"Director: David Grossman"

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Complete Season 3 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  Action-packed Season Three develops major characters and plot lines brewing over the last couple of years. The Mayor, this season's major baddie, wants to become an invincible demon by slaughtering everyone at Sunnydale High's graduation ceremony but he's going to torture them all by giving his speech first. Bad-girl vampire-slayer Faith wants to get one over on Buffy and becomes even more rotten. Angel comes back from hell but isn't sure what to do about his girlfriend. Willow meets her evil gay vampire duplicate from another dimension. Xander loses his virginity but still has to contemplate his essential uselessness. Cordelia gets less whiny and has to work in a dress-shop when her father becomes bankrupt. Giles wears tweed and drinks tea, though it is revealed that he used to be a warlock and in a punk band. Besides the soap opera, there are monsters, curses and vampires (inevitably). --Kim Newman On the DVD: The DVDs are presented in a standard television 4:3 picture ratio and in a clear Dolby sound that does full justice both to the sparkling dialogue and to the always impressive indie-rock and orchestral scores. Special features include an overview of Season Three by its creator Joss Whedon, and by writers Marti Noxon, David Fury, Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson and documentaries on the weapons, clothes special effects of the show and the speech/verbal tone which makes it what it is-"Buffyspeak". The episodes "Helpless", "Bad Girls", "Consequences" and "Earshot" have commentaries by, Fury, Petrie, director James Gershman and Espenson, in which we find out some fascinating details about the way the scripts mutate and about the particular illuminations added to scripts by actors' performances. After complaints about the Season 2 DVD packaging, the disc envelopes include a protective coating. --Roz Kaveney

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Complete Season 5 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  The fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about illusions and the truth that they often reveal; suddenly Buffy has a younger sister, has always had a younger sister. Michelle Trachtenberg as the moody, gawky Dawn achieves the considerable triumph of walking into an established stock company of well-known characters--Xander, Willow, Giles and so on--with the perfect assurance of a long-term member of the cast. Of course, nothing is as it seems; even Glory, the mad brain-sucking beauty in a red dress who is the villain of the year, turns out to be even more than she seems. Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy manages to convey heartbreak, self-involvement and real heroism as her relationship with her emotionally dense soldier boyfriend Riley hits the shoals and the blonde vampire Spike starts to show an altogether inappropriate interest. This season is also about the hard truth that there are some enemies it is impossible to fight. Even being around Buffy and Dawn is dangerous for their friends, as Glory and her minions proceed by a process of elimination. The eventual confrontation, when it comes, is genuinely shocking. Meanwhile, the vampire Spike's obsessed desire for Buffy takes them both to some very strange places and Willow and Tara have their love tested in the most gruelling of ways. And in the quietly upsetting episode "The Body", the cast produce their most impressive performances yet as they have to deal with another enemy they cannot fight. --Roz Kaveney

• Buffy Season 4 | DVD | (18/09/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In its fourth season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to change its formula radically. Two major characters--the vampire-with-a-soul Angel and Cordelia, the queen bitch of Sunnydale High--had gone off to be in their own show, Angel, and soon after the start of the season Willow's werewolf boyfriend Oz left when Seth Green needed to concentrate on his film career. Buffy and Willow started college, where they met new characters like Riley, the All-American Boy with a double life, and Tara, the sweet stuttering witch; but Xander and Giles found themselves at something of a loose end. Several characters were subjected to the radical re-envisioning possible in a show that deals with the supernatural: the blond vampire Spike came back and soon found himself with an inhibitor chip in his head, forced into reluctant alliance with Buffy; the former vengeance demon Anya became passionately smitten with Xander. Not all fans were happy with the central story arc about the sinister Dr Walsh (Lindsay Crouse) and her Frankensteinian creation Adam, though Crouse's performance was memorable. The strength of Season Four was perhaps most in impressive stand-alone episodes like the silent "Hush", the multiple dream sequence "Restless" and the passionate, moving "New Moon Rising", in which Oz returns, apparently cured, only to find that Willow is no longer waiting for him. This was one of the high points of the show as a vehicle for intense acting, perhaps only equalled by "Who Are You?", in which the evil slayer Faith takes over Buffy's body and Sarah Michelle Gellar gets to play bad girl for once. --Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: Buffy Season 4 was a hit and so is this sublime box set. The commentaries for "The Initiative", "This Year'sGirl", "Superstar" and "Primaveral" are all well above average, but are nothing compared to "Hush" and "Restless" where Joss Whedon gives out all the information and insights any fan would dream of. The four featurettes included are a pleasure to watch, especially the evolution of the sets for the show. The scripts, trailers and cast biographies complete the set and make for a decent addition to your Buffy archive. The soundtrack is in 2.0 Dolby surround, but the image is as grainy and dark as the previous seasons on DVD. --Celine Martig

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Slayer Collection (Willow) | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Buffy was always an ensemble show. The Slayer Collection: Willow showcases the work of one of the central members of the excellent cast. Alison Hannigan's portrayal of the shy, intelligent computer hacker-turned-witch was always one of the show's strongest points--it validated our perception of the heroic Buffy, that she could be so good a friend to someone so unlike her. The four episodes here showcase Willow's emotional life, first with the laconic werewolf Oz, and then with the stammering Tara. Joss Whedon has praised Hannigan as "the Queen of Pain" and these episodes are full of it. From the show's second season, we get "Phases" the episode in which she first gets seriously involved with Oz, and he discovers his own lycanthropic nature. From its fourth year there is "Wild at Heart", in which Oz is tempted by a girl werewolf, and "New Moon Rising", in which his return, partly cured of the transformations, is complicated by Willow's new feelings for Tara. This last episode includes perhaps television's funniest coming-out scene ever, as Willow has to acknowledge her lesbianism to Buffy. The exception, and perhaps the finest of Hannigan's many fine performance, is "Doppelgangland" in which Willow's resentments and self-doubt are concretised as an alternate-world vampire alter ego; Hannigan not only plays both Willows, but plays them impersonating each other, deliciously. On the DVD: The Slayer Collection: Willow also includes a discussion of Willow's evolution as a character by Joss Whedon and others of the show's writers, as well as by Alison Hannigan herself. --Roz Kaveney

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Slayer Collection (Dawn) | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The best episodes of the 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' TV series featuring diminutive but redoubtable Dawn (Michell Trachtenberg)...

• Lost - Series 2 - Part 1 | DVD | (17/07/2006) from £12.59   |  Saving you £18.40 (59.40%)   |  RRP £30.99

  If you were one of the many complaining that the ending of the first series of Lost was something of a damp squib, that fear not.

• Desperate Housewives - Series 1-5 | DVD | (09/11/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £146.99

  Desperate Housewives is refreshingly original bracingly adult and thoroughly addictive! Now you can spend the night with the beautiful powerful and delightfully manipulative ladies of Wisteria Lane and relive every minute of the first five seasons!

• Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 6 | DVD | (18/09/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The sixth series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed the logic of plot and character development into some gloomy places. The year begins with Buffy being raised from the dead by the friends who miss her, but who fail to understand that a sacrifice taken back is a sacrifice negated. Dragged out of what she believes to have been heavenly bliss, she finds herself "going through the motions" and entering into a relationship with the evil, besotted vampire Spike just to force her emotions. Willow becomes ever more caught up in the temptations of magic; Xander and Anya move towards marriage without ever discussing their reservations; Giles feels he is standing in the way of Buffy's adult independence; Dawn feels neglected. What none of them need is a menace that is, at this point, simply annoying--three high school contemporaries who have turned their hand to magical and high-tech villainy. Added to this is a hungry ghost, an invisibility ray, an amnesia spell and a song-and-dance demon (who acts as rationale for the incomparable musical episode "Once More With Feeling"). This is a year in which chickens come home to roost: everything from the villainy of the three geeks to Xander's doubts about marriage come to a head, often--as in the case of the impressive wedding episode--through wildly dark humour. The estrangement of the characters from each other--a well-observed portrait of what happens to college pals in their early 20s--comes to a shocking head with the death of a major character and that death's apocalyptic consequences. The series ends on a consoling note which it has, by that point and in spite of imperfections, entirely earned. --Roz Kaveney

• C.S.I: Crime Scene Investigation - Miami Complete season 2 (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Chronicling the work of the Miami-Dade crime investigations CSI: Miami is set against the sun fun and tropics of the Florida tourist haven. Leading the team is Horatio Caine played with steely calm by Emmy-award winning film and TV veteran David Caruso. An ex-bomb squad detective Horatio is no stranger to confrontations with criminals and the underworld... Episodes comprise: 1. Blood Brothers 2. Dead Zone 3. Hard Time 4. Death Grip 5. The Best Defense 6. Hurricane An

• Angel: Series 3 (Standard plastic case packaging) | DVD | (01/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  **** Product Details TBC ****

• Desperate Housewives: Seasons 1-4 (Box Set) | DVD | (03/11/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  Desperate Housewives is refreshingly original bracingly adult and thoroughly addictive! Now you can spend the night with the beautiful powerful and delightfully manipulative ladies of Wisteria Lane and relive every minute of the first three seasons! Episodes comprise: 1. Pilot 2. Ah But Underneath 3. Pretty Little Picture 4. Who's that Woman? 5. Come in Stranger 6. Running to Stand Still 7. Anything You Can Do 8. Guilty 9. Suspicious Minds 10. Come Back to Me 11. Move On 12. Every Day a Little Death 13. Your Fault 14. Love Is in the Air (a.k.a. What I Did for Love) 15. Impossible 16. The Ladies Who Lunch 17. There Won't Be Trumpets 18. Children Will Listen 19. Live Alone and Like It (a.k.a. An Unexpected Song) 20. Fear No More 21. Sunday in the Park with George 22. Goodbye For Now 23. One Wonderful Day 24. Next 25. You Could Drive A Person Crazy 26. You'll Never Get Away From Me 27. My Heart Belongs To Daddy 28. They Asked Me Why I Believe In You 29. I Wish I Could Forget You 30. Colour And Light (aka: I Must Be Dreaming) 31. The Sun Won't Set 32. That's Good That's Bad 33. Coming Home (aka: I've Got You Under My Skin) 34. One More Kiss 35. We're Gonna Be Alright 36. There's Something About A War 37. Silly People 38. Thank You So Much 39. There Is No Other Way 40. Could I Leave You? 41. Everybody Says Don't 42. Don't Look At Me 43. It Wasn't Meant To Happen 44. I Know Things Now 45. No One Is Alone 46. Remember (Part 1) 47. Remember (Part 2) 48. Listen To The Rain On The roof 49. It Takes Two 50. A Weekend In The Country 51. Like It Was 52. Nice She Ain't 53. Sweetheart I Have To Confess 54. Bang 55. Children And Art 56. Beautiful Girls 57. The Miracle Song 58. No Fits No Fights No Feuds 59. Not While I'm Around 60. Come Play Wiz Me 61. I Remember That 62. The Little things You Do Together 63. My Husband The Pig 64. Dress Big 65. Liaisons 66. God That's Good 67. Gossip 68. Into The Woods 69. What Would We Do Without You? 70. Getting Married Today 71. Now You Know 72. Smiles of a Summer Night 73. The Game 74. If There's Anything I Can't Stand 75. Art Isn't Easy 76. Now I Know Don't Be Scared 77. You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover 78. Distant Past 79. Something's Coming 80. Welcome to Kanagawa 81. Sunday 82. In Buddy's Eyes 83. Hello Little Girl 84. Opening Doors 85. Mother Said 86. The Gun Song 87. Free