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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Charlyne Yi falls for a dork, ABC slots something completely wacked and Ben Stiller overdoses on sequelitis.

Pick of the Week

For people who want to see Michael Cera play a more serious version of George Michael: Paper Heart

Paper Heart is an undeniably sweet movie about one girl's struggle to find out more about love, specifically what it is, how people fall in love (and whether that's even possible) and why up to this point she (Charlyne Yi) has been unable to experience L-O-V-E firsthand. Along Charlyne's journey across various American cities, she meets a boy (Michael Cera, playing himself) who teaches her that she's just as susceptible to love as the next person. As their relationship blossoms, the movie's focus shifts from Charlyne's interviews and her man-on-the-street work to the sparks flying between Charlyne and her new boo.

Though Paper Heart feels like a documentary, it's actually a cleverly produced mockumentary. To believe otherwise would require the viewer to trust that everything that unfolds is completely coincidental. This, my friend, isn't the case.

Yet don't let its scripted parts deter you from understanding Paper Heart's underlying intentions. In fact, its very nature – the pre-planned Charlyne-Michael relationship mixing with Charlyne's true investigation of love – puts a totally refreshing spin on the boy-meets-girl scenario we've seen too many times already. Its inventive structure breaks even more ground than that other boy-meets-girl (500 Days of Summer) released earlier this year that a lot of critics seemed to find original and unique.

Disc includes: The Making of Paper Heart featurette, Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi featurette, "Heaven" music video by Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera, Live Interviews with the Comedians featurette, deleted scenes





For people who think ABC's comedy department is catching up with NBC's: Better Off Ted: The Complete First Season

If you're in the mood for zany and ridiculous comedy, look no further than Better of Ted, an ABC laffer that miraculously earned a 13-episode second season (scheduled to premiere a week from today) after bowing to dismal ratings and bouncing around from timeslot to timeslot during its freshman year stint earlier in the year.

Better Off Ted takes place within the wacky offices of Veridian Dynamics, a company that specializes in creating just about anything. (And I mean anything. In an early episode, two scientists try to grow cowless meat). Veridian's business ethics are also, shall I say, questionable. In the series premiere, the company forces one of its own to test out a new cryogenics chamber. That's right. Forces.

Arrested Development fans would probably feel right at home with Better Off Ted. The show doesn't take itself seriously, Portia de Rossi (Lindsay Bluth!) is a series regular as the company's head honcho and that familiar instrumental soundtrack that played in and between AD scenes is reproduced here.

Its low viewership says nothing about what Better Off Ted is doing creatively, however. Had things not been working out on that end as well, ABC's decision to cancel would have been way too easy. Instead, chalk it up to the fact that hit broadcast comedies still seem to require a laugh track. (Save for shows like The Office, which do well in the adults 18-49 demographic, and, of course, ABC's spankin' new Modern Family, which appears to be breaking the mold this fall).

Disc includes: None specified

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