DVD weekly: faked deaths, wizards and trains

Now Megaupload's been taken offline, it's time to stumble bleary-eyed into HMV again and wander up and down the DVD aisle, thinking, "Shit, I used to pay for these, didn't I? How does that work again?" [insert legal disclaimer here]

Released: Monday 23rd January 2012

Sherlock - Complete Series Two (DVD & Blu-ray)
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Ooooh, how did he fake his own death? DID he fake his own death? Or is he now a ghost, and he's going to carry on solving crimes from beyond the grave, like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)? Despite Steven Moffat saying last week that there's a massive clue we've all missed and we all need to go back and watch it again (coincidentally just as it was deleted from the iPlayer before the DVD came out), I like to think that he and Mark Gatiss have actually just deliberately written themselves into a corner for the challenge of explaining it satisfactorily come the series three premiere. That's what I would've done. Arguably these guys are better qualified to deliver on the project than I am, but I'd have had a decent crack at it. Throw in a couple of killer robots, that sort of thing.

As to the three-episode series overall, there's a reason why you're now sick to death of people at work talking about it a week after it finished. And that's because it was uniformly bastard excellent; the best thing British TV has produced in a long, long time. With the intelligence to use Sir Arthur Conan the Barbarian's stories as a rough template rather than sticking slavishly to them to appease the traditionalists, Moffat and Gatiss have created an engaging, multilayered, genuine British watercooler classic. Except that over here we tend to drink tea rather than have watercoolers. Because watercoolers are for Yanks, and we don't need them any more - we can make our own TV now! Fuck you, America!

Oh, but could you keep sending us the stuff you make, please? Just for ten years or so till we get our act together and make something else good? Ta.
Merlin - The Complete Fourth Series (DVD & Blu-ray)
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Four series? Really? When's it on? I think I must have a medical condition that means I physically can't see any listing in the TV guide that mentions the words 'wizard' or 'enchanted forest'.

So no, I've never seen Merlin. Chunky-looking box-set though, isn't it? I might get it as an occasional table. You know, to put Pringles and dips on for parties. By which I mean 'lonely nights of black despair'.
Thomas in Charge! (DVD)
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Thing about having a two-year-old nephew is you see more kids' TV than you otherwise would. Unless you were a student: then you'd see loads, because all they do is sit around getting stoned and watching Button Moon ironically. Bloody students. Should do something useful with their lives. Like a Media Studies degree. Ahem.

Thomas the Tank Engine's his favourite thing at the moment. I sort of liked it as a kid but not like this: the little sod's batshit for it. And it's very heavy on train terminology, you'll notice: it's all about branch lines and different types of coal and decoupling and stuff, which is a bit weird considering the age of the audience.

Still, each to his own, I suppose. I'll educate him, don't worry. See how he likes True Blood.
Also out this week

Children's Ward - The Complete Series 3 DVD
Big Love - Complete Season Three DVD
Charles Dickens - 200th Anniversary Collection DVD