Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season (HBO, Blu-ray, DVD) – The first two seasons of HBO’s lavish series, faithfully and intelligently adapted from George R.R. Martin’s epic cycle of fantasy novels with a medieval flavor, broke company sales records, displacing True Blood as their top seller and showing the strength of TV on disc. (I know, I know, it’s not TV. It’s HBO.) Season three looks poised to continue the run, thanks to an increasingly complex storyline, dramatic shifts in direction, and a little social event called The Red Wedding. As any fan will tell you, the ninth episode of each ten episode season is the game-changer, the moment in the storyline where the most dramatic events upend all expectations. This season, it was The Red Wedding and it that became the most talked-about TV moment of 2013.
That’s one of the things that has earned this show a devoted fan base. Though it is technically a fantasy (this is a world where magic, dragons, and zombie armies exist), Game of Thrones plays like a medieval historical drama embroiled in a civil war with an increasing number of players staking their claim to the throne, complicated alliances, and betrayals galore. The story has sprawled all over the map by this season but at the center of it all is the war between the families Lannister (who hold throne with the increasingly tyrannical teenage King Joffrey) and Stark (once loyal allies to the Lannister clan), while the odyssey of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons through the barbarian lands presents a threat at least as serious as the creatures beyond The Wall.
It is lavishly produced—it has the canvas of a feature film, thanks to amazing locations and set and superb special effects—and features a fine cast of actors, but it is the compelling, densely woven story and the vivid, complicated characters and conflicts that keep viewers coming back to the series. It’s amazing how our sympathies shift as characters face new situations (like Jamie Lannister and his loyalty to Brienne, for instance). And because it’s exclusive to pay cable, there are those who just wait for the disc release to catch up, either in marathon viewings or carefully doled out to extend the experience.
Ten episodes on Blu-ray and DVD, with commentary on nine of the ten episodes (three of them with multiple tracks) by the producers, writers, directors, actors and other members of the team, interactive “In-Episode” guides for each episode, a picture-in-picture video commentary track for the episode “The Rains of Cashmere” (yes, the Red Wedding episode), plus featurettes, deleted scenes, and guides to the mythology, history, and tangled family tree of characters and clans of the show. The Blu-ray edition also includes bonus DVD and digital copies of every episode. The fourth season begins on HBO in April.
L.A. Law: Season 1 (Shout! Factory, DVD) – Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, the series that refreshed the TV legal drama as an ensemble show for the eighties debuted in 1986 just as Bochco’s signature TV series, Hill Street Blues, was winding down its final season.
Set in the successful law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, it stars Richard Dysart as Leland McKenzie, the firm’s paternal senior partner, and Alan Rachins as number two Douglas Brackman, Jr., who is more concerned with money than anything else (including civility), but Harry Hamlin is the show’s star player as young partner Michael Kuzak, the handsome young hotshot balancing career and conscience. He gets the spotlight cases in the series and brings in fresh blood in the first episode when he offers a position to Victor Sifuentes, a strong litigator and a streetwise guy played by Jimmy Smits in the role that made him a TV star. Susan Dey co-stars as an assistant DA romanced by Michael (she has a dramatic struggle with substance abuse after she’s shot while prosecuting a gang case), Corbin Bernsen, Jill Eikenberry, Michael Tucker, and Michele Greene fill out the associates, and Susan Ruttan is Bernsen’s long-suffering secretary and gal Friday. There’s plenty of courtroom theatrics and eccentric clients along the way—a signature of Bochco’s shows and of the show’s star writer and eventual executive producer David E. Kelley (who went on to create, among other shows, “Ally McBeal,” “The Practice,” and “Boston Legal”)—but this is series that relies on the characters and their stories to carry the show and this ensemble does just that.
The disc is mastered from the show’s master videotapes, which gives a soft image and blurry color compared to shows mastered from film prints, but that’s the case with some shows of this era. 22 episodes on six discs, with new interviews with series co-creator Steven Bochco and actors Corbin Bernsen, Jill Eikenberry, Jimmy Smits, Michael Tucker, Larry Drake, Harry Hamlin, and Susan Ruttan.
Legit: The Complete First Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD), a comedy starring Australian Jim Jefferies as an edgy stand-up comic living in Los Angeles, was originally made for the FX network, which has found a lot of success with sitcoms built around adult humor and bad behavior. It has since been moved to the new FXX channel. 13 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD, with commentary, deleted scenes, and other supplements.
Les Petits Meurtres D’Agatha Christie, Set 1 (Acorn, DVD) presents seven feature-length telefilms adapted from the works of Christie for French television, starring Antoine Duléry as Inspector Larosière and Samuel Labarthe as Commissaire Laurence. Denis Lavant guest stars in the debut episode, “Les meurtres ABC” (based on “The ABC Murders”). French with English subtitles.
Beware the Batman: Shadows of Gotham – Season One, Part One (Warner Archive, Blu-ray, DVD) reimagines the Batman universe for a new CGI animation incarnation that introduces all new characters and villains along with reworked versions of Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Produced for the Cartoon Network, the future of this show is in doubt and the 13 episodes on disc represent the sum total produced to date.
Also new and notable:
Nurse Jackie: Season Five (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD) introduces two new doctors to the staff (Betty Gilpin and Morris Chestnut) as Jackie’s (Edie Falco) divorce proceedings get underway as she struggles with sobriety. 10 episodes.
Also from the Cartoon Network is Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD), a show that combines the surrealism of the Adult Swim block with the innocence of childhood imagination (not to mention fantasy gaming) for adults and kids alike. 26 12-minute episodes.
From Britain comes Above Suspicion: Set 3 (Acorn, DVD), with Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds, and the 1982 TV adaptation of Under Capricorn (Acorn, DVD) with Lisa Harrow.
More releases:
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo: Season One (Discovery, DVD)
The Middle: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner, DVD)
Family Matters: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner, DVD)
The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Five (Universal, DVD)
Gentle Ben: Season Two (Paramount, DVD)
Pompeii: The Doomed City (A&E, DVD)
American Experience: 1964 (PBS, DVD)
American Experience: The Rise and Fall of Penn Station (PBS, DVD)
NOVA: At the Edge of Space (PBS, DVD)
Asteroid: Doomsday or Payday (PBS, DVD)
Nature: Meet the Coywolf (PBS, DVD)
Life’s Little Lessons (PBS, DVD)
Last Stand of the 300 and Other Famous Greek Battle (History, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD