A Commercial Message.

8 Comments | Posted: November 24th, 2008 | Filed under: Meta, Outbound Linkage | Tags:

Amazon’s having a huge TV-on-DVD sale.

My Gotta Catch ‘Em All Picks are:

  • The first, second, third, and fourth seasons of The West Wing. You can get them all, but those are the only ones I find essential.
  • Band of Brothers, a nicely-executed adaptation of Steven Ambrose’s book about the “real” Easy Company in World War II.
  • The first and second seasons of The Venture Brothers, a show I greatly admire for managing to pastiche, parody, and homage without ever feeling unoriginal or tired. It’s also hilarious. You’ll also find deals on Sealab 2021 and  Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
  • The first season of The Wire, which will tell you enough to let you know you should buy the rest of this complex, smart, and surprisingly involving look at drugs and their impact on Baltimore. It and Deadwood are two series I’ve never finished because I didn’t want them to end. Yes, I can be a silly, sentimental sort.
  • The complete run of Extras, the Ricky Gervais series that makes me cringe and laugh more than The Office, which is also on sale.

There’s other series that I thought were all right that you might more than me, like MI-5 (which took a severe nosedive with the end of its second season) and Black Books (which I’d love a lot more without the annoying Britcom Laughtrack). On top of everything else, the online retailer is discouting a lot of other DVD titles, so make sure you click around a bit.

(And yes, all of those are affiliate links that pay me a percentage in Amazon Credit. This allows me to buy books like Watching The Watchmen and The Dummies’ Guide To Burying The Homeless You Murder At Night.)

Edited To Add: Jason in the comments also informs me that there’s a pretty big sale on Criterion DVDs, too.  So you’ve got that going for you.

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8 Comments on “A Commercial Message.”

  1. 1 Jason said at 12:35 am on November 24th, 2008:

    Also, almost every Criterion title is over 40% off right now, just sayin….

  2. 2 Kevin Church said at 12:42 am on November 24th, 2008:

    Oh, wow, I didn’t know they’d done that. And me just ordered some the other day! Cor!

    I’ll add it to the post so I can make even more pennies.

  3. 3 Anna said at 1:10 am on November 24th, 2008:

    I’m sorry to hear that MI-5 got worse in the second season, I’m almost done with the first. I think I’ll be OK just netflixing it though.

  4. 4 Kevin Church said at 1:14 am on November 24th, 2008:

    The second season of MI-5 is great until the ending, in which they did something very silly that sent the series into a tailspin.

  5. 5 Patrick C. said at 3:32 am on November 24th, 2008:

    Oh my, is that Doctor Who on DVD for an actually reasonable price? That happens once in a blue moon. And… Elevator to the Gallows?!? BORDER RADIO?!?

    Thanks for the heads-up on this Kevin. Seriously exciting.

  6. 6 Stephen said at 9:40 am on November 24th, 2008:

    They also occasionally have unadvertised “sales” though throughout the year — two months ago they had about half their criterions at the lowest I’ve ever seen them (I was able to get THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE and TOKYO STORY each for $15.99).

  7. 7 John Soanes said at 5:37 am on November 25th, 2008:

    To be fair on Black Books, it is filmed with a live audience, though of course that could be tinkered with in the edit.
    Agree about MI-5 (known as ‘Spooks’ here in the UK) – after the second series it felt like they were having to work the plotlines around departing and arriving cast members. Later series are, I’m told, improved, but I’m not bothering, frankly.
    J

  8. 8 Kevin Church said at 10:57 am on November 25th, 2008:

    To be fair on Black Books, it is filmed with a live audience, though of course that could be tinkered with in the edit.

    Then they need to hush up!