Deadtime Stories Volume 2

In the fine tradition of such classics as The Night Gallery and Trilogy of Terror, not to forget Deadtime Stories Volume 1, this disc features three well-made horror stories whose only connection with one another is the introduction by the host, legendary director George Romero. The stories aren’t big on surprises or twist endings, but they sure do crank up the gore … in a good way. What’s the point of telling a story about hikers trapped in a cave who resort to unspeakable lengths to survive (The Gorge) if you don’t show the audience what those lengths really look like?

Footloose

Time sure can be cruel to the films of your youth. When he first danced his way across Smalltown, USA almost 30 years ago, Kevin Bacon looked so cool in his skinny tie, tight jeans and soft-punk hairdo. Now he looks kind of silly. And that soundtrack you played so much you wore grooves in the vinyl? It’s now kind of lame. What’s weird is that although the things you used to love look silly, the things you probably ignored back in 1984 — like the performances of Bacon and costars John Lithgow — are a lot better than you remembered. It’s actually a good teen drama with something to say. They just dance when they aren’t saying it. There’s plenty of extras, including a cool interview with Bacon that provides some great behind-the- scenes tidbits, like the fact that his cool haircut cost the studio $1500, and that’s in 1980s dollars.

The Cleveland Show: Season 2

Boom goes the dynamite! It doesn’t get as much attention as its parent TV show, and maybe that’s a good thing for this spin-off from the Fox animated series Family Guy because it’s given the creative team a chance to build something really special. And really, really funny. The animate adventures of Cleveland Brown and his new family run the gantlet from the familiar (celebrating Thanksgiving with family) to the fantastic (the hilarious ‘live’ episode), with the pendulum often swinging from extreme to extreme in a single episode. It may start out as a story about equal rights for the overweight, but when the characters leave Stoolbend to go to Wisconsin is where everybody is almost too fat to walk, it’s both weird and wonderful.

Raising Hope Season 1

When was the last time your jaw dropped watching something so funny on TV that it took your breath away? Welcome to the wonderfully weird world of the Chance clan, three generations of scrappy survivors who set a new standard for family values in this hit Fox series. Their adventure begins when young Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) has a one night stand with Lucy (Bijou Phillips), an on-the-lam and seriously sexy serial killer. The result of their one night in a van leads to the birth of baby Hope, while the result of her killing leads Lucy to the electric chair. Rather than ‘drop the baby off at the firehouse” as his mom (Martha Plimpton) suggests, Jimmy decides to do the right thing and raise Hope himself. Or with the help of his equally clueless family. The comedy is outrageous, but extremely smart and well written, while the fantastic acting adds depth and soul to the ongoing shenanigans.

Carlos

In our Post-911 World it’s fascinating to settle down with this compelling series to watch how terrorists operated decades before the Twin Towers fell. It’s not the differences between now and then that amaze us; it’s the similarities that scare us. Édgar Ramírez stars as Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known to the world as Carlos, a brutal, charismatic killer who was responsible for a wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in the ’70s and ’80s. Director Olivier Assayas manages pull off the unthinkable in his movie: he makes the dialogue as explosive as any of the actual detonations taking place on the screen. When Carlos talks, you listen. More than that, thanks to a seductive performance by Ramírez, you completely understand why people listen, then act on what they’ve been told.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Twenty years ago, legendary (and reluctant) gunfighter Vash the Stampede stopped a musclebound outlaw named Gasback from robbing a bank. Rather than kill him when he had a chance, Vash let the man go to prison instead. When he gets out, Gasback decides to get his revenge. While you don’t really have to have watched the original Trigun series to enjoy this feature-length anime, it may be a good idea to go back and do it just to enrich the experience. Knowing just how Vash became an outlaw/hero helps understand a lot of what happens in Badlands Rumble. Plus you’ll have a better sense of characters like Meryl and Milly, the two sexiest insurance investigators you will ever meet, when they turn up.

Modern Family Season 2

A lot of TV shows have trouble putting together a single decent story line week after week. The creators of this Emmy Award-winning FOX TV series somehow manage to put together not one. but four in just about every episode, one for each of the main three couples in the film and a fourth based on the ways the various family members interact (in some cases collide) with each other. It’s a phenomenal achievement, one that really hit its stride in Season 2. The show has a real knack for taking the most mundane situations, from getting ready for Halloween to changing the batteries in a smoke detector, and raising them to the level of art. We’ve all been through what these people are going through, and it’s cathartic to laugh at they way they handle it.