Author: Robert Greenberger

Okay, I get it. The West Wing is a fantasy. But it’s not just a liberal fantasy television series. It is a series that celebrated patriotic Americans who all thought they were working to create a better country. The staffers in the west wing of the White House and their president strove to bring their best efforts, and as we watch, we see them try and fail, we see them try and succeed, and we see them try and not get everything they wanted. There was no breast-beating or pouting on national television.

The 1999-2006 series celebrated patriotism and intelligence, two things lacking from way too many elected officials today, making us long for the Bartlet Administration. Long overdue, Warner Home Entertainment has chosen the show’s 25^th anniversary to finally release The West Wing: The Complete Series on Blu-ray.

Created by Aaron Sorkin, using leftover material from his entertaining The American President, he created a rich, varied cast of characters. With producer/director Thomas Schlamme, they cast one of the finest ensembles you could hope to find on American prime time television. They oversaw the first four seasons before burnout and drug problems led Sorkin to step aside, with Schlamme with him. The fifth season saw Executive Produce John Wells step in, and it was an uneven season, but it found its footing. Seasons six and seven introduced fresh characters as the next election loomed, and it found new energy, ending on a high note.

Even its weakest episodes were stronger than most of its network competition, rivaling the upcoming Golden Age of cable as it competed with series like The Sopranos. We saw the struggles to run a country each week, along with their horrible work/life balance. Their little personal time often involved attempts at romance, which gave rise to many wonderful relationships.

We also learned a lot about how the government works and issues large and small. Sorkin would have people bring him the boring, and he somehow would have it turned into fascinating badinage and debate.

The show has endured, not just through cable and now streaming accessibility. Still, it spawned the first series rewatch podcast, The West Wing Weekly, and has spawned numerous mini-reunions for good causes (most recently, on the Emmy Awards). The show’s enduring nature and its influence over many worthy causes were also celebrated in What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service, written by two of its stars, Melissa Fitzgerlad and Mary McCormack.

The 156 episodes, across 28 discs, carry over the 20+ commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, unaired scenes, gag reels, and more from the DVD editions. The 1080p transfers are sharp and clear, with a fine DTS-HD MA audio track. Alas, only English captions are available, which I think is a missed opportunity, as there was a lack of anything new to celebrate 25 years (the live recreation of an episode done as a Democratic fundraiser would have been welcome). The plastic cases cram the discs in place and can be easily dislodged, which is another shame.

In spring 1994, I was reading a series of articles in The New York Times about pilots for the forthcoming TV series, and they profiled a series featuring six twnetysomethings trying to adjust to adulthood. It sounded promising so my wife and I sampled the NBC series the following September.

And Friends has been running somewhere on television ever since. It is now 30 years old and to celebrate, Warner Home Entertainment recently released Friends: The Complete Series, debuting on 4k Ultra HD for the first time. Every episode is included along with a variety of bonus features making this an ideal addition to your video library.

What’s interesting about the series today is how it has endured despite aspects no longer appearing as fresh. The creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, cleverly found six types that could bounce off one another with heart and humor. With director James Burrows handling the pilot, all the elements from the first episode were there and remained in place for the next decade.

Largely set in two adjacent apartments in Manhattan, and their favorite coffeeshop, the six worked to live with running gags about their jobs (or not having jobs). They never seemed to worry about paying the rent or utilities, so their struggles were more about relationships—finding them or keeping them. They loved and lost, laughed and cried, and turned to one another for support. Over the course of ten seasons, we saw two couples form, one long-simmering and filled with pathos, while the other unexpected and funny. By the time they turned the lights out in an hour-long finale, they had become part of the national dialogue.

The show endures because the character relationships feel real and their affection for one another is evident from when Monica’s friend Rachel turns up in her wedding dress, having run away from her wedding and is immediately adopted by the others.

Wisley, the showrunners, plotted out the character arcs for each season well before writing and filming began, serving the characters first, then the gags. This may be one of the reasons why it is among the series I continually find my high schoolers watching via streaming.

The series has 23 triple-layered 4K discs and two dual-layered Blu-rays for the special features. They’re tidily packaged in a nice plastic case that fits snugly on the shelf. The 2160p transfers, framed at 1.78:1, look just fine, and as you remember, the series back in the CRT days. That said, the color is oddly saturated throughout and look just a wee bit off, enough to nag at veteran fans.

The 4K discs come complete with a fine DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, serving the dialogue and music just swell.

The Special Features are mostly taken from previous Blu-ray and DVD editions of the seasons such as the audio commentaries with executive producers Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane.

On the first bonus disc, we get a new Friends: Through the Peephole (15:18), hosted by Warner Bros. archivist Matt Truex, examining some of the 2,000 props and costumes. There is also the less interesting trivia contest How Well Do You Know Your Friends? (6:37).

Each season carries over the other Blu-ray extras such as trailers, music videos, shorts spotlighting the series’ international appeal and other topics.

The second disc contains extras imported from seasons 6-10, so we have gag reels, Gunther’s chats about each subsequent season, and various Friends appearances on talk shows plus the Extended Broadcast Episodes – “The One Where Rosita Dies,” “The One Where They All Turn Thirty,” “The One with Joey’s New Brain” and “The One with the Truth About London.”

I suppose the Max reunion special should be here, but it isn’t, which is a shame. Overall, though, it’s nice to have the entire series in one place, so you can watch at your leisure and not worry about the show vanishing from your favorite streaming service or cable channel. As promised in the catchy title song, one of the last to chart on top 40 radio, they’ll be there for you.

From 1973-1985, two generations of Saturday morning television were raised on the exploits of DC Comics’ stellar array of heroes on ABC’s Super Friends. While the exact title changed through the years, the Hanna-Barbera series continued to display heroes and heroines as models of truth, justice, and the American Way. There are many who, having grown up on the show, revere it. Others, those of us outgrowing that weekend ritual, found it a pale comparison to the four0-cloro source material.

I admit, I had a disdain for the series, what with its limited animation and prohibition against the good guys subduing the bad guys with their fists. As a result, you must be a fan of a certain age to find the arrival of the Super Friends complete series DVD box set a welcome treat.

There were 93 actual episodes over the dozen years, and it was a launch pad for The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Over the years, the core superheroes supported one another as they tackled terrestrial and inter-dimensional threats in the form of invading aliens and unearthed creatures.

Initially, Wendy and Marvin (and Wonder Dog) supported them for audience identification purposes, but they were quickly replaced by the teen aliens Zan and Jayna, and their pet monkey, Gleek, who had powers. They gave us the cry, “Wonder Twin powers, activate!” which caught on decades after the show ended.

Picking up where the Filmation DC cartoons left off, Ted Knight provided the initial bombastic narration, replaced by Bill Woodson. Much of the Filmation voice talent moved to the Hall of Justice. They were accomplished by the stellar array of voice artists from the day, from Frank Welker to Casey Kasem. We even got Adam West back as Batman for a season.

Most Saturday morning animated action was hamstrung by parent groups and overly worried networks, inhibiting the among of imitative action that could be depicted. You can watch the strictures loosen as we get to the end of the 1970s. By the 1980s, the series fully embraced the source material as the Legion of Doom as supplanted by the arrival of Darkseid and his Apokoliptian emissaries. (Of course, that supported the Kenner Super Powers action figures, but don’t tell ABC)

In the 1978–1979 season, we had your typical adventure coupled with Challenge of the Superfriends, introducing the Legion of Doom (Bizarro, Black Manta, Brainiac, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Lex Luthor, The Riddler, The Scarecrow, Sinestro,  and Toyman). We were also introduced to multicultural heroic additions: Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, and Samurai.

Building on the newspaper comic strip of a similar name, the series morphed into The World’s Greatest SuperFriends. Another original character, El Dorado, was introduced in 1980. These newer heroes could also be found in the E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon Super Friends comic. After a year off, the series was back as SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show with a limited number of familiar heroes and villains.

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians incarnation arrived in 1985, with Cyborg and Firestorm now in the mix. On the opposing side, we were introduced to The Joker, The Penguin, the Royal Flush Gang, and Felix Faust. This season produced its finest episode, the first televised origin for Batman.

Watching these all these years later, you can occasionally wince but also feel the same thrill kids must have felt seeing their favorite heroes band together. The episodes look fine on a DVD (a Blu-ray edition also exists).

The episodes stand alone, without any Special Features.

The Mythmakers
By John Hendrix
Abrams Fanfare/224 pages/$24.99

In 1976, SUNY-Binghamton offered a comparative literature course focusing on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Unfortunately, I was a freshman, and it was a senior seminar, so I ignored it (my clever wife ignored that prerequisite and took it as a freshman anyway). Thanks to this graphic novel, I finally feel like I took the course.

Tolkien’s influence these days looms largest over Western literature with his reinvention of High Fantasy and worldbuilding that has been imitated but never surpassed ever since. Lewis’s work is deemed more Young Adult these days, and his religious works, other than The Screwtape Letters, have dropped out of the mainstream. The film adaptations of his Narnia novels have paled in comparison to the Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Although Greta Gerwig’s Netflix take on Narnia may be cause for hope.)

Hancock mixes prose and graphic storytelling to trace the backgrounds and lives of Lewis and Tolkien until they met at Oxford. Both had their share of personal travails and challenges growing into adulthood and both used literature as a balm. It’s no surprise, then, that they would meet and bond over their passion for Norse Mythology.

With a Lion and a Wizard acting as avatars, we are walked through their lives, loves, and letters, watching the famed Inklings form then fracture during the 1940s. By then, Lewis had written his best-selling space trilogy and become a nationally recognized voice on the radio. Tolkien had the surprise smash success of The Hobbit to sustain him while he stalled in writing a sequel.

Hendrix shows how they admired and supported one another, even after their careers and lives diverged and the friendship waned. Even late in life, Lewis loved and supported Tolkien from afar, being the one to nominate him for the Novel Prize in Literature.

Hendrix provides tons of context for what the state of imaginative literature was like at the time, but he wisely takes the deeper dives and places them as appendixes, letting readers choose to flip to the back for more or carry on. Reading it either way is fine, but it works best by reading it all. His artwork is pleasing and well-suited to the subject matter.

The review copy provided was in black and white, but one glance at the color sample suggests this will be a well-received volume. Anyone who appreciates one or both authors will do well to add this to their library. And for teachers like me, this is an excellent distillation of the power of myth and its influence through the centuries.

When DC Comics unleashed the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, it had two missions: celebrating 50 years of the publisher and cleaning the continuity, making the comic books more accessible to entice new readers. Throughout 2024, a year shy of the maxiseries’ 40^th anniversary, the three-part direct-to-disc project was cleaning up or clearing out the revised continuity of Warner Animation’s DC Comics universe.

Part three arrived in late July and is welcome after the deeply disjointed and disappointing Part Two. Screenwriter Jim Krieg couldn’t seem to figure out how to pace this middle section but recovered for a stronger, but still flawed, finale. What should have been a fast-paced story that slows down to give key characters their moment continues to focus too much on one set of characters, too much talking, and not enough fun scenes chock full of heroes we’re not likely to see otherwise.

We left off with the Anti-Monitor (Ato Essandoh) revealed while his counterpart endlessly chatted with the Spectre, the Wrath of God, who just stood around. As a result, as each parallel universe collapsed, there was no real sense of impending doom. And once again, we split up our heroes to go off and do things that are disjointed, and why are the Bat-Family and John Constantine the ones to explore the origins of the Universe when it should have been the Green Lanterns or Hawkman?

This time around, we get some nice visual touches, starting with a glimpse of the Super Friends and a welcome last bit of business between Batman (Kevin Conroy) and the Joker (Mark Hamill).

As promised by the original comics and the cover to the DVD, out now from Warner Home Entertainment. Supergirl (Meg Donnelly) dies, but it lacks the emotional oomph, given her weak introduction and use in the previous installment.

There are a lot of questions left unanswered, and ultimately, given a few hundred minutes total to play with, this should have been wonderful, and certainly should have been better. It’s a whimper of an end and a squandered opportunity.

The movie is available digitally and in various packages, from Steelbook to combo packs. Or you could wait for the inevitable three-film package. The 2160p Ultra High Definition version looks pretty spiffy, with strong special effects and color, although it also highlights the limited animation. The accompanying DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio is up to the task.

There are just two Special Features starting with A Multiverse of Inspiration (9:23) where Executive producer Butch Lukic, director Jeff Wamester, producer/writer Jim Krieg, DC Group editor Katie Kubert, and DC archivist Benjamin LeClear chat away. John and John: Stewart and Constantine (8:21) feature much the same crew talking about two characters who get outsized roles in the animated fare.

Apple+ debuted in November 2019 but needed a hit show to become synonymous with the streaming service, and they had to wait until August 14, 2020, when Ted Lasso arrived. The series features a fresh take on a character created by Jason Sudeikis for NBC Sports’ 2013 coverage of the Premier League. His then-girlfriend Olivia Wilde suggested two years later that he do more with the character, but it took until 2019 before a series was green-lit.

Long before I subscribed, everyone was buzzing about the show—about how original it was, how charming and funny it was, and how brilliant the cast was. When we finally added it to our programming mix, it was the first show my wife and I watched. We binged our way through the three seasons in a matter of weeks and were delighted. For a change, everyone was uniform in their beliefs and all correct.

Warner Home Entertainment released Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way, a Blu-ray set of the complete 34-episode series, last week, so you don’t need to subscribe to enjoy it.

The fish out of water concept carried the first season as Ted and his partner Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) were hired by Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) to come run AFC Richmond, which she won in a divorce settlement from her husband Rupert Mannion (Anthony Stewart Head). She wanted to ruin the team to spite her ex, but within weeks, she changed her mind as Lasso’s methods turned the team into competitors.

Lasso’s approach was a gosh, darn it approach, rarely raising his voice and never really cursing, but offering bromides and homilies to one and all. He listened to everyone from team president Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) to kit man Nathan “Nate” Shelley (Nick Mohammed), hiring the latter as a coach.

His rag-tag football team (soccer to you, Yanks) was filled with the arrogant, the wanna-be’s, the egotists, and those who just wanted to play. All felt betrayed by Lasso’s hiring so it took time, but one by one, he won them over and the joy of the show is watching how they all fall under his spell, becoming better people for the effort.

What’s impressive in watching the series straight through, as opposed to being doled out from 2020 to 2023 is to see how rich the entire cast is, with brilliant casting all the way through. We cheer as aging veteran Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) accepts his body can’t keep up and moves to become a coach and wonderful uncle to Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield) while his girlfriend Keely Jones (Juno Temple) blossoms as a marketing guru, running her own firm. Across the seasons, everyone gets a moment to shine and a story arc to pursue. Still, some of the best moments are when the cast come together, such as season two’s “Carol of the Bells” (written to fill in when the season was expanded from 10 to 12 episodes).

One of the joys of streaming, more so than cable, is that run times are whatever is needed. Episodes can go from 29 to 78 minutes, usually in the 30-40 minute range. Stories can breathe, and characters can be fleshed out, giving the performers a chance to shine. It is filled with wonderful actors given strong material to work with, so it can range from the silly howling of the Diamond Dogs to Lasso’s struggles with panic attacks.

While the series focuses on football, it addresses far more universal themes about love and loss, what it means to be a competitor, and the sacrifices one makes for family.

The 1080p transfer is excellent, and the Blu-ray set comes complete with a “Believe” mini-poster. The set lacks any Special Features, which is a shame.

Young Hag and the Witches Quest
By Isabel Greenberg
272 pages/Amulet Books/$24.99

The Arthurian legends wax and wane through the years and 2024 is shaping up to be a year of revival. Specifically, on Tuesday, Lev Grossman’s new novel The Bright Sword, will tell of the days after Camelot fell. It follows the May release of this charming and witty graphic novel, also set in the years after Arthur.

The legend has morphed and changed and been retconned since the first stories were set in print. Some know the tales first from Disney’s 1963 Sword in the Stone and Theodore White’s Once and Future King. Others know it from the BBC young adult series Merlin or, more likely, Monty Python and the Holy Grail or its Broadway adaptation Spamalot. As a result, conflicting details have emerged giving contemporary writers license to be freewheeling with the various sources of material.

Here, Greenberg, a British creator who has been telling fanciful stories for years, tackles a generation after Arthur. Young Hag arrives to complete the required Mother, Maiden, and Crone triumvirate, and we discover that the Ancient Crone is an aged Morgan le Fay. As they journey across England, stories are told, cleverly filling readers in on what came before. Or at least the broad strokes. It’s interesting to see what was kept, what was ignored, and what was modified.

It’s a time when the magic, like Arthur, has gone, but the wicked remain. Babies have been stolen, and changelings have been left in their place. Young Hag is determined to help a few who have been victimized. This leads them to the Goblin Market, and from there, we are off and running.

I personally find Greenberg’s art very off-putting, spoiling my enjoyment of the clever writing and sharp dialogue. She does an excellent job with her characters and leavens the drama and action with wry humor.

The storytelling is wonderful, coupled with a fine limited color palette.

Greenberg nicely takes her time telling the story, letting it breathe and providing the scope an epic quest deserves. This will be a welcome book for young adults who know nothing about the Knights of the Round Table or are curious about what happens next.

The surprise success of Ghostbusters: Afterlife breathed new life into a moribund franchise, giving us a new generation of supernatural sleuths to cheer for. It was very touching to see the original quartet (Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and the late Harold Ramis) suit up one more time and kick ghostly ass. But, it was clear the torch was being passed to Egon Spengler’s daughter, Callie) Carrie Coon, and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), along with their science teacher Gary Gooberson (Paul Rudd). With her inheritance of the original Ghostbusters HQ, the stage was set.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the result, and the film, out now on streaming and disc, is a hodge-podge of characters, concepts, and conundrums that are so filled with characters the emotional undercurrents are given the shortest of shrift.

Phoebe is clearly the genius, the true heir to Egon, but her youthfulness gets her sidelined by Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), who has harbored a grudge against the team, regardless of lineup, since the 1980s. She is also struggling and uncertain of Gary’s role in their family since he and Callie appear romantically involved, but little is said.

Her thread has the most interesting possibilities, especially as she begins playing chess with Melody (Emily Alyn Lind), a ghost. Unfortunately, it is ignored for large stretches as the film tries to service everyone else, including the original team.

Instead, Stantz acquires an ancient artifact from Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani), who has ignored his family’s history in favor of being a slacker. This artifact contains the trapped spirit of Garraka, an ancient being who wanted to destroy life on Earth. Conveniently, he has started to assert his control just as the containment unit has reached capacity and a new home for the trapped ghostly spirits is located.

Here’s where the story starts to fall apart. We have no idea how Garraka began to assert his control over people or how he knew to target Melody, using her as a pawn. Some new pseudo-science is introduced at  Dr. Winston Zeddemore’s upgraded facility in New Jersey, which also brought back Lucky Domingo (Celeste O’Connor) and introduced us to Dr. Lars Pinfield (James Acaster). See? It’s pretty packed. And that’s before we mention the return of Janine Melitz (Annie Potts) and Podcast (Logan Kim) or the unnecessary addition of Dr. Hubert Wartzki (Patton Oswalt).

The film looks great and is stuffed with callbacks to the first two films in the franchise, along with the reappearance of Slimer and Ghostly Librarian. But no one really gets a satisfying story arc; everything is done with shorthand, and believe it or not, some expected moments never come to pass.

It’s entertaining enough, but it lacks the charm and originality that set these films apart. Some of that can be blamed on Jason Reitman, whose father created the series. He and incoming director Gil Kenna share the script credit, so the blame falls to them for a lack of storytelling discipline, which is in favor of more and more spectacle. The $201.7 million worldwide box office may be the scariest part of the film, likely dooming the franchise from moving forward for some time.

Thankfully, the 4K Ultra HD transfer looks spectacular. Every icicle, proton beam, and ghostly reflection looks amazing on the home screen. The 2160p is sharp and amazing with an equally impressive 1080p Blu-ray, part of the Combo Pack, along with the Digital HD code.

The Dolby Atmos audio is up to the task of matching the superb visuals.

The Blu-ray offers all the Special Features and, while plentiful, feels more perfunctory than celebratory. We have  Audio Commentary – With director/co-writer Gil Kenan (also on the 4K); Return to the Firehouse (21:00)  Busting: Capturing the Ghosts of Frozen Empire (11:00) ; Easter Eggs Unleashed (7 minutes); Manifesting Garraka (3:00); New York, New Gear (7:00); Welcome to the Paranormal Discovery Center (4:00); Knowing the Score (7:00); and Deleted & Extended Scenes (9:00).