The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the FRED Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support FRED by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
Further proving that everything is awesome, the awesome LEGO Movie (Warner Bros., Rated PG, 3D Blu-Ray-$59.98 SRP) arrives in full 3D glory just in time for a much needed boost of awesome as the sweltering heat of summer descends. It should come as no surprise that the only way you should purchase such an awesome film is via the deluxe “Everything Is Awesome Edition”, which features both the 3D and 2D versions of the film, plus a 3D portrait of Emmett and, most awesome of all, an exclusive Vitruvius LEGO minifigure. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, outtakes, and a sing-along. Awesome.
Seth MacFarlane relaunches Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking science program for a modern audience? The Family Guy guy? And it is great? Yes, the brand new Cosmos (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.98 SRP) truly is great, as Neil deGrasse Tyson fills Sagan’s massive shoes in spectacular fashion in a tightly crafted journey through the universe and humanity’s place within that impressive expanse, while also exploring our place on Earth. If you’ve not seen it, watch it. If you’ve seen it, watch it again, as well as the over 2 hours of bonus material and commentaries on the Blu-Ray set.
More often than not, I find I’m left cold by the overly-precious affectations of Wes Anderson’s films, but there is much to love in the rather straightforward fable presented in The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), which feels like his most straightforward narrative since Rushmore. Bonus materials include a trio of vignettes and a clutch of featurettes.
There’s brilliant and there’s bizarre, and then there’s the brilliantly bizarre True Detective (HBO, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$79.98 SRP), which has more twists and turns than nay one series has a right to, which is why to discuss it is to spoil and lovely little ride. It’s enough to say it stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as a pair of police detectives investigating a bizarre murder, and… Oh, just watch it. Bonus materials include a pair of audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, and deleted scenes.
There’s something instantly enjoyable about the travel documentaries fronted by Monty Python’s Michael Palin. As the Python troupe frequently exploited, there’s a lovely everyman quality to Palin that makes him intrinsically endearing. It also doesn’t hurt that the folks capturing his travels make it all look so gosh darn beautiful, as it most certainly does in his latest, Brazil (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP), which finds Palin in the South American country currently hosting the World Cup.
The most I can say about Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Paramount, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is that it’s an entirely forgettable attempt to relaunch, yet again, Tom Clancy’s action superspy, this time as a fresh CIA recruit played by FauxKirk himself, Chris Pine. Stuff happens. Things blow up. It’s an okay ride, and Kevin Costner is there. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, and deleted/extended scenes.
Long after his original series, Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason returned for a run of guest-star filled TV movies which found the world’s foremost crime-solving lawyer getting many a client out of a right pickle. The run of these can be had in the 3-volume Perry Mason Movie Collection – Volume 1: Perry Mason Returns/The Case Of The Notorious Nun, Volume 2: The Case Of The Lost Love/The Case Of The Shooting Star, and Volume 3: The Case Of The Murdered Madam/The Case Of The Sinister Spirit (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP each).
While it’s not nearly as good as the original 80s G1 animated series, Transformers: Animated (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$39.97 SRP) does at least fix the abysmal visual mess of the Michael Bay films into a much more pleasing form. The 6-disc complete series set contains all 42 episodes, plus audio commentaries.
If you’re younger than 30, you probably don’t recall that Sinbad was once a very funny stand-up comedian. Well, now you can find out just how he exists in my memory via his quite funny new stand-up special, Sinbad: Make Me Wanna Holla (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP).
There’s nothing like a monster teaching manners, except when those monsters are the ones teaching manners in Sesame Street: Monster Manners (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), with the master class being given by none other than Cookie Monster.
The fine folks at Mill Creek have opened the floodgates of their classic Sony TV catalogue program, re-releasing a veritable ton of TV, including The Jeffersons: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), The Partridge Family: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Highway To Heaven: Season 4 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Gidget: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), Bewitched: Seasons 3 & 4 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Party Of Five: Season 1 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), and The Larry Sanders Show: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP).
Plenty of shirts are discarded with prejudice in Teen Wolf: Season 3 Part 2 (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP). Oh, and there are werewolves. Plus a bonus featurette. But it’s mainly just about removing shirts, from what I can tell.
Howzabout a soundtrack round-up for this week? Now available for your listening pressure are Rolfe Kent’s score for Gambit (Lakeshore, $9.49 SRP), Scott Shields’ Strike Back (Varese Sarabande, $9.49 SRP), Tony Morales’ In Your Eyes (Lakeshore, $9.49 SRP), Ceiri Torjussen’s Test (Moviescore, $8.99 SRP), Nima Fakhara’s The Signal (Varese Sarabande, $9.49 SRP), Jeff Beal’s House Of Cards: Season 2 (Varese Sarabande, $18.49 SRP), and Trevor Morris’ The Vikings II (Sony Masterworks, $10.99 SRP).
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
-Ken Plume
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Due to its relatively low production budget, 
If there’s something that Thinkgeek excels at, it’s offering up items you never thought you needed. Case in point is 
Kick your celebrations of Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary into high gear with a trio of releases, starting with the very first high definition release of a classic Doctor serial with 
Keep the Who party going with a new special edition of the 3rd Doctor story with the space maggots, 
And finally (until next month, anyway), there’s 
A few years back, William Shatner produced a wonderful little documentary called The Captains, in which he had candid conversations with the other actors who have held that rank in the Star Trek franchise. To follow that up, he’s gone back and cut extended versions of those interviews with Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, and Chris Pine – plus himself – for the expanded 
After being unceremoniously cancelled, it seems rather fitting that HBO is only giving a non-high definition release to the second (and now final) season of 
The second season of 
Raymond Burr takes his final cases in the second volume of the 9th and final season of 
I gave it the ol’ college try for its first few weeks, but I could never get into the groove of 
It’s not hard to believe that the folks behind the golden age of Rhino Records are behind Shout Factory, as their releases in the last year have further cemented them as the company bringing out the most brilliant catalogue celebrations that absolutely must be added to any right-thinking fan of pop culture’s collection. The latest? 
If you’re life is as full of gadgets, computers, and doodads as mine, then chances are you use a lot of compressed air cans. Probably a ridiculous amount, really. So how about a solution that still provides a powerful burst of air but in a reusable fashion? That’s exactly what you get from the 
Growing up, our family had an RCA Select-A-Vision videodisc player. One of the massive videodiscs my father owned, and I remember watching, was the Paul McCartney & Wings concert film 
This month’s classic Doctor Who releases feature a pair of stories from the Jon Pertwee’s years as the 3rd Doctor – a special edition of 
It doesn’t hold a candle to Warner’s legendary Wizard Of Oz (which gets a restored 3D upgrade and theatrical release this fall), but Sam Raimi’s prequel-ish 
Yes, 
Former CIA operative Michael Westen is in hot pursuit of his old nemesis Anson Fullerton in the 6th season of 
Aaron Sorkin’s latest walk-and-talker, 
This week also brings a new clutch of TV releases from the CBS vaults, including the first volume of the 9th and final season of 
Picking up where Spielberg’s biopic ends, the historical reenactment of 
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the kid vs. zombies flick 
Featuring an adjustable 27″ long gooseneck and a universal holder for your smart phone or handheld music player, the 
I do believe I have almost as many copies of 
After the lackluster second outing followed by years passing without a sequel – and a very visible aging of the two leads – I was quite wary regarding the prospect that 
There were some that had issues with it, but I played through and enjoyed the first Epic Mickey, which not only brought Mickey Mouse into the modern video game era, but managed to bring Walt Disney’s first major character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and a lot of Disney history along for the ride. And now we have 
Earlier this year, Paul McCartney ventured into the Capitol Studios to record an evening of him performing his album of standards, Kisses On The Bottom, live and with special guests. 
The number of cases on the docket are dwindling fast, as we come to the first volume from the penultimate eighth season of 
If you’re in the mood to see a horror movie that doesn’t work and would be a strong candidate to be featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, then 
Once a staple of the holiday season, two classic festive episodes of The Danny Kaye Show have been brought together on 
It’s not the show that I love, but kids today are who will want to partake of their generation’s robots in disguise with the second season of 
A postapocalyptic band of survivors (including Shawn Ashmore & Dominic Monaghan) holed up in an abandoned farmhouse find themselves having to defend themselves from vicious predators in 
Baseball nuts will probably want to pick up the official Major League Baseball presentation of the 
I came rather late to the Adam & Joe appreciation party, but now that I’m here, I’d like to recommend you all pick up a copy of 
If you caught any of the Red Nose Net charity marathon a few weeks back, you might recall that we used the 
Long held up by music licensing issues, MTV’s 
Penn & Teller return to the 7th season of 
As the remake makes its way to a theater near you, can relive your 80s love of Mr. Miyagi in full high-def via the collector’s edition boxset of 
If you didn’t have the cash to buy the big ol’ Mel Brooks Blu-Ray set that came out last year and want to pick-and-choose a few of his later flicks in high-def, you can now snag 
The third season of 
It’s not Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye, but Smithsonian Network’s 
For anyone who was a fan of the BBC miniseries Edge Of Darkness and was hoping that one day a louder, shallower, star-driven movie would one day be made of that excellent thriller, than the new 
If you want some good old-fashioned swashbuckling action, Columbia has opened the vaults and found a quartet of little-seen Robin Hood flicks that are worth a spin – 
Charlie Brooker had it pegged when he presented 
Yes, I’m getting a bit tired of all of the vampire films and TV shows, but at least 
With grim determination and a hound dog expression in tow, the greatest defense attorney of them all returns in 
The 5th season of 
Not as noir-riffic as their take on Batman, Bruce Timm & Paul Dini still delivered a definitive version of the Man of Steel that trumps all but the original Donner film – and it can all be yours with 
If last year’s 20th anniversary set featuring the collectible Crow T. Robot figurine was anything to go by, I’d recommend snatching your copy of the limited edition 
It’s quite rare to encounter a new sitcom that I not only like, but swiftly fall in love with. Well, I can now add 
Get the bad taste of the US remake out of your mouth by re-watching the second (and final) season of the original UK 
I got exactly what I expected from 
Lionsgate has just dropped a boatload of their catalogue titles into the high definition arena, with one big highlight for me. There was a time when it seemed 
No, I will not say it’s a good film, but there’s a lot of goofy fun to be found – at least my young nephew did – during 
A truly groundbreaking comic performer and television innovator that should be required viewing for anyone claiming to have an affinity for comedy gets a nice introductory set via 
If you go into 
Packed to the hilt with guest stars like Steve McQueen and Walter Matthau and hosted by its titular master of suspense, 
Maybe one day someone will find the closet that the real Robert Rodriguez has been locked in for the past few years. In the meantime, the Pod-riguez is delivering tepid kiddie cinema like 
If I had my druthers (which I do), I’d like to ignore that Torchwood ever existed as a Doctor Who spin-off and focus entirely on 
Animation makes the transition to live action with the made-for-TV 
Pull out all of the teeth of the original and make the sense of “Gotta keep the franchise churning” palpable, and you’ve got the not-terribly-interesting 
It’s a little bit House, a little bit Chicago Hope, and a little bit Grey’s Anatomy – it’s 
The lawyer with the golden briefs returns with the second volume of it’s 3rd season – otherwise known as 
I’ve become quite tired of Michael Cera, so I was pleased that 
In the mood for a middling little horror flick that’s at least an improvement over channel surfing? Wondering whatever happened to Thora Birch & Brittany Murphy? Well, you’ll find them both in 
What happens when you team up two of the most pigmentally-challenged humans on Earth and give them superpowers? You get Jim Gaffigan & Conan O’Brien (voiced by Gaffigan) in 
Guy Ritchie has been a scattershot writer/director over the years, but the film that put him on the map – 
Over the past few years, beginning with their landmark Complete Peanuts, Fantagraphics has set the standard for how collections of classic comic strips should be done. In addition to Peanuts and Dennis The Menace, they’ve been giving the A-level treatment to E.C. Segar’s sailor man supreme, Popeye. The third collection of Segar’s Thimble Theater has just hit – 
After the pain of the live action Grinch and Cat In The Hat, it’s with so, so much delight that the CG 
What kind of world do we live in when the new installment in the Mummy franchise is a better flick that the new Indiana Jones. It’s sad, but true that 
Like an ersatz Brady Bunch, two forty-something layabouts are forced to live together after their parents get married, leading to the kind of immature territorial tit-for-tats one would expect from ten-year-old 
After watching the disappointing first theatrical adaptation from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, I wasn’t exactly eager for 
It may be singing its swan song this year, but go back to the good ol’ days of 
Many saw the fourth season of 
I know there are some diehards out there, but I never enjoyed Joss Whedon’s ill-fated (and short-lived) TV space opera Firefly. It attempted to present an anachronistic future that relied heavily on the often awkward imitations of the camera techniques of the old spaghetti westerns, with characters that were difficult to like and a mission that was nebulous at best. Sadly, the show was neither fish nor fowl, and suffered from the creative burnout that eventually led the final season of Buffy to a disappointing end. Still, I know there are fans out there, and you’ll be happy with the entire 14 episode run, uncut and presented in anamorphic widescreen, is now available on Blu-Ray with the 3-disc 
Sgt. Carter’s frustration with a certain Marine comes to an end with the release of the fifth and final season of 
It’s largely a mindless actioner adapted from a videogame, but there’s a shameless exuberance to 
Brenda is long gone and Val is firmly entrenched in the 6th season of 
It’s a button pusher, but watching 
The fourth season of 
I’m not entirely sure who was clamoring for a new X-Files film outside of the die-hards and creator Chris Carter. It’s a shame that 
Oh, and X-Files fans will probably also want to pick up a copy of 
Wrap up the second season of 
The pop songs are lamentable, but John Powell’s wonderful score is more than enough reason to pick up the soundtrack to Disney’s new in-house, non-Pixar CG film 
Like some kind of weird time travel experiment, you can watch two different ages of William Conrad in the second volumes of both 
I’m almost happy that Louis C.K.’s HBO comedy Lucky Louie got cancelled, if only because he’s since rededicated himself to his caustically brilliant stand-up. He’s in fine form on his new album, 
The 5th season of 
If you’re looking for some last minute gifts for the comic fan in your life (or, you know, just yourself), an easy recommendation is the fine books put out by those preeminent comics fans/scholars at Twomorrows. First up is the latest volume in their artist profile series, 
Fast-forward Mad Men ahead a decade and move it out of the office and into the suburbs, and you’d probably get 
The lion of the law returns in the 2nd volume of the third season (whew!) of 
James Arness is back in the saddle as Marshal Matt Dillon in 
Ride ’em in, count ’em out – it’s 
Reformed juvies Pete, Julie, and Linc are back on the undercover beat in 
See, I remember watching Daily Show correspondent John Oliver on UK shows like Mock The Week long before he crossed the pond to take up residence on US TV. With that in mind, I was delighted when Comedy Central decided to give him a stand up spotlight with 
I love a good gadget. We all do. What better gadget is there for the average geek than one that potentially makes you look absurd when its in use? Such is the case with the 
If you thought that Mr. Show was an endearingly bizarre collection of surreality in sketch form, then – like me – you will revel in (and laugh at) Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher’s 
My only real disappointment with the Blu-Ray arrival of the uneven-but-still better-than The Batman first season of the animated 
After far too long an absence – and numerous health problems – Dana Carvey has returned with a brand new stand-up special – his first in almost 12 years – 
Showtime’s loveable sociopath returns for a second season, and I have to agree with most of the fans – there was something off about season 2 of 
Get a healthy reminder of what to avoid this election season by picking up the extended “Election Year Edition” of Oliver Stone’s flawed-but-riveting 
Why is it that we get bucketfuls of tripe on TV here in the US, but the UK gets a wonderfully quirky rom-sit-com like 
If only more lawyers were like Perry Mason and less like they actually are, the world would probably be a better place. Judge for yourself with the first volume of 
It’s 8 years later, and time and perspective make 
A new Fletch film seems permanently grounded, but both of the original Chevy Chase-starring vehicles starring Gregory McDonald’s investigative reporter – Fletch and Fletch Lives – are now available in 
Tweenie heads will combust with excitement as a pair of Disney flicks hit DVD – the big screen 
The doctor is back with a bunch of bizarre, incredibly rare maladies and the increasingly tedious grumpy manner in the fourth season of 
I’m all well and good with the Terminator franchise – I consider the first two films classics – but I found 3 to be a mediocre money grab and I simply can’t get into 
Yeah, that whole 
Like a delightful throwback to smallish, enjoyable flicks of the 40’s and 50’s, 
What started out as a promising show has become largely forgettable with the third season of 
You know, it’s the ninth season of 
Not since the feature film itself have I seen something so horribly, awkwardly designed as the new 
Raise your hands, anyone who voiced – or even felt – a desire for a sequel to The Scorpion King. You will now be shot. Yes, there is now