Along
with concert documentaries, there’s a burgeoning sub-genre of musical
biographies making their way to DVD, and while these often serve
chiefly as sermons for a converted choir, they’re also handy primers
for abiding music fans who perhaps want to fill in a few gaps in their
own musical history. Cases in point: Under Review: Kate Bush and Under Review: The Velvet Underground, two superlative looks at influential acts.

Kate
Bush, one of Great Britain’s most enduring solo acts of the past two
decades, is always a singer for whom I’ll hold a special place, as the
favorite literate chanteuse of an old college flame, who first
introduced me to her. Similarly, mixing interviews, rare performance
footage and commentary and contextualization from peers and critics,
this finely culled Under Review title (a branding to which
Captain Beefheart and Small Faces have also submitted, with a disc on
The Smiths due later in June) is the perfect introduction for those who
have perhaps heard of Bush’s music but never given her a spin. From her
striking debut, The Kick Inside, to latter-era work like 1993’s stirring The Red Shoes and last year’s double disc Aerial,
a comprehensive chronological overview is given. Deejay Paul
Gambaccini, producer Morris Pert, music journalists Lucy O’Brien and
Phil Sutcliffe and many others lend their insight into Bush’s lilting
melodies, and live and studio recordings include such numbers as
“Wuthering Heights,” “Army Dreamers,” “Running Up That Hill,” “This
Woman’s Work,” “Wow” and “Cloudbusting.” Also featured on this
90-minute doc — which lacks only a firmer imprint of Bush’s own
personality — are an interactive quiz, complete discography and
extended classic television interviews.

Clocking in at a lean 80-some minutes, Under Review: The Velvet Underground
tackles the music and career of a band which esteemed rock ’n’ roll
journalist Lester Bangs — portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the
movie Almost Famous — claims kick-started “modern music.” Village Voice
music editor Robert Christgau and author Clinton Heylin provide some
clear-eyed analysis, but some of the other talking heads here grate and
waste time more than anything else. That said, there’s a heady mix of
rare performance footage (“Pale Blue Eyes,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,”
“Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “Sweet Jane,” “White Light/White Heat” and
“Sunday Morning”) and new interview material exclusive to this release.
The best probably comes courtesy of drummer Moe Tucker. Even without
any words from Lou Reed himself, Under Review: The Velvet Underground
illuminates the uncommon and extraordinary blend of gritty social
realism and sexual kink that made the band’s music so intoxicatingly
original.

Each Under Review title comes in a regular Amray case that is
in turn housed in an extremely thin cardboard slipcase. Supplemental
extras are a bit dashed off, limited to the aforementioned interactive
quizzes (nice evaporations of time for hardcore fans, but ill-suited
for neophytes or casual viewers), discographies and amorphous extended
footage. That said, Under Review: Kate Bush and Under Review: The Velvet Underground are both appealing introductory-level documents of two legendary musical acts. B- (Movies) C (Discs)

While
crime procedurals and all other manner of show featuring lawyers and/or
doctors sniping at and tumbling in and out of bed with one another
crowd the docket of network television, the modern sitcom slate has for
the most part congealed into entirely predictable family-oriented dreck
(According to Jim is still on? Really?), aging animated shows, a few attractive ensembles (How I Met Your Mother)
and a fewer still number of star vehicles. The time is ripe, in many
ways, for a half-hour dose of Franklin Roosevelt’s famous prescription
of “bold and persistent experimentation.” Actually, come to think of
it, I guess that was what Arrested Development was, and nobody watched. Damn.

At any rate, at a time of development deals parceled out to up-and-coming comedians, 3rd Rock From the Sun
was, from 1996 to 2001, a wild and wooly antidote — a show about aliens
posing as humans that took great delight in re-injecting colorful
silliness into prime time. As oblivious and self-satisfied patriarch
Dick Solomon, star John Lithgow embraced with glee the opportunity to
engage in all manner of physical slapstick and humiliating comedy, and
the result was a series that, while still working within the confines
of a traditional family show, infused a fresh, anarchic spirit into the
half-hour sitcom.

Episode highlights here include “Paranoid Dick,” featuring a Neil
Diamond impersonator; “Y2dicK,” in which Dick becomes furious over his
inability to retrieve grade reports from his computer; “Collect Call
for Dick,” in which young Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets drafted
into duty as his school’s mascot after not showing the proper spirit at
a basketball game; and the self-explanatory “Dick and Taxes.” Guest
stars include recurring bit players William Shatner and Jan Hooks, plus
Kathy Bates, Laurie Metcalf, Larry Miller, Kurtwood Smith and Kevin
Nealon.

Spread out over four discs in solid and extremely attractive gatefold packaging, 3rd Rock From the Sun
marks the latest winning release from Anchor Bay. First off, the
picture on these two dozen, full-frame presentations is fairly solid,
with no problems with grain or compression. There is perhaps a bit of
attrition in color, but nothing that mortally wounds your enjoyment of
the show. Audio comes courtesy of a competent Dolby digital stereo
track, which more than adequately captures the show’s meager aural
demands. A full spate of season-specific bloopers anchors the slate of
supplemental materials, though there’s also an interview with Jane
Curtin in which she discusses the challenge of tending to her
character’s rigidity on such a wild set. There are also season
highlights, but these are a bit repetitive and unnecessary for the
casual viewer.

While there are unfortunately no audio-commentary tracks from the
show’s writer-producers, there is, thankfully, a full-color, 16-page
insert booklet that includes photos, substantial episodic recaps and a
humorous, canted guide to human vanity and all sorts of other quirks,
as seen through the eyes of the alien Solomons. Sample line about
prosthetic legs: “Some people apparently prefer the durability of wood
or plastic to traditional meat legs. First popularized by pirates.” B+ (Show) B+ (Disc)