ALCATRAZ!! ANARCHY!! HOUSE!! HOMELAND!! LOUIE!! WILFRED!! NIKITA!! Cheap-Ass ROBOTECH!!...

Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry

The complete original “Robotech” series, $69.99 last August and $56.95 last month, has fallen (this week only) to $34.99!! (65% Off!!)

The first-season special edition of “24,” $49.98 in 2009 and $31.05 last week, just fell to an all time low of $11.49 (77% Off!!)

The complete Blu-ray series set for HBO’s crazy great “Rome,” $131.49 in 2010 and $100.99 in March, is for the moment at an all time low of $42.99 (69% Off!!)

Season four of “La Femme Nikita,” $86.49 in 2010 and $58.23 last week, is for the moment $16.99 (83% Off!!)

Season one of NBC’s “Life,” $27.49 in June and $18.99 in March, is now $6.49!! (80% Off!!)

Every episode of NBC’s “Kings,” $53.99 in 2009 and $23.49 in January, is now $12.87!! (79% Off!!)

Season one of SciFi’s “The Invisible Man,” $59.98 in December and $30.99 in March, is for the moment $7.49!! (88% Off!!)

The complete-series set for “Land of the Lost,” $46.99 in 2010 and $31.99 in November, is for the moment $13.72!! (66% Off!!)

The complete series set for “Babylon 5” spinoff “Crusade” (starring Gary Cole and Daniel Dae Kim), $59.98 in June and $37.49 in March, has plummeted to $13.59!! (77% Off!!)

New This Week

The second season of “Louie” was my third favorite sitcom of 2011, after “Beavis and Butt-head” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“The Sarah Silverman Program” was the sitcom Dan Harmon co-created before he created “Community.” It is awesome. If you loved “Get A Life,” you owe it to yourself to give the hilarious absurdism of “The Sarah Silverman Program” a look.

A new FX sitcom based on an award-winning Australian sitcom (which ran in the United States on IFC), “Wilfred” tells the tale of a suicidal pothead named Ryan (Elijah Wood) who appears to be the only person in the world who can carry on two-way conversations with his pretty neighbor’s dog.

Jason Gann, who co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in the Australian series, reprises his role as the furry title character.

David Zuckerman, the original showrunner on “Family Guy,” serves as the showrunner of the FX “Wilfred.”

The FX “Wilfred” is easily distinguished from IFC’s “Wildred” because it employs far more recognizable actors as guest stars, among them “Office” vets Ed Helms and Rashida Jones as well as Nestor Carbonell, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Kaczmarek, John Michael Higgens, Peter Stormare, Dwight Yoakum, George Coe, Chris Klein and Ethan Suplee.

Both versions put me in the mind of the big-screen’s (much better) “Fantastic Mister Fox” in that Wilfred isn’t quite fully anthropomorphized – he can switch between very human and very animalistic traits on a dime.

The first three episodes of the FX version made available for review have their moments, usually due to Gann’s performance, but too much of the time it feels like the writers are using TV-MA adult language, violence and drug use to mask the fact that the gags aren’t all that strong. I have to say the cheaper, lower-key and even raunchier Australian version was a lot better at nailing the funny.

TV Squad says:

… the first three episodes of 'Wilfred' feel relatively slight. The dynamic between Wilfred and Ryan is nicely underplayed by Wood and Gann, but once you get a sense of how the characters' relationship works, the episodes have somewhat similar arcs. That's not to say there aren't some satisfying moments sprinkled throughout the show. … It's not quite fully formed yet, but there are signs that 'Wilfred' may be barking up the right tree.

USA Today says:

… willfully scatological, crude sometimes beyond reason, and clumsy at times when a defter touch would be beneficial. But in a sea of summer (and spring, and fall, and winter) sameness, it's refreshing to find a show that is content to go its own way …

The New York Times says:

… ends up muffled and not very funny. Mr. Gann’s bits of doggie business — turning in circles before sitting on the couch, chasing a laser-pen light — are reliably humorous, but beyond that the show doesn’t offer a lot of bark or bite. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… It requires some fuzziness to work. And it works very well. … The humor is frequently scatological or sexual, but a mitigating sweetness enfolds it all. (The American "Wilfred" is more aspirational than its Australian forebear, which was originally about the fight between a man and a dog for a woman's attention.) Ryan is a good guy, and Wilfred, despite his bad habits, is a good dog. …

The Washington Post says:

… rarely is an FX show as puzzlingly discordant … In moments where it ought to be subversively sweet, “Wilfred” opts for sour; in what might have been its funniest bits, it suddenly rolls over and plays dead; where it wishes to be ironic and droll, it is often just dumb or mean. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… certainly has moments of high (and low) comedy but it's also hard to imagine the premise won't get stale pretty fast.

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… stuffed with juvenile humor, steaming piles of bad taste and an idiotic premise. Perhaps an acquired taste for some viewers, but if the sheer absurdity of the show doesn't get you, the rather sweet undercurrent just may do the trick. …

The Boston Herald says:

… mangy mutt of a show … Wilfred’s dialogue is so dated, he might as well be shedding onscreen. “I will not be ignored, Ryan,” he says at one point, echoing Glenn Close’s “Fatal Attraction” harpy. In another scene, he’s muzzled like Hannibal Lecter. Maybe the Aussie time zone extends to 1990. … play dead. Good doggy.

The Boston Globe says:

… filled with the kind of coarse humor you’d find on FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’’ or Fox’s “Family Guy.’’ The show has a nice sense of innocence, thanks to Wood’s gentle performance and the theme of personal transformation; but it is also filled with uneven sexual and scatological jokes, delivered with a dog-like lack of modesty, so viewer be warned. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… What we have here, folks, is more proof that the comedy genre on television is stronger than ever. … the visual jokes alone are worth watching this series, plus it’s almost impossible to get tired of watching a guy in a dog suit say stuff like, “I’ll kill you. I’ll murder you in your sleep.” …

“Franklin & Bash” is a new legal dramedy from law-show vet Bill Chais (“Family Law,” “Shark”) and “Journeyman” mastermind Kevin Falls. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“Saved By The Bell”), Breckin Meyer (“Inside Schwartz”) and Malcolm McDowell ("Heroes").

Gosselaar was also the star of the TNT dramedy “Raising The Bar,” which suggests guys and gals at TNT are determined to keep casting him as a lawyer.

If you’re tuning in because you liked Falls’ “Journeyman,” know “Bash” is very different, essentially an oversized single-camera sitcom, and a pretty poor one.

To damn "Bash" with faint praise, I will say it's probably five times as entertaining as CBS' similar "The Defenders," which was just a big ball of nothing.

HitFix says:

… The problem with "Franklin & Bash" is that the point seems more trouble than it's worth to attain, and unlikely to happen given the show's mostly obnoxious execution. …

TV Squad says:

… supposed to be "offbeat," in the words of a TNT press release. The trouble is, that word doesn't mean what TNT appears to think it means. … 'Franklin & Bash' isn't so much offbeat as a celebration of frat-boy culture, but that's not the show's biggest issue. The problem is that the cases that the lead duo take on aren't offbeat enough, and Gosselaar's appealing qualities aren't enough to make up for 'Franklin & Bash's' other shortcomings.

USA Today says:

… We get it, it's summer. … So when did networks decide that all added up to "stupid"? … As oversexed as it is underachieving, Bash is the kind of original programming that makes you reconsider your antipathy toward reruns. …

The New York Times says:

… The problem is that Franklin and Bash themselves are resolutely uninteresting. In a recurring motif, they pose bedroom-fantasy questions to each other: Would you sleep with Scarlett Johansson if it meant taking one punch from Mike Tyson? A more realistic question might be, Would you take a punch from Mike Tyson if it meant not having to sit through 10 hours of a mediocre lawyer show?

The Los Angeles Times says:

… So, it's not as intrigue-heavy as "White Collar," as satiric as "The Good Guys" or as beautifully located as "Hawaii Five-O"; "Franklin & Bash" is smart, it's fun and it's summer. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

Viewers who liked CBS's "The Defenders" might also be drawn to TNT's "Franklin & Bash," which is basically "The Defenders Junior" with younger actors playing more carefree lead characters.…

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… will rise or fall almost entirely on the basis of how likable you find Gosselaar and Meyer, not to mention the wisecrack-stuffed dialogue. And if that isn't enough for you, stick around for the second episode as Gosselaar emerges starkers from a hot tub. Talk about bringing up the rear.

The Boston Herald says:

… You are not only required to suspend disbelief but to bind it, bag it and drown it. … strictly a small claims series. …

The Boston Globe says:

… there’s no pleasure here to regret, just strained, sexist, frat-boy self-love. … the result has none of Apatow’s sweetness and all of Kelley’s worst, quirk-filled impulses. It’s a headache cocktail. …

Variety says:

… an unexpectedly quirky legal show that has as about much to do with law as "CSI" does with science. … Both Bash (still pining for his ex-girlfriend) and Franklin (his dad was a big-time litigator) tote around slightly more serious baggage, but happily, they don't pull it out often enough to detract from the fun. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… such a throwback to ‘70s television it’s hard to get too upset with either it or TNT, even when the jocularity is ramped up a tad too high and the wild and crazy behavior of the two main characters becomes more outlandish than is normally advisable or tolerable. …

TV-on-Disc Calendar

Last Week
Decoded 2.x
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks
Doctor Who: Seeds Of Death
Entourage 8.x
Entourage 8.x (Blu-ray)
Episodes 1.x
GCB 1.x
Gene Simmons Family Jewels 6.x Vol. 1
Gene Simmons Family Jewels 6.x Vol. 2
G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: The Complete First Series
Intensity: The Complete Miniseries
Missing 1.x
Pawn Stars Vol. 4
Rake 1.x
The Sarah Jane Adventures 5.x
Scandal 1.x
Top Gear 18.x
Tosh.0: Hoodies (Blu-ray)
The Tribe 1.x Vol. 2

This Week