The Walt Disney classic space adventure head-trip The Black Hole comes back to DVD, this time not from Anchor Bay, but from Disney DVD themselves. While the disc is nowhere near a special edition, the presentation is still a class act, and there are still a few juicy extras to sink your teeth into. The film itself looks fantastic in all its anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen glory, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track does fair justice to both John Barry's score and all of the intense laser-blasting robot action. On the extras front, there's a 16-minute "Through the Black Hole" featurette that includes an interview with matte effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw as he talks the viewer through the various old-school effects techniques that the film employed. Being one of the last productions to champion that style of filmmaking, it's a fascinating world that's presented and one that many computer effects artists working today could learn a thing or two from. Also interesting is Ellenshaw's mention of a crazy alternate ending and the admission that even he doesn't know what the robot-worshipping hell sequence really means! For any fans of the film that don't already own it, this is a slim but fine release that, at the very least, will instantly deliver the whacked-out goods whenever you need them.

This disc contains all 13 episodes from the first season of the police drama The Shield. The episodes are titled "Pilot," "Our Gang," "The Spread," "Dawg Days," "Blowback," "Cherrypoppers," "Pay in Pain," "Cupid and Psycho," "Throwaway," "Dragonchasers," "Carnivores," "Two Days of Blood," and "Circles." Each episode is presented in the original broadcast aspect ratio. Closed-captioned English soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Surround. English and Spanish subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include cast and crew commentary on all episodes, the script for the pilot episode, deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and audition tapes of the cast. This is a strong release from 20th Century Fox.