for the Performing Arts, so they’ve already got the stage, but they’re constantly organizing themselves to … more…

Science fiction in the visual realms — film and TV — frequently bears little resemblance to its bookish cousin, which makes this new incarnation of the 1960s anthology show a particular joy. The 21 episodes here, from the series’ 1995 first season on the Showtime cable network, are intelligent, literate, even provocative: just what science … more…

There’s a gritty authenticity to this rough-edged reality show: instead of letting viewers rubberneck on the bizarre personal disasters of the rich or the weird (or the rich and the weird), here we’re voyeurs peeking in on an ordinary American family behind the typical closed doors — actual and metaphoric — that protect us all … more…

Thundercats! Are! Go! No, wait: that was Thunderbirds. Still, Thundercats are indeed go, in their first DVD collection, which is sure to draw as much cash from the pockets of retro-hungry Generation Xers as the cartoon originally drew from the pockets of our parents, to buy all those damn Thunderbird toys that were the inspiration … more…

There was a time, though it is little remembered now, when Debra Messing (The Wedding Date) wasn’t quite the desperately annoying woman-child of Will & Grace and was, instead, merely the mildly irritating stereotypical New York neurotic Stacey, who marries pompous ass Ned (Thomas Haden Church: Sideways) merely to live in his fabulous, rent-controlled apartment … more…

This charming Disney Channel series, about an American woman abroad in Australia during that nation’s gold rush, is a delight for family viewing, reliably inoffensive without avoiding tough issues from racism and sexism to the awkwardness of creating an ad hoc family out of new friends. Maggie Scott (Louise Caire Clark) and her daughter, young … more…

Thoughts on the *Firefly* episodes ‘Out of Gas,’ ‘Ariel,’ ‘War Stories,’ ‘Trash,’ ‘The Message,’ ‘Heart of Gold,’ and ‘Objects in Space.’

Firefly, Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Captain Malcolm Mal Reynolds, Gina Torres, Zoe, Alan Tudyk, Hoban Wash Washburn, Morena Baccarin, Inara Serra, Adam Baldwin, Jayne Cobb, Jewel Staite, Kaylee Frye, Sean Maher, Dr. Simon Tam, Summer Glau, River Tam, Ron Glass, Shepherd Book, Serenity, The Train Job, Bushwhacked, Shindig, Safe, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Jaynestown, Alliance, verse, in the black, border moons, border planets, Serenity, Persephone, sci-fi, science fiction, SF, western, TV, DVD, doomed series