So here we are lollygagging about, trudging our way through the dog days of summer. Vacations are coming to an end, school is back in session, and there’s precious little on TV beyond the new crop of game shows and reruns of last season’s series episodes. Not to worry, though — this week is brimming with boxed sets of - what else? - TV reruns. They run the gamut, from sitcoms running on cable somewhere at any given time, to epic dramas with lofty aspirations.
Let’s start with the sitcom collections. To be honest, I’m not sure why some of these collections exist, since I can find episodes of them airing on cable at any given moment, day, night or the wee hours between infomercials and Girls Gone Wild blurbs. Still, for those with fond memories of sitcoms they only watched when nothing else was on, FullHouse: The Complete Seventh Season, Roseanne: Season Eight and Home Improvement: The Complete Seventh Season are out this week.
While Full House might give you warm and fuzzy memories of the Olsen twins before they hit it big, The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season remains firmly planted in the time warp that’s made it TV’s longest running comedy. I won’t bore you with why America’s favorite cartoon family is an indelible part of pop culture—you already know all that. But I will advise you to go for the “collectible Bart Head Pack” when you purchase this DVD. It’s going to be a huge seller, so ten years from now, you’ll discover it wasn’t collectible after all.
For those of you yearning for more “serious” fare, Rome: The Complete Second Season should sate your hunger. At 10 hours, it encapsulates the events following Julius Caesar’s assassination, leading to the fall of the Empire. This British effort, presented on HBO, is one of the most lavish depictions of Rome ever put to film. And while it is rife with historical inaccuracies, and has its requisite soap opera moments, it does convey the brutality and excess of the time.
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