Omnibus: Leonard Bernstein

Watching Leonard Bernstein Omnibus is like taking a masters class in music appreciation, only with a really cool professor who cares more about what you learn than any grade you achieve. Originally broadcast between 1954 and 1958, the Omnibus shows were a series of lectures that Bernstein gave on topics ranging from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to American Musical Comedy where the composer/conductor not only talks about music, but backs up everything he says with examples that he either plays on the piano or conducts the 100-piece house orchestra to play for you. His command of classical music is as complete as expected; its watching him let his hair down a bit (figuratively speaking) to talk about jazz and modern music that are unexpectedly entertaining. Learning has never been so effortlessly enjoyable.

Justice League: The Complete Series

It’s a cartoon series about super heroes, so it must be just for kids, right? Wrong. This hugely entertaining series may center on guys and gals in tights fighting for truth, justice and blah, blah, blah, but it does it with both style and substance. The stories are strong, mainly because the writers don’t take themselves or their characters too seriously. And the acting is effective, both from the regular leads and in episodes featuring guest appearances with talent ranging from Jeremy Piven as The Elongated Man to Mark Hamill as the zombie bad guy Solomon Grundy. While there’s a lot for the average viewer to enjoy, the show also does well by the hard core comic fans by not only giving the stars of DC Universe plenty of play, but delving deep into the archives to make sure every one of their heroes has a moment in the spotlight.

Edge of Darkness

A father and daughter are leaving their house when a masked gunman shouts out their name before firing both barrels of a shotgun at them. The daughter dies. The father, a police detective, lives but is haunted by the guilt that it was him that the killer was after. Or was it? As the investigation into the crime moves along, the father soon starts discovering things about his daughter that he never knew, things that make him realize she was the target that fateful night. Now he’ll do whatever he can to bring her killers to justice. This six-part BBC series is a real nail-biter thanks to some terrific performances, particularly Bob Peck as the detective and Joe Don Baker as the shady American operative.

Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures

If you pick up this series hoping to see some cutting edge animation like the kind they use in the Star Wars: Clone War series, you are going to be sorely disappointed. The animation in Spaceballs is primitive at best. If, however, you are a fan of the original Mel Brooks movie – or any Mel Brooks film for that matter -- then you will get a big kick out of these shows. Sure, a lot of the jokes are dumb, and there is way too much bodily function comedy for most tastes, but the sheer joy that Brooks has sending up the Star Wars franchise (and everything else he sets his comic sights on) is contagious

Give ‘em Hell Malone

The only way this movie could be more fun to watch would be if director Russell Mulcahy had filmed it in black and white to truly capture the film noir feeling he was looking for. But if he’d done that, you’d miss all the blood and fire that his hard-nosed private dick, Malone (Thomas Jane) leaves in his wake as he investigates the case of a missing suitcase and the hot brunette. Jane makes a perfect PI, delivering withering wise cracks with a cool edge, and Ving Rhames is a force of nature as Boulder, his ex-partner turned heavy for the bad guys.

Cliff and the Shadows

Fans of Cliff Richard, the only UK recording artist to have charted a #1 single in five consecutive decades, will thoroughly enjoy this entertaining night of nostalgia taped last year over a three night stint at the O2 Arena in London. It may take a while, though, for those unfamiliar with the man and his music to warm up to the show. Richards and his band work so hard to make you like them that it’s hard not to surrender to the pure pop sensation of the sounds they make.

WWII in HD

Don’t let the title scare you away if you don’t have a state-of-the art HD TV to view it on because this engrossing series would be worth watching on an Ipod. The producers combed through more than 3000 hours of lost and rare color archival footage to make this show, and the final result is absolutely fascinating. It’s also deeply disturbing to see some of the raw footage in the series, particularly the scenes of the bloody aftermath of battle. You can distance yourself when you see such images like this in grainy black and white, but seeing them in living color gives them an emotional depth that is undeniable.