Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The Complete Series [$59.98]

Aaron Sorkin’s signature sharp, snappy dialogue and historically and pop-culturally adroit characters who can pull an educated pun out of thin air, lickety-split, is so much more fun than the conversations we have with most people in everyday, real life. Studio 60‘s lefty sensibility struggles in a period — that is, the present — when the socio-political culture has taken on a frightening hue of red. Among other things, a respectful bow to the artists who briefly walked the halls of the studio before, until succumbing (although not without a fight) to the bulldog bite of the McCarthy era, is given in some form in virtually every episode. The modern-day equivalent faced by the Studio 60 staff, of course, involves dodging a hail of bullets shot from the Far Right. Naturally, any fan of Sorkin’s West Wing will want this in their collection. One episode serves as a stiff tonic for the all too stiff times we inhabit, these days.