Yes, it’s another round of Alliance Home Entertainment’s Canadian TV-on-DVD releases.  There’s an increased reliance this year on relatively obscure shows with one-or-two-season runs.  The Adventures of Sinbad, The Outer Limits and other well-known CanCon quota quickies have been burned through, so Alliance has to reach deeper into its barrel.

With that in mind, here are Alliance’s February 2011 releases, plus a March 2011 release that hasn’t been formally announced:

Dead Man’s Gun: Season 1 (February 15, 2011) | Season 2 (March 15, 2011)
La galère: Season 3 (February 8, 2011)
Amazon: Complete Series (February 22, 2011)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 3 (February 22, 2011)
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven: Complete Series (February 15, 2011)
Total Recall 2070: Complete Series (February 22, 2011)

The packaging for Dead Man’s Gun is encouraging.  Alliance has finally realized how awful the six-disc Digipak it’s been using since 2010 is, and has opted for a multi-disc keepcase.  I hope this is a permanent change.

If you’ve been keeping score, Night Heat and Da Vinci’s Inquest haven’t been touched yet, while Total Recall 2070 and Amazon (a/k/a Peter Benchley’s Amazon) have.  Eventually, Alliance is going to have to get to Night Heat, just so I can end this running joke.  You can’t hide from the 1980s forever.

It’s been a while since I posted anything about Alliance Home Entertainment’s Canadian TV-on-DVD releases.  This listing consists of five new releases, two box set repacks, and one oft-delayed title.  To wit:

Andromeda: Season 5 (January 4, 2011)
C.A. Conseil d’administration: Complete Series (November 9, 2010)
Passe-Partout: “Coffret” (November 16, 2010)
TekWar: Complete Series (?)
The Adventures of Sinbad: Season 2 (January 4, 2011)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 2 (November 9, 2010)
Trailer Park Boys: “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” DVD | Blu-ray (December 7, 2010)

You will notice Passe-Partout‘s box set listed as “Coffret.”  From what I can tell, Alliance Vivafilm is re-releasing its Passe-Partout volume sets, packaging them as a collection.  At around $200, I can’t see a market for the set, even though Passe-Partout is encoded into the DNA of every French-speaking Quebecer born in the late 1970s and 1980s.

I question the wisdom of Alliance releasing the TPB special two years after its airdate.  I see no point in releasing Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day before the special that preceded it.  I guess Countdown to Liquor Day is a bigger commercial lure, being the third TPB film.  I don’t know.

As for The Adventures of Sinbad and Andromeda, they finish their runs on January 4, 2011.  This begs the question: which shows will Alliance mill through next?  I mean, the world is at the point where Airwolf‘s fourth season is worthy of release.

Seriously, the Vancouver season of Airwolf!  A lot of Airwolf fans count the fourth season as a separate show, but here we are.  It’s 2011 and you get to see tons of stock footage of a Bell 222, plus Barry Van Dyke!  Night Heat can’t come to DVD why?

You know the drill by now.  Tags are here and here.  Here are the new season sets of shows from the Alliance vaults, ’cause capitalism is as subtle as Kevin Thompson’s acting.

Andromeda: Season 4 (October 19, 2010)
Earth: Final Conflict: Season 5 (October 26, 2010)
F/X: The Series: Season 2 (October 26, 2010)
Les Invincibles: Complete Series (October 19, 2010)
Mutant X: Season 3 (October 26, 2010)
The Adventures of Sinbad: Season 1 (October 19, 2010)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 1 (October 19, 2010)
The Outer Limits (1995): Season 7 (October 5, 2010)

Koch Canada gave The Adventures of Sinbad a first-season release in 2004, then abandoned the title.  Not surprisingly, The Adventures of Sinbad will be quickly ground through the Alliance video mill, as the show only lasted two seasons.  I forget if the first season is the one where Sinbad and Doubar fight toilet paper in one episode.

The Alliance releases are finally showing signs of slowing down.  Earth: Final Conflict, Mutant X, F/X: The Series and The Outer Limits (1995) have been exhausted.  Andromeda has one more season to go.

The Adventures of the Black Stallion already has a complete series set out, through Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.  Echo Bridge Entertainment bought Alliance Atlantis’ international distribution arm after Alliance Atlantis was dismantled in 2007.

To be honest, The Adventures of the Black Stallion is the first redundant title Alliance has released in a while.  Echo Bridge is rereleasing the series in season volume sets right now.  Not a good move, for either Echo Bridge or Alliance.

My prediction: you’re going to see Neon Rider and Bordertown very soon.  Mark my words.  These rush releases have their problems, but better this than letting the titles rot in archive hell.  I still want Night Heat.