All nine seasons of the groundbreaking series are offered in deluxe, limited edition fashion, packaged with the X-Files movie and a wealth of cool extras, including a comic book, classic art cards, and the theatrical poster. For fans of classic TV and geeks alike, this is the mother lode. True, hardcore fans already have the individual sets like I do with the extras those include. But what completist can ever resist sets like these… one big box full of everything from your favorite show ever. It’s mostly essential for fans of smart TV who don’t already have any X-Files sets or may only have the themed alien story sets or a single season or two.

—Sarah Zupko

Oddly enough, this Italian icon never wanted to be the savior of the American oater. He simply wanted to make a commercially successful film, and the rising interest in the spaghetti style western seemed like a good avenue to explore. The result stands as the revamped genre’s greatest hits. Collecting together A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and the criminally overlooked Duck, You Sucker, we literally witness the birth of an entire motion picture mannerism. The long pauses, the extreme close-ups, the heat scorched sanctimony – it’s all here to be enjoyed over and over again.

—Bill Gibron

Everyman Michael Moore is well known for his at times comically, at times painfully blunt approach to the gawdawful truth of life as it is in the US for the average person.  Indeed, Moore is among our most astute cultural/political critics, in the non-academic sense, of course. The fat cats who keep the rest of us underfoot are no match for the Big Man and his team in this TV series—when he can corner them.  He gets a lot closer to them than the average Joe, even makes them squirm, at times, and that’s damned cathartic to watch.  The Emmy nominated show, captured here in the Entire Series and Best of DVDs, make an ideal gift for anybody you know who feels their tax money is misdirected, and their lives and the lives of others, undervalued.

—Karen Zarker

Pan’s Labryinth (2-Disc Platinum Series) [$34.98]

DVD versions of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro’s award-winning films are no doubt already part of many a fan’s collection. But to really win that special someone’s gratitude this holiday season, buy them these particular editions. The in-depth “making of” and “interviews” extras with the directors, actors, writers and technicians convey stories of patience, endurance, perseverance, intellect and imagination. Indeed, these admirable qualities of the human spirit emerge just as undeniably strong in the telling of the extras as they do in these beautiful films. Heart-swelling factors aside, it’s also just really cool to learn how Babel spanned those huge geographic and linguistic chasms to so captivatingly interweave such complex yet basic human stories. It’s a pleasure to learn not only about the degree of mental muscle that went into the epic storytelling of Pan’s Labryinth, but also the fantastical special effects, not least the physical endurance required of the man beneath the latex, who made that haunting, paradoxical fawn a permanent presence in our dreams.

—Karen Zarker

The History Channel offers a fascinating look at the literal building of empire through architecture. Covering thousands of years of human development and civilization building, empires are perhaps the obvious prism to frame an analysis of societal growth because, if nothing else, they are fairly comprehensively documented. Architecture has always been viewed by the powerful as a primary means to convey their power and values and so it is quite fitting the means to talk about the empire here. From Ancient Greece and Egypt through to the British Empire, this series is enlightening and thought-provoking and of interest to anyone interested in where we came from.

—Sarah Zupko

The spate of post-mortem Johnny Cash product shows no sign of abating, but unlike much of what’s come out in the last four years, The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show is worthwhile to both the casual Cash fan and anyone interested in American popular music. For more than four hours, we’re treated not only to Cash’s many hits—“Ring of Fire”, “I Walk the Line”, “A Boy Named Sue” and others are given the expected airings—but also to a bevy of tunes that formed the foundation of Cash’s music: his wonderful reading of Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues”, several old Carter Family songs, a holy heap of gospel numbers, and much, much more. There’s a lot of great stuff on this collection, and the guest list for Cash’s show was eclectic and impressive: Stevie Wonder, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, James Taylor, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis, among many more.

—Tom Useted