2019 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part II - TV on DVD Releases

December 4, 2019

It’s TV on DVD week on the Holiday Gift Guide, for perhaps the last time. I’m not saying the TV on DVD market is dying, but it certainly isn’t healthy. Technology has changed and streaming services like Disney Plus have just become better options to watch TV shows than buying DVDs and Blu-ray. In fact, some of the more critically acclaimed new shows of the year debuted on streaming services and many of them still haven’t come out on DVD / Blu-ray and likely never will. My personal favorite new show of 2019 was new version of Twilight Zone, but that doesn’t come out on DVD / Blu-ray until February. That’s not to say there’s nothing new on this list, we just have to look beyond regular TV series in some cases.

Mini-Series
While there were not a lot of new regular TV series that caught my eye this year, I was impressed by a couple of mini-series. Personally, I thought Good Omens was the best and the DVD / Blu-ray is easily worth giving as a gift. Chernobyl received a lot of critical acclaim as well, but I’m worried about getting to you in time, because the DVD / Blu-ray says it “Usually ships within 1 to 2 months.” That said, I have given gifts that were a card and a expected shipping date in the past. As long as your recipient is an adult, this is usually fine. I wouldn’t do this to a kid. You could also put MST3K: The Gauntlet as a mini-series, of sorts. It would certainly make an amazing gift to binge-watch on Christmas day.

Animated Shows
The only sector of the TV on DVD market that is still thriving is animated shows, mostly due to Anime and lets face it, most people never get a chance to see most Anime on TV and instead watch them on streaming services or buy them on DVD / Blu-ray. FLCL: Progressive is an exception to that. In fact, the first FLCL was the first Anime a lot of people here saw on TV. This season doesn’t quite live up to the impression the first season would have made, but it is still wildly imaginative and the DVD would make a great gift. For fans of western animation, the first three seasons of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power just came out on DVD. The animation is more cartoonish than the original series was, but it is also much smoother and the action scenes are a lot better. Also, the main villain, Hordak, is a lot more competent that he was in the original series. On the other hand, this is only the first three seasons and not a complete box set, as the show is still ongoing.

Older Titles
Downton Abbey got a movie this year and the complete series was re-released on Blu-ray. If you know someone who saw the movie without seeing the full series, then this would make a great gift. Deadwood also got a movie and while there were complaints about too many characters squeezed into too short of a running time, the DVD / Blu-ray is still a good option. Twin Peaks is another older show that got a new installment recently and there’s yet another Box Set to go along with it. It would make a great gift, but this is not the first, or the second, or third time this show has gotten a box set.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Holiday Gift Guide, Downton Abbey