2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

While it's not unusual to see DVDs of TV series, Disney Studios Home Entertainment is wasting no time in issuing "JONAS: Rockin' the House" ($19.99), featuring six episodes of a series that only launched in May. The half-hour kid comedy features Nick, Kevin and Joe Jonas, the squeaky-clean, infectious pop star brothers who shot to fame last summer in the Disney original movie "Camp Rock."

The fast-paced, goofy series is this generation's version of "The Monkees," with throwaway plots, physical gags and silly jokes spliced together with snippets of music. In the series, the "Lucas" brothers, who live in a converted firehouse on Jonas Street, all attend Horace Mantis Academy, a private school where students never seem to go to class but wander the halls dressed in strange plaid costumes. Think the Bay City Rollers transported into an episode of "Zoey 101."

Nick's clearly the lead here, not to mention the most talented, and the focus is on his love life. Older brothers Joe and Kevin serve as dim-witted but genial sidekicks, constantly commenting while Nick figures out life as a "normal" teenager. Yet the real discovery is Chelsea Staub as Stella Malone, the boy's best friend at the academy and a budding fashion designer. She's clearly Disney's next Ashley Tisdale, and lights up every episode.

Perhaps fitting for a series that's barely off the ground, the DVD includes minimal special features, with two bonus episodes (how is that a bonus?) and a "Punk'd" featurette in which the boys play a prank on Staub. In a nod to Disney commercialism, there also are tutorials on Blu-ray technology and an on-the-go digital copy.

-- Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette staff writer

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

Finally, after all these years, the first season of "Ally McBeal" ($39.98, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment) arrives on DVD -- with absolutely no extras, not even commentary tracks. All bonus features have been saved for "Ally McBeal: The Complete Series" ($199.98), also out this week, including a new retrospective featurette and a new CD soundtrack.

But the season one DVD on its own does show the series in a positive light. The show -- about a neurotic, lovelorn lawyer (Calista Flockhart) -- is not as dated as one might expect. The pilot episode, viewed at the time of its 1997 premiere as quite quirky, is relatively sedate compared to much of today's ADD-addled prime-time entertainment.

But the absence of any extras is a disappointment. Usually studios release a show season-by-season and then do the full series compilation, which may include one or two new extras. But "Ally McBeal" reverses the paradigm in an effort to get consumers to pony up for the more expensive set. The one positive? At least this way consumers know up front what their choices are.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

4 stars = Outstanding
Ratings explained

Once in a while a television series comes along that captures the imagination while transporting you to another time. "Life on Mars" ($39.99, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment), was such a series. Lasting for only one season, the compelling show with an all-star cast of Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol featured 2008 beat cop Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) transported back to 1973 after he was hit by a car. Every detail of the '70s is perfectly played out in the cultural references, the clothes and the attitudes as the characters struggle with Nixon, women's rights and Vietnam while dealing with the criminals of the day.

Bonus features include deleted scenes, bloopers and a "Flashback" with actor Lee Majors who tours the set with O'Mara. It's fun to see the close-up detail of the cigarette vending machines, typewriters and vintage ashtrays strewn about. The producers and O'Mara narrate an audio commentary of the last episode and reveal all kinds of science fiction-y details about everything from the wallpaper to the Mars rover that was popping up at the most inopportune times.

In this day of cheap reality TV programming, this series is one you should own.

-- Rosa Colucci, Post-Gazette staff writer

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