Little House on the Prairie - Season 3, Disc 1

Little House on the Prairie - Season 3, Disc 1 (1976) starring Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Alison Arngrim. Little House on the Prairie is comfort food for the mind and heart, and this disc from Season 3 doesn't fail. There are four episodes on the disc, a total of about 176 minutes, or nearly three hours of schmaltz. Two of the episodes involve Laura Ingalls' (Gilbert) sister Mary (Anderson), and two involve a feud between Laura and Nellie Oleson (Arngrim) over a horse. If you've ever seen an episode of Little House, you pretty much know what to expect. Good and right win in the end, and all is right with the world. (English subtitles are not supplied, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: A  

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars (2004 TV series) starring Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni. Veronica Mars (Bell) is a spunky teen-ager who is learning how to be a private eye from her father (Colantoni), the disgraced former sheriff of the fictional town of Neptune, Calif. Her father's disgrace has fallen on Veronica, costing her her social standing at Neptune High School, where she was once part of the "in" crowd. Now Veronica hovers about the fringes of the school's social stratus, doing her own thing, investigating crimes and just trying to get by. The show has lately been in the news, as Veronica Mars the movie is going to be made thanks to a Kickstarter campaign on the Internet. Many of the original stars from the TV series will appear, although they'll all be ten years older now. It's something to look forward to. (The DVD provides English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Season 2, Disc 1. Tom and Dickie Smothers perform in several episodes of their groundbreaking, heavily censored, short-lived late '60s TV show. It ran on CBS, and I remember it being really funny at the time. Today, it has lost a lot of its edge, but you can get a feeling for what things were like in 1967-69, when the show was on the air. My main objection to this DVD is that it has no subtitles for the hearing-impaired, and no closed captions. For that I should give it an F, but I just can't do that to the Smothers Brothers. Grade: B+

The Larry Sanders Show

The Larry Sanders Show (1992) starring Garry Shandling, Rip Torn, Jeffrey Tambor. Four episodes from the first season of "The Larry Sanders Show" are featured on this disc. The show stars Shandling as Larry Sanders, star of a fictional late-night talk show. The guest stars are too many to mention, but suffice it to say that many of them are hilarious making fun of themselves -- and of showbiz. "The Larry Sanders Show" first aired on HBO from '92-'98, so the actors are free to use language that could not be heard on a network show. "TLSS" is a classic in a genre all its own. The DVD features subtitles in English, as well as closed captions. Grade: A

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks (1990) starring Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Sheryl Lee. Directed by David Lynch. MacLachlan stars as FBI agent Dale Cooper, and Ontkean plays Sheriff Harry S. Truman as the series opens with the discovery of the body of local homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Lee). If you were of an age in 1990, you'll remember the "Who killed Laura Palmer?" rage that briefly swept the nation. This, the pilot episode, is a reminder of the great potential the series had -- a potential that was eventually wasted after Lynch abandoned the project and others tried to carry it to completion. The disc features good subtitles, as well as closed captions. Grade: A

Scrubs (DVD)

Scrubs (2003), Season 3, Disc 3. Starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley. Maybe it's not to everyone's taste, but this TV show makes me feel good every time I watch it. Each character on this series is quirky and funny in his or her own special way, and they all add up to a great ensemble. The show suffers a little bit from the stunt casting of this third season (Tara Reid, Michael J. Fox, Richard Kind), but it still manages to hold mostly true to its core of humor combined with serious insights about medical care. Grade: A

My So-Called Life (DVD)

My So-Called Life (1994) starring Claire Danes, Jared Leto. This old TV series is about a junior in high school (Danes) and her teenage angst and lust. Unfortunately, this disc lacks the all-important feature of subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Grade: F

Arrested Development (DVD)

Arrested Development, Season 1, Disc 1 (2003) starring Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Portia di Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, Michael Cera. The dysfunctional Bluth family suffer a setback when the patriarch of the clan (Tambor) is arrested for defrauding investors. Michael, the oldest son (Bateman), takes over and tries to keep the family together, but this assortment of loonies makes that effort an uphill task. There are many funny bits on this disc, some of them laugh-out-loud funny, but it doesn't quite live up to the critical raves. Grade: B+

Scrubs (DVD)

Scrubs, The Complete First Season: Disc 1 (2001) starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn. This half-hour comedy about young doctors and hospital life starts with Day 1 of J.D. Dorian's (Braff) career as a medical practitioner. His friends include Turk (Faison) and Elliot Reid (Chalke). This show really started hitting its stride around Episode 4, with some laugh-out-loud fantasies from the mind of Dr. Dorian. It's one of the best comedies I've ever seen, although it never did terribly well in the Nielsen ratings. The subtitles on this DVD are excellent; they even include the lyrics to songs on the soundtrack. Grade: A

In Treatment (DVD)

In Treatment, Season 1, Disc 9 (2008) starring Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Melissa George. The season finale of the HBO series ties up all the stories rather neatly, as we expect TV shows to do. One patient leaves town, one couple in therapy decide to divorce, and Dr. Paul Weston (Byrne) decides he can't follow through on his love for a former patient. The disc is a little disappointing, as it offers up only three episodes, with a running time of less than 90 minutes, and seems rather slender compared with the content of previous discs. Extras: None. Grade: B+

In Treatment (DVD)

In Treatment, Season 1, Disc 8 (2008) starring Gabriel Byrne Dianne Wiest, Melissa George, Blair Underwood. This would have been Week 8 of the HBO series, and major changes are afoot. Alex (Underwood) has died in a training accident, and Dr. Weston (Byrne) is no longer seeing Laura (George) as a patient. Furthermore, Weston is having doubts about the efficacy of psychotherapy, as he reveals to his own therapist, Dr. Gina Toll (Wiest). And Dr. Toll reveals intimate details about her own life. For the series overall, Grade: A-