BUYING GUIDE.
Work environments have always been cutthroat and comic. Among new DVD releases, we have one that examines the Crash of 1929, another that explores how the economy is affecting two small businesses in California and a series that provides a satirical look at corporate life. Also just out is the DVD of one of the year’s biggest hits, "The Hangover," about a bachelor party gone wrong, and the fourth season of the classic "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," 36 half-hour episodes of witty mayhem mainly involving another potentially deadly business: personal relationships.Better Off Ted: Season One
Various directors
This series about office life was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding comedy. As new episodes of the second season begin airing next week, here’s a chance to catch up on this quirky take on today’s business world.
The series concerns Ted, head of research at Veridian Dynamics and a go-between between workers and management. His boss, played by Portia di Rossi, is one of those hard-charging go-getters familiar to anyone in offices anywhere. Her motto (and the company’s) seems to be: No project is unethical if it is profitable.
The plotlines, such as testing the viability of cryogenically freezing an employee (and his willingness to undergo it), can be wacky, though ludicrous potential products (such as meatless meat) have probably been seriously considered by real-life companies.
Overall, "Better Off Ted" is a breezy look at corporate life. And anyone who’s felt trapped in the absurdities of a multinational company is likely to relate to -- and laugh with -- its deadpan take on executive ambition.
American Experience: The Crash of 1929
Directed by Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
As the world has reeled from the current economic downturn we’ve seen many mentions of the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent depression. Yet many of us have only a vague idea of some of the specifics of the economy of the time.
This documentary, new to DVD (and first broadcast in 1990) uses contemporary newsreels plus interviews with those who were there to provide a portrait of the collapse of the economy after eight years of staggering prosperity (with virtually no one warning of a bubble that might burst).
The DVD can be purchased (or rented) on its own, or as part of a collection about the 1930s from the PBS “American Experience" series. An additional DVD in the set concerns the Civilian Conservation Corps, which President Roosevelt created to provide jobs in natural resource conservation. Another is about the building of the Hoover Dam, one of the greatest of public works projects. And there’s one about that feel-good horse of the decade, Seabiscuit.
As stock markets continue to fluctuate, as economic recovery threatens to topple before it takes hold, and as unemployment continues to haunt the nation, these documentaries may offer a perspective on how business, the government and American citizens got into and out of financial crises in an earlier era.
The Hangover
Directed by Todd Phillips
For those who don’t quite remember the bachelor parties they’ve been part of (or who wish they could forget) this smash hit and critically praised comedy, one of the year’s most successful movies with a domestic gross to date of over $277 million, may conjure up some queasy memories of unbridled behavior.
The story is about a quartet of friends who head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, then wake up with no memory of the night before, in a messy hotel suite, with an unknown baby in the closet and a tiger in the bathroom.
That’s when the group tries to figure out what exactly occurred, and the movie sets off on its freewheeling exploration of adolescent adult male behavior. It’s not one of those flicks you watch with the family (it’s R rated), but may be worth the time with friends, significant others or as a cautionary tale for guests at your own, perhaps more restrained, bachelor party.
Paperback Dreams
Directed by Alex Beckstead
Some small businesses are nimble enough to survive a contracting economy, but small bookstores may be as endangered as Tiger Woods’s squeaky clean reputation.
"Paperback Dreams" follows two California booksellers — the owner of Cody’s Books and the owner of Kepler’s Books in the Bay Area — as they confront the new realities of the publishing industry over the course of two years. It looks at everything from the nature of book buying among consumers to the competition that independents face from online retailers, big chains like Barnes & Noble and how people are choosing to get their information.
For anyone interested in whether the personal touch still matters in retail, the answer is yes. But there are clear challenges; bookstores have to do more than merely sell books – they have to provide the kind of experience that can’t be had online, despite the ease of buying products with the click of a mouse.
This is a sobering, engrossing look at how the shifting economic landscape meets that of the changing consumer, no matter what business one is in.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Four
Various directors
There’s a new Blu-ray edition of Hitchcock’s masterful "North by Northwest," but fans can’t go wrong with this collection of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
The series ran from 1955 to 1962, and many consider season four (from 1960) to be the strongest. That season included scripts from writers such as Ray Bradbury (with a story about androids that foreshadows "The Stepford Wives"), and episodes directed by, among others, Arthur Hiller, actor Paul Henreid and Hitchcock himself.
The series is filled with Hitchcock’s particular brand of suspense laced with tart humor and sardonic observations of human folly, such as the suicidal man with an ulterior motive in the episode “Man with a Problem” starring Elizabeth Montgomery (of "Bewitched") and the episode “Out There – Darkness,” about a dog walker accused of a crime who seeks revenge.
Bette Davis stars in that last one along with Hollywood heavyweights Claude Raines, Steve McQueen and — minus King Kong — Fay Wray.
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