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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: AMC proves it's a whole lot more than endless loops of Teen Wolf and Animal House, Tyler Perry shows no signs of slowing down with another box office success and [insert your best Chuck Norris joke here].

PICK OF THE WEEK

For people who believe the success of a television show is partially based on a damn good title: Mad Men: Season One

If cigarette smoke, sexual harassment and racial slurs are your bag, then boy does AMC have a television show for you. Launched just over a year ago as the network's first drama series, Mad Men premiered to rave reviews from critics while also in front of a huge chunk of audience – at least as far as little AMC is concerned at about 1.6 million viewers. Set in 1960s New York City, the series takes place within a fictional advertising agency – Sterling Cooper – and centers on executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the people he comes in contact with in and out of the office. In true cliffhanger style, viewers last left Don way back in October sitting distraught on the steps after arriving home to an empty house. His wife presumably found out about his infidelities. Along with picking up noteworthy hardware at the Peabody Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes, Mad Men also currently sits on the shortlist for best drama at this year's Emmy Awards. Season two bows on July 27th.

Disc includes: Audio commentary, Establishing Mad Men featurette, Advertising the American Dream featurette, photo gallery, one-on-one discussion with composer David Carbonara, music sampler.

For people who can't get enough of the aggressive Madea Simmons: Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Special Edition)
For those of you out there who still don't quite get it, here are the important (and undeniably easy) steps to Tyler Perry's successful transition from stage to screen. First, he makes loads of money in small theater venues with hilarious plays – Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, etc. – that feature quirky, fun characters. Second, Perry adapts those same stage plays to the silver screen, using many of the same cast members alongside fresh, A-list faces. Third, simply repeat.





Meet the Browns, Perry's fourth film to use the above formula, was his fourth straight film based on one of his original plays to premiere to more than $20 million at the domestic box office. With budgets usually totaling around $5-10 million, these little projects are making back their costs in mere days, with the remainder being tasty (albeit green) gravy for Lionsgate, Perry's distributor. In Meet the Browns, Angela Bassett stars as Brenda, a single mother living in Chicago who rounds up her three kids and takes off for Georgia after receiving a letter announcing the death of a father she never met. While there, Brenda familiarizes herself with a Southern side of the family that she never knew existed.

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