Summer can mean a slow death for those of us who are still awesome and like sports and television. Thankfully, Al Gore invented the DVD. Throughout the summer we’ll be running a series of DVD binge recommendations to help you claw your way to football season. Now up: Arrested Development.

Aired: On FOX from 2003-2006.

Genre: Smart, nuanced, laugh track-less sitcom.

IMDb Plot Outline: “Level-headed son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. But the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family are making his job unbearable.”

Number of Episodes: 53 over 3 seasons.

Estimated Viewing Time: IF you’re single and you spend many a weekend hungover, you can knock out all three seasons in approximately three weeks. 22 minute episodes are like candy, you can alway do one more. IF there’s some chick at your place who refuses to leave you’re probably looking at a month to a month and a half.

What to Anticipate:

• Laughing your balls off.
• Wondering how this show ever got canceled.
• Developing a surprising appreciation for Jason Bateman.
• Jonesing to try a frozen banana.
• Being baffled you like something with Liza Minelli in it.
• Adding “never-nude” to your vocabulary.
• Deciding Will Arnett’s GOB is your favorite TV character of all time.
• Then deciding Michael Cera’s George Michael is.
• And then changing your mind to Tony Hale’s Buster before going back to GOB.
• Realizing a well-timed bleeped out fuck is fucking hysterical.
• Trying to figure out when the Fonz got so GD funny.

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Summer can mean a slow death for those of us who are still awesome and like sports and television. Thankfully, Al Gore invented the DVD. Throughout the summer we’ll be running a series of DVD binge recommendations to help you claw your way to football season. Now up: Dexter.

Airs: On Showtime in the Fall. Currently two seasons in.

Genre: A rare mix of crime thriller dramedy with psychopathic tendencies.

Number of Episodes: 24 over 2 seasons. Season 3 starts this fall.

Estimated Viewing Time: If you’re single and love the couch you can knock out the first two seasons over a long weekend. If the ball and chain makes most of your decisions for you you’re looking at three weeks to a month.

What to Anticipate:

• Blood.
• Violence.
• Serial Killing.
• A surprisingly lighthearted tone despite all the blood and all the violence and all the serial killing.
• Lots of Miami.
• Crawling inside the mind of a sociopath.
• Finding a serial killer to be surprisingly likable.

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Summer can mean a slow death for those of us who are still awesome and like sports and television. Thankfully, Al Gore invented the DVD. Throughout the summer we’ll be running a series of DVD binge recommendations to help you claw your way to football season. First up: ‘Deadwood’.

Aired: On HBO from 2004-2006.

Genre: Hardcore Pistol Whipping Western. None of that Roy Rogers fairy shit.

Number of Episodes: 36 over 3 seasons.

Estimated Viewing Time: If you’re single and you spend many a weekend hungover, you can knock out all three seasons in approximately two weeks. If you’re tied down and seemed to have misplaced your balls you’re probably looking at a month to a month and a half.

What to Anticipate:

• Gratuitous F-Bombs.
• Gratuitous C-Bombs.
• Artistic use of both F-Bombs and C-Bombs.
• Prostitutes.
• A realistic glimpse into what frontier life in the late 1800’s was like.
• Feeling like you’re a pretty moral person.
• Wondering what your brothel frequency would have been.
• Developing a ginormous man crush on Al Swearengen.

Actors You’ve Heard Of: Probably none. You might recognize Timothy Olyphant from ‘Go’, the ‘Girl Next Door’, and being the worst casting option possible for ‘Hitman’. Also, Powers Boothe has been in a million things including ‘Red Dawn’ and ‘Tombstone’ (playing the immortal Curly Bill).

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