What I'm Watching: Editor's Choice (DVD)

CSI: NY, Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Nip/Tuck, The Hills, Married With Children, Brotherhood

• Pre-Production: Planning the Perfect Murder
• Production: Shoot to Kill
• Post-Production: Crime Scene Cleanup
• Celebrating 100: Evidence of a Hit

CSI: NY - The Fifth Season will be a welcome addition to fans' shelves, but I can't say that if you're not a fan you need to rush out and pick it up.

Show: B-
Extra Features: B

Next up is Ghost Whisperer: The Fourth Season, which proves that even utterly mediocre television shows can last longer than really great shows like, oh, I don't know, classic Star Trek, Firefly, Invasion, Privileged, and Reaper. And I don't mean to be mean to Ghost Whisperer, it's just not that good of a show. This season does a few things right, though, such as adding Jamie Kennedy as something of a comic relief effort and killing off a major character. So, to be fair to fans of the show, here's what I'll say: if you are someone who enjoys Ghost Whisperer, than you'll really like this season, as a lot of interesting stuff happens in it. Sadly, none of it is interesting enough for me to recommend it to people who aren't already fans, but those of you loyal to Melinda and Jim (or even just Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage), the events of this season will make for some good viewing for you.

• The Other Side III Webseries
• Grave Mistakes
• Interactive Haunted Dollhouse
• Interactive Fashion Style Guide
• Season 4: Love Never Dies
• The Jamie Kennedy Experiment
• Scoring The Spirit World.

The next DVD set on my list, Medium: The Fifth Season, engendered a wicked sense of deja vu for me, since I'm pretty sure it's the exact same show as Ghost Whisperer. Only, it's a little bit worse because Patricia Arquette is really, really terrible in it. You know there's something wrong when your lead actress makes Jennifer Love Hewitt look like Oscar-bait by comparison. I'm sorry, but I just do not get this show at all. The concept is nothing original (although to be fair, it did at least come out before Ghost Whisperer), and I find it insipid and annoying from the word go. And Arquette's performance does absolutely nothing to help that.

For fans of the show, there are at least some decent extra features:

• The Making Of Season 5
• Script To Screen: Apocalypse...Now?
• Jake And Patricia Q & A
• Curious Maria

I can't say I'm a huge fan of either Medium or Ghost Whisperer, but in the battle of J. Lo-Hew's cleavage versus Patricia Arquette's wooden delivery, the victor is clear.

Shows (Ghost/Medium): C/D+
Extra Features: B

Nip/Tuck returns after what seems like an interminably long stretch with Nip/Tuck: Season 5, Part 2. With just eight episodes, this brief season set is sure to thrill fans of the show, even if the extra features on the set are almost non-existent. You'd think after this much time, we'd get more than one featurette, but that's it.

As for the episodes themselves, they offer up the usual mix of compelling drama and really disturbing storylines. I've always had very mixed feelings about the show; on the one hand I enjoy the production quality, the writing, and the performances very much. On the other hand, I often find the show much too dark and intense to really enjoy. There's a lot of quality at work here, but I can never feel really engaged in the show as it just tends to go places that I don't particularly enjoy visiting.

The lone feature is:

• Nip/Tuck: The Science of Beauty Featurette

With guest stars including Sharon Gless, Jennifer Coolidge, Dina Meyer, Portia de Rossi, Bradley Cooper, Morgan Fairchild, Richard Burgi, and John Schneider, this DVD set is worth picking up if you're already a fan of the show. (That seems to be a sentiment I keep repeating here, isn't it?)

Show: B
Extra Features: B

Next up is my favorite guilty pleasure that isn't a pleasure, and that means, of course, I'm talking about The Hills and the ominously titled DVD set The Hills: Season Five, Part 1 (which would indicate that a part 2 is forthcoming, wouldn't it?). Confession time: I don't like The Hills, but I have something of a major crush on one Lauren Conrad. Now, I'm not proud of this, as I think she's as vapid and spoiled as the rest of the cast on this show, but she is just really, really hot! Ladies, I apologize for sounding like a typical male here, but sometimes I have to give into that side of me, and The Hills brings it out. The show is insipid melodrama, but the girls on it are so gorgeous that I just don't care.

Extra features include:

• Speidi's Wedding Unveiled
• Lauren's Last After Show
• Deleted Scenes
• Interviews
• After Show Remixes
• Season 5 Photo Shoot

I could give less than a care in the world about Speidi, their marriage, or any of the tabloids that follow them, but give me a serving of LC and Audrina Patridge any day of the week and I'm there. I'm ashamed, but I'm there.

Show: F (for content) A+ (for eye candy)
Extra Features: B+


That brings us to Married With Children: The Complete Eleventh Season. I don't think words can express how relieved I am that this is the final season. It's not that I hate the show or anything (although I'm not a particularly huge fan, either), but I have quite literally reviewed all 11 seasons of this show, and by now I have absolutely nothing left to say. Yep, I have spent six years of my life reviewing the misadventures of the Bundy family. Excuse me while I go and watch a little piece of my soul wither and die. I can say that after 11 seasons, it was time to let this show go, as even by typical Married With Children standards, Season 11 was pretty weak. So chalk this one up as for fans only, and hey, if you already have seasons one through ten, you may as well finish the set at this point.

Show: C-
Extra Features: F

Finally, we have Brotherhood: The Final Season. Honestly, I had no idea this show was even on anymore (although it's obviously been cancelled.) Unlike shows such as CSI: NY, I know exactly why I can't get into Brotherhood: it's really boring. I mean, you've got terrific performances from Jason Isaacs, Jason Clarke, and Fionnula Flanagan, but I just find the drama that drives this show forward to be not all that exciting. I wish I did, because the storyline which follows two brothers, one in politics and one in crime, could make for some great television, but great television this show isn't. I know critics love it and it has a small but devoted following, but I don't find it all that interesting.

This two-disc set includes all eight episodes of the third and final season but no extra features, not even Showtime's usual commercials for other programs masquerading as extra features.