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Being a great fan of Desperate Housewives I was eagerly waiting for Season 4 to be available. However, I find this season too fast-moving with too many sombre events crammed into each episode. True, we only get 17 episodes instead of the 23 or 24 of the previous seasons, but far more happens in this season. We get very little time to laugh (at our own follies), and are whipped along from one catastrophe to the next. I find it a great pity ... I liked being able to see myself (as a housewife and mother). No time for this now. I'll no doubt be getting Season 5 ... in a year's time ... but will be looking forward to it less. By the way, do watch them in order. Reference is made all the way along to the previous seasons 1, 2 and 3.

Absolutely brilliant adaptation and a great ensemble cast. I have to single out Eileen Atkins performance as the one which affected me most - the scene where she sits struggling with her ideas of convention as to whether she can attend the funeral in support of her friend is breathtakingly good - so much of what you understand is going on is not dialogue based but entirely down to her performance.

More drama of this quality please.

With the 1st season setting the scene and introducing the characters the 2nd season does that rare thing of being even better, Though the story does still contains the continuing Barksdale story with Stringer Bell holding the reins as Avon alongside his nephew are incarcerated due the conclusions of the investigation in season 1. It is the new strand that drives the 2nd series even more. It introduces the tragic tale of the Sobotka's, a family of Batimore Dockers who's head Frank sometimes goes to not exactly legitimate methods to keep the money coming in but is a generous but compromised man. So when he rubs childhood adversary Deputy Commissioner Valchek up the wrong way with a incident that concerns amongst such things as Church stained glass window, Valchek blackmails a returning Frankie Faison from Season 1 as Commisssioner Burrell for political reasons to getting him to launch an investigation into Frank's activities. When after Burrell tries to buy him off some dead beats determined to do nothing, Valchek requests Daniels langishing in the Police Evidence dungeon to put together another Details to lead the investigation including Valchek's son-in-law a returning "Prez" from season 1.

What starts out as a childhood spat gone out of control becomes much bigger when Mcnulty (now Harbour Patrol for his sins) dredges up a Jane Doe in the docks and then connects it to a cargo hold full of 13 dead immigrant girls which Jimmy makes rather maliciously fall in to the jurisdiction of his old boss Major Rawls and ends up being put in the laps of a rather unimpressed Lester & Bunk who base their investigation from Daniels Detail but when their investiagtions become connected end up becoming part of Daniels Detail and after a number of episodes, Daniels agrees to take the case off Rawl's hands in exchange for his co-operation including the one thing Rawls is loathed to grant due to his axe to gring with a certain Detective that used to be part of his squad.

This season also looks into Mcnulty's home life and is flawed personality concerning his family life and coming to terms with his demotion and his borderline alcoholism and is just about pulled from the brink when Rawls allows Daniels to get his own way in exchange for taking the 13 jane does off his roster after being convinced by Bunk & Lester that they are connected to Valchek's Sorbotka case. Also Port Cop Officier Beatrice Russell (Amy Ryan) who is initially left with the immigrant girls case till Mcnulty's intervention is a new addition and makes for an interesting a solid but more wet behind the ears member of the team who lacks experience but has connections with the Dockers including Frank himself which assists in the case and becomes a fine a valuable memeber of the Detail. Kima returns after a stint behind a desk due to receovering from her shooting from season 1 much to her now pregnant girlfriends dismay. Herc & now Sergeant Carver also return to complete the Team

Season 2 improves on the standard of 1st season by making the storytelling even more compelling, where it's Avon's nephew D'Angelo that was the concience and one of the main drives of the story in season 1, it is Chris Bauer's Frank which is the concern of series 2. Frank is loyal to his workers but is involved in what he thinks his petty smuggling and theft but becomes deeper involved with a dangerous group ran by a man simply named "The Greek".

Frank's nephew and son become embroiled in "The Greek's" operation and result in events and actions which will be life changing and tragic for them all. Pablo Schrieber as Frank's nephew Nicky gets deeper in with "The Greek's" right hand Spiros (Paul Ben Victor) who after going behind his Uncle with some scams gets offered the chance of payment in Heroin.

Nicky then see's the oppurtunity that Ziggy, Frank's son had tried to intice him into but was reluctant due to Ziggy's firebrand personality and unexperience in dealing. Nicky being a more shrewd, clever and adept at turning his hand to new oppurtunities excepts the heroin and starts dealing in his neighberhood through the local connections, cutting out Ziggy of the scheme which sows the seeds of startling actions later in the season.

Daniels and the team concentrate on tracking the drugs, Herc & Carver doing the surveilance and gathering vital info as well as the scams with the stealing of Cargo holds which connect them to Lester & Bunk's Jane Does case. After setting up wire taps and cloning the computer system the dockers use to discover the deceptions they start to zero on in on the Sorbotka's schemes, with Nicky becoming more embroiled and Frank not being aware how deep his Nephew is involved and how unpredictable is son Ziggy is becoming.

The story of the port aces' the Barkdale angle of the 1st season by presenting Bauer's tragic but decent Frank and the fate of his families involvement with "The Greek" who seems to have friends in high places who start to throw huge spanners in the Details operation. When the FBI come involved due to Valchek's thirst to bring down Frank the information starts to leak and "The Greek" becomes aware of the operation.

The strands of the Barksdale empire become embroiled in the port story as Stringer has to strike a deal with the competition "Propostion Joe's " (Robert F Chew) crew due to lack of product which see's Stringer's grip on Avon's territory slipping made more awkward by Joe's people in a particular "Cheese", (Hip Hop star Wu Tang Clan's "Method Man") as Joe has dealing with Spiros as they are providing him with a steady supply of heroin bought through on the docks.

Regulars from series 1 make an apperance, Bubbles continues to thieve to fund his habit and Omar continues to taunt Stringer as well as assisting Mcnulty in putting away a Barksdale soldier arrested due to incidents covered in season 1. Like Soprano's the characters aren't always likeable but compelling and make each episode fly by, the detail in the storytelling is astonishing and is truly masterful.

An With 3 more seasons to go I'm practically salivating for some more of this stunning piece of TV.

Yes! The Wire really is that Good!

Well,while blu ray experience and especially watcjing on 7.1 channel is wonderful but alas, PLOT is terribly confused. It doesn't make sense at all, but cinematography is gorgeous. In next 6 months, it will be available for less than £ 10.

My brother just bought this for me (I put him up rent free for months when he came back from traveling). One of the best things he has ever got me. There are five DVDs and I've already watched three, I've only had it a week.

When you watch it your just in awe of the scenery, it's beautiful. There is a purposefully made score for it that just adds to the enjoyment. As for people that say they can't hear David Attenborough because of the music, they must be deaf the music always quietens down when he talks. I love the Planet Earth Diaries parts, it's very enjoyable to watch.

I may be wrong but I think this was the first or first major nature progamme to be filmed fully in HD and it's all the better for it.

I just want to provide a bit of information that is missing from the product listing, which is of great interest to many people. That is, has the transfer of the Theatrical Editions been improved over the insult that was released last time? And the answer is a plain and simple "no". The Special Edition is the same fantastic transfer as we've had before (albeit with the same bizarre discolouration problems) and the Original Theatrical Editions are still not anamorphic. Why? Well, we all have our suspicions about that.

Putting it simply, if you don't have the Star Wars trilogy on DVD, this release is cheap enough and worth getting, but if you own it and were hoping for an improvement over the previous release (no longer limited, it seems), then don't waste your money.

I was in serious need of something a little cheering on the DVD front and what plomped onto the mat but Bones Series 3.

Seriously icky (there was a scene with an opened time capsule which made me wish I hadn't just made myself a cup of tomato soup! YEUCCHHHH!) in parts and with and obvious lumps missing from a couple of the story arcs, probably due to the writers strike, it still manages to combine a good crime drama with some well written humour and keep the plot pushing along.

It works, whichever way you look at it and I loved the Gormogon idea - an anti-secret society secret society !

The only thing which I wavered over was the preview double episode "Yanks in the UK" from the Fourth Series. This was, despite the best efforts of the gorgeous Indira Varma and the usual crew was utter pants! (Fortunately, the other two preview episodes seem to be far better so there is hope.)

Series 3 was excellent however and I recommend it wholeheartedly to one and all!

Brilliant, Awesome, Super, Great, fantastic. What more can you say? I just watched them and forgot how good they are. You really need to get thses and watch the whole set again.

The overwhelming success of the Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies revitalised interest and credibility in superhero movies since the original Batman and Superman film franchises fell into great decline. Since then, floodgates have been opened, allowing all kinds of Marvel heroes to have a shot at cinematic stardom.

Although (in my opinion) there haven't been any truly horrible Marvel films, the majority of these haven't lived up to the hype as they could've done. For example, Daredevil, Hulk, Fantastic Four (the first film) had all the necessary tools to be on a par with any of the X-Men/Spider-Man films, yet they weren't.

So now, we have Iron Man, the next Marvel legend in line for a big superhero film. When I saw the first trailer, it looked promising (like so many other movies of this genre, initially) but I thought this was destined to flop, yet hoping it wouldn't. As it turns out, Iron Man is a surprisingly excellent film, that's executed so well.

Starting off with the subject, the character of Iron Man has always been one of my favourites in the Marvel Universe. Tony Stark has always been a fascinating character from his beginnings to present-day. The industrialist/millionaire, whose heart was near-fatally wounded by shrapnel, forcing him to design a chest-piece life-support to keep him alive, who then decided to stop the destruction he created with his weapons by becoming Iron Man...WOW. It's no surprise why I liked him instantly. He just reeks of awesomeness and fascination.

This origin has been captured perfectly, thanks to first-class acting, a sharp script, a very good plot and outstanding CGI. Starting with Robert Downey JR., his performance as Tony Stark is both brilliant and credible. Stark starts off as a naïve, careless, lazy and reckless, yet brilliant genius weapons manufacturer who is forced to confront the wrongs he has brought to the world in order to make himself a better person. It's all brilliantly presented but what I really loved most about the film is that it doesn't take itself TOO seriously. There's some really clever humour here, and that's delivered expertly by Downey and the rest of the cast.

Speaking of which, there's a truly excellent supporting cast here. There's Terrance Howard as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, who has some great humorous interactions with Stark, plus a cracking nod to his future as War Machine. Also, Jeff Bridges makes for a fabulous, two-faced antagonist as Obadiah Stane. Those who've read Iron Man comics will know that it's the Mandarin who's the arch-nemesis of old Shell Head, but putting him into this film may not have worked. So it's pleasing that they've decided to play it safe by putting in another, lesser-known antagonist from the comics to make it more in-keeping with the realistic presentation of the film.

Gwyneth Paltrow also plays a great love-interest as Pepper Potts. The character is another sharp, credible, intelligent, strong-willed and quick-witted individual. What's refreshing about this is that in comparison to other superhero films, the implied romance between her and Stark isn't as obviously played out as you'd expect. There's some cracking exchanges between the two which again is a positive boon, as it reflects the film's nature of not taking itself too seriously. It's quite original and makes for a nice change from superhero films past.

The CGI is also something to be impressed with, and I've really started to develop more appreciation for Paramount films as a result. The effects here are easily on a par with the epic stuff from Transformers (also a Paramount film), and implies that there's still so much more that can be done with the technology.

Plus, there's some brilliant surprises along the way. I won't spoil anything, but it's worth looking out for the emergence of one of the Marvel Universe's biggest organizations. And you're going to LOVE the ending, plus the EXTRA ending after the credits have finished rolling. Watch out for it, seriously. It's worth it.

As for special features, expect some brilliant deleted/extended scenes as well as a trailer for the brand new Iron Man: Animated Adventures that starts in 2009. The second disc on this Ultimate Edition is packed with documentaries on the film and the comics history of the character itself. There's also a screen test of Robert Downey JR., the actor's process and some nice still galleries. There could've been more features in terms of an audio commentary and trailers, but the extras are good enough for those who wish to fork out an extra fiver for them.

So...was Iron Man the best movie of Summer 2008? Or the ultimate, definitive superhero film? No to both questions. Those honours go to The Dark Knight, but really, it doesn't matter. Iron Man nevertheless remains a hugely enjoyable film. It's both much more cooler and meatier than a lot of other superhero movies in previous years. This will satisfy all fans and is very, very good.

But should you go for this 2-disc edition instead of the regular single-disc? Well, it's your choice entirely. If you want to spend more money for documentaries, screen-tests etc, then it IS worth it, but the deleted/extended scenes should be enough to please the viewer if you go for just disc 1. I certainly would've been happy with just one disc.

Regardless of which version you decide to buy, Iron Man is definitely something I would recommend. It's just a truly enjoyable romp with very little to fault. Maybe not truly essential, but certainly a great, great film that's worth emptying your wallet for.