TV ON DVD, PART THREE

I find even the most highbrow television trashy, largely because the manipulative excess of commercials hurts my soul. But the commercial-free DVD revolution has helped rekindle my interest, and I don't hate television anymore. Here are some of the shows that brought me back into the fold. It's good to be home...

• Six Feet Under (2001-'05)—All the critical acclaim in the world can't change the fact that this show is Camp with a capital "C." With its gimmick of revolving each episode around a new dead body, and its silly plot twists like Nate's brain whatchamacallit, it's all just a soap opera—but one written by amazing writers and acted by amazing actors. It's worth watching the four seasons that are currently on DVD (with the fifth and final season in the works) for Frances Conroy's sad, crazy, hilarious matriarch Ruth Fisher, alone.

• Da Ali G Show (2003)—Holy Christ, is Sacha Baron Cohen funny as the brainless British-Jewish-Jamaican b-boy talk show host Ali G, who somehow scores interviews with the likes of Ralph Nader, Buzz Aldrin, and even Newt Gingrich, all of whom seem to be taking his ludicrous questions and linguistic slip-ups ("incense" with "incest') with at least a fair modicum of seriousness. Immersions into other characters like the effeminate fashion reporter Bruno and the wonky Middle Easterner Borat show that beneath Cohen's deceptively simple façade lurks a quick-witted, masterful impressionist.

• Dog the Bounty Hunter (2004)—This reality show began as part of A&E's Take This Job series, and follows Duane "Dog" Chapman, an Oahu-based former felon who now hunts down felons himself through his bounty hunting business, "Da Kine Bail Bonds." With the physique and haircut of an '80s pro wrestler and basically his entire family by his side, Dog alternates between mace-can-armed busts of dangerous criminals and his weirdly domestic home life. Like a great real-life bounty hunter show should be, Dog is surreal, hilarious, and just a little bit poignant. JUSTIN WESCOAT SANDERS