TV shows landing on DVD include 'Burn Notice,' 'Army Wives'

"Burn Notice: Season One"

Miami never looked so good as it does in USA Network's "Burn Notice" ($49.98, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment), about a spy forced in from the cold and back to the heat of his hometown, in all of its sunbathed beauty. Beyond the color and scantily clad women, there's a winning performance by star Jeffery Donovan as Michael Weston. Despite his MacGyver-ish ingenuity, he receives the spy's pink slip -- a "burn notice" -- and sets out to discover who did this to him while using his skills as a PI.

He's helped by ex-Navy SEAL Sam (scene-stealer Bruce Campbell) and ex-girlfriend and former IRA operative Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar). Michael also is thrown back into contact with his shrewish mom, played to the hilt by Sharon Gless. "Burn's" shtick is freeze frames, often accompanied by the star's narration, and Donovan's charm goes far here and elsewhere. His co-stars and the setting seal the deal.

The two-disc set holds 11 episodes, including the two-hour season finale. Among the brief special features are a funny character montage and audition footage of Donovan and Anwar.

-- Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entertainment editor

"The Boondocks: The Complete Second Season"

The first season of the animated series based on Aaron McGruder's award-winning comic strip "The Boondocks" was only intermittently funny. The animation, the writing and pacing fell far short of the source material's genius, making it an ignoble failure that still managed to win a Peabody.

Fortunately, McGruder and his team course-corrected for the second season, although the animation remains too steeped in manga-like cliches for this reviewer's taste. At least the big-eyed characterizations don't get in the way of truly inspired laughs this time around. The writing in the second season, though painfully puerile at times, is audacious and fearless like great comedy should be.

Actress Regina King continues to provide the voices of adolescent brothers Huey and Riley Freeman, two reluctant inner-city black boys living in the Chicago suburbs with Grandad (voiced by John Witherspoon). The three-disc boxed set of "The Boondocks: The Complete Second Season" ($49.95, Sony) contains all 13 officially released episodes plus two never-televised episodes that mercilessly skewered "anti-black" programming at Black Entertainment Television. Behind-the-scenes features include interviews with the actors behind the voices and raw but hilarious audio commentaries on the banned episodes. It would not shock me if BET ended up suing the makers of "The Boondocks" anyway.

Still, the whole point of "The Boondocks" is to satirize different segments of the black community in a way that is guaranteed to make most "responsible" black folks uncomfortable. The humor is edgy and profane. It also features gratuitous use of the n-word and every other gutter profanity. Unlike the televised version, these episodes are uncensored. Nothing is bleeped out. Every laugh feels illicit -- and there are plenty of laughs here, whether you want to give in to it or not.

-- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer

"Jericho: The Second Season"

A much more comprehensive, extras-laden release than the season-one edition, "Jericho: The Second Season" ($29.99, CBS DVD) gives fans what they want: an alternate ending to the series finale and lots of behind-the-scenes minutiae in two featurettes.

Given that the "closure" ending that aired after the show was canceled earlier this year didn't really live up to its billing, it's not surprising to learn the show's producers resisted CBS's entreaties to film a "in case the show is canceled" ending. The alternate ending, included on the DVD, doesn't offer many more loose ends.

"Nut Job" is a well-edited, eight-minute feature that chronicles the fan campaign that got the show renewed a year ago, complete with cast and crew offering their thanks. "Rebuilding Jericho" includes interviews with the cast, writers, producers and crew members about their efforts to re-launch the series and the changes required by a shortened, smaller-budget second season.

Other extras include deleted scenes and commentary on all seven episodes.

-- Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV editor

"Army Wives: First Season"

Watch this and you'll care about the four women and one man married to dyed-in-the-wool U.S. Army soldiers in "Army Wives: The Complete First Season" ($39.95, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment).

The show evokes empathy for their daily struggles and sympathy for their loneliness, but that's easy for "Grey's Anatomy" producer Mark Gordon.

Set at fictional Fort Marshall in wisteria-drenched Charleston, S.C., "Army Wives" is believable and well-acted -- Kim Delaney from "NYPD Blue" and Catherine Bell from "JAG" lead the cast. The show features an interesting array of subplots: surrogate motherhood, a hostage takeover, a post lockdown after ammo is stolen, a spate of marriage troubles and "sex talk" on a call-in radio show.

I can't say how authentic they are, but the characters resemble neighbors or members of a 12-step recovery program. Some samples: Denise (Bell), a major's wife, has a son who is a dangerous abuser. Psychiatrist Roland Burton (Sterling K. Brown) is dealing with his wife's post-traumatic stress disorder. Roxy (Sally Pressman) -- bartender, single mom and child of an alcoholic, neglectful mother - just married her private-first-class boyfriend after knowing him less than a week.

Sometimes the writers got carried away with the sex scenes, but I found it easy to know these people. As in actual life, their emotional messiness lumps up the day-to-day veneer of order and duty.

-- M. Tinsley-Crabb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)