BA50 TalkersOur BA50 readers have helped us compile some of their favorite TV shows available on DVD. These can make great gifts for the BA50 women in your life!
Downton Abbey
The original and unedited UK version of Seasons 1 and 2 of the hit show Downton Abbey in one limited-edition boxed set.
Welcome to Downton Abbey, the splendid ancestral home of the Earl and Countess of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) and their daughters, who live there under the watchful eye of the Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith). The household is a complicated community, with the servants below stairs as fiercely jealous of their ranks as anyone above. From the sinking of the Titanic to the First World War, the secure and ordered world of Downton is rocked as the lives of the inhabitants are shaped by romance, ambition, and heartbreak.
Enjoy this collection of both seasons of the Golden Globe® and multi-Emmy Award®-winning, Guinness World RecordTM-holding (highest critical review rating for a TV show), most talked-about program in recent memory, including the special Christmas episode.
This Blu-ray set features subtitles in English (SDH).
Hailed as TV’s best new drama by critics everywhere, the award-winning HOMELAND* delivers compelling characters, thrilling twists and breathtaking suspense. Carrie Mathison (Golden Glober winner Claire Danes), a brilliant but volatile CIA agent, suspects that a rescued American POW may not be what he seems. Is Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody_(Damian Lewis) a war hero…or an Al Qaeda sleeper agent plotting a spectacular terrorist attack on U.S. soil? Following her instincts, Mathison will risk everything to uncover the truth – her reputation, her career and even her sanity. Packed with multiple layers and hidden clues, Season One offers something new every time you see it…watch carefully.
From Terence Winter (Emmy®-winning writer on HBO’s The Sopranos) and Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City in 1920 at the dawn of Prohibition. The series chronicles the life and times of Enoch Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), the city treasurer whose double role as politician and bootlegger makes him the city’s undisputed czar at a time when illegal alcohol has opened up highly lucrative opportunities for rumrunners and distributors. In a city defined by notorious backroom politics and vicious power struggles, Nucky must contend with ambitious underlings, relentless Feds, rival gangsters — including Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano and Al Capone — and his own appetite for women, profits, and power.
From the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice comes a captivating saga of illicit relationships, unchecked power, and shocking political intrigue. Go behind the closed doors of Washington D.C.’s elite and watch as the plot unfolds in Scandal: The Complete First Season. When trouble rears its ugly head – headline-making, life-ruining trouble – there’s only one person to call: the legendary Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). With her steadfast rule of always trusting her gut, Olivia leads an expert team of crisis management consultants skilled at making even the most sordid, salacious scandals disappear. But as these self-proclaimed “gladiators in suits” begin to reveal the cracks in their armor, will the masters of damage control be able to control the damage in their own personal lives? Relive every episode of this exciting political thriller, plus exclusive, never-before-seen bonus features, and get your fix of the ultimate “fixer.”
University physicists Leonard and Sheldon know whether to use an integral or a differential to solve the area under a curve. But they don’t have a clue about girls. Or dating. Or clothes. Or parties. Or having fun. Or, basically, life. So when a pretty blonde named Penny moves in the apartment across the hall, the guys decide to get an education outside of the classroom. Boys, you have a lot to learn. With series creators Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) and Bill Prady (The Gilmore Girls) concocting the right mix of logic and lunacy and stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) and Jim Parsons (Judging Amy) turning geekdom into Phi Beta fun, The Big Bang Theory is big on laughs. And life.
Created by Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights), NBC’s Parenthood arrives with a roster of familiar names, including producer Ron Howard, who directed the original comedy. In the pilot, Adam Braverman (Peter Krause, Six Feet Under) learns that his son, Max (Max Burkholder), may have Asperger’s syndrome; his brother, Crosby (Dax Shepard), finds out he’s a father; and Sarah (Lauren Graham, Gilmore Girls) moves back to Berkeley with her kids, Drew (Miles Heizer) and Amber (Mae Whitman, Arrested Development). That leaves their sister, Julia (Erika Christensen), who struggles to balance motherhood with a career.
Until she finds a place of her own, the divorced Sarah lives with parents Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) and Camille (Bonnie Bedelia), who aren’t as happy as she thought. She also reconnects with an old high-school boyfriend (Glee’s Mike O’Malley) and considers a relationship with Amber’s English teacher (Joan of Arcadia’s Jason Ritter), while Crosby gets to know his son with Jasmine (Joy Bryant), a former flame. Adam’s 15-year-old daughter, Haddie (Sarah Ramos), also starts dating, which causes her father and mother, Kristina (Monica Potter), no end of stress.
Come join the family for the hilarious and critically acclaimed breakout hit of the year! Featuring an all-star cast led by Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vargara, Julie Bowen, and Ty Burrell, Modern Family takes a refreshing and funny view of what it means to raise a family in this hectic day and age. Multi-cultural relationships, adoption, and same-sex marriage are just a few of the timely issues faced by the show’s three wildly-diverse broods. No matter the size or shape, family always comes first in this hilariously “modern” look at life, love, and laughter.
The Good Wife is a female-driven drama about a politician’s wife who pursues her own career as a defense attorney after her husband is sent to jail on charges of political corruption. Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) will not only have to deal with her career but also with keeping her family together by providing a stable home for her two children.
Meet Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy): proud, working-class patriarch to a motley brood of six smart, spirited and independent kids who, without him, would be… better off. In Frank’s booze-addled view, parenting just eats into his hard-earned bar-crawling and carousing time around Chicago — so he leaves it to eldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) to hold down the fort. Bearing the de facto parent badge/burden, she’s donned the proverbial apron and makes sure her younger siblings do their chores, keep a clean(ish) home and feed the kitty — the Gallagher family fund jar — because the gas bill is due, and everyone (no matter how small) works to keep the house lights on, as well as food on the table. Brothers Lip , Ian and Carl use their intellect to break every rule in the book to survive and make the bank, while younger sister Debbie would sooner steal her share. The Gallaghers are irreverent, endearing, resilient — and they’re absolutely, wildly and unapologetically Shameless.
After waking from a coma in an abandoned hospital, police officer Rick Grimes finds the world he knew gone – ravaged by a zombie epidemic of apocalyptic proportions. Nearby, on the outskirts of Atlanta, a small encampment struggles to survive as ‘the dead’ stalk them at every turn. Can Rick and the others hold onto their humanity as they fight to live in this terrifying new world? And, amidst dire conditions and personal rivalries, will they ultimately survive one another? AMC’s The Walking Dead is an epic, survival adventure series from the director of The Shawshank Redemption and the producer of The Terminator and Aliens.
TRUE BLOOD chronicles the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps… where vampires have emerged from the coffin, and no longer need humans for their fix. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin, Golden Globe(R)-winner for “True Blood”, Academy Award®-winner for “The Piano”) works as a waitress at the rural bar Merlotte’s. Though outwardly a typical young woman, she keeps a dangerous secret: she has the ability to hear the thoughts of others. Her situation is further complicated when the bar gets its first vampire patron – 173-year old Bill Compton (Steven Moyer, “Quills”) – and the two outsiders are immediately drawn to each other. Delivering the best of what audiences have come to expect from Creator and Executive Producer Alan Ball (writer of Oscar®-winning Best Picture “American Beauty”, creator of the Emmy® Award-winning HBO® series “Six Feet Under”), TRUE BLOOD is a dark and sexy tale that boldly delves into the heart – and the neck – of the Deep South.
Check out our GIFT GUIDES for other great gift ideas for BA50s.