Television

Absolutely Fabulous is a British series that aired on the BBC starting in 1992. The show stars Jennifer Saunders as Edina, who is a fashion-world publicist whom with her best friend Patsy, played by Joanna Lumley, tries to re-live their younger days by consuming large amounts of alcohol and drugs. Gotta love those crazy Brits! This formula worked well enough for 4 seasons of the show, which are now available on DVD. Apparently Rosanne Barr tried to convince the networks in the US to make an American version but they...wouldn’t touch the idea due to the excessive drug and alcohol content.

Adding to the cast of characters is Edina’s daughter Saffron who is much opposed to her mother’s intoxicating lifestyle and Edina’s long lost gay son that we meet in “Absolutely fabulous in New York (one of the stories on this disc).” He has been hiding out from his family and is surprised when his mother finds him. What is surprising is that she doesn’t think he is gay enough. Wow. You don’t see this kind of stuff on NBC regularly. There is a special guest star appearance by Whoopi Goldberg as a gay relationship counselor.

Rik Mayall (Drop Dead Fred) and Adrian Edmondson are the stars in this British comedy about two obnoxious loaners at the bottom of the food chain. Follow along with Richie Richard and Eddie Hitler on their quest for love and money as they try out pheromones, dating services and visit the carnival. This DVD collection contains all three seasons of the show for a total of 18 episodes.

With seemingly every TV show coming out on DVD as of late you know it was only a matter of time before MTV jumped on the bandwagon. Cribs is one of their longest running series and this discs looks at the homes of 8 different rockers and one of their own VJ’s. Follow along as we venture in to the living quarters of Incubus, Tommy Lee, Rob Zombie, Fieldy (the bass player for Korn), Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker of Blink 182, Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) and MTV VJ Ian Robinson.

...

Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with your television set, but what were the network executives thinking? It’s hard to believe that a show as influential and as well known as The Outer Limits never made it to the end of its second season. The original Outer Limits was cancelled just 17 episodes into season 2. Like Star Trek after it, this short-lived show found its footing in later syndication and revival projects. It is fortunate indeed that today’s general rule of 100 episodes to qualify for syndication did not exist in the 1960’s. Now a complete series on DVD, this is an important release. Sci-Fi writer Harlen Ellison made his TV writing debut with two of the most famous Outer Limits episodes : “Soldier” and “Demon With A Glass Hand”. The writing was top notch even if the “monster of the week” was not.

Audio

Alias might well be the first TV series better on DVD than its original broadcast. I tried to get into this show when it began two years ago. Fans could have warned me that any attempt to join this series mid-season is a big mistake. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger and the plots are complicated enough that it can be hard to keep up with the intrusion of preemptions and repeats. These DVD's allow you to watch the show in a logical order without fear of missing an episode which could leave you completely lost. Jennifer Garner is a surprisingly strong lead. The supporting cast offers a proper mix of the spy clichés. I particularly enjoy the insecure light Q-like character. All the prerequisite spy stuff is here: exotic locations, groovy gadgets, chases and gunfights, and the sexy lead.

Synopsis