TV on DVD: Watching Lost...

As Netflix subscribers and with a movie collection that boasts more than 600 titles, we watch a lot of movies around our house. But this weekend, and when the movie supply is low, the answer to entertainment is TV on DVD.
Most of the time, we prefer to buy shows that have run their course because of the frustration of watching everything released so far and then have to stop and wait for the show to catch up with some new episodes. It's one of the reasons we don't watch network television, or well any television that isn't pre-recorded. We're far too impatient.
Among our favorite television shows on DVD are Jericho and Jeremiah. We've watched Dead Like Me, House (most of the first four seasons), Eureka, Psych, Angel and Buffy. We enjoyed the first two seasons of Heroes and will start Season 3 now that we have finished with Lost. Firefly is on the agenda as is Supernatural.
But since March when we haven't been watching a movie, the entertainment of choice was Lost. I have a close friend who loves the show and bans her children from the room to watch it during the season. They're old enough that this isn't really cruel, just much needed mommy time.
I had heard her talk about the show from the beginning and while it was intriguing, I wasn't willing to wait breathelessly for each episode. Now, having watched the first four seasons, I'm glad I didn't get the addiction earlier.
I loved Lost. Sawyer and Sayid are my favorite characters, but there are so many other really good characterizations on the show that I am often impressed with the writers' abilities. Sometimes, I am disappointed too. I think after the first season the character of John Locke floundered a bit too much. I miss Charlie and love Desmond. I want to start watching Season 5 now since we finished Season 4 last night and I certainly don't want to wait until next May to see the series conclusion.
But, if you are like we were and have skipped the Lost addiction, it is well worth the time to watch the series from the beginning. If you start now, you might be caught up by the time the final season starts in the fall.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Okay, so the rest of the world saw this when it was new back in July. Sometimes, I'm a little slow. My BFF Dawn brought this with her while visiting for New Year's so that I could see. We are both huge Joss Whedon fans though I am more of the Buffy and Angel variety while she loves all things Serenity and Firefly.
My hubby prefers Joss's comic book writing.
Regardless, we are all fans.
So, sitting around watching Dr. Horrible was part of the planned activities for the visit and then it was an unplanned part of our New Year's Eve Party. Some of the guests hadn't seen it, so it played in one room while the rest of us played Munchkin Quest in the other room.
Having seen it, we all had our favorite lines. Some of the boys are very fond of Nathan Fillion's adlibbed line about his penis being his hammer. Personally, I love the line "Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool".
For the one or two people in the world who like me missed the blog the first time around, the short film (42 minutes) is done as a video blog entry for Dr. Horrible, aka Neil Patrick Harris. who knew he could sing?
His arch nemesis is Fillion's Captain Hammer and they are competing for the love of a girl named Penny.
The project was created during the 2007 writer's strike in Hollywood when Whedon and his brothers wanted to do something, but didn't want to violate the terms of the strike. Fans of Whedon will love the project, especially those who enjoyed the Buffy the Vamptire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling".
Whedon and his brothers prove that they love to play with sarcasm in a song and in multi-part harmony. The feeling of the short film is very similar to the tongue in cheek attitude of the Buffy episode and once again Whedon manages to make actors and actresses sing and do it convincingly. Fillion's Captain Hammer is the least adept at singing, but the style fits the overinflated ego of the superhero perfectly.
The only disappointing portion of this video is how excruciatingly difficult the easter eggs are to find and access. Since we generally use a PS2 for movie viewing, we could not comply with convulted instructions to reach the easter eggs. Worse yet, one of them requires finding a sport where an ISBN for a Mariah Carey cd is mentioned and then entering the easter egg via a mention of Mariah Carey in the commentary. Way to convoluted to be worthwhile.
However, the video application for entry into the Evil League of Evil and the sing-along commentary are definitely worth a peek.