DVD Corner

“Dexter: Complete Second Season”: What’s a serial killer to do when he also happens to be a forensics expert for the Miami Police Department? For Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), the answer is to take a bite out of crime – literally. In this show, that’s the hook as Dexter routinely slaughters criminals he can’t bring to justice. And he’s so likable, just try not cheering him on. Beyond that slick sleight-of-hand, this second season finds Dexter struggling with two women in his life. First is his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz), with whom emotions are strained, and then there’s Lila (Jaime Murray), with whom Dexter finds a complication he might just pursue. The result is smart and engaging, a savage little television show that’s at once human and darkly comic, with the daring writing and fine cast making the unusual work. Grade: A-

“Gossip Girl: Complete First Season”: No show called “Gossip Girl” is going to gossip about the good things in life – that’s what Oprah and her legion of do-gooders are for. This series prefers to explore the meaner side of life, and as such, it stands as one guilty pleasure. Fueled by its soapy underpinnings and set in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the show uses its super-rich, wholly unlikable twentysomething brats to tell the truth about a corner of today’s youth culture plenty would prefer not to face – teens have sex, they drink their share of booze and smoke pot more often than most want to admit. That it tells its unseemly tales through the gimmick of a mysterious blogger makes the show timely and relevant, as does its refusal to overlook the downside of its characters’ reckless behavior, which is at once dangerous, ridiculous and not without its share of repercussions. Grade: B

“Hotel Babylon: Season Two”: Those who recall with fondness the 1980s American nighttime soap opera “Hotel” should check out the BBC’s “Hotel Babylon: Season Two,” which is glamorous, but in a different way. In this robust series, the Brits slink through the swank hotel to generate all sorts of sex, strife, bitterness and melodrama, all while dealing with the high-strung guests. Tamzin Oathwraite, Dexter Fletcher and Max Beesley star. Grade: B+

“House: Season Four”: Is there an abrasive, egomaniacal doctor in the house? There is in this fourth season of “House,” with Hugh Laurie back as Dr. Gregory House, an infectious-disease specialist at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital who is about as sullen and as caustic as they come. Perhaps too much so. The show is an acquired taste, with each episode pushing the envelope on what’s believable and what isn’t. Laurie, former star of the BBC series “A Bit of Fry & Laurie,” does grow on you, probably because, in a crunch, his character usually tends to do the right thing. Grade: B-

“Justice League: Season One” Blu-ray: Quite a league. Features Superman paired with Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter, all of whom join forces to fight the likes of Lex Luthor and other assorted creeps. Fans get their money’s worth, particularly in this sharp high-definition transfer, with the animation capturing the look and feel of a comic book, seamlessly evoking the printed page. Grade: B+

“Perry Mason: Third Season, Volume One”: Fifty years out, it’s still addictive. The third season of this popular series, which aired during the 1957-1958 television season, finds Raymond Burr bulldozing his way through his iconic role as Perry Mason, the Los Angeles defense attorney who, with the help of his assistant, Della Street (Barbara Hale, wonderful), took people to task at the stand and let them have it by drawing them into webs from which few could flee. The episodes in this collection are so retro-hot, you can almost smell the Brylcreem. To those fans of the series, that fact – and Burr himself – will prove a big part of its appeal. Grade: A-

“Prom Night” DVD, Blu-ray: As prom night’s go, Carrie had a more memorable go of it. This bloodless bloodletting is a risible remake of the R-rated, 1980 horror movie of the same name, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis when she was busy making a career out of avoiding the business end of butcher knives. Nelson McCormick’s version comes with a more violence-friendly PG-13 rating, which would have been fine had the movie amped up the tension with good writing and a solid undercurrent of suspense. Instead, we get a silly movie in which a hive of young adults are gutted on what should be one of the happiest nights of their lives. Who’s wielding the knife? That would be Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), a deranged former high school teacher who once caused cute Donna (Brittany Snow) a groundswell of grief when he murdered her family. Now, on the very night Donna has pulled herself together to shine on prom night, Fenton is on the loose from a maximum security prison and determined to knock her off, as well as all of her friends. So Fenton is something of a joy kill and like this movie, a sorry one at that. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

“Transformers Animated: Season One”: Move beyond the crude animation and, for younger fans of the Transformers, they’ll find well-executed shows that do what they’re intended to do – satisfy first, and then entice those awaiting the live-action 2009 release of “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.” That is assuming Shia LaBeouf doesn’t blow it in the process. Each episode features a typical story of good vs. evil, with the battle between the Autobots and the evil Decepticons offering just what fans want – plenty of creative morphing, a measure of excitement, escapist fun. Grade: B-

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@week

inrewind.com.