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Something to Watch: DVDs, 15Jan13

In the silly movie department, 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is yet another of those spoof movies that go for multiple targets in a single film. The other feature presentation for the week is the 2011 documentary I am Bruce Lee, originally presented on Spike TV in the US.

Being Human season 4 leads the TV selections, the UK version of course. Also this time around we get Merlin: The Complete Fourth Season, which made me realize that while I am right up to date on the first series, I am a couple of seasons behind on the second. I may need to do a marathon and get up to speed.

The new anime release is Persona 4: Collection 2, where the Investigation Team moves on to the mystery of the Velvet Room and the deadly Midnight Channel, having solved the murder in the first collection. Figuring out how their powers work, and who is behind the new rash of killings, would be good things as well, preferably before they are all dead.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is being released in a complete series box set, for those who didn’t already pick it up as separate seasons. As usual with such things, you get a bit of a discount for buying the entire thing in a single box, and also as usual you want to shop around for the best deal, with a few places having it for as low as $40. Finally, the original 1970’s TV series Gaiking has been re-edited into 3 feature length movies and packaged up for DVD release, for those who love truly old school giant mecha.

Something to Watch: DVDs 8Jan13

In movies, Dredd is the 2012 version, which went back to the original source material rather than remaking the earlier movie. They played it a bit less campy and closer to the graphic novel’s intentions. The animated Frankenweenie is another of the strange partnership between Disney and Tim Burton that has brought us so many interesting movies. 2012’s Timekeeper centers around a 14 year old accidental time traveler.

Red Dwarf: X is pretty much the US premier of the series, or at least I haven’t found the channel that is carrying the series in North America. I am glad that Dave TV picked up the series and continues to generate new episodes, but I wish that someone would carry it here. Methematica from PBS is a 20 part series that explains some of the basic principles of mathematics in an accessible and easily understandable way. Mathematica is also the name of a very powerful programing environment that runs on Unix and Linux systems and uses Parallel Batch Scripting to run on a number of CPUs at the same time to speed up processing, so don’t be surprised if you get some interesting search results on that one.

In Anime, Bodacious Space Pirates is the first collection in this series, starting us off with a full 13 episodes. A high school girl has just discovered that her dad was captain of a pirate ship, and she has inherited the position. If you want to check it out, you can watch episodes on Crunchyroll to get an idea of the show.

You have to love a title like Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl, and this one involves an adolescent boy who lives with his aunt, only to discover she has a secret daughter from outer space. His life is anything but normal after that, as they try to figure out where she was for the year and a half she went missing.

Something to Watch: DVDs 1Jan13

Looper is a movie that reminded me of the better aspects of Bladerunner, and it tops this weeks list of new DVDs; if you can only add a single title to your collection this week it should be this one. Not that there are a lot of new releases at the moment, but Looper would be at the top no matter when it came out; it is just that powerful and important.

In TV, Being Human: The Complete Second Season is the American version of the series, the UK version being several seasons father along. I prefer the British show, but this one is quite similar. I suspect my preference is because I saw that one first, so those are the actors who make up the show to me.

In anime, Mardock Scramble: Second Combustion is finally coming out in the US. Cyborg Rune Balot continues to try to bring her killer to justice while some of her team recovers from the attack that almost wiped them out. Finally, Penguindrum: Collection 1 is the story of Himari, who’s death is reversed by wearing the Penguin Hat. But a full resurrection will only come once she has the Penguin Drum, so the search is on to change her destiny.

Primeval New World

The original Primeval series was a bit uneven (more than a bit, and I can give you my season-by-season breakdown some time if you like), but I enjoyed the hell out of a few specific seasons, and still had fun watching the others, even with their flaws. I am now looking forward to Primeval New World, but even though they have run 7 episodes in the UK and Canada, the US does not have a contract for this one until 2013. At some point next year they will begin running this on Syfy, with VOD rights going to Hulu and Hulu Plus, but if there is an announced launch date I have not found it yet. I am kind of surprised that BBC America did not pick it up, considering the ratings they pulled with the original series, but the Syfy Channel is running a lot of programs out of the Vancouver studios that are making it, so they probably got a discount for a bulk order.