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The original "Battlestar Galactica" of the 1970s was a simple
show of heroic humans fleeing the evil Cylons, robots built to destroy the human
race. That simplicity was tossed through the airlock for this gritty,
rough-and-ready revision, which flies into unexpected territory in the first 10
episodes of the fourth and final season. Onetime villain Baltar (James Callis)
becomes a messiah, or at the very least a holy prophet. Our soft-speaking
president (Mary McDonnell) resorts to dictatorial measures to quell dissent.
Military career man Apollo becomes the advocate for civil rights. Meanwhile, a
civil war is erupting among the Cylon race, the newly "revealed" Cylon sleepers
in the Galactica fleet face an identity crisis, and the final conflict seems
inevitable. This is still the best science fiction series on TV, a drama that
thrives in the atmosphere of moral ambiguity, spiritual mystery and survivalist
reality, which is only enhanced by the down-and-dirty production design. The
final run of episodes begins on the Sci-Fi channel in mid-January.
Ten
episodes plus the previously released "prequel" film "Battlestar Galactica:
Razor" on four discs in a box set of four thinpak cases. Every episode features
podcast commentary by producer Ronald D. Moore (originally made available via
the Internet), and a few episodes feature bonus commentaries from cast members,
as well as deleted scenes, video blogs (also originally available online),
featurettes on the characters and the music, and previews of the upcoming season
and the new series "Caprica."
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| Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season One |
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Showtime has found its niche in original programming: sex with
style and a little wit. And "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" captures that balance
with a lightness and slickness, if not quite ambition. Billie Piper, once the
Doctor's companion on "Doctor Who," is now a paid companion, a high-class London
escort who really enjoys her work. It's ostensibly based on a memoir by a
genuine professional escort, sort of a "Happy Hooker" for the 21st century, a
colorful distraction with a lot of sex, plenty of lingerie, a little flesh and a
few minor complications that pass for drama. Eight frothy, half-hour episodes on
two discs, plus the equally lightweight featurette "Billie Piper: Coming to
America."
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| The Tudors: The Complete Second Season |
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a robust, competitive, virile and young
Henry VIII, a hearty king with a lust for life and women, in Showtime's
chronicle of the infamous king and his dramatic reign. The second season charts
his disenchantment with Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer) and the shift of his
affections to Jane Seymour (Anita Briem). But while the sex is the lure (and it
is a lusty show), it is ultimately all about power and politics. This season
turns on Henry's war with the Catholic Church and the Pope (guest star Peter
O'Toole). Ten episodes on four discs in a box set of two thinpak cases, plus two
featurettes and bonus episodes of other Showtime original series.
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| Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part One |
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Doctors Sean McNamara and Christian Troy (Dylan Walsh and Julian
McMahon), Miami-based partners in plastic surgery, relocate to Los Angeles for
the fifth season of the overheated melodrama of elective surgery and fleeting
fame. The mix of austerely elegant style with tabloid twists and frank (and
frequent) sex makes the transition west, with more jealousy and sexual
misadventures, all sorts of inappropriate behavior, and a few psychos and
sociopaths tossed in for flavor. Fourteen episodes on five discs in a standard
case with hinged trays, plus a featurette, deleted scenes and the obligatory gag
reel. The "second part" of the season begins on FX on Jan. 6.
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| 10 Items or Less: The Complete First & Second Seasons |
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John Lehr channels Jason Bateman as an incompetent grocery store
manager with a barely functional staff in this original sitcom for TBS. He
created the show with director Nancy Hower and co-writer Robert Stark Hickey as
a partially scripted production with improvised dialogue. This is no "It's
Always Sunny in Philadelphia," but Lehr makes the part work, and the ensemble
really gets into a comedy groove at times. Thirteen episodes on two discs (yes,
those are very short seasons), plus two Internet viral videos and other
supplements, in a box set of thinpak cases.
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Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a
DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment, and a contributing writer to GreenCine.com,
Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other
publications. You can find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly self-promoting blog.
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Black KnightsHas pop culture paved the way for
Barack Obama to become our next president? | |
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