Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.

WHAT: After escaping the doomed planet Krypton as a child, Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) is raised by a foster family on Earth, where she learns to conceal her superpowers and her true identity as Superman’s cousin. Years later, Kara continues to live a normal life working as the assistant for media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) in National City. But when she gets the sudden urge to use her powers for good, Kara must learn to balance her personal life and her new role as Supergirl with the help of adopted sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) and co-workers James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan).

WHY: Marvel may be winning the battle of the comic book heroes on the big screen, but DC has carved out a nice little niche on the small screen with shows like “Arrow,” “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” The latest addition to producer Greg Berlanti’s capes-and-tights TV lineup is a mildly amusing but flawed superhero drama that is arguably the weakest of all the DC series. Though the cast grows on you over time, Melissa Benoist flies circles around her co-stars for much of the season, especially Calista Flockhart, whose over-the-top performance as Kara’s boss feels like it’s from a completely different show. In fact, none of the supporting characters are very interesting, and that’s in direct contrast to the aforementioned series, which succeed largely because of them. The biggest problem, however, is that Supergirl isn’t that compelling herself (despite Benoist’s great performance), and it shows in her rogue’s gallery of villains, which are just as uninspired and cheap-looking as the action sequences. Perhaps it will perform better alongside its fellow superhero shows on The CW, because in its original iteration on CBS, “Supergirl” isn’t really super at all.

EXTRAS: In addition to the 2015 Comic-Con panel, there’s a pair of featurettes on Krypton and Martian Manhunter, some deleted scenes and a gag reel.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

WHAT: Struggling American businessman Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) is sent by his company to Saudi Arabia to pitch a state-of-the-art holographic teleconferencing system to the king. While Alan and his team patiently await the king’s arrival, he spends his days navigating the country’s unique customs alongside his friendly driver Yousef (Alexander Black) and a beautiful doctor named Zahara (Sarita Choudhury).

WHY: Director Tom Tykwer’s latest film was unceremoniously released in theaters earlier this year with little fanfare, and while it may have seemed like a strange decision at the time, it makes sense after seeing it. Based on David Eggers’ award-winning novel of the same name, “A Hologram for the King” isn’t a bad movie – in fact, it’s perfectly mediocre in every way – but it’s not a very memorable one, either. Though it boasts a strong performance from the always reliable Tom Hanks and good supporting turns by Alexander Black and Sarita Choudhury, the movie is a somewhat bland and uneven character study about a middle-aged white guy getting his groove back in the Middle East. Most of the film plays like your typical fish-out-of-water story before switching focus to the romantic subplot between Alan and Zahara in the final act, but while it’s an interesting development that explores the difficulties of such a relationship in Saudi Arabia, it feels so rushed that Tykwer is unable to give it the attention it deserves.

EXTRAS: There are two featurettes on production and adapting David Eggers’ novel.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

Nostalgia is a powerful force. When tapped into correctly, it compels people to gloss over the shortcomings of the era for which they pine. Whether it’s in politics or entertainment, people wish to hearken back to a time when they felt more positive, safe and secure; when joy was easier to come by and things weren’t so complicated. It’s usually associated with childhood because that’s before adulthood brought compromises and shades of gray. Suddenly, decisions had to be made with serious weight but also with implications that could stretch far into the future. This is why politicians always talk about going back to an idyllic past that never existed, and why studios crank out big screen remakes of various properties they hope people still get warm and fuzzy over.

But it’s a hard thing to recapture that feeling, to perfectly evoke those feelings of the past without feeling like a hollow retread. Artists with deft hands have to be able to take those old familiar stings and blend them with something new in a way that is seamless yet exciting. These projects must be comforting but also with a dash of the unexpected; alive in ways that aren’t incongruous with that nostalgia but also not purely a slave to those feelings either. Recently, two such projects have come along that have shown the way to properly revisit the past with an eye to the future. The Duffer brothers’ “Stranger Things” on Netflix and the Jeff Nichols’ film “Midnight Special” both call back to a specific attitude and time in pop culture (and in fact, it’s the same time for both of them), but they manage to do so masterfully enough that it feels both like going back to something familiar while moving forward into unexplored territory.

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Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.

WHAT: After he’s rescued from the primitive rehab center that used heroine to treat his cocaine habit, Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) returns to the Knick with a new obsession: finding a cure for addiction. Meanwhile, Dr. Edwards (Andre Holland) and Dr. Gallinger (Eric Johnson) continue to butt heads; Bertie (Michael Angarano) goes to work at a competing hospital; and Cornelia (Juliet Rylance) investigates a mysterious death connected to her family’s shipping company.

WHY: The first season of “The Knick” was a slow-moving but nonetheless compelling period drama highlighted by some fantastic performances and gorgeous visuals, which makes it all the more disappointing to see the show suffer through such a terrible sophomore slump. Several key players, particularly Andre Holland’s Dr. Edwards and Eve Henson’s Lucy, have been saddled with half-baked storylines that barely form anything resembling an arc, while Clive Owen’s Thackery is gradually built up over the course of the season just so he can be torn down again. It’s all handled very sloppily, but that’s Season Two in a nutshell. Though the surgery sequences are still fascinating to watch, and the scene-stealing Chris Sullivan is rewarded with a bigger role, just when “The Knick” seems to be finding its groove, it pivots to less worthy characters like Dr. Gallinger and the sleazy Herman Barrow, both of whom are given far too much screen time this season. The change in direction is mind-boggling to say the least, because what started as a fairly promising prestige drama has deteriorated into a series that’s hardly worth continuing at all.

EXTRAS: In addition to three audio commentaries with various cast and crew, there’s a series of behind-the-scenes featurettes on the season’s main themes, an in-depth look at some of the medical procedures, a walking tour of the set, and much more.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

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Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.

WHAT: In 1980s Dublin, a young teenager named Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) starts a band with his new schoolmates in an attempt to impress the beautiful and mysterious Raphina (Lucy Boynton).

WHY: Writer/director John Carney specializes in making musical fairy tales for the soul, with each film functioning like its own album. If “Once” is his critically acclaimed debut, and “Begin Again” is the more mainstream (but less successful) follow-up, then “Sing Street” is the personal album that gets back to his roots. A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale that ranks as one of the most pleasant moviegoing experiences in recent years, “Sing Street” features Carney at his very best. Although there’s not a lot of meat to the story, the film does a good job of tracking Conor’s artistic awakening as he discovers his own identity through experimentation with different musical styles and the awful fashion trends that accompany them. The mostly unknown cast is great, especially Jack Reynor as Conor’s older brother/musical guru, while the original songs (each one better than the last) are catchy enough to believe that the titular band could actually succeed. Though their progress happens a little too easily to be realistic, Carney makes the whole fantasy go down so smoothly that you won’t mind.

EXTRAS: There’s a making-of featurette, cast auditions, and an interview with writer/director John Carney and songwriter Adam Levine.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

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Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.

WHAT: Terrified of what Superman (Henry Cavill) could do with his godlike power after witnessing the damage he caused during the Battle of Metropolis, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) – now a seasoned crime-fighter as the vigilante Batman – becomes obsessed with stopping him by any means necessary. Meanwhile, billionaire tech genius Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is building his own weapon to combat the alien threat using a piece of Kryptonite uncovered in the Indian Ocean. But when Luthor discovers that he shares a common enemy with Bruce, he manipulates Batman into doing his dirty work for him.

WHY: It’s scary to think that Warner Bros. is betting the future of its entire DC Comics film slate on “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” because it’s an overlong, overstuffed and disjointed mess of a movie that’s made only slightly better with the new Ultimate Edition extended cut. The film is constantly being pulled in mutiple directions, tirelessly working to function as a sequel to “Man of Steel,” a Batman reboot and a prequel to the forthcoming Justice League movie. That it’s even remotely coherent at all is to the credit of director Zack Snyder. In fact, there’s a really solid superhero flick buried somewhere beneath all the clumsy plotting and self-seriousness, but while the film has its charms – specifically, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Jesse Eisenberg’s bold take on Lex Luthor – Snyder gets so caught up in teasing future installments that he neglects his characters in the process. “Batman v Superman” wants to have its cake and eat it too, and although you can’t fault Snyder’s ambition, if Marvel taught us anything with its measured buildup to “The Avengers,” it’s that the proverbial cake tastes much better when it’s been earned.

EXTRAS: The Blu-ray release is packed with over two hours of bonus material, including a behind-the-scenes look at uniting the heroes of the DC cinematic universe, in-depth profiles on Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor, production featurettes on the Batmobile and Batcave, filming the titular showdown and much more.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

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