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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Mad Men stages Man vs. Lawnmower, Wes Anderson introduces us to Whack-Bat and Toy Story undergoes the Blu-ray treatment.

Pick of the Week

For people who didn't know the ‘60s could be so fun: Mad Men: Season Three

The third season of AMC's excellent original series, Mad Men, contains some of the series' best and most memorable episodes to date. The season's third episode, actually, "My Old Kentucky Home," is Mad Men at its finest. During a Kentucky Derby party, Pete Campbell absolutely shreds it on the dance floor while Roger adorns black face for a singing number that will leave you feeling very uncomfortable. Other events include a dinner party hosted by the busty Joan and her hubby, where among other things, Joan proves she's as skilled at playing the accordion as the great "Weird Al" Yankovic. And in one of my favorite B-stories the show has ever done, the reasonable and upright Peggy smokes pot with some Sterling Cooper co-workers. Thankfully, one of her mates remembers to stuff his coat between the door and the floor.

As much fun as the third season turned out to be – commit to memory that episode six marks the occasion when Lois rides over a bloke's foot with a riding lawnmower – it's also regrettably spotty. We, too, are fed storylines we've seen before (i.e. Don cheating on his wife; this time with a schoolteacher). It's these bits that cause the season to drag some. And for people who enjoy Don's work at SC, they'll be disappointed to learn that hardly any plot advances within the confines of the advertising office. Hell, one episode takes place in Rome! So, don't be expecting to see Don doing his thang like this or even like this. You'll have to refer to seasons one or two for that.

It's worth mentioning that the third season finale was a huge risk for Matthew Weiner and his team of writers. Events unfold that completely change (completely!) the game we've been watching for three seasons. But, as you'd expect, the finale is expertly executed. When the credits crawled, I didn't know whether to just go through with the seizure or slap my face with a glass of water to re-awaken my being.

Beginning this week, AMC is airing encores of the third season to prep for season four, which is expected to begin this summer.

Disc includes: Audio commentaries, Medgar Evers: An Unsung Hero documentary, Clearing the Air: The History of Cigarette Advertising featurette, We Shall Overcome: The March on Washington featurette, Mad Men Illustrated featurette, Flashback 1963: An Interactive Look featurette





For people who didn't know Bill Murray is just as loveable as an animated Badger as he is a person: Fantastic Mr. Fox

It's a tough sell to call a Wes Anderson movie "unexpectedly great," but that's exactly what you get here with Fantastic Mr. Fox. I'm a lover of most of his works – yay! to Rushmore, yay! to Royal Tenenbaums, yay! to Life Aquatic, resounding NAY! to The Darjeeling Limited – yet there was something about Fantastic Mr. Fox (its animation? its story?) that turned me off. Given my bad feelings about the torturous and boring Darjeeling, I figured Wes had hit a dry spell, with Fox being the writer-director's second consecutive dud. But I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox in theaters anyway and loved it to pieces. It's quirky. It's fun. It's everything you'd expect in a Wes Anderson flick. Except this time the lead characters are stop-motion animals.

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