The Mob Doctor: The Complete Series
Fox's poorly named (just how bad was the title? Even the network's head honcho Kevin Reilly hated it) hybrid medical procedural/crime show wasn't the first 2012-2013 series to be cancelled, but it came damn close. Instead, CBS's similarly low-rated Made in Jersey was axed first, while Fox held off until Thanksgiving to announce that surgeon/mob moll Grace Devlin (Jordana Spiro, late of My Boys) wouldn't be leading a double life for another season. (The network did burn off all thirteen episodes on Saturday night, though, which is more than CBS did for Jersey.) We can't exactly say that the show will be missed, since the pilot was next-to-unwatchable and subsequent episodes had little signs of improvement. But fans of quickly cancelled TV shows will probably be ecstatic to place this 13-episode DVD set next to their Pan Am, Terra Nova and Running Wilde collections.
Extras: Nada, but the fact that the show got a DVD release at all qualifies as a bonus.
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Ripper Street: Season One
The BBC proper schooled its BBC America counterpart in what a great period crime series looks like with its Ripper Street serial, which is far more addictive than BBCA's Copper. (To be fair, Ripper Street is technically a co-production between the BBC and its American counterpart, but still our point remains that Copper is kinda lame.) As the title implies, the show is tangentially related to a certain serial killer whose name rhymes with Mack the Zipper. Picking up six months after his last murder, Ripper Street follows dogged detectives Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and Bennett Drake (Jerome Flynn) as they attempt to keep the dark alleys of East London safe from the Ripper as well as ordinary petty crime. It's entertaining stuff and, at only eight episodes, wraps up before it wears out its welcome. Get on board before Season 2 arrives later this year.
Extras: Three making-of featurettes, a video tour of the contemporary Whitechapel, character profiles and a featurette about forensic scientists' continued attempts to learn the identity of the real Ripper. (We know it's not one-hundred percent historically accurate, but Alan Moore's version of events in From Hell has always been pretty persuasive.)

Also on DVD:
Relive the glory days of late '90s syndicated TV with the one-two punch of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 4 and Xena: Warrior Princess: Season 4. And then get your TV history on with Pioneers of Television: Season 3, which covers the past and present history of women comics, primetime soaps, superhero shows and miniseries.