Parks and Recreation is a genuine contender for the title of ‘Best Sitcom on Television’. The contents of this boxset were originally broadcast in the US in 2011, while only the first two seasons have seen UK broadcast on BBC Four and a Region 2 DVD release. Like all the best boxsets, it’s remarkable easy to select ‘Play All’ and find yourself watching the whole disc for several hours.
Over the years, Doctor Who has handled the physical transition of its lead actor in a variety of ways. Peter Davison bowed out in technicolour nightmare of floating faces while Patrick Troughton exited into a visual effect, with his successor not actually glimpsed onscreen until the following story. In fact, only recently has the process become a standardised, upright affair with the Time Lord suffering a volcanic eruption of golden light.
The name Michael Madsen these days sadly conjures up horrible images of Celebrity Big Brother rather than Reservoir Dogs. Film-wise, the erstwhile Mr Blonde starred in last year’s SyFy monster-fest Piranhaconda and now tops the bill in iffy zombie pic Infection Z.
For want of a less tenuous way to link some of this month’s films, let’s call this first of two June horror blogs Part I of a two-parter focusing on the faded careers of once-stellar individuals now slumming it at the lower end of the Hollywood scale.
For those perhaps not in the know, back in the Sixties two Dalek movies were produced featuring all-new Daleks (in all-new colour!) and an all-new Doctor, Peter Cushing (also in colour). In these outings, Cushing was an Earth-based scientist called, wait for it, “Dr. Who”. Don’t worry though, the TARDIS is still bigger on the inside (just) and the Daleks are as mean as ever.
What with the lingering prospect of an extended winter in place of the British summer and ever-more media coverage of UKIP gremlin Nigel Farage’s awful visage, things are getting decidedly dark. Still, in this wretched modern world, we can be thankful for the simple things in life.
As we’re starting to learn, these are invariably provided by Arrow DVD, who this month continue their glorious project of restoring and re-releasing the back catalogue of Italian hero Mario Bava.
Now we’re finally in the month of bank holidays, some actual sun and the promise of long evenings and warm days, it’s about time you started planning for the summer spent indoors watching gloomy horror movies.
With the David Fincher/Kevin Spacey backed US version of House of Cards currently wowing critics and audiences alike on Netflix, now seems a perfect time as ever to revisit the classic BBC version on DVD and Blu-ray.
It’s difficult to say now how Spartacus will be remembered, but the members of its vocal fanbase are sure to keep recommending the show to anyone and everyone who’ll listen and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that legion of fans become something much larger as the series is exposed to a wider audience through DVDs.
With sombre opening music and shots slowly panning over a body we are introduced to writer/director Joe Aherne’s rather serious take on vampires.