This Week in DVD

I believe this is one of the most intriguing DVD release weeks in quite some time. Will this post live up to the occasion? Well...

It's Garry Shandling's Show The Complete Series: This is great, great news for Shandling fans, although it's not exactly a great, great price. The show holds up well, although many of its postmodern elements aren't as fresh now as they were back in the eighties. My thanks to Shout Factory for doing this show up right and including extras, but until I have the coin to afford this package, I may have to stick with my "alternative" set.

Vega$ Season 1 Part 1: The $plit $eason $cam a$ide, not to mention the fact that I have dim memories of this show and would probably think it kind of stupid if it were around today...part of me thinks it's just cool that Vega$ is coming to DVD. Maybe I'm just excited to finally see what all the Bart Braverman fuss is about.

Best of the Smothers Brothers Season 2: Season 3 arrived last year, so I guess we'll have to wait till 2011 for the really good stuff in "Best of the Smothers Brothers Season 0."

Darn Good Westerns Volume 2: I guess "Darn Good Historical Costume Dramas" just wouldn't seem right, but I'd be tempted to buy it for the name alone.

Plastic Man Complete Collection: I own and enjoy a lot of Plastic Man comics, but I can't say I'm often tempted to break open the old giant clamshell case and pop in the VHS tape I have of these cartoons. Still, I might be tempted to give these a look-see. Unlike Vega$, I DID watch this show as a kid.

William Castle Collection: Sony delivers a big ol' batch of the producer's best-known flicks, just in time for Halloween. The guy did more than thrillers, to be sure, but hearing the name of the man that brought us "The Tingler" doesn't exactly conjure visions of Labor Day.

Wrong Turn 3: I remember enjoying the original "Wrong Turn" because it seemed a simple, unpretentious (if derivative) B-movie. I don't know what's going on here, but squeezing a third one of these out seems neither simple nor unpretentious.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: On Wednesday, my DVD player rejected a movie. Then my car stereo wouldn't play a CD. Dear Lord, are the machines now after ME?

Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection: Wow, there are all kinds of goodies in this box set--everything from cartoons to Karloff. I wouldn't be surprised if Sherlock the squirrel from "The Magic Garden" made an appearance.

WWE: Batista: I Walk Alone: I don't want to engage in any gossipmongering or anything, but...I suspect this guy just might be on the juice.

Peanuts 1970s Collection Volume 1: Finally we reach the time when the Peanuts gang quickly succumbed to the ravages of social strife, economic downturn, foreign war, and the general malaise that festered in their psyches during the late sixties.