From Beneath You, It Devours- This Week in DVDs
Although most people think of DVDs in terms of movies, this week in This Week in DVDs we're primarily going to feature TV shows. And it's not necessarily because this week features only one noteworthy flick (Elf) but because we have a sneaking suspicion that maybe while the big Hollywood flicks make the money, it's the DVDs of TV shows that makes up the bread and butter. After all, there is something a little obsessive about owning DVDs and nothing says obsessive fans more than fans of TV shows. Have you ever been to any TV show chat-rooms? And no, not that we have, but we've heard. Seriously, nothing points out the value of DVDs more than the fact that you could just sit down anytime you want and spend all afternoon watching every single episode of The Andy Griffith Show's First Season (which, yes is being released this week) from start to finish. And other than your Star Wars or your Matrix or your Zoolander. Can you really say that of The Stepford Wives?
Anyways, first here are the only two movies of note-
Elf- Only one person could pull this movie about a human who becomes adopted by Santa and his elves off and that person is Will Ferrell. This movie manages to be all Christmas treacly without making you guilty about it, making it the best recent Christmas flick that doesn't involve alcoholic department store Santas who sodomize Lauren Graham. Comes with the usual bells and whistles- commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, and "elf karoake."
The Chronicles of Riddick- Ah, remember when Vin Diesel was supposed to be the next big action star? Whatever happened to that? This movie is also for anyone who ever wanted to see Vin Diesel star in a movie with Dame Judy Dench.
And now onto the TV shows….
Kids in the Hall Season 2 (1990-1991)- Because you can never go wrong with guys who talk funny and wear dresses.
Smallville: the Complete Season 3- We never actually watched Smallville as we thought it just another cut-rate Buffy rip-off. And frankly, it's hard to empathize with the angst of a hunky teenage boy with super-human strength who fights evil, as opposed to a totally hot blonde girl with super-human strength who fights evil. But we know people who do watch this show and we know that it used to be WB's It show before being replaced by One Tree Mountain and Bobby or whatever the hell show it is now.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Complete Season 7- Frankly we're a little ambivalent about recommending this season. While we love Buffy, this season is the season most Buffy fans try to pretend never happened, kind of like how Brady Bunch fans try to pretend episodes involving Cousin Oliver never happened. The season did start off rather well but went off track, seriously off-track, a third of the way in. Plot lines were dropped, the season's Big Bad turned out to be a dud, there was way too much Slayers-in-Training and not enough Scooby Gang, and what the hell was up with that lady with the sword? Did we even mention Kennedy? And don't even get us started on the whole "Joyce telling Dawn that Buffy won't choose her" thing. Still, Buffy-files will probably rush out to buy this in order to finish up their collection and maybe see if all the commentary tracks could explain the mess. The season does, however, feature two episodes that rank up there with the best Buffy episodes: "Selfless" (who can't love an episode that features fake Swedish dialogue, a musical number, scary-ass spiders, and a fight to the death between two main characters) and the awesomely creepy "Conversations With Dead People".
The Office Special- How much do we love The Office? We upgraded from basic cable to extended cable the moment we heard BBC America was going to run this episode. The last episode of the extremely short-lived British series shows catches up with David, Gareth, Tim, and Dawn three-years after the end of the mockumentaries' second series. In all honesty, we thought this episode was weakened by its breaking one of the cardinal rules of TV sitcoms- never take characters outside of their main setting. We also think that there's a fine line between the humiliation of the main character being fun and the humiliation of the main character being not-fun and this episode might have been a little too harsh on poor David Brent. But still, any Office is good enough for us- there were only twelve episodes of the series made after all. And watching Ricky Gervais play David Brent is like watching Diamond David Lee Roth helm 1984-era Van Halen. It's just sheer brilliance.