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As spring draws to a close and the summer movie season boils up to full steam, DVD distributors are working diligently to give you a reason to stay home and watch TV with a gamut-running slew of new, nerd-friendly titles. Wired.com selected a few of the must-haves of the season:
The Transformers: The Complete First Season: When Shout Factory signed a deal with Hasbro, it quickly announced the release of the first season of Transformers to coincide with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This 25th-anniversary DVD (right, top) hits June 16 and features all Season 1 episodes, remastered audio, a collectible Autobots magnet and bonus content.
Top Gear, Season 10: You wouldn't think a car show would earn accolades, but Top Gear is consistently one of the most entertaining and irreverent shows on television. Including legitimate tests of supercars and more affordable vehicles, the show also hangs its hat on amusing stunts like a 250-plus MPH Bugatti Veyron racing a British fighter jet.
Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy and American Dad, Volume 4: *Family Guy *creator Seth MacFarlane serves up a double feature with two very different styles. The fourth season of American Dad departed from wholesale mockery of conservatives and the Bush administration to build more compelling comedic stories around the show's established and supporting characters.
Meanwhile, the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy was originally a series of shorts produced in conjunction with a Burger King promotion. The DVD collects all 50 short animated sketches and assembles in a simple succession. Imagine Family Guy's asides without any plot to surround them. While some fall flat, this reporter is ashamed to have laughed himself silly watching Fred Flintstone go to the bathroom.
Doctor Who: "Attack of the Cyberman", "The Rescue/The Romans", "The E-Space Trilogy", "Battlefield": Spring's Doctor Who releases span four eras of the show's 45-plus year history.
Combining two episodes from the First Doctor (William Hartnell) era, "The Rescue/The Romans" shows the series' early efforts to mix straight-up sci-fi stories with historical adventures. "The E-Space Trilogy" features the beginning of the end for Tom Baker's seven years as The Fourth Doctor. The three alternate universe stories also offer the introduction of Adric (one of The Doctor's less popular companions).
"Attack of the Cyberman" (right, middle) marked a return to the history of *Doctor Who *with a revisiting of two classic episodes, Hartnell's "The Unearthly Child" and Patrick Troughton's "Tomb of the Cybermen." Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor goes to war against an archnemesis in a story that's a little all over the place, but still entertaining.
Finally, Battlefield is one of Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy's most enjoyable yarns, featuring a sci-fi retelling of the Arthurian legend and the return of the beloved Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
Venture Brothers Season 3: This ingenious and inspired Adult Swim show doesn't get enough press and deserves far more accolades than it's pulling down. One of the best-written shows on all of television, it's taken what was a safe concept of spoofing Jonny Quest and escalated into a richly nuanced world full of distinct characters. This DVD volume of its third season features completely uncensored episodes.
The Invisibles, Season 1: This little-known BBC comedy/drama is just making its way overseas and features Anthony Head (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who) as an aging thief who retires to a small English village only to find his old habits irresistible.
24, Season 7: This frantic go-around just wrapped up recently on Fox, but it's already in stores. Delayed a year by star Kiefer Sutherland's legal troubles, the seventh season (the first in the Obama era) kept to its central themes and maintained strong audience numbers.
RiffTrax -- "Carnival of Souls," "House on Haunted Hill," "Little Shop of Horrors," "Missile to the Moon," "Night of the Living Dead," "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "Reefer Madness," "Swing Parade" and "Shorts: Vol. 2": The DVD selection at RiffTrax (right, bottom) exploded recently with the release of a series of cult classics with commentary by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett.
Originally published by Legend Films with comments from Nelson on his own, the entire series is being rereleased with triple-team wisecracks for the first time.
Images courtesy Shout! Factory, BBC Video, RiffTrax
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