Tropical Heat: Sweating Bullets: Second Season

Tropical Heat: Sweating Bullets: Second Season Review

TROPICAL HEAT:SWEATING BULLETS SSN2 - DVD Movie

L.A. Heat: Season One (5-DVD Digipack)

L.A. Heat: Season One (5-DVD Digipack) Review

L.A. Heat: Season One (5-DVD Digipack) Feature

• L.A. HEAT - 1ST SEASON (DVD MOVIE)

Featuring 26 Episodes as seen on the TNT Network. L.A. Heat is a smart and sarcastic crime-drama packed with car chases, shootouts, and every kind of action imaginable. Set against the scenic backdrops of California's beautiful beaches to the gritty city streets of Los Angeles, every episode of this series moves at 100 mph from start to finish, making it "possibly the most action-packed series ever created for television."

Smallville: The Complete Second Season

Smallville: The Complete Second Season Review

Smallville: The Complete Second Season Feature

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Anamorphic; Box set; Closed-captioned; Color; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

For many fans, the Superman revisionist series Smallville truly hit its stride in its second season, when it shifted focus from traditional comic book conflicts to one of self-discovery for its hero, a teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling). Fans and first-timers can judge for themselves with this six-disc set, which compiles all 23 episodes and a decent selection of supplemental features. Whereas season 1 focused on Clark using his powers to combat a host of menaces à la the WB's other big fantasy hit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 2 delved into Clark's past and the extent of his super powers, most notably in the back-to-back "Heat," in which he discovers his heat vision, and "Red," in which red kryptonite in the high school class rings uncorks Clark's less-than-upstanding side. Other plot developments from the season that pull the series in interesting directions include the arrival of Dr. Helen Bryce (Emanuelle Vaugier), who becomes involved with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), but the season's most significant moment comes during episode 17, "Rosetta," in which Clark learns of his Kryptonian origins courtesy of a scientist, who, in an effective bit of casting, is played by Superman film star Christopher Reeve.

The complexity of the writing and issues dealt with in season 2 marked Smallville as a series with depth and drama worthy of its considerable fan following as well as a second boxed set; fittingly, the supplements in this set are more expansive than on the first one. Producers Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Greg Beeman and cast members Welling, Rosenbaum, and Kristen Kreuk weigh in on commentary tracks for two episodes ("Red" and "Rosetta"), while a trio of short featurettes explore Christopher Reeves's appearance in "Rosetta," the show's visual effects, and the amusing "Wall of Weird" web page maintained by Chloe (Allison Mack). The extras are rounded out by a handful of deleted scenes and a gag reel. --Paul Gaita Girls, homework, kryptonite. Don't miss a single second - the entire second season! Clark Kent lives in Smallville, but in many ways he's out of this world - and so is this spectacular series that provides a fascinating spin on Superman lore. This 6-disc collection includes all 23 second-season episodes plus bonus materials worthy of a hero. Among the episode highlights: Clark grapples with his true calling. Is he on Earth to serve humanity or perhaps destroy it? Lex gets married - twice! Lana moves in with Chloe, adding a new dynamic to their Clark dilemma. Martha and Jonathan receive miraculous news. Lionel pulls devious strings. And Pete becomes a keeper of the Clark secret. One thing we can't keep secret: the legend grows stronger in Smallville!

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features
Deleted Scenes
Featurette
Gag Reel
Other

Roswell - The Complete First Season

Roswell - The Complete First Season Review

Opening with a Dido theme song and featuring character-driven, sweet-natured melodrama, Roswell was a show with a surprisingly dedicated fandom, who twice won it reprieve from cancellation. One of its main strengths was, of course, the extent to which its premise--alien teenagers trying to sort out their identities while emotionally involved with their human contemporaries--was a free-floating metaphor for race and sexuality issues. Another was the strong ensemble that its cast developed: you believed in the strangeness of the alien trio and the well-intentioned normality of their three human friends. Jason Behr gave the alien Max a quiet authority and Majendra Delfino took the sidekick role of Maria and gave it both intensity and fine comic timing. It was also a show in which you were never sure which adults you could trust--William Sadleir trod a fine line of ambiguity as the local sheriff and Julie Benz was silkily sinister as an FBI agent. Anyone who ever loved this show will want these DVDs--and many others may want to find out what the fuss was about.

Roswell is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The special features include commentaries on six episodes by writer Jason Katims, the directors, and various cast members as well as a featurette on the making of the show and another on its adaptation from the original Roswell High series of young adult novels. The commentaries are unusually insightful on the casting process, and the discs also include the auditions for the part of Tess as well as a deleted scene and a music video. --Roz Kaveney

Castle: The Complete First Season

Castle: The Complete First Season Review

They are partners, whether she likes it or not. Castle: The Complete First Season is the romantic, clever dramedy that is reminiscent of Moonlighting with romantic tension between Castle, a crime novelist and Detective Beckett as they work in a unique way to solve crimes and mysteries.