Even by HBO standards, In Treatment ($59.99) is an innovative show. Most of the 48 episodes show a brilliant, troubled therapist (the emotional genius Gabriel Byrne) going mano a mano with some intensely messed up patients, including a couple utterly incompatible except in bed (Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz), a sexually messed up seductress (Melissa George), and a sexually abused gymnast (Mia Wasikowska). Interestingly, in real life Byrne says he was abused by his Latin teacher. Cooked up by genius novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez's genius son Rodrigo Garcia (a director for Big Love and The Sopranos), this show does for therapy what ER did for ERs. If you're not hooked within two episodes, you're either not smart or totally heartless.

OK, so it's not exactly true. Andy Richter never did control the universe -- that's why, when he left Conan's show for his own, he was depicted in EW with lots of dynamite strapped to his body. But Andy Richter Controls the Universe: The Complete Series ($39.98) is still a signal achievement in TV comedy history, too far ahead of the curve for Fox to get it and know how to market it, but clearly anticipating the innovative tone of shows like 30 Rock and Arrested Development. And now he's back on Conan's show when Conan's about to control the universe. Catch up with Andy or be left behind, a pitiable philistine loser viewer who can't grasp the meaning of funny.

So you're probably Quantum of Solace ($29.99) with Brit Bond Daniel Craig. Why not go all-Brit and buy the big list of Acorn Media TV DVDs released this week too? On Amazon, customers who buy Acorn titles also buy Quantum, and you should climb the bandwagon. Taggart: Set 1 ($49.99) is a Glasgow cop show akin to Agatha Christie's Poirot: Collector's Set, Vol. 8 ($29.99), which has a great episode that anticipates Cold Case. Foyle's War: Set 5 ($49.99) is a terrific trio of shows about the impact of World War II on a small English coastal town investigated by a wise, world-weary, wittily deadpan sleuth (the invaluable Michael Kitchen). Very atmospheric. Enemy at the Door ($59.99) grippingly depicts the 1940 Nazi invasion of the British Channel Islands. Midsomer Murders: Set 12 ($49.99) is village mystery at its best. Or plumb rather bigger mysteries with Stephen Hawking and the Theory of Everything ($24.99), starring the world's most telegenic crippled physicist, who addresses things like the elusive "M force" -- which I suspect to be secretly tied in with James Bond's friend M, and brings us back to Quantum of Solace.

Some fanboys are up in arms because Star Wars: The Clone Wars (A Galaxy Divided) ($19.98) only features four episodes. They propose that we all wait to spend lots more for lots more, including a Blu-ray edition. But does anybody but a mad fanboy actually need this? Does an animated TV show, even one with the Lucas stamp, absolutely require Blu-ray technology? Is this DVD a plot by the Dark Side? Or just a reasonable deal for non-fanboys? You decide -- I'm not walking into the middle of a light-sword fight unarmed.

On the retro-TV beat, don't miss Room 222: Season One ($34.99), the 1969 show that launched James L. Brooks, the auteur who later wrought The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons, and some epochal movies. Starring the aptly-named, adorable dimple-chinned cutie Karen Valentine, it's about an inner-city Los Angeles high school. The writing is superb, and it's a landmark in TV history that adumbrates further breakthroughs. Watch it or be ignorant forever. I'm only trying to school you.

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