Sex and the City - The Complete Second Season [VHS]

A smart and savvy (albeit highly stylized) look at the single lives of four thirtysomething Manhattan women, Sex and the City: The Complete Second Season builds on the foundation of its first season with plot arcs that are both hilarious and heartfelt, taking the show from breakout hit to true pop-culture phenomenon. Relationship epiphanies coexist happily alongside farcical plots and zingy one-liners, resulting in emotionally satisfying episodes that feature the sharp kind of character-defining dialogue that seems to have disappeared from the rest of TV long ago. When last we left the NYC gals, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) had just broken up with a commitment-phobic Mr. Big (Chris Noth), but fans of Noth's seductive-yet-distant rake didn't have to wait long until he was back in the picture, as he and Carrie tried to make another go of it. Their relationship evolution, from reunion to second breakup, provides the core of the second season. The fittingly titled and keenly observed episode "Evolution" found Carrie trying to leave a few feminine belongings at Mr. Big's apartment with little success, charting the challenges and limits of intimacy. And the season's finale, "Ex and the City," was a melancholy goodbye for Carrie and Big that took its cue from The Way We Were. It wasn't all angst, though: among other adventures, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) puzzles over whether one of her beaus was "gay-straight" or "straight-gay"; Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) tries to date a guy who insists on having sex only in places where they might get caught; and Samantha (the exquisite Kim Cattrall) copes with dates who range from, um, not big enough to far too big--with numerous stops in between. Through it all, the four actresses cohered into a solid ensemble that played on their complex relationships among themselves as well as with men; in two short years, Parker and company became one of the best TV casts in over a decade. And to top it all off, the second season offers 18 episodes, six more than the first. Sometimes size really can make a difference! --Mark Englehart

Price: $49.98

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It’s weight-loss season! (An entry where I overuse parenthetical comments.)

I can tell it’s weight-loss season because I’ve gotten more emails asking for weight-loss advice in the past two weeks than I did for the last two months. I think some people are finding this site and my email address after they purchased my book Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir. If so, thanks for buying the book! I truly appreciate the support. Eighteen months ago I quit my job to freelance full-time as a web designer and writer. (That’s right. I stuck it to the man! And the man has yet to stick me back.) So, I depend on book royalties to pay rent and buy lots of chocolate healthy veggies. I guess that means it’s really my landlord and Food Lion that thank you.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to reiterate a fact that I’ve blogged about and posted on my About page, which is that in the past three years I’ve gained back about 50 pounds from my lowest weight. This was mainly due to a never-ending headache from hell, but eventually apathy and boredom snuck in there, too. So much so that for the past few months I haven’t been eating that healthy, nor have I been exercising regularly. So, when people write me asking how to lose weight (or “loose” weight, because the only thing worse than too much weight is tight weight) I’ve felt an urge to reply, “I dunno! Ask someone else! And bring me a cookie!”

However, it’s the new year, and the resolution I made six years ago (Dear God, has it been that long? Am I really 30?) worked out pretty well, so I thought I’d make another one. My resolution isn’t to start a diet or run another half-marathon or anything like that, it’s just to make better food choices and to work out at least three times a week.

There is a part of me that looks back on the time when I was exercising 6 days a week for 30-60 minutes and cooking dinner every night and thinks, “You should jump right back into that again!” But there is a more realistic part of me that thinks it’s silly to go from 0 to maniac in a day. Working out 3 days a week is better than working out none. I also think diets are silly, so I prefer to frame my new eating behavior in my mind as “making better choices.” If I make better food choices, choices that do not involve buying Krispy Kreme donuts at 10 o’clock at night, than I’m doing better than I was before, even if I’m not eating as healthy as I did at my peak. Really, it all comes down to choices. Everything in life comes down to choices, outside of what we can’t control like earthquakes and tsunamis and neighbors who play bagpipes.

I’ve been keeping a food diary, recording my weight on the wall calendar every day and then writing my exercise for the day down next to it. (And if you haven’t done Pilates or lifted weights for over a year, be prepared not to be lifting anything for three days afterward. Or sitting up.) So, I’ve got a plan, I’ve got accountability, and it’s been going pretty well for the past week. Then I’ll make it through the next week and the week after that, just like I have with my headache. One day at a time, people.

Most important of all, besides the optimism and hope of change that comes with the new year, I feel like I’m more mentally in the game right now that I have been for any time in the past few years. In that time I’ve had to deal with an ongoing medical problem, learn how to manage my own business, and I moved to another state. There was a lot of shit going on, and weight loss honestly wasn’t that important. I still weigh over 100 pounds less than I did at my heaviest, so it’s not like my weight has been making me miserable and trapping me in my home like it used to. I’m not back at square one, I’m back at square 50 out of 200. It’s been manageable, if not optimal, which might be why weight loss hasn’t been the primary occupation in my life like it was when it was destroying my life.

Right now I’m feeling my freelancing groove, I’ve settled into my new home, and my headache has been staying pretty steady at a 1 out of 5 on my latest medication cocktail. (Unfortunately it has the side effect of making my heart skip beats occasionally, which the doctor says is not a big deal nor is it the life-threatening, call-911-NOW-PLEASE!!! condition you would immediately assume it is when you feel your heart pause and then make a big THUMPing jumpstart. It’s freaky, but better than a headache!)

So, here we go 2011! Here’s to better choices! My heart’s already skipping a beat in anticipation.

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NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service - The Fifth Season

Describing season four of NCIS as "the season of secrets," executive producer Shane Brennan suggests that season five (offered here with 18 episodes, including a two-part finale, on five discs) is "the season of answers." For the most part, that's true--but at season's end, loyal viewers are likely to be thrown for a loop by the death of a major character and a startling set of changes bound to have a profound effect on the show's future. Picking up where the previous year left off, this new batch jumps right in with a continuation of Special Agent Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and company's pursuit of notorious international arms dealer La Grenouille ("The Frog," played by Armand Assante), whom NCIS director Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) is particularly keen on taking down--a quest that's complicated by the fact that the bad guy is a CIA asset, and by Agent Anthony DiNozzo's (Michael Weatherly) love affair with La Grenouille's daughter. That storyline, barely touched on thereafter, is resolved in the 14th episode, "Internal Affairs." Meanwhile, the NCIS crew is distracted by an array of other cases, most of them involving murder. Of particular interest are several episodes related to Iraq and the War on Terror: a Naval officer of Syrian descent who's suspected of being an Al Qaeda mole is murdered seconds after Gibbs talks him out of jumping off a building ledge; a Marine who's having a violent bout of post-traumatic stress after returning from the Mideast turns out to be far worse off than that; Medical Examiner Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum) refuses to conduct an autopsy because of the deceased's Muslim beliefs.

There's no doubt that NCIS is slick, entertaining prime-time television in every respect: writing, acting, production values, music, and so on. Still, one's appreciation of the show largely depends on the characters' likeability, and that's very much a matter of taste. Gibbs may be a chick magnet, with four former wives and a past relationship with Shepard to prove it, but he's also a taciturn fellow with horrible social skills. DiNozzo's funny and insouciant, but his smugness and incessant razzing of computer nerd Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) soon becomes tiresome, while Shepard is steely and simply unlikeable (the most appealing characters are arguably McCallum's Mallard and Pauley Perrette's mouthy Abby Sciuto, the goth-like forensic expert). Bonus material includes cast and crew commentary on various episodes and a typical assortment of featurettes. --Sam Graham

Price: $39.98

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NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service - The Fifth Season

NCIS:COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON - DVD Movie

Price: $39.98

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This holiday season. And before. And after.

Im ditching the guilt.

JOIN ME?

Oh. And speaking of not feeling guilt….please DONT if you cant spare a minute to help me out.

Im doing a quick survey.

4 questions long short.

IF you have the time.

Click here to take survey

If not, please to carry on with your Friday.

Guilt free.

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The Office: Season Five

Season Five is not just another day at The Office, delivering break-ups, corporate shake-ups, and a game-changing finale that, as with Jim (John Krasinski), should leave you ecstatic and speechless. The writers continue their masterful handling of the Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) romance, taking care of some unfinished business from last season's finale in the season opener with a glorious rain-swept gas station proposal. Their initial separation--while she attends art school in New York--avoids the usual sitcom mechanics ("We are not that couple," Jim states as he aborts a panicked trip to see her). The course of true love is no smoother for The Office's other soul mates, Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) and "major dork" Holly Flax (an Emmy-worthy Amy Ryan), the new HR rep. Meanwhile, Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) are having office trysts under the nose of her fiancé, Andy (Hangover star Ed Helms, having a breakout season in a career year). On the corporate front, Michael shockingly quits after butting heads with no-nonsense new boss Charles Miner (Idris Elba). In a brilliant stroke, Jim immediately gets on Charles's bad side, much to Dwight's delight. The formation of The Michael Scott Paper Company is a highlight of the season, as Michael and his dream team, Pam and Ryan (B.J. Novak), improbably put a major dent in Dunder Mifflin's sales (but at what cost?). For everyone who wonders how the blundering and tactless Michael keeps his job, it is instructive to get a glimpse of his sales acumen in the episodes "Heavy Competition," in which Michael poaches one of Dwight's clients, and "Broke," in which he negotiates a buyout of his struggling company. The Office's own dream team got dreamier with the addition of Ellie Kemper as "Erin," the adorable and naïve new receptionist. The Office still makes for cringe-worthy discomfort television (see a reunited Michael and Holly's excruciating skit at the "Company Picnic" in the season finale), but some of the best episodes are the ones in which the Scranton branch bonds in the face of adversity. A season benchmark is the episode in which the former Michael Scott Paper Company office space is transformed into "Café Disco" and all squabbles and resentments are forgotten on the dance floor. This season is representative of why The Office is one of television's most DVR'd series. Each episode offers priceless bits of background comic business and charming character grace notes that lend themselves to repeated viewing. Among them: Andy's drunken late night phone call to Angela in "Company Trip"; Pam demonstrating her volleyball prowess in "Company Picnic"; Kelly (Mindy Kaling) setting up one of the series' very best "that's what she saids" in "Customer Survey"; and Andy and Kelly's "dance off" in "Café Disco." As Dwight notes in "Heavy Competition," "There's a lot going on" in The Office, and in that chaos, this series soars. --Donald Liebenson

Also on the discs
This five-disc set works overtime with about eight episodes' worth of deleted scenes. Highlights include Pam bonding with her younger fellow students in New York, Kevin's revelation that he loves the smell of bacon on a woman, and Michael Scott on the loose with a defibrillator. The 10 audio commentaries are low-key, but informative, and some offer unique behind-the-scenes perspectives (one features craft services and catering personnel who reveal what the cast eats for breakfast). Along with the standard-issue gag reel, there are for completists two webisodes featuring the series' B+ team and synergetic promos for the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Andy Richter moderates an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Q&A featuring the cast, key creative personnel, and crew members. A "100 Episodes, 100 Moments" countdown is open to debate (not one "that's what she said!"). --Donald Liebenson

Price: $59.98

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