Category Archives: TV DVD

August 22, 2007 · 10:54 am

TV on DVD: Dexter – The First Season

While it technically released yesterday, I figure that today is as good a day as any to suggest that any TV fan out there should get their hands on Showtime’s Dexter. The show’s first season debuted on DVD yesterday, at a fairly reasonable price for its 12 episodes, and the show’s second season premieres on September 30th.

The show’s first season, perhaps out of any series that aired last year, feels like a cohesive piece of storytelling. Based on Jeff Lindsay’s novel, the series take the characters and over-arching plot of that book and expands it into something I personally feel is far superior.

Amazon.com: Dexter – The First Season

It tells the story of Dexter Morgan, who according to press for the series is America’s most lovable serial killer. I think this is perhaps an oversimplification: if anything, I think that Dexter isn’t lovable at all. Michael C. Hall’s award-nominated performance is unsettling, as it gets under your skin. He isn’t someone you like, necessarily, but someone you’re rooting for even in his creepy, creepy way.

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Tagged as DVD, Showtime

June 21, 2007 · 7:29 pm

‘Heroes’ Season Two to End in April 2008, ‘Origins’ to follow

Well, it’s official: the assumption was made back at the May upfronts when Heroes: Origins was announced is in fact true, and the six-episode anthology/fan call in show will be airing following an early Season Finale for the series, according to Ain’t it Cool News via a Heroes press conference Thursday morning.

What is surprising about this announcement is that the series will not be, in the process, trying to schedule its episodes in continuous blocks. Kring has apparently confirmed that there will be multiple hiatuses within the season, just none as long as the one this year. I think that while this might seem good on the surface, it means that people will still never know when Heroes is in reruns or not in reruns, and I think this creates a lot of confusion. It’s the same type of scheduling that brutalized Lost in its 2nd season, and I think that Heroes might well suffer the same fate as non-Comic Book fans start to bleed away from the series.

Regardless, the series will be concluding in April before Origins hits the airwaves. Kring also confirmed that 12+ episodes on the Heroes DVDs will have commentary tracks, which is good news for those fans not quite on the HD bandwagon. They also CONTINUED to parade out actors and make sure we know that this doesn’t mean they’re alive next season. We get it: you’re going to ignore all logical conventions of storytelling and just decide to let whoever you think is cool live. I’ve resolved myself to it, and am moving on.

Heroes hits DVD shelves in August, and the 2nd season will likely begin in September or October.

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Filed under Heroes, NBC, Television, TV DVD

June 1, 2007 · 2:48 pm

Why the ‘Lost’ Season Three DVD Isn’t Coming until December

This week, ABC Studios is announcing their official release dates for their upcoming season DVD sets. Of these shows, the most anticipated is the Season Three release for ‘Lost’. And yet, it is also the one that would be most difficult to schedule.

On one hand, the series’ third season was its least watched by a wide margin, and yet ended so strongly that it is creating a lot of buzz with people who gave up on it midway through the season. As a result, there are likely a large number of people who want to catch up, and will want DVDs with which to do so.

On the other hand, Season 4 of the series is not premiering until February. In order to best make use of the marketing tools used when launching a DVD series, they are always designed to also advertise the pending return of the show. Launch the DVD set too early, and you lose that opportunity.

In the end, Lost followed the lead of fellow Spring drama 24 by deciding on a mid-december release date (December 11th, 2007) for the Season Three DVD. This puts them in the heart of the Christmas shopping season, and creates some momentum that the network can take advantage of over the following two months before the 4th season begins.

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Filed under ABC, Lost, Television, TV DVD

Tagged as DVD

May 29, 2007 · 5:11 pm

TV DVD in the High-Definition Era: ‘Heroes’ Release Raises Questions

This past week, Heroes was announced to be coming to DVD later this year (August 28th, to be exact); it was one of the first series announcements, however, to also have word of its day and date HD-DVD release. That’s right: Heroes fans can enjoy their hit show in High-Definition when it releases in August. Over the next week, Disney will be announcing its own Hi-Def Announcements (On the Blu-Ray platform, likely), so shows like Lost or Grey’s Anatomy could also be getting this treatment. However, there’s a few things I think we need to consider.

TVShowsonDVD.com (An awesome site for news on TV shows making their way onto DVD) has written a story where they discuss this issue, and in it they’re talking about what effect this will have on the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. This is all well and good, and I think it’s an important part of that puzzle…but what does it do for us as fans who might wish to buy season sets of our favourite shows? Will it fundamentally change the content on normal DVD releases?