Season five of AMC's Mad Men won't arrive until 2012, but season four has just been released on home video. And while NBC is waiting until April 15 to begin broadcasting the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights (already shown on DirecTV), it, too, has just been released on home video.
Thank the TV gods for DVD boxed sets...
These two sets are what I would call -- so here I am, calling them -- mandatory purchases for hard-core quality TV fans.
The four-disc DVD from Lionsgate, containing all 13 episodes of Mad Men: Season Four, can be purchased by clicking HERE. The three-disc Blu-Ray, which retails for a penny more, can be purchased HERE.
And I shouldn't have to make much of a case for buying it. Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner, is one of the finest TV series of the current era -- and it looks and sounds so good on DVD, especially in Blu-Ray, that it's virtually a best of breed.
Even if you loved it on AMC, it's worth seeing again, because there's plenty of subtext that bubbles to the surface on a second viewing.
Besides, each episode of season four comes with its own audio commentary, and there are special extra documentaries and features as well. But with about a year to go before we see any NEW Don Draper adventures, this will be a handy box set to have around just to fight back the cravings.
And for the same reason, the last season of Friday Night Lights is worth buying, too. You can purchase it HERE.
Special features include a documentary featurette, a couple of audio commentaries, and a sampling of deleted scenes. But, as with Mad Men, the play's the thing.
I marvel at the naturalistic acting of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as Coach Taylor and his wife, Tami, and at the way the young cast shines, despite having to tackle some very raw and exposing emotional material.
It's not spoiling anything to note that some of the young actors who had left the series in previous years find a way to return this final year to make a farewell appearance -- or that the final season has a story line, and a final episode, as powerful and satisfying as any other.
The real question with Universal's Friday Night Lights: The Fifth and Final Season isn't whether you should buy it on DVD (that answer's yes), but why you should watch it on NBC.
Usually, the price to pay for watching a show on live TV, and not having to wait for the DVD release, is having to endure all the annoying advertisements and superimposed messages and shrunken closing credits.
But this DVD is coming out BEFORE it's coming out on broadcast TV. Sure, it was available first on satellite's DirecTV, but that was a wonderful experience already: No interrupting ads, no supers, and credits ran full. But why wait a week or two for the NBC "experience," when you treat yourself to a much better experience now?
Clear eyes. Full hearts. No ads.
Can't lose.