BOXED IN

True story: One gloomy winter day, I decided to watch the first
season of The Sopranos in one sitting. I blazed through all 13
episodes, getting up only to hit the bathroom and to put a new disc in
the DVD player. The experience was rewarding. That first season is
truly remarkable, and to see the episodes back-to-back provided real
continuity that you couldn’t quite get from watching on a week-to-week
basis.

But that was back when movie studios and record labels rolled out
box set after box set for the holiday season. Now, when digital
downloading and on-demand threaten to make CDs and DVDs obsolete, the
box set is on the verge of extinction. And it’s too bad, really.
There’s something about box sets that makes them a better gift than,
say, a $50 iTunes card. In fact, I still have my Six Feet Under box set that came in a small box with a bit of turf on the top, making
it into a mini gravestone.

Even if the box set is about to be rendered irrelevant, here are
several worth checking out this winter season, whether you want to give
them as gifts or buy them for yourself for those snowy, frigid
weekends.

Available exclusively through Amazon, The Complete Miles
Davis Columbia Album Collection is a 70-CD box set that
includes all 52 of the albums Davis recorded for Columbia. It comes
with new liner notes and rare photos in a 250-page book. Though it will
set you back $364.98 (the press release boasts that’s “only $5.14 per
disc”), the collection is truly special. A DVD includes
never-before-seen footage of Davis jamming with the Miles Davis Quintet
in Europe; it’s a terrific black-and-white video that finds Davis and
crew blasting their way through “Footprints,” “‘Round Midnight” and
“Walkin’.” Columbia wouldn’t send out press copies of the collection
(we only got a sampling of the material), but it was so terrific that
we’re sure it’ll appeal to more than just jazz aficionados.

The same can’t be said for Genesis: The Movie
Box, which retails for $99.99. While these Brit
prog-rockers sold truckloads of the albums in the ’80s and should
probably be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum,
this five-DVD set won’t appeal to anyone but the diehard fan. In fact,
it doesn’t come with copies of recent DVDs When in Rome 2007 and
its accompanying Come Rain or Shine disc — apparently the
band presumes you already have those and helpfully left room in the
package for them. In addition to Live at Wembley Stadium and The Way We Walk: Live, it features Genesis Live: The Mama
Tour and Three Sides Live on DVD for the first time. Since
the earliest of these movies is 1982’s Three Sides Live, that
means you get the Phil Collins-fronted Genesis — arguably not as
creatively inspired as the Peter Gabriel-fronted incarnation. The DVD
of the 1999 VH1 Behind the Music special about the group has
also been updated for the box, adding an inconsequential bit about the
2006 reunion and subsequent tour.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has spent the latter part
of this year celebrating its 25th anniversary and has released
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame LIVE, a nine-DVD set
featuring 125 performances from its induction ceremonies. It retails
for $119.96, and the total running time is something like 24 hours.
While the set includes all the highlights (Bruce Springsteen jamming
with Roy Orbison, McCartney inducting John Lennon, the Band playing
with Eric Clapton), it’s not organized chronologically, which makes it
a little difficult to track the ceremonies year by year. Instead of
putting the performances in order, the DVDs are thematic (with somewhat
arbitrary titles such as “Light My Fire,” “Message of Love” and “Come
Together”). But that’s a minor complaint about an otherwise terrific
collection. And if the price tag for the complete set is a bit too
steep for your budget, you can pick up the three-disc abridged version
for $39.95.

Bound to provide hours upon hours of confusion, laughter and
disgust, Adult Swim in a Box features 12 DVDs of
totally fringe Adult Swim series. The somewhat random collection
includes Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 2, Sealab 2021:
Season 2, Robot Chicken Season 2, Moral Orel Season 1, Metalcalypse
Season 1 and Space Ghost Coast to Coast Volume
3. It retails for $69.95 and includes a bonus disc of
never-released pilot episodes. My favorite pilot is Totally For
Teens, a talk-show spoof that parodies teen fears about everything
from unwanted pregnancies to anorexia that’s hosted by “totally
out-of-touch thirtysomethings.” It’s completely irreverent and
hilarious. The custom box the discs come in is a bit flimsy, but that’s
to be expected for such an affordably priced set.