Check out the week's new releases in our latest installment of... TV on DVD!
Show: “Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season” (HBO)
Format: DVD
What is it? When this sitcom first started, the idea of a “bromance” was such an alien concept that there wasn’t even a name for it. Nowadays, two guys can’t say hello without someone declaring it a “bromance.” Which bodes well for this still funny show, in which a struggling pretty boy actor reaps the spoils of celebrity, as does his hanger-on pals. Well, for the most part. They still haven’t figured out how to make Johnny Drama a likeable guy, his scenes are still so cringe-inducing that some people fast forward past them. Or maybe that’s just me. Still, on this show, it’s still “bros before woes.”
Number of discs/episodes: 3 discs/12 episodes
Extras: Commentaries on three episodes; “The Celebrity Factory.”
Price: $39.98
Buy, borrow or ignore: Borrow.
Show: “Eastbound & Down” (HBO)
Format: DVD
What is it? The best sitcoms are usually the ones that are just slightly off, just slightly too weird for the mainstream, but hilarious to those who don’t mind a little smarts with their satire. But some sitcoms are so off that even normal comedy fans get divided over whether the show is magic or a misfire. Such is the fate of “Eastbound & Down,” in which Danny McBride plays a white trash professional ballplayer who isn’t sent down to the minors, he’s sent home to work as a gym teacher. Which, in lesser hands, could’ve been a rehash of the unfunny “Coach,” but with McBride and his “Foot Fist Way” co-writers Jody Hill and Ben Best also scripting this, “Eastbound” falls closer to such similarly divisive sitcoms as “Arrested Development.”
Number of discs/episodes: 2 discs/6 episodes
Extras: Commentaries; “Making ‘Eastbound & Down’” featurette; deleted scenes; bloopers; “Kenny Powers: Greatest Hits,” car commercials.
Price: $29.98
Buy, borrow or ignore: Borrow.
Show: “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose: The Complete First Season” (Shout! Factory)
Format: DVD
What is it? When this show first aired, it was (rather fairly) compared to the movie “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” because its titular hero was a high school kid who had the whole world wrapped around his little finger. The irony being that, when this show started, there was also a “Ferris Bueller” TV show, it just wasn’t nearly as good as “Parker,” in large part because it didn’t have the fun spirit of the “Ferris” movie. Which “Parker” did, in spades. Of course, it might’ve helped that none of the “Ferris” movie people starred in the “Ferris” show, and were otherwise forgettable (save for a young Jennifer Aniston), while the cast of “Parker” included Abraham Benrubi (“ER”), Melanie Chartoff (“Fridays”) and Timothy Stack (“MY Name Is Earl”).
Number of discs/episodes: 4 discs/26 episodes
Extras: Commentaries; “A Look Back at ‘Parker Lewis Can’t Lose’” featurette.
Price: $14.98
Buy, borrow or ignore: Borrow.
Other TV DVDs out this week:
“Eureka: Season 3.0” (Universal)
“History Channel: Monster Quest: Season 3, Set 1” (A&E)
“History Channel: Nostradamus: 2012” (A&E)
“History Channel: Extreme Trains: The Complete Season One” (A&E)
“Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season Two” (Lionsgate)
“Stargate Atlantis: Season 5” (MGM)
(Actual releases may differ; Metromix is not responsible for injury, loss of life, or wasted time if you go to the store to buy one of them and the clerk says, “Uh, no, that’s not coming out until next week.”)
