The Last of Us, Station Eleven, and More of the Best TV Box Sets of 2023

In Let’s Get Physical Media, Primetimer takes a quarterly look at the TV and TV-related Blu-ray and DVD releases worth canceling your streaming subscriptions for.

No one’s pointing fingers, but those of us who toiled in the video store industry tried to warn you about abandoning physical media for the supposed boundless ubiquity of the new streaming marketplace. As studios shelve already completed films for a write-off, online content providers snatch back things users actually imagined they’d bought forever, and countless movies and TV shows simply disappear into the limbo of the unremunerative and too expensive to license, it’s the collectors of physical media who can still pop in their favorite entertainment any old time we please. We’re a little smug about it, but that doesn’t make us wrong.

And while the physical media news isn’t particularly rosy, what with streaming services axing DVD or Blu-ray releases for their in-house productions (the better to get those subscriptions, my dear), and studios edging toward ending physical home release altogether, there’s still a market out there dedicated to putting out real, tangible copies of worth-remembering movies and TV that can never be wiped away from your hard drives by some bean-counting philistine with a corporate ledger for a heart.

Here are some of 2023’s most exciting — and collectible — physical media, just in time for holiday gift-giving. (Reminder: You can always give gifts to yourself. You’ve earned it.)

Justified: City Primeval (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

What is it? Just the limited series revival of one of the most entertaining modern day Western crime dramas, with Timothy Olyphant dusting off his Stetson as Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens. Hitting the road from his old Kentucky stomping (and shooting) grounds with his rambunctious teenage daughter in tow, Givens winds up stalking the mean streets of Detroit in pursuit of a new nemesis nicknamed the Oklahoma Wildman (Boyd Holbrook), which sounds just up Givens’ alley.

How many discs? 3
How much does it cost? Blu-ray: $40.99/ DVD $34.99
Why is it worth it? There are some shows that are there to be rewatched, usually ones featuring an indelible main character, and Timothy Olyphant makes Raylan Givens the sort of on-the-edge but roguishly charming lawman you just want to invite in for a spell now and again. This eight-years-later revival sees Olyphant picking up right where his justice-driven Givens left off, the aging Marshall’s warring tough and tender sides only more engaging with the addition of similarly tough-minded teen daughter (played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian).

The Sandman — Season 1 (Warner Brothers)

What is it? Neil Gaiman’s magnificent comics series about Morpheus, the pale-skinned, mysteriously emo embodiment of all our dreams emerging from imprisonment to find his realm corrupted by dark forces took an almost endless winding path to the small screen. With everyone from Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Supernatural’s Eric Kripke all trying and ultimately failing to bring the protective Gaiman’s sprawling vision to life, it came down to Gaiman himself to join with David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg to adapt the creator’s seemingly unfilmable epic tale of immortal entities and phantasmagorical dreamscapes for Netflix’s 11-episode first season, with the appropriately angular Tom Sturridge taking on Morpheus’ mantle.

How many discs? 3
How much does it cost? Blu-ray: $29.98/ DVD $24.99
Why is it worth it? Apart from having one of comics’ most illustrious and brilliant minds shepherding his own beloved comic series from page to screen, The Sandman is impeccably cast, with the brooding Sturridge encountering Morpheus’ similarly eternal siblings like Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), and Despair (Donna Preston), and battling such formidable foes as Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer Morningstar (yes, that Lucifer) and Boyd Holdbrook’s escaped nightmare The Corinthian. Along the way, Morpheus is aided by sidekick Matthew the Raven (voiced by Sandman superfan Patton Oswalt), with the series’s ever-uneasy relationship with the DC Comics universe proper represented by gender-swapped magician Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman), and magnetically malevolent John Dee (David Thewlis), whose reality-warping powers occasional bedevil the Justice League under his mainstream guise, Doctor Destiny. As an added bonus (in addition to some sumptuous bonus features about the series’s ambitious world-building), buying these box sets will only encourage Netflix to put more of its original content out on physical media. It’s a win-win.

The Last of Us — Season 1 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

What is it? The rare video game-based entertainment that isn’t a complete embarrassment for everyone involved, this adaptation of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic game franchise gets the full prestige TV treatment from HBO. Pedro Pascal is outstanding as a grieving father in a zombie-infested land tasked with safeguarding the one orphaned girl (the equally excellent Bella Ramsey) whose blood may just hold the cure for the fungal infection turning everybody into grotesque, flesh-eating monsters in a decimated and dictatorial United States. With a great supporting cast (Anna Torv, Gabriel Luna, Melanie Lynskey, Graham Greene, and an episode-stealing Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) and truly impressive makeup and visuals, it’s the grim and gritty zombie apocalypse video game adaptation you didn’t know you desperately needed.

How many discs? 4
How much does it cost? Blu-ray: $44.98/ DVD: $39.99
Why is it worth it? Great TV can come from anywhere, but even fans of the best-selling M-rated game were shocked at how powerful and affecting The Last of Us was in the hands of creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. A high-concept zombie thriller that makes time to delve into its sprawling and impeccably acted cast of characters coping with the unthinkable as much as it finds new and disgusting ways to walk the crowded undead genre, The Last of Us is ultimately on the shoulders of its two main characters, with Pascal and Ramsey forming one of the most enduring bonds in recent TV history.

Kate & Allie: The Complete Series (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

What is it? A groundbreaking sitcom starring two very funny TV legends. Running from 1984-89, Kate & Allie’s seemingly ordinary premise (two divorced women and their kids decide to share a Greenwich Village brownstone) was scrutinized, criticized, and noted to death by anxious 1980’s executives worried about the then-shocking idea that two single adult women and mothers could have meaningful, fulfilling lives without rushing to remarry. (One notable early note was that the series always had to show Jane Curtin’s Allie and Susan St. James’ Kate going to bed in separate rooms, lest the viewing public assume they were lesbians.) Along the way, free-spirit Kate and the more traditional Allie cope with parenting, friendship, finances, careers, and dating, with no one aspect of their lives presented as more vital and necessary than the rest. Trust us, it was a big deal at the time. And still is.

How many discs? 16
How much does it cost? DVD: $69.98
Why is it worth it? Almost a decade after leaving her post as one of Saturday Night Live’s original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Jane Curtin was lured back onto TV by pal St. James for a well-written, female-driven sitcom that would allow them to explore feminist themes, be funny, and presumably wash away some of the lingering resentment Curtin felt from her fraught tenure at the infamously misogynist early SNL. Re-teaming for the first time since they co-starred in 1980’s suburban feminist heist comedy How to Beat the High Cost of Living gave Curtin and St. James freedom to form one of the most endearing and lasting female sitcom friendships in all of TV, all while scoring multiple Emmy nods and maintaining the series’s high standards. Curtin remains one of TV’s most underrated comedians and her chemistry with St. James makes these fiercely loyal, sharply funny characters a template for generations of sitcoms to follow.

Harley Quinn — Season 3 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

What is it? A lighthearted, if occasionally shockingly violent, offshoot of the DC Animated Universe following the misadventures of mismatched, conflicted supervillains Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Having finally broken away from her long-standing toxic relationship with The Joker, former psychiatrist turned villain Harley Quinn (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) forms a bond with plant-based eco-terrorist Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) and a gaggle of other DCAU also-rans (Clayface, Kite Man, King Shark, Doctor Psycho) to commit crimes and figure out her place in the DC hero-villain landscape. Along the way, the two powerful villains discover their ambivalent feelings about their chosen profession along with their decidedly un-ambivalent feelings about each other, by this point in the series forming one of the most surprisingly nuanced and affecting LGBTQ relationships on TV.

How many discs? 2
How much does it cost? Blu-ray: $29.98/ DVD: $17.39
Why is it worth it? If superhero fatigue is real (and it is), then the colorful, hilarious, unexpectedly textured adventures of two supervillains in love and lust is a cure for what ails you. Packed with star power (look for the likes of Ron Funches, Tony Hale, Alan Tudyk, Jason Alexander, J.B. Smoove, Harvey Guillen, Giancarlo Esposito, Chris Meloni, and many more filling out the massive cast culled from the DC roster), Harley Quinn is, at heart, a story of female empowerment and love, even if the pull of the supervillain lifestyle and the deft exploration of comics’ traditional gender issues make things perpetually tough for our anti-heroines. The show’s home on Max allows for its characters to express all the things the Comics Code won’t, with Cuoco and Bell making Harley and Ivy’s unlikely love match as sexy as it is funny.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (CBS)

What is it? A continuation of both the David Bowie-starring 1976 film of the same name and the Walter Nevis novel that inspired it (each of the 10 episodes is named for a different Bowie song), this compelling sci-fi series sees an alien named Faraday (Chiwetel Ejiofor) crashing down in New Mexico in order to seek out the one scientist (Naomie Harris as Justin Falls) who may be able to save his dying world — and our own. Pursued by the requisite suspicious government agent (Jimmi Simpson) and following the path of fellow crash-landed alien turned tech guru Thomas Jerome Newton (formerly David Bowie, here cunningly recast as Bill Nighy), Ejiofor’s desperate starman races against ecological disaster on two planets.

How many discs? 3
How much does it cost? Blu-ray: $39.99/ DVD: $29.99
Why is it worth it? Apart from the outstanding cast — the riveting Ejiofor typically elevates anything, while Harris and Simpson shine and Nighy makes for as good a Bowie substitute as could be desired — this consistently compelling series is a thought-provoking expansion on the original’s tale of a stranger’s journey of discovery on a new world, all with the ticking clock of planetary extinction ticking away in the background. Ejiofor makes Faraday’s fish out of water stabs at humanity fascinating to watch, while Harris matches him as the brilliant scientist who’s just discovered that the universe is even more wondrous and dangerous than she’d imagined. Toss in great support from Simpson, Nighy, Rob Delaney, Kate Mulgrew, and The Wire’s Clarke Peters and a canny elaboration of the original film and novel’s themes of what it truly means to be human, and this is one revisited property that earns its place in your home video library.

Station Eleven (Paramount Home Entertainment)

What is it? A very different sort of post-apocalypse (substitute a more chillingly relatable flu virus for The Last of Us’ fungus zombies) sets the stage for this richly poetic and thrilling tale of a traveling group of actors and musicians attempting to keep the best of world culture alive in a disease-ravaged America. Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) leads the way as the star actor in the Traveling Symphony, a troupe of survivors dedicated to performing classical music and Shakespeare to the shattered remnants of a pandemic-decimated land. Having witnessed the death of a famous actor playing King Lear (Gabriel García Bernal) at the outset of the plague, Davis’ Kirsten Raymonde carries on his legacy as she copes with memories of her former life and the ominous rumors of a mysterious cult leader whose plans for the what’s left of humanity are far removed from poetry and grace.

How many discs? 3
How much is it? Blu-ray: $29.99/ DVD: $24.99
Why is it worth it? Even though everybody loves an apocalypse, no two world-endangering crises are the same, with Max’s 10-episode adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s acclaimed novel exploring humanity’s drive to find and preserve cultural uplift even as civilization crumbles. Davis leads an outstanding cast, including Himesh Patel, David Cross, Lori Petty, Nabhaan Rizwan, Enrico Colantoni, and Daniel Zovatto, the series’s uniquely thrilling take on the looming end of all things leavened with an insightful examination of how humankind’s quest for truth and beauty perseveres even in the worst of times. And if viewers choose to refer back to this article’s opening rant about uncaring corporate entities’ flippant approach to the preservation of thoughtful, hard-achieved artistic endeavors from Station Eleven’s own fraught and dangerous road to near extinction and eventual physical media rescue, then that’s all included in the purchase price.

Dennis Perkins is a freelance entertainment writer with bylines at The A.V. Club, Paste, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Portland Press Herald, and elsewhere.