tv on dvd

My first exposure to *Firefly* came when I was assigned to review the DVD box set for Video Librarian, for which I review a lot of TV on DVD. Now, I don’t sit through 13 or 18 or 22 hours worth of *Tru Calling* or *Silk Stalkings* or whatever in order to write a 200-word overview — it’s not possible, and it’s not necessary, and even just a taste of most series is enough to prove that much of what appears on television is worse than instantly forgettable: it doesn’t even come close to distracting you while you’re actually watching it.

There may be no greater touchstone among the childhood entertainments of Generation X than The Muppet Show, which introduced a whole new crop of kiddies to the comedic possibilities of vaudeville and “variety” while celebrating a gang of wildly different creatures who didn’t merely work together but created their own unique family dynamic. Our parents … more…

The opening moments of the first episode of Lost are some of the most intense commercial television has ever seen: images of a catastrophic failure of technology that leaves its victims dazed, bewildered, and at the mercy of elements both natural and manmade. And as these 24 episodes unfold, hints that the hand of man … more…

The creator of Freaks and Geeks moves from high school on to dissecting the vagaries of the higher-education experience with this smart and frequently painfully real dramedy about the freshman year of college. Each half-hour episode (actually about 22 minutes without commercials) is a gem of insightful, observant writing and perfectly pitched ensemble performances exploring … more…

If you’ve ever worked in an office, then you’ll recognize the hypocrisy, the petty cruelty, the ass-covering buck-passing, and the daily, soul-sucking corporate hell on display in this American adaptation of the hit British TV series. Thoroughly refitted for this side of the Atlantic — the impulse to add a laugh track was, thankfully, resisted … more…

The jokes are awful: “That’s not the Queen Mother, that’s my mother from Queens!” The clichés are dreadful: Rich people are fake and repressed, blue-collar types are fresh and honest, and kids are precociously mean little buggers. And that voice! Fran Drescher’s Flushing-inflected diction could strip paint, and that seems to be the overarching goal … more…

Comic books started growing up and having serious fun with this enchanting series in which the romantic saga of the Man of Steel and Lois Lane takes center stage and gets a screwball-comedy spin… and it’s pulled off with such elegant, witty panache that you can’t believe this isn’t the way the Superman story has … more…

“Oh my god, they’re gonna die. Siegfried and Roy are gonna die,” John Goodman (Beyond the Sea) the white lion intones boredly and sarcastically in the first episode of this frequently bizarre and always tiresome animated series. He’s watching the Vegas showmen’s schtick from offstage, waiting for his cue to enter, and this is his … more…

There are moments of ironic wit and cleverness among the 26 episodes of the TV adaptation of the longest-running comic-book series. There just aren’t enough of them. One “action-packed” story is fairly indistinguishable from another as Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing battle supervillain Doctor Doom — there are only so … more…