The Sherlock Holmes Collection
A&E

From the mid-’60s comes nearly forgotten (and shouldn’t be) BBC tales in the The Sherlock Holmes Collection. Peter Cushing (Hammer horror films, Star Wars) is Holmes and perhaps the best since Basil Rathbone in the 1930s and ‘40s, while Nigel Stock is Dr. Watson.  The five Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories here are “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “The Sign of the Four,” “The Blue Carbuncle,” “A Study in Scarlet,” and “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” plus “The Great Detective,” a  bonus documentary. Long out of circulation, A&E has brought back this fine version of the master sleuth, a welcome return, and perfectly timed with the new look Holmes feature film starring Robert Downey, Jr.  For a limited time, win a copy from Buzzine!

Lost
Complete Fifth Season
ABC Studios

The fifth season of Lost is one of time-travel, flashbacks, flash-forwards and more convoluted though fascinating plot mash-ups, as the rescued-in-Season-Four cast returns to the island of mystery, and more secrets of  the Dharma Initiative are revealed. Scheming continues and assassins lurk as time shifts on the island, even going back more than 30 years.  Bonus material includes deleted scenes, featurettes, a “lost” episode of Mysteries of the Universe, and commentary from writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. If you haven’t been following since the beginning, yeah, you’ll be lost though may still figure it all out, while devoted watchers will relish this latest season collection.

Taxi
Final Season
Paramount

In Taxi: The Final Season, things wrap up up – sort of – for the Sunshine Cab Company, including mean-spirited dispatcher Louie (Danny DeVito), cabbie Alex (Judd Hirsch), actor Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway), pug boxer Tony (Tony Danza), trippy, post-hippie Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd), immigrant Latka (Andy Kaufman) and the rest of the cast. Taxi never jumped the shark and remained sharp and funny until the end, playing off its so New Yawk setting while looking at individual lives and their big picture together.

Dexter
Complete Third Season
Showtime

Serial killer Dexter, who only takes out criminal scum, was rich with stories, sub-plots and more in its third season. Michael C. Hall rules as the title character, attempting to be domestic with girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz from Angel)) while his sister with a mouth Debra – a Miami police detective in the same department where Dexter is a blood splatter specialist in the crime lab – is nailed by Jennifer Carpenter. Taking on a more pivotal role is Jimmy Smits as District Attorney Miguel Prado, who has secrets quite possibly as tainted as Dexter’s. The rest of the cast, now fully developed, is top notch as well.

Fugitive
Season Three, Vol. 2
Paramount

On-the-run Dr. Richard Kimball, accused of murdering his wife, continues his quest for the real killer in Season Three, Volume Two of The Fugitive. Many aficionados have complained about swap-outs, in the past, of the original music for replacement soundtrack scoring, though that appears to be less of a case this time out. The episodes include “Not With a Whimper,” “Wife Killer,” “Stroke of Genius,” “Echo of a Nightmare,” “Running Scared,” and more.  This classic ‘60s series holds up more than 40 years on.

Perry Mason
Season 4,Vol. 2
Paramount

More from one TV’s most iconic defense attorneys ever; in fact, Perry Mason set the bar – yeah, pun intended – for all legal shows that would follow.  Season Four, Volume Two includes “The Case of the Fickle Fortune,” “The Case of the Wintry Wife,” “The Case of the Angry Dead Man,” “The Case of the Cowardly Lion,” “The Case of the Duplicate Daughter,” and “The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather.”  And then there’s that dagger-dramatic theme music.

Ice Road Truckers
Complete Season Three
A&E

Men with one of the most dangerous jobs in the world return in the third season of Ice Road Truckers. Set in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay some 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, these ice roads in the tundra serve to connect the North Slope oil fields to dry land, with less than three months for these truckers to deliver supplies over the ice road, traversing 400 mostly mountain miles of the ice-covered Dalton Highway.  Darn right it’s harrowing, and quite gripping.  Talk about reality show true drama – not set-ups on some dopey island or in a house.  This is the real thing to be sure. For a limited time, win a copy from Buzzine!

Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVI [Limited Edition]
Shout! Factory

Making of fun of cheesy sci-fi movies with Joel, Mike and their ‘bots Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot was and still is quite a hoot, ‘cause the flicks deserve it, don’t they?  This special edition, Volume 16, comes packaged with a li’l Tom Servo robot toy too. And the cinematic targets? The Corpse Vanishes, Warrior of the Lost World, Santa Claus, and Night Of The Blood Beast.

Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
A&E/History Channel

Many young folks under…say, 30, don’t comprehend what a symbol the Berlin Wall was for nearly 40 years, from its erection in the summer of 1961 to its dismantling in November, 1989. It was a symbol of the Cold War and separation of the east and west in Europe, political ideology, totalitarianism and more.   This documentary looks at decades of “the wall” in detail – what it meant when it was first built and the impact of its demise.

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