New Spy DVDs Out This Week

The big new release this week is Burn Notice: Season Two, on DVD and Blu-Ray from Fox. Regular readers will recall that I chose Burn Notice: Season One as the best spy TV DVD of last year, and the show just got even better in its second outing! Extras this time include commentaries, lots of deleted scenes, a featurette on series creator Matt Nix (who I'm eager to learn more about), a gag reel and an Easter Egg called "Boom Notice." (Presumably that's a compilation video of all the show's explosions, which would be in keeping with some of the lesser Season One featurettes.)


Out this week in the UK is Network's new DVD of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete First Series. Season One of this excellent show (which boasts impressively high production values) includes the downbeat, unsung Victorian espionage classic "The Dixon Torpedo." This episode stars Ronald Hines as Jonathan Pryde (sort of a proto-Harry Palmer), an "enquiry agent" recruited by the Admiralty and the Home Office to take care of their counter-espionage for them because "gentlemen don't spy on each other!" Pryde is one of many Victorian and Edwardian detectives featured on this anthology series. Each week features a different author's detective, and the stars include Donald Pleasence and John Neville (in two of the best episodes). For fans of Sherlock Holmes, this is a must!