Stuff You Need to Know: It’s Black Cyber Mondo Yet Somewhat Plaid Monday. Or Something.

First up, it’s Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season is upon us. As always, we ask you this year more than ever: do us a huge favor. If you’re going to buy stuff from Amazon, then use this link: https://www.needcoffee.com/amazon. It takes you to the Amazon front page and you proceed like nothing is different, except that we get kickbacks. You Across the Pond Types can help out as well: https://www.needcoffee.com/amazonuk. It’s an easy, quick way to help support the site for those of you who can’t make an ongoing donation. A lot of you use the links, for which we are grateful. But if every constant reader we have visit us went to Amazon via those links…well, I would still have two kidneys. Thanks in advance.

P.S. Their Cyber Monday Deals Week is underway, with tons of DVDs and Blu-Rays discounted for this week. Check it out here.

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Speaking of deals, Farscape is the deal of the day: 70% off (or more) for both DVD and Blu-Ray. That’s $59.99 (regularly $199.95) for the Blu-Ray (20 disc set) and $40.99 (regularly $149.95) for the DVD (26 disc set). Nice. Move quickly.

Buster Keaton is getting a Mondo Boxed Set (TM) from Kino. The Ultimate Collection hits December 11th on Blu-Ray with fifteen discs. Damn. Pre-order link here.

Oh, remember: The Dark Knight Rises hits December 4th on Blu-Ray. And I’ve just gotten started delving into it–but the Batmobile docu is worth the price of admission. Hear about the time Adam West took the car for a spin, what famous designer created a plan for an unusable WTF-level Batmobile and see a comedian driving around in one that he owns. It’s fantastic. Pre-order link is here.

Downton Abbey fans rejoice: filming begins on Series 4 in February (eight episodes) and you get a Xmas special out of the deal as well. Source: Variety.

Dredd fans who didn’t get a chance to see the film in cinemas because nobody could figure out how to schedule it (that’s what happened here, anyway), rejoice as well: Lionsgate has the Blu-Ray 3D hitting January 8th. Pre-order link is here.

Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Chef has hit in both book and Kindle form. You’ll hear more from me on the subject once I get through it (about a third of the way through) but I will say that if you are interested–the Kindle edition is excellent for two reasons. One: the footnotes/appendix and all the URLs are active links. Two: the actual book is heavy enough that carrying it around makes for some solid exercise. (Also, the Kindle version is just $4.99 at the moment.) Anyway, links are above–more soon.

I share this trailer with you partly because it’s an excellent trailer–and for the first seven or eight seconds, it sort of looks like The Four Hour Serial Killer.

Game of Thrones Season 2 is hitting both DVD and Blu-Ray on February 19th. And yes, the Blu-Ray is pricier, but the bonus bits are way better. I say this based on the excellent Season 1 set, so fans will want to act accordingly. Pre-order link is here.

Looper has been announced for December 31st and I’m completely on board with the Rian Johnson/Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Emily Blunt commentary, plus the other bonus bits. And the Blu-Ray comes with additional deleted scenes and another featurette beyond what the DVD has. Tasty. Pre-order the Blu-Ray here.

Merlin fans…sorry, but this season is going to be the last. The BBC show is ending and everybody’s putting the “Well, we always meant for it to run five seasons” face on, which is fine. It’s already airing in the UK, but it hits SyFy January 4th. Which means that all the fans will have already legally acquired the series and SyFy will hear the sound of crickets. Source.

Amazon is taking pre-orders for the Monsters Inc. 3D Mondo set. No date yet. But the link is here.

No date announced yet, but that doesn’t stop Amazon from taking Skyfall pre-orders. With the right amount of bonus bits, it would definitely be worth owning. Pre-order the Blu-Ray here.

Speaking of holiday shopping, if you move swiftly, Threadless has a bunch of stuff for sale today only–and they have gift guides for pretty much everything they have. Which used to be, you know, just shirts. But they have freaking dish towels, for crying out loud. You would be hard pressed not to find something for somebody. Their gift guides are here.

Update: The sale’s been extended to 11:59PM tomorrow (as I write this, that’s 11/28).

Well, Walking Dead couldn’t have cast Tyreese better. It’s Chad Coleman, aka Cutty from The Wire. Seriously, it’s basically who everybody DreamCast in their minds the moment the notion of the TV series came up. Well played.