This is another drab week. Things will pick up in the last week of the month, and then keep going with something interesting every week between then and Christmas.
First, the DVD releases:
- Angelic Layer: Complete Collection
- Brand Upon The Brain!: Criterion Collection
- Caroline in the City – The First Season
- Dave’s World – The First Season
- DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures: These were backups stories involving various heroes that played as a part of another cartoon.
- The Detonator: with Digital Copy
- DNAngels, Vol. 2: Complete Collection
- Eon Kid: Season One, Volume One
- The Fan: with Digital Copy
- Half Past Dead: with Digital Copy
- Kenny vs. Spenny: Volume One – Uncensored
- Larisa Shepitko: Eclipse Series 11: Released through Criterion. Includes “Wings” and “The Ascent.”
- The Legend of the Shadowless Sword: with Digital Copy
- The Love Boat: Season One, Vol. 2
- Maximum Risk: with Digital Copy
- Mulan / Mulan II
- Naruto Uncut Box Set 9
- Naruto Uncut Box Set, Volume 9 (Special Edition)
- Prison Break – Season 3
- Sasami – Magical Girls Club: Season One
- School Rumble: Season One Box Set
- The Secret: This is the David Duchovny movie, not the self improvement video.
- Smart People
- Sniper: with Digital Copy
- South Park: The Complete Eleventh Season
- That Girl Season 4
- Tru Calling: The Complete Series
- Watching the Detectives
- The Wire: The Complete Fifth Season
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- 7 Seconds
- The Doors
- Half Past Dead
- Kiss Of The Spider Woman (Collector’s Edition)
- Maximum Risk
- Prison Break – Season Three
- Smart People
- Supernova
- XXX: State of the Union
Finally, the pick of the week. It’s a pretty lackluster week. I enjoyed “Dave’s World” in its original run, but given the option between buying the DVDs and spending the same on the Dave Barry books it was based on, I’ll go with the books. My advice is to wait a week or two for some much more interesting releases, like the second season of Heroes.
Heroes Season 2
I heard that the second season wasn’t nearly as good as the first. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
____________________
Check out Chad’s News
Re: Heroes Season 2
The first was better, primarily because of the writers strike. The second season got off to a strong start, but they made a conscious decision to wrap things up in a single episode should the strike hit, rather than try to pick up the pieces and finish the full story later on. The final episode of the season ended up feeling very, very rushed.
Re: Heroes Season 2
I finally started watching Heroes on DVD (just watched the first episode yesterday and enjoyed it). Has there been a Season 3 yet? (I’ve lost track, sorry.) And does anybody know if they have a long-term plan? I mean, I’m sure they have some idea where they’re going, but does the series have a well-defined beginning, middle, and end, plotted over X number of seasons? Or are they just seeing how long they can keep it going for?
I ask because it doesn’t feel like an "episodic" series, and the things I’ve heard about it confirm this. It feels like the whole show is about the underlying story. This is distinct from a show where each episode is self-contained, but there’s some underlying motion to the series and the characters grow and change. Know what I mean? And few things in TV frustrate me more than an arc-focused series without a long-term schedule.
(That fear is what’s kept me away from Lost, actually. Maybe I’ll watch it once the whole series is finished and I know that it ends.)
Re: Heroes Season 2
They definitely have season-by-season plans, but I don’t know if they’re sure how many seasons there will be. So far, there have only been two seasons, both of which have ended with a preview for next season. As for Lost, the creators had the same frustration, so they negotiated with the network early in the production of season three to make sure they knew the exact number of seasons (five) and episodes, so the season due to start this year will be the last one.