THE EPITAPH VOL. 60 -
GIANT-SIZED XMAS GIFT GUIDE 2022 - TV EDITION!
EUPHORIA: SEASONS 1-2 (2019 -2022) - HALO: SEASON ONE (2022) - DOOM PATROL: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON (2021) - TITANS: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON (2021) - PEACEMAKER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2022) - STAR TREK: PICARD - SEASON TWO (2022) - DEXTER: NEW BLOOD (2022)
Don't kid yourself my movie-loving friends, next week is Thanksgiving and Christmas is upon us right after that - you need to get your ass in gear and get those gifts bought and wrapped. If you're anything like me you might be considering a couple of TV sets for for your binge-happy family and friends, and what you will find below are a few gift ideas for the TV lovers in your life that I think are all solid ideas. We have a drug and sex fueled teen drama, twisted superhero shows galore, a solid chock full o' fan-service season of Trek, an XBOX property adapted quite nicely, and everyone favorite serial killer gets a truly worthy final season. So, if you're not too busy buying these for yourselves you had best get in the yuletide spirit and give the gift that keeps on giving - classic TV season sets!
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 1032 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
Cast: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Nika King, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, Maude Apatow, Javon Walton, Dominic Fike, Storm Reid, Austin Abrams.
HBO’s intoxicating drama series about teenagers navigating life, love, and addiction offers a heightened reality doused in drugs and sex, starring Zendaya as a drug-addicted teen fresh out of rehab who struggles to cope with her addiction while attempting to find happiness, often in the company of her trans best-friend and first-love Jules (Hunter Schafer). The series is a melodramatic minefield with a kick-ass soundtrack and a visual style that sets the series apart from anything else I have seen, it's super stylish, the drama is tasty, and it's edgy as fuck - to me this is sort of My So-Called Life by way of Kids. After hearing about the show for a few years I finally dove in and was startled just how much I loved the series, which gives a raw and unfiltered peek the sex lives, drug use and struggles of a group of teen friends and their often fucked-up families, all of which makes for fantastic watching.
Special Features:
- Euphoria in Conversation: Zendaya and Sam Levinson (4 min)
- Storyboard to Scene (1 min)
- Euphoria Scene Breakdown (2 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Zebaya (2 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Jacob Elordi (4 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Barbie Ferreira (3 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Hunter Schafer (3 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Alexa Demie (3 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Algee Smith (3 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Sydney Sweeney (3 min)
- Euphoria Unfiltered: Zendaya & Hunter Schafer (3 min)
- Enter Euphoria Part 1: Rue (7 min)
- Enter Euphoria Part 2: Jules (8 min)
- Euphoria: The Craft (4 min)
- Costumes of Euphoria 9 min)
- Enter Euphoria Episode Featurettes for Each Episode of Season 2
- Euphoria: Set Tour with Sydney Sweeney (3 min)
- Euphoria: All the Looks (7 min)
18 One Huur Episodes:
Season 1
Pilot
Stuntin’ Like My Daddy
Made You Look
Shook Ones Part II
’03 Bonnie & Clyde
The Next Episode
The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee When Depressed
And Salt the Earth Behind You
Special Episodes:
Trouble Don’t Last Always
F**k Anyone Who’s Not A Sea Blob
Season 2:
Trying to Get Into Heaven Before They Close the Door
Out of Touch
Ruminations: Big & Little Bullies
You Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can
Standing Still Like the Hummingbird
A Thousand Little Trees of Blood
The Theater and Its Double
All My Life, I Have Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name
HALO: SEASON ONE (2022)
5-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Showtime/CBS Home Entertainment/Paramount Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 455 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.00:1)
Cast: Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine, Natasha Culzac, Yerin Ha, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, Danny Sapani
The live-action adaptation of Xbox’s iconic game franchise Halo is a pretty fantastic sci-fi action series. I'm not much of a gamer and I have never played the game, nor am I familiar with the story arc of the games, so I am came into this as a newbie, and I am pleased to say that it still worked for me. In it mankind is engaged in a civil war, and our outermost space colonies are risk of being destroyed by an alien threat known as the Covenant. Mankind's last best hope are cybernetically enhanced “Spartan” marine super-soldiers, lead by the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber, American Gods), who have slowed the advance of the alien threat. I love the world-building here, the design and set-pieces are pretty cool, and the action is plenty bloody and intense, and the visuals are quite dazzling. The 5-disc set looks terrific and is loaded with over five-hours of bonus content, including extensive breakdowns for each episode and featurettes that explore the characters, costumes, vehicles, weapons, score and adaptation process. It's a pretty sick set of extras, certainly one of the most deep-diving sets of extras for a series I've seen recently. The Blu-ray set also features a set of 7 Collector's Art Cards and a slipcover.
Special Features:
- Dissecting the Battle of Madrigal (10 min)
- Becoming Spartans (8 min)
- Creating the Costumes of Halo (9 min)
- Weapons and Vehicles of Halo (10 min)
- The World of Halo (9 min)
- Adapting Halo (13 min)
- The Culture of The Covenant (10 min)
- The Lake of Eternal Life: A Song from Halo’s Score (3 min)
- The Making of Cortana (5 min)
- Halo The Series: Declassified 101 - 109 (240 min)
- Slipcase
Episodes:
Episode 101: "Contact”
Episode 102: "Unbound”
Episode 103: “Emergence”
Episode 104: “Homecoming”
Episode 105: “Reckoning”
Episode 106: “Solace”
Episode 107: “Inheritance”
Episode 108: “Allegiance”
Episode 109: “Transcendence”
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 529 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.20:1)
Director:
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, Joivan Wade, Timothy Dalton, Michelle Gomez
In season three of Doom Patrol DC's unlikeliest group of Super Heroes are dealing with the death of Dr. Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton) and the arrival of the time-travelling mystery woman Madame Rouge (Michelle Gomez). As usual the heart and soul of this seriously weird yet always deeply moving misfit band of superheroes is the characters; we have Cliff Steele aka Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby), Jane aka Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), and Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Joivan Wade). This season Negative Man journeys into space were he is impregnated by a space-slug, Victor struggles with being Cyborg, Jane's multiple personality struggles are intensified, and surprisingly Elasti-Girl takes on a more leadership role. The baddies are off-the-wall, we get Brain, Monsieur Mallah, The Sisterhood of Dada and others, but the most fascinating elements is the aforementioned Madame Rouge whose arc this season is the show-stopper. The series never fails to fascinate me with it's the misfit main cast, the surreal and wild turns it takes, the deep-diving catalog of oddball baddies, and the depth of emotion that's explored make this truly one of the best and most offbeat DC properties right now.
Special Features:
- DOOM PATROL SEASON 3: LIFE AFTER DEATH (All-New Featurette) (14 min)
- FILTER NOT INCLUDED: ROBOTMAN’S BEST LINES (All-New Featurette) (3 min)
- Digging Deep Into Doom Patrol: Introducing Madame Rouge (2 min)
- This Season On - The Doom Patrol (2 min)
- Georgia PSA (6 min)
- Digital Code
- Slipcase
10 ONE-HOUR EPISODES
Possibilities Patrol
Vacay Patrol
Dead Patrol
Undead Patrol
Dada Patrol
1917 Patrol
Bird Patrol
Subconscious Patrol
Evil Patrol
Amends Patrol
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 600 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Mame-Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Curran Walters Conor Leslie, Damaris Lewis, Joshua Orpin, Savannah Welch, Alan Ritchson, Minka Kelly. Jay Lycurgo
In the third season of DC's Titans Jason Todd's journey as Robin comes to a gruesome end when he attempts to apprehend Joker on his own. In the aftermath Batman (Iain Glen) leaves Gotham and calls in the Titans to take over the watch of Gotham. To that end Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), Wonder Girl (Conor Leslie), Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), Hawk (Alan Ritchson), Dove (Minka Kelly), Starfire (Anna Diop), Blackfire (Damaris Lewis), Superboy (Joshua Orpin), and Raven (Teagan Croft) return to Gotham, but the former Batgirl and current acting Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department is pretty wary of their return. It's revealed that somehow Jason Todd is not dead, he has returned as the ultra-violent Red Hood, and he's under the thrall of Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, but to what end. The ensemble super-hero team stuff works this season, the action stuff is well-done and oftentimes brutal, but that's occasionally side-tracked by the series penchant for dousing on angsty drama, but when it's firing on all-cylinders the series it's pretty great stuff. For me anytime Red Hood was onscreen was the best stuff we've got from the series, it's pretty comic accurate and looks bad-ass, and the way that he's being manipulated by Scarecrow is pretty interesting.
Special Features:
- TITANS EXPANDED (All-New Featurette) (8 min)
- TITANS: WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS (All-New Featurette) (8 min)
- Training a Metahuman (4 min)
- Inside the Character: Red Hood (3 min)
- Inside the Character: Barbara Gordon (3 min)
- Welcome to Gotham (3 min)
13 One-Hour Episodes
Barbara Gordon
Red Hood
Hank & Dove
Blackfire
Lazarus
Lady Vic
51%
Home
Souls
Troubled Water
The Call is Coming from Inside the House
Prodigal
Purple Rain
PEACEMAKER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2022) 2-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code:
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 480 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Cast: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji, Steve Agee, Robert Patrick
The first season of Peacemaker explores the continuing story of the titular character which John Cena reprises. In the aftermath of the events that's transpired in The Suicide Squad film we find him recovering from his should-have-killed-him injuries and escaping from the hospital before A.R.G.U.S. can put him back in the top-secret slammer. Eventually they catch up with him and he's given the option of incarceration or teaming-up with Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) as part of the super-secret black ops Project Butterfly. He chooses the latter natch, joing his new teammates ass-kicker Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland, Zombie Strippers), tactical support John Economos (Steve Agee, Brightburn), and co-leader Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks, Orange Is the New Black) - the daughter of A.R.G.U.S. head-honcho Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), as well as Peacemaker's super-violent sidekick Vigilante (Freddie Stroma, Extraterrestrial) who worships the vainglorious and jingoistic vigilante. The series explores how Peacemaker is the world's biggest douchebag, but he has an arc that softens that perception, sometimes through his interactions with his beloved pet-eagle Eagly. I love how his asshole-ish behaviors can be traced back to his super-villain father, the racist White Dragon, played with grumpy-venom by Robert Patrick (Terminator 2). I love Patrick in this role, in his older years he has a knotted-wood sort of face and his portrayal of the while supremacist father of Peacemaker is quite entertaining. The main ploy involves the oftentimes inept Project Butterfly attempting to rid the world of a butterfly-like alien parasite that is taking a foothold around the planet. Gunn's irreverent, scatological, and totally inappropriate humor as the series tackles a full-fledged alien invasion, sex with alien parasite infected hair-metal sluts in one hilarious episode, plus, battling his racist father on his full White Dragon costume, and battling an alien-cow, and a running joke about Economos dyed beard that is beaten into the ground in a most hilarious way. The first season is chock full of a gonzo comic book action and Gunn's patented inappropriateness there's a lot to love here, including a deep-diving hair metal soundtrack that rocks. Absolutely in-love with this first season of the series and looking forward to the next season. This actually tops both Titans and Doom Patrol as my new favorite DC streaming property, and I am pleased it's getting a physical media release, the show was shot in 4K and it looks stunning on Blu-ray, plus we get a bunch of brief but fun extras.
Special Features:
- Making the World Safe for Violence: Peacemaker's Team (12 min)
- Bad Daddy Issues: Peacemakers Search for Inner Peace (5 min)
- Gag Reel (9 min)
- Peacemaker: Under the Helmet (3 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: Peacemaker (1 min)
Project Butterfly Team Member: Adebayo (1 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: Harcourt (1 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: John Economos (1 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: Vigilante (1 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: Murn (1 min)
- Project Butterfly Team Member: Eagly (2 min)
- On Set with Steve Agee (2 min)
- Dramatic Comic Book Readings with Chukwudi Iwuji (2 min)
- Unlocking the Quantum Unfolding Storage Area (2 min)
- Peacemaker and Vigilante: BFFs (2 min)
- So, What Do You Really Think of Peacemaker? (2 min)
- Danielle Brooks Explains the DC Universe (2 min)
- Keep the Tweets (2 min)
- Dance for Peace (2 min)
- How to Properly Give a F*ck (1 min)
EIGHT ONE-HOUR EPISODES:
A Whole New Whirled
Best Friends, For Never
Better Goff Dead
The Choad Less Traveled
Monkey Dory
Murn After Reading
Stop Dragon My Heart Around
It’s Cow or Never
Peacemaker: The Complete First Season is available to own on Digital. Digital purchase allows consumers to instantly stream and download to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices. Digital movies and TV shows are available from various digital retailers including Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and others.
Label: CBS Home Entertainment/Paramount Pictures
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 473 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HA MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Orla Brady, Santiago Cabrera, Brent Spiner, Annie Wersching
Star Trek as a whole seems to be more popular now than ever, with multiple series currently in production and airing on Paramount+, and this iteration starring Patrick Stewart (Lifeforce) once more playing Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation is currently my favorite of the bunch. This season kicks things into high gear with Picard back in Starfleet Academy as Chancellor, and in the midst of an all out space battle in the first episode. Now I have friends who say this season is just a ST: TNG fan service/greatest hits, returning beloved characters from series like Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) - it's basically another season of TNG to behonest, but I am all for it. On top of that the big bads here are TNG nemesis all-stars - we get Q (John de Lancie) and the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). Now does all this make for a spectacular season? For me it did, I had a friggin' blast watching it with my kid the way my dad watched TNG with me, but I'm a nostalgic sort and get all gooey on the inside revisiting these characters again, so I might be a bit blind to the nostalgia-porn aspect of it all. Sure, the fan-service is crammed and there's a lot of lazy writing based on familiarity with already well-established characters and lore, but what the heck, I loved it. Looking forward to season three, which is said to be the final hurrah for the series, which will premier in February of '23. All 10-episodes arrive on a 3-disc Blu-ray set with over 90-minutes of extras including multiples in-depth featurettes, gag reel and deleted scenes.
Special Features:
- USS Stargazer (18 min)
- The Chateau (15 min)
- The Trial Is Over (12 min)
- Rebuilding the Borg Queen (11 min)
- Picard Props (12 min)
- Picard Passages (25 min)
- Gag Reel (4 min)
- Slipcover
DEXTER: NEW BLOOD (2021) Steelbook Edition 4-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Showtime/CBS Home Entertainment/Paramount Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 326 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Marcos Siega, Sanford Bookstaver
Cast: Michael C Hall, Jack Alcott, Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, Clancy Brown
I was a huge fan of the bulk of the original run of Dexter, but I think we can all agree that it went out with a whimper, the way they wrapped things up was limp and has never sat right with me and many others. When they announced a new season set 10 years after the finale of Dexter I had my doubts, but Dexter: New Blood won me over and maintained and intensity and right up to the finale, that finally wrapped things . Set in the fictional small town of Iron Lake, New York we catch up with Dexter (Michael C. Hall, HBO's Six Feet Under) has changed his identity and embraced his new life and stayed murder-free, he's working at a sporting goods store - he's even dating the town's sheriff (Julia Jones), which seems like a poor idea, but OK. However, with the unexpected arrival of his teen son Harrison (Jack Alcott) who has tracked him down and some small-town murder mayhem his Dark Passenger gets the itch to kill once more. Hall still has Dexter down to a science, the man was made for this role, and I loved having 10 more episodes to watch with him portraying the serial-killing avenger. Add to that a nasty new nemesis (Clancy Brown, Pet Sematary 2) who is a sick and twisted killer of women, plus a nosy true crime podcaster named Molly (Jamie Chung, Lovecraft Country), and you're in binge-watch heaven here. The extras on this set are slim but not unappreciated, a handful of 2-min EPK style featurettes, and a more meaty but still too-short half-hour featurette exploring the sets, themes and cast. The ending of the season might rubs a few the wrong way but I thought it was a fantastic finale that stayed true to the character and also showed some evolution as Dexter becomes a father of a teen and tries to do right, like Harry would have. I also loved having Jennifer Carpenter (Quarantine) back in some form, kind of filling in like Harry did in the original series. This four-disc Steelbook Edition set looks sexy as hell, and you get double bonus Christmas points for gifting in a collectible Steelbook set. If you're buying for a die-Dexter fan who for some reason doesn't own any of the seasons on Blu-ray might I recommend buying the Dexter: The Complete Series (2006-2013) + Dexter: New Blood (2022) 28-disc set - but only if they've been REAL good this year, or at least $80 good - links below.
Special Features:
- Why Now? (2 min)
-Dissecting Dexter: New Blood (2 min)
- Dissecting Dexter: New Blood (2 min)
- All Out on the Table - Spoilers ahead! (30 min)
