New DVDs include 'Futurama: Bender's Game,' 'Reaper: Season One'

"Futurama: Bender's Game"

Combining elements of a planetary fuel crisis, time travel and "Dungeons and Dragons," "Futurama: Bender's Game" ($29.99, Fox) finds a way to appeal to the nerd in all of us while somehow maintaining its cool. This feature-length film takes the Planet Express crew to a medieval universe created by Bender (who aimed high after realizing he was great in every way except his lack of imagination) on a mission to destroy evil mogul Mom's dark matter fuel conglomerate.

As the crew members adapt to the alternative identities they take on during the adventure, they must also deal with issues affecting their everyday lives, such as Leela's anger issues, Bender's chronic kleptomania and a shocking paternity revelation for one member of the crew.

The special features include commentary from creator David X. Cohen on "Dungeons and Dragons' " influence on the series, outtakes and an interactive Futurama Genetics Laboratory (which is exactly what it sounds like).

By combining familiar themes from the series with even more familiar pop-culture themes (the epic battle against Mom looks suspiciously like the final battle of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise), "Futurama: Bender's Game" makes a story set in the distant future that moves to the distant past seem so, well, 2008.

-- Deborah Todd, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer

"Reaper: Season One"

So much of The CW's "Reaper" ($39.98, Lionsgate) makes you laugh out loud, it's a crying shame the DVD extras are devilishly skimpy.

The five-disc set follows the misadventures of Sam (Bret Harrison), a slacker (college made him "sleepy") who discovers on his 21st birthday that his career path already has been chosen for him. Seems his parents made a deal with the devil (a gleefully scary Ray Wise) before he was born, and his soul is not his own. He is doomed to work for the CEO of the underworld, chasing down dangerous escaped souls with the help of his goofball best friends from work, Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez).

Series co-creators Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters, plus executive producer Deborah Spera, provide commentary for the excellent pilot, with occasional cries in the background from Butters' 4-month-old baby. We discover that it rained a lot in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the pilot was shot, and that somewhere in that city there is a working hospital with an entire floor devoted to television and feature-film background sets.

Pilot director Kevin Smith also serves as series consultant and, according to the producers, added his own impromptu touches to the pilot.

Other than that, there's a weak gag reel and a deleted-scenes option.

-- Maria Sciullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer

"Spin City: The Complete Season One"

If you're trying to wean yourself off of months of election coverage, season one of Spin City" ($39.99, Shout! Factor) might be the perfect place to start.

This comedy about the New York City mayor's office, starring Michael J. Fox as Deputy Mayor Michael Flaherty, offers the right blend of smart, goofy and downright crude humor. Barry Bostwick plays the aloof Mayor Randall M. Winston Jr., who is constantly tripping the wires of political incorrectness, leaving the office and Flaherty scrambling to pick up the pieces.

For hard-core fans, the four-disc set is loaded with features, including running commentary for seven episodes by creators Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, interviews with all of the main cast members and highlights from a seminar at The Paley Center for Media, where Fox and Goldberg discuss the genesis of the show.

-- Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer

"Primeval: Volume One"

BBC America aired the first two seasons of "Primeval" in one burst and those episodes now come to DVD as "Primeval: Volume One" ($49.98, BBC). It's a decent sci-fi series -- certainly better than many shows on Sci Fi Channel -- about a team of researchers who discover dinosaurs and other ancient creatures that make it to the present day through space-time anomalies.

The boxed set includes commentaries on two episodes and two featurettes. Each runs about 40 minutes and takes viewers behind the scenes to explain how the show is put together with an eye toward the show's special effects.

-- Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV editor

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