A wide variety of TV shows have come to DVD and Blu-ray this week.
Colony: Season One (Universal/USA, 2016, three discs, 10 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette). This thriller series with sci-fi overtones unfolds its backstory rather slowly after the pilot drops us in the middle of what has apparently been a stealth alien invasion. Humans have been recruited to rule over oppressive colonies of fellow humans, using fear as their primary weapon. Play along, get along; rebel and risk seeing your entire family executed.
The focus is on a Los Angeles family struggling to stay together, with Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) as a married couple with children trying to locate their missing son. They are members of the resistance but when Holloway is caught, hes forced to take on a security-forces job to save his family. But is he really accepting his new role or still hoping to find ways to resist?
With its Nazi Germany metaphors, this one owes something to the original V, minus the hovering spaceships. It is very well done and surprisingly compelling. (Season 2 will be on the USA cable channel next year.)
iZombie: The Complete Second Season (Warner, 2016, four discs, 19 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette). This weird but clever amalgam of comedy, horror, mystery and a dash of Psych follows Liv Moore (Rose McIver), a Seattle medical resident-turned-zombie who works in the coroners lab to have access to brains for food. But each bite gives her a memory (and skills) of the victim, sometimes leading to solving a murder. This season, some of those memories seem to be lingering. (Season 3 will be on the CW next year.)
Vicious: The Finale (PBS, 2016). The witty but vulgar two-season British sitcom with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an elderly, bickering gay couple gets an hourlong sendoff with this special, which covers a year of four seasons, ending on Christmas.
House of Cards: The Complete Fourth Season (Sony, 2016, four discs, 13 episodes). Emmy-nominated, very R-rated political drama (adapted from a British series) about a married couple (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright) with outsized political ambitions. This season they are at odds with each other in the political arena. Guests include Neve Campbell, Ellen Burstyn and Cicely Tyson. (Netflix will show Season 5 next year.)
Naked and Afraid XL: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes). Contestants from various episodes of the very strange Naked and Afraid series are united in a group of 12 to survive 40 days in the wilderness. Nudity is blurred for the most part. (Season 2 is showing now on the Discovery cable channel.)
NOVA: Wild Ways (PBS, 2016). Hourlong NOVA episode about connectivity conservation, in which lions, bears, antelope and elephants can be preserved by linking wildlife refuges with tunnels, overpasses and protected land corridors.
NOVA: Vikings Unearthed (PBS, 2016). This NOVA episode uses satellite technology, excavation and analysis of archaeological evidence to investigate what may be the first Viking site discovered in North American in more than 50 years.
Secrets of the Dead: Cleopatras Lost Tomb (PBS, 2016). Maverick archaeologist Kathleen Martinez searches for the title tomb and discovers an underground shaft that runs 100 feet deep and has the hallmarks of a royal burial tunnel.
Blaze and the Monster Machines: Fired Up! (Nickelodeon/Paramount, 2015-16, four episodes). This childrens show has good-hearted monster truck Blaze putting out a fire at a city garage, helping put out a burning bridge and trying to repair a truck wash.
Peg + Cat: Out of This World (PBS, 2014-15, four episodes). Animated educational show for kids ages 3-5 has Peg and Cat fixing their spaceship to outwit a space alien and winning a cosmic T-Ball game.
Dinosaur Train: Under the Volcano (PBS, 2009-12, eight episodes). Buddy and family watch a volcano erupt and learn about lava and geysers in this educational animated show about a curious young T.rex.
Colony: Season One (Universal/USA, 2016, three discs, 10 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette). This thriller series with sci-fi overtones unfolds its backstory rather slowly after the pilot drops us in the middle of what has apparently been a stealth alien invasion. Humans have been recruited to rule over oppressive colonies of fellow humans, using fear as their primary weapon. Play along, get along; rebel and risk seeing your entire family executed.
The focus is on a Los Angeles family struggling to stay together, with Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) as a married couple with children trying to locate their missing son. They are members of the resistance but when Holloway is caught, hes forced to take on a security-forces job to save his family. But is he really accepting his new role or still hoping to find ways to resist?
With its Nazi Germany metaphors, this one owes something to the original V, minus the hovering spaceships. It is very well done and surprisingly compelling. (Season 2 will be on the USA cable channel next year.)
iZombie: The Complete Second Season (Warner, 2016, four discs, 19 episodes, deleted scenes, featurette). This weird but clever amalgam of comedy, horror, mystery and a dash of Psych follows Liv Moore (Rose McIver), a Seattle medical resident-turned-zombie who works in the coroners lab to have access to brains for food. But each bite gives her a memory (and skills) of the victim, sometimes leading to solving a murder. This season, some of those memories seem to be lingering. (Season 3 will be on the CW next year.)
Vicious: The Finale (PBS, 2016). The witty but vulgar two-season British sitcom with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an elderly, bickering gay couple gets an hourlong sendoff with this special, which covers a year of four seasons, ending on Christmas.
House of Cards: The Complete Fourth Season (Sony, 2016, four discs, 13 episodes). Emmy-nominated, very R-rated political drama (adapted from a British series) about a married couple (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright) with outsized political ambitions. This season they are at odds with each other in the political arena. Guests include Neve Campbell, Ellen Burstyn and Cicely Tyson. (Netflix will show Season 5 next year.)
Naked and Afraid XL: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 2015, three discs, 10 episodes). Contestants from various episodes of the very strange Naked and Afraid series are united in a group of 12 to survive 40 days in the wilderness. Nudity is blurred for the most part. (Season 2 is showing now on the Discovery cable channel.)
NOVA: Wild Ways (PBS, 2016). Hourlong NOVA episode about connectivity conservation, in which lions, bears, antelope and elephants can be preserved by linking wildlife refuges with tunnels, overpasses and protected land corridors.
NOVA: Vikings Unearthed (PBS, 2016). This NOVA episode uses satellite technology, excavation and analysis of archaeological evidence to investigate what may be the first Viking site discovered in North American in more than 50 years.
Secrets of the Dead: Cleopatras Lost Tomb (PBS, 2016). Maverick archaeologist Kathleen Martinez searches for the title tomb and discovers an underground shaft that runs 100 feet deep and has the hallmarks of a royal burial tunnel.
Blaze and the Monster Machines: Fired Up! (Nickelodeon/Paramount, 2015-16, four episodes). This childrens show has good-hearted monster truck Blaze putting out a fire at a city garage, helping put out a burning bridge and trying to repair a truck wash.
Peg + Cat: Out of This World (PBS, 2014-15, four episodes). Animated educational show for kids ages 3-5 has Peg and Cat fixing their spaceship to outwit a space alien and winning a cosmic T-Ball game.
Dinosaur Train: Under the Volcano (PBS, 2009-12, eight episodes). Buddy and family watch a volcano erupt and learn about lava and geysers in this educational animated show about a curious young T.rex.