New Spy DVDs Out This Week

It's a big week for spy TV DVDs.  First up, from Warner Home Video comes Chuck: The Complete Second Season, available on DVD and Blu-ray.  Yep, the one with that cool For Your Eyes Only-inspired cover art.  As previously reported, the six-disc set comes loaded with extras like webisodes, deleted scenes, a gag reel and four featurettes: "Truth, Spies and Regular Guys: Exploring the Mythology of Chuck," "Dude in Distress: Explore Some of the Season's Best Action Sequences," "Chuck: A Real-Life Captain Awesome's Tips For Being Awesome" and "John Casey Presents: So You Want to Be a Deadly Spy?" (More on that one here.) Additionally, for a limited time only, the set will include two pairs of 3D glasses and the 3D version of the episode "Chuck Versus the Third Dimension." As the only major spy series currently airing on network television, Chuck is a big deal.  All spy fans should check it out. 

Of course, basic cable offers a wider spectrum of spy entertainment.  And the very best of that, Burn Notice, gets repackaged this week as Burn Notice: Season 1 and 2 DVD Set.  Beyond merely bundling Season 1 (reviewed here) and Season 2 at a bargain price, however, the new set from Fox also boasts a "FREE download of the first episode of Season 3, plus a first look at Season 3.5, premiering on 1.28 on USA."  I suppose their wording makes it deliberately unclear whether or not that first look at Season 3.5 (only weeks away!) is actually a feature included on disc in this set, or part of that free download.  I suspect the latter, though.  Either way, this re-release is the perfect way to catch up on my favorite contemporary spy series from the begining!  Really, if you haven't seen this one, you're missing out.  It's a great series, and it only gets better as it goes on.  And, did I mention, it's coming back at the end of the month! The only downside here is that this two season bundle isn't available on Blu-ray; Season 2 was issued on its own on Blu-ray as well as standard def.

Rounding out this week's TV releases, in addition to Cable and Network, we have Cancelled.  The show that's probably most famous to spy fans simply for not being The Saint (it's a long story; read it here) gets a complete series release: The Philanthropist: The Complete Series includes every episode of the rather lacklustre James Purefoy show that morphed out of his attachment to a new Saint series, from some of the same producers.  Like the famous Simon Templar, Purefoy's "famous" Teddy Rist is a wealthy, debonaire globetrotting adventurer who helps those in need.  This pale imitation is a sad reminder of what might have been, and what a great Saint Purefoy would have made.  Sigh...