In which I just throw up my hands

OK -- I officially give up trying to understand what the HELL Alliance Atlantis has in mind with its marketing of the due South DVDs. I'm in the midst of preparing a postscript for my old crack_van series outline -- a sort of Magic Decoder Ring for making sense of what's out there on the market. In what follows, "AA" stands for the original DVD releases which I purchased through amazon.ca, and "BB" refers to the oddball versions released without fanfare in Best Buy retail stores (some? all? who knows?).

Seasons One and Two:

AA: released in 2003 (I think) in a two-season set; hideous packaging; double-sided disks; print inserts included. Does NOT include Pilot episode.

BB; released in 2005 in two separate sets, one for each season; single-sided disks, episode titles printed on disks, no print inserts. DOES include Pilot episode, in its proper lead-off position.

Season Three:

AA: released the Canadian short Season Three, 13 eps from Burning Down the House through Mountie on the Bounty, in--early 2005, I think? after originally promising it for Jan. 2004; decent packaging, print insert included, episode names not on disks, cover and disk graphics include CKR. Pilot episode included at end, utterly out of sequence, for whatever odd reason.

Remaining episodes (without a season number, just "The Final Season") scheduled for Sept. 05 release, currently available for pre-order through amazon.ca for $35 CN.

BB: In August 05 released all 24 episodes, BDtH through Call of the Wild, in a single package, for $18.99 US. No print insert; no episode names on disks; no way of knowing what's included unless you pop a disk in your DVD player and see what comes up. Cover and disk art shows only Fraser and Vecchio, and cover credits are Paul Gross and David Marciano; CKR neither mentioned nor shown anywhere.

The more I contemplate this whole muddle, the less sense I can make of it. Some intrepid soul, as I recall, researched and posted info about the rationale for the BB releases (and if anyone can point me to that entry, I'd be grateful).

I continue to be amused by the fact that the Season Three BB release graphics are all Vecchio. I have three hypotheses about this:

1) They didn't know, they didn't care, they had a bunch of Vecchio photos left over from the Seasons 1-2 package, whatever.

2) They figured that anyone who might be buying the DVDs for this show would of course have no clue that there was an actor change, and seeing a different face on the package would simply bewilder customers to the point that they'd put the set back on the shelf.

3) The person responsible for the set's graphics is a frustrated F/RV shipper, taking her revenge.

(I kid, I *kid*!)

And you know the really sad thing? I now own at least one set of *each* of the releases described above (except the forthcoming AA season four, which I may go back in and cancel).

ETA: If anyone out there in LJ land doesn't have ready access to a Best Buy but would like a set of the complete Season Three, just drop me an e-mail; I can pick it up for you, and you can send me a check or Paypal for the cost.

ADDENDUM to previous post

Clued in by ardent_muses, I skipped around through the new Season Three DVDs I just got at Best Buy, and -- yeah, there are some image quality issues here and there, in the form of occasional brief blips of mild pixelation. Only occasional, not a biggie if you just want to watch the episodes, but -- dammit. Vidders who want the best quality source might want to wait for the offical (costlier) DVDs to be released next month.