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DVD GALACTICA $17.99!! TARA!! GLEE!! MAD MEN!! IRON MAN!! SHANDLING’S!! TENSPEED!! HercVault!!

Published at:  Jan 04, 2010 9:28:53 AM CST

SPOILER ALERT !!

Some “Battlestar Galactica” DVD sets, $42.99 last month and $28.99 last week, are for the moment $17.99 each!!





I am – Hercules!!



A sitcom about a married artist and mother who decides to stop taking the medication that inhibits her multiple-personality disorder, Showtime’s “The United States of Tara” is the first project from screenwriter Diablo Cody since she won the best original screenplay Oscar for “Juno.”

It stars Toni Collette (“The Sixth Sense,” “Little Miss Sunshine”), John Corbett (“Northern Exposure,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), Rosemary DeWitt (“Mad Men,” “Rachel Getting Married”), Brie Larson (“13 Going On 30”), Kier Gilchrist (“The Winner”), Nate Corddray (“The Daily Show,” “Studio 60”) and Patton Oswalt (“The King of Queens,” “Ratatouille”).

We meet three of Tara’s alternate personalities during the first four episodes:

1) “Buck,” rowdy male redneck;
2) “T,” rowdy, sex-crazed teen; and
3) “Alice,” repressed retro homemaker.

The personalities come out in reaction to specific kinds of stresses. Are there more inside Tara? The later first-season episodes answer that question definitively.

To anticipate the question, Tara has stopped taking her meds because, among other things, they inhibit her sex drive.

While the alternative personalities can be a little too broadly drawn and two-dimensional for my taste, there’s a lot to love here, especially among the supporting cast. Larson is cheerable as the teen daughter determined to press prim Alice’s buttons, and I found myself marveling at Corddry as the worldly twentysomething restaurant manager apparently trying to work his way stealthfully into that teen daughter’s pants.

I’m grateful Cody has been afforded 12 half-hours of uncensored Showtime canvas to play with. The series’ unusually observant and casually subversive nature is beguiling. In one running subplot, Tara’s presumably homosexual son helps out with the local church’s tolerance-challenged Halloween haunted house – an enterprise he clearly disdains – in an effort to court the handsome preacher’s son.


USA Today says of “United States of Tara”:

… Collette's performance is, in its own way, a tiny masterpiece. The show is fun as is, but rise to Collette's level, and it could be great. …


The New York Times says:

… Unfortunately for Ms. Collette, the roles of Tara’s children are so deftly written and skillfully played that they undermine her own star turn — Tara has four personalities and is one-dimensional in all of them. Her alters are caricatures, and while grotesque exaggeration may all too often be the case in real life, a drama requires more subtlety. … has a big premise and some wonderful small touches, but strangely, Tara is the least of them.


The Los Angeles Times says:

… while it's generally entertaining, there are times when it seems too obviously invented. … Collette, and the show, is always most interesting when she's just Tara. That is, the person with layers.


The Chicago Tribune says:

… There's a shift in the show's fourth episode; the dialogue is toned down and the characters start to come alive a bit. Cody and Collette, when harnessing their unique and undeniable talents in the direction of spiky, complicated truths, are a compelling combination. If the show keeps heading in the right direction, getting to know the many faces of Tara could be an interesting ride.


The Washington Post says:

… funny, poignant, crazy and sane … Whatever it is, it's fascinating, the television equivalent of the book you can't put down and maybe the jigsaw puzzle you never quite complete. But you keep trying. … Even the continuing characters that don't pop out of Tara are fresh and inventively drawn -- Tara's rueful and patient husband Max, played by easygoing John Corbett; her adolescent daughter Kate (Brie Larson), who struggles with all her might to understand and persevere; and her neo-nerdy teenage son, who has risen to the challenge with endearing maturity. …



The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… brims with great acting, humor and a disarming amount of tenderness. It's one of those series with overabundant potential and early hints of provocative brilliance, but it may take a while to truly arrive. … This is a series that's tackling a difficult subject with humor and warmth, but also from a fresher angle. Who knows, ultimately, how successful the series will be after the 12-episode season, but for fans of quality television, the reward is always in the trying.


The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… succeeds through humor, vivid characters and a stunning performance by Collette … features less self-consciously hip dialogue than "Juno," but it is still a Cody-esque repository of obscure references, including the '80s sitcom "Small Wonder" and this dialogue from Kate: "Sometimes I feel like I'm living in some kind of Lifetime lady tampon movie." …


The Boston Globe says:

… I'm on board with "Tara," but so far mostly for the supporting characters, whose number expands in the coming weeks to include a self-empowered "Vita-self" saleswoman who is overly curious about Tara's disorder. …


The Hollywood Reporter says:

… breaks new ground when it comes to warped dramatic family comedy … Blessed with dazzling acting and the dynamic pen of creator-exec producer Diablo Cody (Oscar winner for "Juno," no one-trick pony) …


Variety says:

… Although it flirts with the preciousness that proved an irritant in the Cody-scripted "Juno," there's an innate sweetness at the show's core that essentially says people become inured to all manner of strangeness in the context of family -- even a woman with four disparate personalities. … whatever the show's modest shortcomings, this is unabashedly a vehicle for a star who brings meaning to the notion of having personality aplenty -- and then some.


EXTRAS INCLUDE:

* Audio commentary on episode eight, “Abundance,” with Diablo Cody and episode writer Jill Soloway. (Recorded the morning after Collette won her Emmy for the series.) Learn that there will be “less costumes” for Tara (Alice’s red lipstick being one of elements eliminated) in season two. Learn that the Barnaby’s seafood restaurant that Nate Cordry’s character managed was actually a redressed barbeque restaurant in the San Fernando Valley. Learn that in season two Tara’s house will be more brightly lit. Learn that Soloway and her friends years ago ordered a “Hell House” kit from an evangelist and used it to create a Hell House in Hollywood. (Soloway’s story about her Hell House, which involves a visit from Hell House’s evangelist/creator and a trip to Colorado, is a must-hear.) Learn Brie Larson’s character started out as “kind of an idiot” but the character was smartened up to better utilize the actress’s gifts. Learn the red embroidery on the gay kid’s sweater was put there for a very specific reason that likely went over 100% of the Showtime audience’s heads. Learn that the chickens on Alice’s dress are a clue to what’s coming in season two. Learn the guy who plays Jesus in the Hell House is a street magician.

* “Sitting Down With Diablo Cody” (2:37) At least some of this already ran on Showtime. Learn that Cody devoured poetry in college and tried to get into porn at some point. Learn that despite her background in the secretarial field she types with two fingers and she’s been told she overuses the words “modicum” and catharsis.”

* “Tara’s Alters” (1:16) Cody and the cast talk about T (1:16), Buck (2:01), Alice (2:06) and Gimme (1:36). Learn that Buck is Cody’s favorite alter and that Cody wants John Corbett to write an episode.

* “The Tudors” third-season premiere episode.

* The box says the second disc allows you to access, among other things, podcast interviews with Toni Collette, John Corbett, Rosemary DeWitt and Brie Larson on your personal computer.


Glee Vol. 1 contains all the hit series’ 13 2009 episodes. (The series returns to close out its first season on Fox starting April 13.)

My take on the “Glee” pilot, which aired in May:

A cliché-riddled if mostly watchable hourlong dramedy pilot from writer-producer Ryan Murphy (creator of “Popular” and “Nip/Tuck”), “Glee” follows what happens after a heterosexual Spanish teacher takes over a high school glee club from a recently fired homosexual pedophile. Under the new guy the club only attracts misfits and losers, so it’s sort of like “Revenge of the Nerds” meets “High School Musical,” except not as funny as “Revenge of the Nerds.” There’s also a Tracy Flick type who will remind many of Alexander Payne’s Reese Witherspoon vehicle “Election,” which is funnier than “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Glee” combined.

"Glee's" comedy is cartoonish and most of the characters are alarmingly broad caricatures. “You think this is hard? Try being waterboarded, that’s hard,” relates the cheerleading coach played by the ubiquitous Jane Lynch. It was the first of the many jokes at which I did not laugh. Assuming it was intended as a joke. (Not that I have anything against waterboarding jokes, mind you; I’m sure I’ve heard lots of good ones on Letterman, Conan, Kimmel and Stewart over the years.) Another gag goes something like this:

TEACHER: I want to take over the glee club.
PRINCIPAL: You want to captain the Titanic too?

John Hughes, Judd Apatow, Diablo Cody it’s not.

The main thing the “Glee” pilot has going for it are a handful of expertly-staged song-and-dance sequences utilizing, among other popular tunes, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.” (The version of “Rehab” may sound a little muzak-y to those familiar with Winehouse’s recording, but that may be the point.)

“Glee” could certainly find an audience with some fraction of the colossal “American Idol” and “High School Musical” demos, but I’m not sure I’m likely to enjoy more than two hours of this sort of thing.

The critics on the pilot:

USA Today says:

… Promise abounds here, but to fulfill it, Murphy needs to correct the abrupt tonal shifts and rein in his Nip/Tuck tendency to go too far. …


The New York Times says:

… blissfully unoriginal in a witty, imaginative way. …


The Chicago Tribune says:

… gets by on attitude -- and stirring music -- in Tuesday's tryout, but the attitude could get old fast if that's all there really is.


The Los Angeles Times says:

… the first show in a long time that's just plain full-throttle, no guilty-pleasure-rationalizations-necessary fun. …


The Newark Star Ledger says:

… it would help, I think, if this audition for "Glee" weren't so sweaty and desperate to impress. Maybe there's a good show here, but the opener is trying way too hard just to make an impression. Then again, that's generally the MO of "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy. With both "Nip/Tuck" and his short-lived high school soap/parody "Popular," Murphy's first -- and often only -- goal has been to get your attention by any means necessary. If there happens to be actual characterization and themes mixed in with the "wowza" moments, that's swell, but they also can seem like accidents.…


The Washington Post says:

… ambitious and ebullient. … whatever the drawbacks and quixotic quirks, there's plenty of time to de-botch the show between now and the fall. … Dramatic tension isn't exactly plentiful, but pleasingly staged songs and a general aura of retro ingenuousness come through, and seem awfully if fitfully refreshing, especially compared with all the gloomy police and doctor procedurals that dominate prime time. …


The Boston Herald says:

… rather than sympathize with its misfits, “Glee” takes joy in mocking them. With the exception of high school jock Finn (Cory Montieth), blackmailed into the chorus, the other members are stereotypes or freaks, unlikable all. There’s the nelly kid, the boy in the wheelchair, the Asian girl who stutters and the sassy, overweight black girl who thinks she’s the next Beyonce. The way they are depicted, viewers will sympathize with the haters more than the kids, and that’s a problem for a show following a group of underdogs as they battle their way up the school caste system. … The musical numbers are energetic and feature some fun choreography. Some of the cast seem to have genuine talent. “Glee” already has the spirit and the sound. In the fall, when “Glee” returns, we need to see some heart.


The Boston Globe says:

… if you're a fan of "Fame," "Hairspray," or "High School Musical," this scripted dramatic take on glee club is totally for you. …


The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… deftly combines this country's fascination with amateur singers and dancers ("Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars" are ratings powerhouses) with dead-on satire and an uplifting sweetness. You could call "Glee" something of a miracle for being able to manage the near impossible in balancing these strange tonal shifts. You can also call it the front-runner for next season's best fall show. …


The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… Without the song-and-dance production numbers, this Fox pilot would be just another high school-set comedy-drama, albeit one with a tonal mish-mash that careens from dark humor to earnest drama. Take away the music and "Glee" isn't awful but it is ordinary. Thankfully, Tuesday's pilot episode bursts at the seams with musical performances …


Time Magazine says:

… a delight but a risk: a devilish, exuberant comedy that manages to capture and subvert the Idol aesthetic at the same time. …


Entertainment Weekly says:

… so good — so funny, so bulging with vibrant characters — that it blasts past any defenses you might put up against it. …


The Hollywood Reporter says:

… smart, fun and completely winning …


Variety says:

… ungainly at times with its drama but soars gracefully when it bursts into song. The dramatic tone is uneven, but the show gets by on talent and energy …



“Tenspeed and Brown Shoe” doesn’t arrive till May 6, but I’m excited to see it just joined the release calendar. “Rockford Files” creator Stephen Cannell in 1980 had an idea about an accountant thrust into the role of private eye via a quirk of fate (a concept recently revisited by Conan O’Brien’s even shorter-lived “Andy Barker, PI”). Cannell, whose last episode of “Rockford” aired 17 days before the first episode of “Tenspeed,” personally scripted or co-scripted nine of “Tenspeed’s” 14 hours.

Jeff Goldblum, then best known as the Bay Area mud-bath owner in the 1978 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” was cast as henpecked accountant Lionel Whitney. Producers cast Ben Vereen, Chicken George in 1977’s “Roots,” as con-man attorney E.L. “Tenspeed” Turner, who partners with Whitney in his new detective agency.

Not only is the entire series finally becoming available, it’s only $10.99.



Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry




$18.99!!



$14.99!!



$14.99!!


$14.99!!


$13.99!!


With Christmas behind us, some season sets remain cheap:


$12.49 Mr. Show
$13.99 Harvey Birdman
$13.99 Studio 60
$14.49 Saved By The Bell
$14.99 CSI Miami
$14.99 Curb Your Enthusiasm
$14.99 How I Met Your Mother
$14.99 The King of Queens
$14.99 Married With Children
$14.99 Masters of Science Fiction
$14.99 Stargate SG-1
$14.99 That ‘70s Show

$15.99 The Closer
$15.99 The Dead Zone
$15.99 Head Case
$16.49 Boomtown
$16.49 Frisky Dingo
$16.49 Sealab 2021
$16.99 The Tudors
$16.49 Wildfire
$17.49 The Dresden Files
$17.49 Will & Grace
$17.99 Friday Night Lights
$17.49 The OC
$17.99 Battlestar Galactica
$17.99 Friends
$17.99 Heroes
$18.49 Dexter
$18.49 Gilmore Girls
$18.49 Gossip Girl
$18.49 Smallville
$18.49 Two and a Half Men
$18.99 Supernatural
$18.99 24
$18.99 The West Wing
$19.49 It’s Always Sunny
$19.99 Bones
$19.99 The Corner
$19.99 John From Cincinnati
$19.99 Tell Me You Love Me

$20.99 House
$20.99 K Street
$20.99 The Unit
$22.49 The Office
$22.99 Burn Notice
$22.99 Rescue Me
$23.99 True Blood





“Venture Bros.” season sets, $26.49 two weeks ago week, are for the moment $13.99 each!!


“Saturday Night Live” season sets, $42.49 last month and $25.99 last week, are for the moment $22.99 each!!


Eleven months ago an extra-packed season of “Seinfeld” sold for $38.99. Last month it sold for $27.99. Perhaps to commemorate the reunion on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” all seasons of “Seinfeld” are momentarily $14.99 each!!


Last month the first season of “The Larry Sanders Show,” one of the two funniest live-action sitcoms ever forged, was $25.49. It’s momentarily at its lowest price ever: $16.99!!







TV-on-Disc Calendar




Last Week
Doug: Best of 4.x
Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Darkside
Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Darkside (Blu-ray)
Family Guy Star Wars Parody Two-Pack
Kyle XY 3.x
The Secret Life of An American Teenage 3.x
Taxi 5.x
Taxi: The Complete Series



This Week


Glee Vol. 1


Time Warp 2.x


United States of Tara 1.x


Whale Wars 2.x



Next Week


Battlestar Galactica 1.x (Blu-ray)
Big Love 3.x
Brava Italia
Burn Notice 1.x/2.x
Chuck 2.x
Chuck 2.x (Blu-ray)
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
Doctor Who: Twin Dilemma
Iron Man: Armored Adventures Vol. 2
Kendra 1.x
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures - The Complete Series
The Philanthropist: The Complete Series
Super Friends 1.x Vol. 1



January 12
Becker 3.x
Becker: 3-Season Pack
Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers
Detonators
ER 12.x
Fame 2.x
House of Payne Vol. 5
Jon & Kate Plus Eight 5.x
Make It Or Break It: Vol. 1
The New Adventures of Black Beauty 1.x
Robin Hood 3.x
Route 66 3.x


The Simpsons 20.x


The Simpsons 20.x (Blu-ray)
6Teen: Stupid over Cupid
10 Things I Hate About You Vol. 1
Top Gear 11.x
Top Gear 12.x
Transformers 2.x Vol. 2
The Whitest Kids You Know 2.x



January 19
Dallas 12.x


Damages 2.x
Defying Gravity: The Complete Series
Durham County 1.x
Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series
The Game 2.x
Girlfriends 8.x
Girlfriends: The Complete Series
Hunter 1.x
Jonathan Creek 4.x
Law & Order 7.x
The New Detectives: Criminal Tracking
The New Detectives: Science of Death
New Tricks 2.x
Pawn Stars 1.x
Renegade 1.x
Return to Cranford
Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics Vol. 1
thirtysomething 2.x
21 Jump Street 1.x
Waking The Dead 4.x
Weeds 5.x
Weeds 5.x (Blu-ray)



January 26
Bonekickers: The Complete Series
Bridget's Sexiest Beaches
Callan Vol. 2
Dirty Jobs Vol. 5
Kong: Return To The Jungle (Blu-ray)
MI-5 Vol. 7
Parker Lewis Can't Lose 2.x
Pie In The Sky 2.x
The Real Ghostbusters Vol. 2
The Red Green Show 1991-93
Southland 1.x
SpongeBob SquarePants: Viking Size Adventures
Touched By An Angel: Love/Faith
The Universe 4.x
The Waltons: Movie Collection
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