New on DVD

Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law: Volume 3
(Warner Bros. Home Video/Adult Swim; $20.99 at Amazon)

As Adult Swim continues its slow descent into crude potty humor and bland concepts with the likes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show and Saul of the Mole Men, the late night programming block also took the liberty of ending one of their best programs, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. The two-disc set skimps on the special features (no commentaries this time around), but all 12 episodes are essential viewing, and include non-stop laughs from the show’s stellar cast, including Gary Cole (as Birdman), Stephen Colbert (as Phil Ken Sebben and Reducto), John Michael Higgins (as Mentok, the Mind Taker), and Paget Brewster (as the perky and suggestive Birdgirl). Special guest Lewis Black portrays the Deadly Duplicator, who runs the shop Birdman gets his copies from, and Turner Classic Movies’ Robert Osborne stops by to premiere an classic Hanna-Barbera “Birdman” cartoon, which has been skillfully redubbed by the show’s cast. Overall, the set is worth owning simply for the inclusion of the “Sebben & Sebben Employee Orientation” episode, as well as the half-hour final episode, “The Death of Birdman.”

Zodiac
(d. David Fincher; Paramount Home Video; $17.99 at Amazon)

Every time David Fincher gets another film of his released on DVD, it’s always a bare-bones version the first time through. Then, a few months later, a fully loaded 2-disc (or, in the case of Panic Room, a 3-disc set) will emerge, and used DVD stores will soon become flooded with single-disc editions of Fight Club and Se7en. The same goes for Zodiac, which doesn’t even bother to put the usual, fake special features on the back like “Scene Selections” or “Animated Menus.” In fact, its only special feature is a handful of previews for movies that have been out for a while and (get this) a commercial for the 2-disc director’s cut of Zodiac, which will be released sometime next year! It’s sad, really, because Zodiac is David Fincher’s finest effort, and the best movie I’ve seen so far this year, and really doesn’t deserve this “bait and switch” marketing ploy.