Not too long ago, the folks out at Acorn Media sent out a copy of Prime Suspect Series One for me to review. And while Acorn has sent out a whole lot of prime drama for us previously, you’ll find that this particular batch is on par with some of their best.

Prime Suspect follows DCI Tennison, who’s out to solve a murder. Tennison’s been bucking to get charge of a murder case for quite some time, and now Tennison’s finally got the opportunity. But as Tennison will rapidly discover, this murder may not just be a murder, but rather a beginning. A beginning of something much larger: a serial killer, and quite possibly, a cover-up within the police department itself. Will DCI Tennison survive this newfound promotion? Or will Tennison not live to collect the enhanced pension?

Sounds pretty straightforward, until you consider that DCI Tennison is played by none other than Helen Mirren, who is pretty much the center of awesome in the known universe as far as actresses go. And DCI Tennison is taking charge of a murder investigation back in a time when murder investigations simply were not headed up by women. Thus, Tennison’s going to be taking on the department just as much as the possible serial killer, as the department very clearly does not want her there.

But even better, it’s not really this simple. There will be plenty of good twists and turns involved with this one, as only British drama can present them. Crime drama is always pretty good; British crime drama is an order of magnitude above that. Folks, if you liked CSI or all those other crime dramas, then frankly, you owe it to yourself to at least check out Prime Suspect Series One.

It’s a lovely, extensive piece of work that’s nicely put together, and is elevated at least a couple notches by virtue of having Helen Mirren around. There’s even some nifty extra stuff showing Tennison’s home life, which is a nice aside from all the murder and mayhem going on elsewhere. It’s some surprisingly fun stuff, and amply worth the three hours twenty-seven minutes you’ll have to invest in it to watch it all.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, gives Prime Suspect Series One an eight out of ten for being some top-notch crime drama, backed up by an overwhelming British influence and the sheer raw awesome that is Helen Mirren. Crime drama fans, you’re in for a great time here.

Brace yourselves, sci-fi buffs out there, because what I’ve got for you today is going to be easily one of the biggest events you can find this year: the folks out at A&E sent over a copy of Farscape: The Complete Series for us, and in full-bore HD thanks to the fact that it’s on Blu-ray. You won’t be able to catch this one until next week, but when you do, oh my…will you ever be in for a sweet piece of science fiction joy.

Farscape: The Complete Series represents fully four seasons of American astronaut John Crichton, as he’s flung through a wormhole in space during a mission. Where he emerges is going to be neck deep in a whole lot of problems of its own, not least of which the fact that he’s landed himself in the middle of a prison break inside a living space ship known as a Leviathan. He teams up with a group of strange and wildly dissimilar personalities, and the lot of them make their own break. What they’ll be breaking into, meanwhile, is a wildly complex set of problems mostly spearheaded by the galaxy’s answer to law and order, the Peacekeepers.

Things are going to be a little complex here, and a little weird to boot, but the end result is a disturbingly deep piece of science fiction that will span hours and provide not only a variety of plotlines, but also a disturbingly large number of puppets. See, this is the work of the Jim Henson Studios, which is pretty much the top of the heap when it comes to modern era puppet technology. And the results are astonishing.

And while the costuming is pretty impressive, the plot is even more so, an extensive series of interconnecting plotlines featuring loads of betrayals and reversals and triumphs and most everything else that goes into a worthwhile narrative. Basically, folks, this stuff is abundantly well worth watching, because they will do so much more with it than you’d ever expect. And the best part? They’ll not only throw in action–and plenty of it–but also some humor, some good old fashioned social commentary, and plenty of character development. This is some well built science fiction, and thus, well worth your time to get in on this.

Just as an added inducement, there will be plenty of extra features in here, like commentary tracks and making-of featurettes and the like to make this an even better incentive for fans of the show who may well already have purchased box sets of this one in the past.

The Screenhead Ten Scale meanwhile gives Farscape The Complete Series a full ten out of ten for sheer value and incredible quality intermingled in one box set. Science fiction is about to get a big new star in its firmament with this package.

Folks, I’ve been working my way through this one for the last several days since it actually showed up on my doorstep, because this one is a doozy. The folks out at Lions Gate sent over Little House on the Prairie. All of it. Yes, that’s right, the full nine seasons of it, a monster fifty five disc box set of frontier living and good family television to last most anyone several hours. And how did it turn out? Better than you might expect.

Little House on the Prairie The Complete Nine Season Set takes us out to the frontier, as the Ingalls family makes its westward progression, setting out to settle the wild and vast frontier before them. Setting up camp on a parcel of land near Plum Creek, not too far from the tiny town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota, the Ingalls family builds a house, a farm, and a life on the harsh, unforgiving territory. They’ll have a lot of adventures, deal with a whole lot of different things, see their family grow and change, and eventually it will all come to an end.

Personally, I enjoy Little House on the Prairie. It’s a deceptively relaxing show; the combination of the realistic portrayal of the frontier lifestyle coupled with the excellent performances of the cast is one that seldom fails to mellow me out. And considering how extensive this collection was, chances are you’re going to find at least a couple episodes you’ll really enjoy. Of course, by like token, you’ll also find a few you absolutely can’t stand.

Special note here: if you were really fond of the books, and expect the series to behave like a big adaptation, don’t. Just stop right now. The best you’re going to do is get something based loosely on the books, and very loosely at that. Still though, Little House on the Prairie is a surprisingly relaxing show, almost disturbingly so, really, but it does do a wonderful job there. Plus, it’s excellent family viewing. You’ll find next to nothing objectionable in here; this was regarded as family fare back in the seventies when it first emerged, and it’s a safe bet that people haven’t gotten more sensitive now in terms of objectionable content, so you have a reasonably safe bet that this will be good for family viewing now.

Simple plotlines, a nigh-total lack of objectionable content and solid performances make the Little House series one you’ll absolutely want to watch. And the Screenhead Ten Scale responds accordingly by giving Little House on the Prairie The Complete Nine Season Set an eight out of ten. It’s not going to be for everyone–many will be bored here–but for those who like it a little on the calmer side, this is going to be a great trip into the wild.

Easily one of the biggest events in history, especially in 20th century history, had to be World War II. And as such, you know the folks out at the History Channel have covered it extensively. And perhaps the culmination of all that coverage comes our way with WWII In HD, a copy of which the folks out at the History Channel sent out for review. And if you’re even vaguely interested in World War II, brace yourself for a huge amount of information presented in the sharpest possible format. You’re not going to be able to get this one until next week, but if you’ve got an interest in the subject, you’ll definitely want to be on hand for this.

WWII In HD, you see, not only brings the high definition, but it also brings the rare footage to boot. Basically, WWII In HD is comprised of a whole lot of color footage of World War II, found during an extensive, two year search. Then said footage was compiled with appropriate narration, and augmented accordingly for an HD presentation. You’ll see the war from its very beginnings all the way up to the very end. And what began life as three thousand hours of color footage has been edited, curated, and winnowed down to just ten hours of footage spread out over four Blu-ray discs, or five DVDs.

And frankly, this is some thoroughly amazing stuff. You’ll hear the war, as it’s happening from a variety of perspectives, complete with some impressive voice over work from big names like Ron Livingston, Amy Smart and Rob Corddry. With Gary Sinise handling the narration duties, the whole experience is almost deceptively calming, especially so given the nature of what it is we’re looking at here. This is some deeply impressive stuff, frankly.

Of course, there’s a bit of a down side in all this, as you have to bear in mind that this, much like the box says, is entirely about World War II. You’ve got to have some connection to the source material, otherwise you’re going to be bored stiff for ten straight hours. And that is not at all fun, as I can tell you from my high school days. But if you’re interested, this incredible combination of home theater-testing HD and enormously educational often never before seen World War II footage is going to be an experience quite unlike any you’ve seen recently.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives WWII In HD a full ten out of ten for sheer extensiveness. This much rare footage in one place is something of an achievement and should be viewed accordingly. Not to mention, of course, the fact that it should be viewed period.

Let’s face it, folks, when it comes to classic animation, it just doesn’t get any better than Peanuts. Charlie Brown and crew have been imitated, parodied and rerun over and over for years. With the end of the year holidays pretty much on lockdown, it’s not much of a surprise to see them expand their grip to go after winter in general. And the folks out at Warner Brothers sent over a copy of the first such attempt to take the season by storm, Happiness Is Peanuts Snow Days.

Happiness Is Peanuts Snow Days follows the old familiar crew as they have some winter fun. Peppermint Patty, a big focus of this installment for some reason, will not only find herself in training for a figure skating competition (with no less than Snoopy as her stereotypically tough coach) as well as the author of an award-winning essay about said dog. From there, we’ll have a play, as well as Sally’s frenzied preparations for Valentine’s Day targeting one certain blanket-toting babboo, who’s a bit reluctant to say the least.

Let’s be clear–as value goes, it’s not here. Plain and simple, you’re getting what amounts to two episodes of Peanuts lasting just about forty seven minutes, including an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show featuring three shorts, and a longer-form title, She’s A Good Skate, Charlie Brown. But the lack of value here has to be weighed against the sheer overwhelming fact that, in fact, these are Peanuts cartoons. Chances are pretty good that you haven’t seen these. If you have seen these, it was probably decades ago, so they’re about as close to as new to you as they’re ever going to get. The sheer dearth of Peanuts video out there makes these well worth your time, at least for a rental, by default.

And despite the fact that you’re not going to get a whole lot of Peanuts value here, you will get a whole lot of quality out of the affair. I actually laughed a lot of the time, which is pretty rare as far as most any comedy release goes. The jokes come fast and hot, and that makes this a great watch indeed.

The Screenhead Ten Scale throws up its hands in disgust and realizes its only real course of action by giving Happiness Is Peanuts Snow Days a ten out of ten. It’s Peanuts. What else can be done? You may not get a whole lot out of this one, but at the end of the day, it’s still Peanuts, and it’s still terrific stuff, what little of it is actually here.

It was just a couple days ago when we got to go hands on with The Avengers Volume 3, and now, the folks out at Disney are giving us a whole new chance by sending over a copy of The Avengers Volume 4. The last three volumes have been terrific, but will Volume 4 break the chain? Turns out it will not. Not in the least.

The Avengers Volume 4 picks up where Volume 3 left off, following the invasion of Kang and his time-traveling army.  This time around, we’re going to be a bit more focused on Thor, though Ultron will also make an appearance, along with the Fantastic Four, in a bit of a surprise. But there’s a lot more going on here, and thankfully, at this stage of the game the team has pretty much gelled together nicely, with just a little infighting going on almost more for comic relief than anything else, so they’ll be in their best position yet to go forth and knock some supervillains’ heads around in a bid to make the world a safer place.

This volume does carry on with the kind of high-powered action that the series has come to be famous for, and indeed, there’s plenty of good old fashioned skull bashing and people getting blasted by various bits of energy. This one does seem to have a little more sheer schmaltz in it than previous installments, with a little more of that thoroughly comic-book dialogue going on that doesn’t have the kind of authenticity you’d hope for. However, the plots do seem at least reasonably close to their comic book counterparts (the Cask of Eternal Winters makes an appearance, for example), so that’s something of a plus.

This entire series so far has proven to be a lot better than, frankly, I think we had any right to expect. After all, you come right down to it this is a kids’ show on Disney XD, for crying out loud. And based on Marvel characters at that. But it still managed to put on a reasonably good show with more than enough action and some downright iconic characters. It’s good, fun stuff, especially if you’re a comic buff with a fondness for Marvel.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Avengers Volume 4 the same eight out of ten that it gave the other three, in recognition of the fact that it’s pretty good stuff on a variety of fronts, though not without a few minor flaws and some relatively limited appeal outside of the niche. But still, for any comic buff, action fan or sci-fi lover, you’ll enjoy this one very much.

It’s been a good long while since we last had a go-round with The Avengers series, and the folks out at Disney sent over a copy of The Avengers Volume 3 for us to tackle. And if you liked the first two, chances are you’re going to be very happy with the third installment.

The Avengers Volume 3 is a little heavy on the Iron Man this time around, tackling not only Baron Zemo but even Kang the Conqueror, along with a host of other villains from across a wide variety of canons. They’ll be picking up right where they left off from the last volume, with the Avengers team only just starting out, and already full of lots of cracks and individual personalities butting heads. But can they pull it together to make a complete team? Or will the Avengers fall apart before they can even really get started?

And, as is generally the case, we’ll also get a good load of characters from the rest of the lineup, in sufficient numbers that you’ll either be hitting Wikipedia or a whole load of back issues to keep yourself well acquainted with just who’s who and who’s whose enemy and all like that. Plus, there are plenty of good fight sequences involved and sufficient close shaves to keep things from being too easy for the Avengers, and that certainly improves the watchability here by a pretty nice count.

This has proven to be a pretty good series in its previous two iterations, and volume three won’t be seen to disappoint. There’s a great continuity running through this, as little details from the previous installments actually manage to come back with great effect. This isn’t just some Disney kid’s show, this is  a particularly well-written kid’s show, sufficiently good that adults–especially those who are into comic books–will get a big kick out of this one, with plenty of action and some good laughs, as well as a couple of good romantic subplots tossed into the mix.

Whether you’ve got kids who’d appreciate a good old fashioned comic book style action frenzy, or you would appreciate a good comic book style action frenzy, you’ve got everything you need and more right here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Avengers Volume 3 the same nine out of ten as the others landed, as it’s a lot like the rest. But while it shares a lot in common, there are also plenty of differences that make this well worth watching.

It wasn’t so long ago we were covering the Top Shot Season One discs sent our way by the folks at the History Channel, and now here they are giving us a fresh clip by way of Top Shot Reloaded. This is indeed the second season of Top Shot, and thus it will be much the same as the first season. But don’t worry…you’re going to get plenty of new twists involved.

Top Shot Reloaded offers up the same basic concept as its predecessor: a series of shooters will be provided a series of challenges with a series of weapons. Most every week, someone will be removed from competition, and there are prizes throughout (in the form of Bass Pro Shops gift cards) as competitors duke it out to be the last one standing and in the process land a hundred thousand dollar prize.

Again, much the same as Top Shot, with the accordant problems included. This is a show for gun people. If you’re not at least passingly into firearms, you’re not going to enjoy this at all. Because that’s all this show is about. Oh, sure, you’ll get some other weapons involved–throwing hatchets figures into part of one episode–but for the most part it’s target shooting with various guns. But you’ll see an incredible array of guns, from the most modern of military hardware to some impressive antiques (a tommy gun comes into play at one point, and the very first challenge involves a breech-loading Sharps rifle) all getting involved. And not only will you see some amazing guns, you’ll see some fully amazing things done with those guns. You’ll see targets hit from preposterous distances, you’ll see preposterous targets being hit, and you’ll see all of this being done under some pretty, well, preposterous conditions. Just wait until you see them try to shoot pool balls that are placed behind other pool balls…in a fog bank.

There will, for drama buffs, be more than a little of that–you’ll see a pretty substantial amount of backbiting and infighting and such as contestants try to decide who goes up for elimination–but still, the clear focus of this one is all about the gunning.

So this is one I can wholly recommend for anyone who’s either into firearms or likes to see really, really difficult challenges in action. And of course, if you like both, you’ve probably already watched the series and are just waiting for the DVD to come out.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives History Channel’s Top Shot Reloaded a seven out of ten for being truly impressive, but hitting that target just a bit left of center for all the folks who don’t fit the target market. It hits the bullseye, but that’s a whole lot of target that gets left out.

It’s hard not to love the Pickers, and if you were around for our previous coverage of American Pickers the Complete First Season, you’ll be happy to see another go-round with our favorite crew of antique hunters. The folks at the History Channel sent over a copy of American Pickers Volume Two, and it’s time to hit the road with an admittedly slightly disappointing voyage, and you can catch this one just today.

American Pickers Volume Two gives us another run out–several of them, really–with Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, the American Pickers, (backed up, as always, by intrepid office manager  as they go forth to the barns and basements and decommissioned amusement parks of America, looking for their favorite thing: rusty gold. And the things they’ll find here will impress you, make you laugh, and sometimes, just plain old blow your mind.

American Pickers Volume Two isn’t the entire second season, sadly, but rather  eight episodes from season two. And admittedly, this is some really good stuff in a bid to get you interested in the full second season release, which will likely take a while, but still. You’re still going to see some stuff that will amaze you (for instance, when Frank finds himself coming face to face with a rotten ham hanging from a ceiling in a barn, and then follow that up by discovering a rusty old Studebaker), and they’ll both show you the values of some of the items, as well as have one big ticket item appraised.

I’m always a bit disappointed by this; we don’t see actual values so much as we see what Mike and Frank “figure” they “can get for it”. It doesn’t matter to me so much what they think they can get so much as what they actually do get, and I’d prefer to hear that than their valuations. But still, it’s not so much about the money as it is about the stuff itself, and the stuff itself is so wildly varied that it’s well worth the look. Of course, Frank still loves signage, and Mike still goes gaga for bicycles, and Danielle barely keeps the multi-state mayhem under control, but the threesome that comprises Antique Archaeology will still put on a great show.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives American Pickers Volume Two an eight out of ten–it’s not the second season I was hoping for, but it’s still a great shot of Pickers fun that’s well worth your time to watch. Unless, of course, you’d rather wait for the complete second season, which makes perfect sense, but if you can’t wait or didn’t run your DVR, this is a great opportunity to get caught up.

Sound the alarm! Everyone’s favorite bendy-tailed hero comes to the rescue in Wubbzy and the Fire Engine, the latest “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Screenhead has a copy of the DVD to give away!

Featuring Wubbzy and his pals from the Emmy Award-winning Nick Jr. TV series, the new “red hot” release is available wherever DVDs are sold.

“Fire engines and firefighters have long captured the imagination and won the hearts of children,” said Erin Carter, Executive Director of Brand Marketing, Anchor Bay Entertainment. “And, when paired with Wubbzy, another favorite among preschoolers, these universally-popular elements take on a whole new level of appeal.”

Wubbzy and his best buddies, Widget, Walden and Daizy, suit up for six memorable stories in Wubbzy and the Fire Engine. Each episode is engaging and features simple but meaningful lessons about helping out, working together and getting the job done.

Wubbzy is a joy for preschoolers to watch he has a fire engine adventure with Widget in “Wubbzy And The Fire Engine”; delivers Daizy’s doodleberry treats – the Wubbzy way – in “What Would Wubbzy Do?” and helps rebuild a neighbor’s house with a little help from a pro in “Ty Ty The Tool Guy,” featuring the voice of Ty Pennington, host of the popular TV series “Extreme Home Makeover.”

Additional episodes include “Mr. Unlucky,” in which Wubbzy realizes he’s a pretty lucky guy after all; “Wuzzleburg Express,” where Walden uses quick-thinking to save the day from a runaway train; and “Hangin’ With Mr. Gummy,” which reminds preschoolers that fun comes in many different forms!

“Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” has been a hit with young viewers and their families since its 2006 TV premiere on Nickelodeon, and the show currently airs daily on Nick Jr. Wubbzy is a fun, lovable, curious little guy who just likes to play, play, play with his friends in the eye-popping town of Wuzzleburg. The top-rated series supports preschool social skills – sharing, listening, compromising, helping and appreciating others, self-awareness and the use of humor.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner October 31, 2011.