Holy Limited Edition Boxset Batman!

                 

Many television shows, including older, classic shows, have been released on DVD over the last several years while some other shows have yet to be released.  One of the shows that has not been released is Batman, the somewhat corny series that aired from 1966 to 1968.  I have seen some episodes of the show over the years, along with the movie, and I have enjoyed them.  I have checked a few times to see if it was available on DVD, but it was always in vain.  That has changed now.

On November 11, 2014, Batman The Complete Series on DVD and Batman The Complete TV Series Limited Edition Blu-ray will be released.  Both versions are available for pre-order now.  Both sets do have a somewhat high price tag right now, but there are a good amount of extras with the sets along with all 120 episodes of the series.  Right now, Amazon has both for less than the list price, and it is possible that the price could drop more by the release date.  From what I can tell, the main difference, other than one being DVD and one being Blu-ray, is that the Limited Edition has some extra goodies.

Both versions have the uncut versions of all the episodes.  The original masters were used to create new transfers of the episodes instead of using the versions that have been used for syndication.  I did read that there was a panel at Comic-Con that showed footage from this release and it has been described as gorgeous.  There are new extras focused on different things like Batman collectibles or different aspects of making the show.  

As far as I know right now, only the Limited Edition Blu-ray will include a Hot Wheels replica of the Batmobile from the series, The Adam West Scrapbook, 44 Vintage Trading Cards, and an Ultraviolet Digital copy.  Right now, I’m not completely sure if there will be commentaries or not. 

It sounds like a lot of work has gone into these sets.  I don’t know for sure of course, but it seems like the sets have been planned and that the work has been going on for a while.  The fact that the series is finally being released on DVD and Blu-ray may be tied to the 75th anniversary of Batman.  I have already added it to my wishlist and it probably won’t be long before I break down and pre-order it even though it is pricey.

This review is part of elvisdo’s 7th Annual Funny Pages Write-off.

Plans for This Blog

I have decided that I am going to start posting some of the reviews that I originally posted on Epinions here.  I think that most of the time when I do that, I’ll probably make at least a few changes.  When I do repost one of those reviews, I will mention that it was originally posted on Epinions.  If I have recently rewatched the DVD set, then I might just do a whole new review.  I think I will still mention that I had previously posted a review of the DVD set at Epinions in that case as well. 

I have been able to catch up with some shows from my DVR.  I do want to start writing about different things I watch on tv at times, not just the DVD sets for seasons - though I will continue to watch and write about those as well.  I have already done a few posts about Castle here, and I have thoughts for others that I may do at some point as well.  There are also some shows that air during the summer that I watch that I would like to write about as well.

I want to want to set up a page, or maybe it will just be a few posts, that list the books I have reviewed along with links to the reviews.  I had something like set up for my reviews at Epinions as well.  I will be doing that for each of my blogs.  I know I don’t have many posts on any of them right now, but I figure that this is a good time to get started on that.

The Story of Johanna Beckett

Johanna Beckett is the mother of Kate Beckett, one of the main characters in the television series Castle, which is now in season six. Johanna was murdered several years before the beginning of the series, so she has never actually been seen alive during the show. Despite that, her influence has still been felt. Things about Johanna and her murder have slowly been shared, a little at a time, over the course of the series. It has been an important part of the show without being the main focus. I have liked how the story has been told slowly, over six years and I think it was handled well.

Some of what I discuss will be spoilers for people who haven’t been watching Castle - or are just a few episodes behind - including the episode Veritas that aired on May 5, 2014. Read at your own risk.

The murder of her mother has really shaped who Kate is. She was in college, planning to become a lawyer, when her mother was stabbed. It was ruled a random act, and the case was never solved. Kate changed her career focus, eventually becoming a homicide detective for the New York police force. She has given many others the answers and closure she didn’t get. Kate tried to solve her mother’s murder, but was unable to. She finally moved on, deciding she couldn’t find the killer after trying to almost consumed her. She found a way to deal with her mother’s killer never being caught. Then Richard Castle came into her life.

Shortly after Rick started to shadow Kate, she told him about her mother’s murder. She also told him not to poke around in the case and that she would be through with him if he did. Rick went along with that for a while, but he ended up digging into Johanna’s murder. He brought in one of his contacts in, and they uncovered something new. Kate was furious when Rick told her, and their developing friendship and work relationship seemed to be over. That is how the first season ended. By the end of the first episode of season two, Kate accepts Rick’s apology and the two got back to working together.

From that point on, new things tied to Johanna’s murder pop up from time to time. Kate is blind sided when she is told that a victim in a new murder investigation was killed by the same person who killed Johanna. Kate, with Rick’s help, discovers the identity of the hit man who killed Johanna. Unfortunately, he takes Rick hostage, and Kate is forced to shoot him before finding out who hired him. Rick feels guilty for that and plans to leave, but Kate stops him. She wants to find and arrest the person responsible for her mother’s death, and she wants Rick there when it happens. That is a big change from when she told him to stay out of it.

The next potential break comes when John Raglan, the detective who investigated Johanna’s murder, contacts Kate, wanting to talk. Kate takes Rick to the meeting, but just when Raglan was going to say something, he is shot by a sniper. Kate, Rick, Ryan, and Esposito discover that Raglan and his partner Gary McCallister had been kidnaping members of the mob for ransom several years before Johanna’s murder. One of the kidnaping attempts went wrong, leaving an undercover FBI agent dead. The intended kidnaping target, Joe Pulgatti, was then framed for the murder. Seven years later, Johanna took up Pulgatti’s case, working to file an appeal. She was getting dangerously close to discovering the truth about the murder and who the dirty cops were when she was killed. When Kate talks to McCallister, he insists that someone else he refers to as the dragon hired the hitman that killed Johanna. He points the finger at drug lord Vulcan Simmons to try to hide his own involvement in what happened. While Vulcan was twisted and evil, he actually wasn’t involved in Johanna’s death.

By the final episode of the third season, the dragon seems to be trying to get rid of loose ends, including anyone connected to Johanna’s murder. McCallister, who has been in jail, is killed by the same man who killed Raglan. The killer then is sent after Kate, who is more determined than ever to track down who is responsible for her mom’s death. It turns out that a third cop had been involved in the mob kidnaping ring and that someone else more powerful learned about it - the dragon. Instead of turning in the cops, the dragon took the money from the ransoms. I was shocked when it came out that the third cop was Roy Montgomery, the captain of the 12th precinct and Kate’s supervisor. Roy was just a rookie when all of that happened, and he then focused on trying to make up for what had happened. He had evidence that he had been using for years to keep Kate safe from the dragon. He sent the evidence to a friend, Michael Smith, before making a stand, giving up his life to protect Kate. Unfortunately that didn’t stop the dragon from having Kate shot.

During the first episode of season four, Smith contacts Rick, explaining that there is information that can keep Kate safe, but only if she stops pushing to solve her mother’s murder. Rick reluctantly agrees to get her to back off. Things went back to mostly normal between Rick and Kate, though each of them were keeping things from the other. In the final episode of that season, another murder puts Kate back on the trail of Cole Maddox, the man who shot her. Rick tries to get her to back off again after being contacted by Smith, but she is determined to get Maddox even though she is in grave danger. Rick decides to end things when she won’t stop. She is almost killed again, but that makes Kate realize her feelings for Rick and she acts on them by the end of the episode.

Season five picks up with Rick and Kate being happily together, though worried for Kate’s safety. They decide to act and they find Smith after he has been beaten by Maddox for the file. Maddox is killed in his attempt to get the last remaining copy, the file seems to be destroyed as well and Smith dies in the hospital. Ryan shows up with all the little bits that are left of the file and he, Esposito, Rick, and Kate try to piece together enough to figure out who the dragon is. They are successful and figure out that the dragon is senator William Bracken who just happens to be in New York. Bracken used the money from the mob kidnapings to fund his first political campaign. Kate goes and confronts him, bluffing through the meeting, making him believe that she has a copy of the file that will go public if she or anyone she cares about is hurt. They come to an uneasy truce, though Kate tells the others that she will still get justice for her mother.

Kate and Bracken meet again later in season five when he is back in New York for a political event and is linked to a murder. At first, Kate sees him as a suspect, but she learns that someone has threatened him instead. Kate is forced to work to protect him and even save his life, causing Bracken to say that he owes her a debt. Nothing else happens until later in season six when Kate encounters Vulcan Simmons again and is almost killed on his orders. A female hired killer saves Kate, saying only that Lazarus didn’t want her dead. That makes Kate believe that Bracken is Lazarus. The believe is enforced when Kate learns that Vulcan has ties to a group that is funneling money into political campaigns. Kate is more convinced when she sees Bracken announcing that he has formed a committee to explore running for president. She remains focused on trying to find some kind of evidence to take Bracken down without letting him know what she is up to.

Kate and Rick spend six weeks on what they call their project, following Jason Marks, someone they believe will lead to evidence that will take down Bracken. Marks turns up as a murder victim, soon followed by Vulcan. When evidence points to Kate, it is clear that she is being set up for Vulcan’s murder, so she and Rick plan to go on the run. Smith turns up alive, talking about a tape there is supposed to be of Bracken admitting to having people murdered. Bracken shows up, along with two goons, and talks about how he is responsible for all the good things in Kate’s life because he had her mother killed. Talk about having a screw loose. Anyway, Bracken claims he is too smart to kill Kate himself, so he leaves his goons behind to handle it, but they underestimate Kate. She takes them out even though she is drugged and injured.

While passed out, Kate remembers the first time she met Montgomery. That memory convinces her that her mother had the tape and hid it where Kate or her dad could find it. Kate and Rick go through Johanna’s things, only to be arrested by IA who has been after Kate since the evidence turned up linking her to Vulcan’s murder. At the precinct, Kate is feeling like she failed when she notices the elephants on her desk and something clicks. They had been Johanna’s originally. Kate manages to open some sort of compartment in them and out falls the tape. Captain Gates, who has been filled in by Ryan and Esposito, plays the tape with the IA cops listening. Bracken and Montgomery are on the tape. Not only does Bracken admit to having people killed in the past, he talks about having Johanna killed too if she doesn’t stop poking around. Kate is then able to go to Washington, D.C. and finally arrest Bracken.

At this point, I honestly don’t know if things with Bracken are completely done or not. It wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to pull something else. He did kind of have a look on his face that he was thinking this isn’t done yet. I think the story was handled wonderfully well and like how it seems to be resolved. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Kate’s dad was shown at the end as well. There really isn’t a need for much else to happen with this particular story. I would be all right if something is mentioned briefly now and then, like an upcoming trial or that Bracken was sentenced. The murder of Johanna has been the longest running story of the series, apart from the story of Rick and Kate’s relationship, even though it wasn’t brought up all the time. If things hadn’t been handled well, the arrest of Bracken could have been anticlimactic or even a let down. Thankfully, that didn’t happen because the story was handled very well. It took fifteen years (and six seasons of the show), but there is finally justice for Johanna and the truth about Bracken is out.

Castle - One of My Favorite Shows

There are a few different tv shows that I watch every week.  With some of them, I don’t really mind if I miss an episode, or two, or three.  There are a few shows that I never miss - thanks to my DVR.  Castle is one of those shows.

I started watching Castle with the very first episode in the spring of 2009 and I haven’t missed an episode.  There are a few that I don’t like as much, but I have seen them all.  I decided to start watching Castle because one of the main characters was being played by Nathan Fillion.  I came to really like him from Firefly, a show that was cancelled much too soon.  I’m still annoyed about that.

** There could be a few spoilers included for people who haven’t seen all the episodes of the show.  You have been warned.  Read at your own risk. **

Castle is a comedy, drama, mystery show that airs on ABC on Monday nights at 10:00 PM.  The show is in syndication now, and a few episodes a day are on TNT during the week.  The first five seasons are available on DVD.  The last few years, during the summer, ABC has aired the show at different times.  The show is about Richard Castle, a successful mystery author, and Katherine Beckett, a homicide detective on the New York city police force.  The first episode has Kate and her team investigating a murder that is a recreation of a murder from one of Rick’s books.  That leads to Kate going to talk to Rick, who is immediately intrigued.  He uses his connections with the mayor to get to shadow Kate as research for a new series of books about a character based on her.  The two have clashed over various things from episode to episode, but they ultimately work well together.

The series is currently in the sixth season and I still love it.  Certain aspects of the show have gotten better over the years.  It isn’t a typical police show because there is a good amount of humor added in to most of the episodes.  The humor is usually provided by Rick and some of his wild theories - time traveling killer, mummy’s curse, ninja assassin, or aliens.  I really like that the show is a bit different and the inclusion of the humor and even silliness at times helps to make the show even more entertaining.  Most episodes can stand alone fairly well while also adding to character development and the ongoing relationship between Rick and Kate.  There are a few longer ongoing stories that pop up every so often and that have had a fairly large impact on the characters.  Most of the time, the episodes that deal with those ongoing stories tend to be more serious in nature, and sometimes, they are even a bit dark. 

While the show features a lot of murder investigations, as well as a few other types of crimes, at its core, Castle is the love story of Rick and Kate.  They met for the first time during the first episode, and their relationship has evolved.  Rick was interested in Kate right from the start, but Kate wasn’t.  She tried to keep her distance, but it didn’t take long for the two of them to get a bit closer and develop a friendship.  That friendship has been tested at times by other relationships or possible breaches of trust, but they have managed to work through all of that. 

In the last episode of season four, Kate finally realized she was ready to try a relationship with Rick and the two of them have been involved since then.  There were a few issues that they worked through and for all of season six, they have been happily engaged.  They have been so happy overall during the current season and their relationship has gotten even stronger.  A few little things have come up, which is to be expected, but now they talk to each other about those things instead of holding them in.  Now we are just days away from the season finale which looks to include the wedding.  If that gets messed up, I will be ever so pissed.  I have dealt with other things in previous seasons that I didn’t like too much, but messing up the wedding will really tick me off.  I love that Rick and Kate are together and that the writers and creator didn’t go the route of having them break up then make up who knows how many times.  I hate when that happens on a show.  I’ve stopped watching other shows when that nonsense started.  I like Rick and Kate together and think the show has only gotten stronger with the change to their relationship.

How I Met Your Mother Finale - How to Ruin a Long Running Series in One Episode

On March 31, 2014 - last night as of when I am typing this - I watched the finale of How I Met Your Mother.  I started watching the show from the first episode and really enjoyed it for a while.  Then I drifted away a bit as I got annoyed with there being no real progress toward meeting the mother.  I got tired of Ted going from relationship to relationship and constantly bouncing back to being convinced that Robin is the one for him.  I was never a die hard fan like I am of some other shows, but I kept up with what was going on for the most part.  I have watched more often during this season and while I still had concerns and thought there were some issues, I was liking things overall, especially tied to the mother.  Then I watched the finale that ruined everything. 

There will be major spoilers in the rest of this post, and I do mean major.  Anyone that hasn’t seen the last episode and doesn’t know what happened and still cares should stop reading now.  I mean it.  All will be revealed.  You have been warned.

How I Met Your Mother was built around the premise of Ted in the future, with Bob Saget’s voice, telling his kids the story of how he met their mother.  The way the first episode introduces things, it makes it seem like Robin will be the mother, up until the very end when Ted says that is how I met your Aunt Robin.  Ted and Robin did have an attraction and eventually they started a relationship that ended fairly quickly before then went along bouncing back and forth together for years when between other relationships.  They could never make it work, as was shown to the audience time after time.  When they first got together, I was fine with that, but as the series continued, I liked that idea less and less.  They did not work together for any length of time.  The way things were done for the show, it made it clear that Ted had much, much stronger feelings than Robin did.  She turned him down time after time after time, yet he kept going back, like some lost little puppy.  That got old fast for me, and is one of the things I didn’t care for. 

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to think when the writers first put Robin and Barney together, but it seemed to work.  Then the writers threw in other nonsense and they broke up.  Each of them said at times that they were over the relationship and moving on, but they kept coming back to each other as well with other nonsense going on.  That back and forth stuff also annoyed me.  I was fine with Robin and Barney got engaged and thought they were working.  Both of them showed growth and development.  Even being fine with the two of them getting married, I wasn’t sure about the idea of the final season being devoted to the weekend of their wedding.  That seemed like they would be stretching things a bit too much, though I was looking forward to finally being able to see the mother.

I didn’t see all the episodes this season, but I did see many of them.  I came to really like the mother from the limited time she was featured in the last season.  She popped up here and there, sometimes during the wedding weekend, and sometimes during one of the flash forwards that showed a moment between her and Ted - like when they got engaged.  She wasn’t around anywhere near enough, but the scenes between her and Ted were wonderful.  It was really seeming like the writers managed to create the perfect character for Ted to end up with and finally be happy.  I was really looking forward to the final episode to see exactly how they first met finally and maybe see more bits of their future together.  I technically did get to see that, but it is in no way shape or form the ending I wanted to see. 

Ted and the mother still haven’t met in the story when the episode begins, but Ted does see her at the train station and is encouraged to go talk to her by a woman waiting next to him.  The rest of the episode shows little glimpses of moments over the next seventeen years or so with the group or with Ted and the mother.  That could have been fine, but I absolutely hated a lot of what ends up happening to the characters.  After spending the entire season on Robin and Barney’s wedding, it is undone with a divorce after three years about fifteen minutes into the episode because yet again, Robin is putting work ahead of everything, traveling all around the world, with Barney left home alone or to tag after her.  When their discussion about getting divorced is shown, he at least says he loves her.  I don’t remember her saying that.  Just that they are fighting and she offers him an out. 

In other moments after that, Barney is shown to have reverted to his old ways, chasing after every attractive woman in a five-mile radius, even trying to have a perfect month - having sex with thirty-one different women in thirty-one days.  When Robin does bother to turn up, she acts disgusted that Barney isn’t sitting around pining over her and whines about how she should have been with Ted.  I didn’t particularly like that, though I should have seen that as a massive warning.  Barney gets 31 - the only way any of them ever refer to her - pregnant and Barney kind of freaks, only to change once he holds his daughter for the first time.  That moment was decent, though I don’t like how it came about at all.  Lily and Marshall are fine, with them having a third child and Marshall finally becoming a judge. 

The audience gets to see when Ted finds out he is going to be a father and other moments between him and the mother that are wonderful.  The two of them are great together and they had the potential to end with something beautiful. The wedding is shown and even Robin, who has been traveling the world reporting the news, shows up.  If it had ended there I would have been a bit annoyed about Robin and Barney ending up divorced, but I would have been fine overall with what happened.  The writers didn’t stop there though.  Oh no.  They kept going, taking the sweet, fun, happy, beautiful moments the audience have waited years for and ripped them away. 

While the wedding is still being seen, Ted’s voice over starts, talking about the journey they had taken to get that point and things like that, along with how he knew he would love her for as long as he was able.  As soon as he uttered that, I thought they went and killed her.  Ted kept talking, and low and behold, probably within a minute of seeing them happily getting married, he talks about her getting sick, and there she is in a hospital bed with him by her side.  It is only after we know she gets sick that their first actual meeting is shared.  They have a connection immediately that is wonderful to see as they joke about the yellow umbrella  - this is when her name is finally shared as Tracey - and then realize how many times they have come so close to each other in the past.  It was sweet and cute, and touching, and beautiful and perfect and absolutely RUINED by it not being shown until after we know she dies  - in fact she has been dead the entire time Ted is telling the story.  She died six years before Ted tells the story to their kids.

I don’t like it when shows kill of characters, especially characters that I like.  Yes Tracey hadn’t been around for long, but I guess I kind of felt like she had been there longer because of how the show was done with the little references to her here and there.  I came to really like her during this last season when she was around and I was disappointed that she wasn’t in more of the episodes.  I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did.  Ted ends the story with his kids, and they, especially his daughter, declare that the story wasn’t about Tracey at all but about how he still wanted to be with Aunt Robin.  They push him into going after Robin yet again and that is how things end, with Ted once again chasing after Robin, blue french horn in hand.

It was bad enough that Robin and Barney end up divorced after three years when the entire last season was set during the weekend of their wedding.  It was really, really, really bad when it is shared that Tracey gets sick and dies, so she and Ted don’t get the happy ending that I had expected.  I hate that she dies and that was enough to make up annoyed and upset with the show, but I think Ted going after Robin again is the worst part for me.  Years were spent building up the mother - Tracey - and how perfect she is for Ted, only to rip it all away in a matter of minutes.  Ted ending up with Robin in the end diminishes Tracey and makes it feel like he was just passing time until he could be with Robin.  I don’t think that Ted and Robin work as a couple and them ending up together with Tracey dead basically craps all over everything that has happened during the series.

I know this is just a television show.  I happen to be a person who gets attached to shows and characters and I get annoyed, really annoyed, when crap like this happens.  I don’t like it when writers decide to kill off a character or break up a couple to shake things up.  That sort of nonsense just ticks me off and gets me to stop watching shows.  I kind of feel like the audience had lost a slap bet with the writers, only we didn’t know it until the slap in the face landed.  I have mostly enjoyed the series for nine years.  I have watched the reruns and I have several seasons on DVD.  The finale has caused me to lose all interest in ever, and I do mean ever, watching any episode of the show again.  I will not buy the rest of the seasons on DVD.  Frankly, right now, I regret that I even started watching the show.  I sort of hoped that this was some sort of cruel early April Fool’s Day joke on the audience, but I have not seen any indication of that being the case.  I am so very annoyed and irritated right now.  I have been let down or annoyed by the final episodes of other series before, but I think this is the worst ever. 

Reflections on Television

I watch several television shows.  For some series, I watch all the episodes.  With others, I just watch episodes every so often.  When I really like a series, I tend to get attached to it and the characters, which sometimes results in me getting annoyed, irritated, or even ticked off when certain things happen.  If I get annoyed or ticked off enough with a series, I’ll stop watching it.

I have a lot of television shows on DVD and have reviewed some of those television show DVD sets on Epinions over the years.  Since I can no longer post there, I have decided to set up a blog just to post about television shows.  I will post about series, single episodes, and DVD sets here.