By Peter Covino

Lifestyles Editor

I wish I had a  bunch of great DVD recommendations for dad this Father’s Day weekend.

You know the kind I mean, the ones with big-breasted women, exploding buildings and assorted carnage every two or three minutes.

But if dad spent all day Sunday watching those kind of DVDs, mom would probably get sick of it after 15 minutes, burn his special Dad Day dinner and pop would spend the rest of the evening alone eating pizza  and watching First Blood, Second Blood, Third Blood and Last Blood.

So to save marriages everywhere, here are a bunch of DVDs, actually TV series, newly released on DVD that couples can watch together this Father’s Day.

Just out on DVD is Without a Trace: Season Three.

One of the stronger cop shows of recent years, the cast includes Anthony LaPaglia as senior agent Jack Malone and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano, Eric Close and Poppy Montgomery as the rest of the New York-based FBI task force known as the Missing Persons Squad.

The “missing person” part of the show is almost always interesting, but the show is also heavy on the inter-relationships between the team, occasionally too much so.

Season three (the show ran fo seven seasons) finds Jack fighting for custody of his kids and in the middle of a bitter divorce, while  agent Samantha (Poppy Montgomery) is having a not-so-secret affair with fellow agent Martin (Eric Close). Further complicating things is the serious health ailment that Vivian (Jean-Baptiste) is hiding from the team.

The shows are consistently good though in season three with guest star appearances by winner Chad Lowe, Tony Goldwyn and John Krasinski, as well as Timothy Busfield and Martin Landau.

You won’t be able to watch Without A Trace: Season Three at home this Father’s Day (unless you catch a rerun on TV). The DVD set is available only online  via the Warner Archive Collection. Go to www.Warnerarchive.com.

Fairly Legal

After cop/FBI shows, lawyers are probably a close second when it comes to TV dramas, and last year brought two new entrants to the crowded field: Fairly Legal and Franklin & Bash.

Fairly Legal: Season One (Universal, USA Network) seems light years away from the drama of Without a Trace. Set in San Francisco (there are lots of street scenes, but like so many shows, is actually filmed in Canada), the show centers on mediator Kate Reed (Sarah Shahi, The L Word), a former attorney in her father’s law firm.

As the season starts, her father has recently died and she is often at odds with her stepmother  and boss (Virginia Williams) at the firm her father started.

In the pilot episode, Kate spends a lot of time answering or ignoring her cell phone (which is programmed to display Wizard of Oz characters with corresponding music). The stepmother is the Wicked Witch, of course.

Kate also has an almost ex-husband, who she still sleeps with occasionally; and a brother (Ethan Embry), who has left the firm so he can take care of his baby, while husband Terry works.

Episodes typically find Kate solving all the problems, in a modern Perry Mason fashion, only much more philosophical.

The show has an instant sexy, likeability about it, with fairly solid scripts.

The 3-disc set contains all 10 season one episodes and several bonus features including a scene comparison on some episodes (unaired original scenes and broadcast version); commentaries on select episodes with the cast and crew and a gag reel.

Franklin & Bash

They were mostly ambulance chasing kind of lawyers, but attracted the attention of the head of a large, but ailing law firm headed up by Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell).

He hires them because he thinks the unconventional duo are just what his firm needs. And he is, of course, right.   But it won’t be a smooth transition. Stanton’s nephew, the No. 2 man at the firm, doesn’t like them at all.

A second season is now being shown on TNT.

The three-disc set features the 10 episodes from season one, a blooper reel; the first episode of Men at Work, created and written by Breckin Meyer; behind the scene featurettes and three “commercials” advertising the services of Franklin & Bash.

Guest stars on the episodes include familiar faces such as Jason Alexander, Beau Bridges, Tom Arnold, Danny Trejo, Tommy Chong and James Van Der Beek.

White Collar

I missed the first two seasons of White Collar (USA Network)  so it is a bit imposing to take on a series (i.e., a show with an evolving weekly plot) and try to figure out what is going on after you have missed some 20 episodes or more.

But so long as you know the basics — Matt Bomer pays con-man Neal Caffrey. He has been in prison, escapes and gets caught again.  But Caffrey proposes a deal to Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) the FBI-agent who put him away: put his expertise to work and let him help apprehend criminals, while he is on a work-release program. And together, with some help from other colleagues they tackle white collar crime each week.

Season 3 (20th century Fox) has just been released on DVD and the show’s fourth season is set to begin July 10.

White Collar is a bit like some of its  older predecessors (Mission: Impossible, It Takes a Thief) but much slicker.

In season three Neal solves a different white collar crime each episode, while the season’s continuing backstory, also dominates the first part of the season: Neal and his best friend and co-conspirator Mozzie (Willie Garson) have a treasure trove of priceless paintings originally stolen by the Nazis in World War II.

The 4-disc set includes deleted scenes, a gag reel and commentary on the Judgment Day(final episode of the season).

Suits

Another USA Network show from Universal, this is a cleverly written series involving a Manhattan attorney (Gabriel Macht), who makes a very risky movie by hiring a young prodigy (Patrick J. Adams) as his new associate, even though he doesn’t have a law degree. Season two began airing this week.

The first season (12 episodes) is now available on a 3-disc set from Universal.

Macht and Adams are a good pairing as Harvey Specter (the high-powered attorney) and Mike Ross, the brilliant  associate, who is always on the verge of being discovered.

Suits is above average in its story-telling as the two men are bound by their secret and forced to keep up the charade. Mike would have been on the fast track to legal success, but his career was derailed after he was caught trying to sell a math exam to the daughter of the dean at his school.

The two men are complete opposites, but they form a perfect union in this sophisticated series.

The set includes a Q & A with the show’s cast and crew, deleted scens, gag reel and episode commentaries. There also is a very nice bonus: you can watch the show on your smartphone and other portable devices via Ultraviolet.

Burn Notice

It is hard to believe this series has just begun its sixth season on the USA Network and it is kind of complicated if you have never watched an episode.

Fortunately, the opening episodeof Burn Notice Season 5 (Universal Home Entertainment)  includes a mini-capusle of the first four seasons. You will still be confused if you are coming in cold, but it certainly helps.

The original premise of the show from season one follows master-spy Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) who worked for the CIA but has been “burned” and deemed unreliable. For the past few seasons he has been mostly on his own trying to find out who “burned” him, while working as a private investigator in Miami. He began working with some of the same people who burned him in season four and in season 5 he has successfully rejoined the CIA as a consultant. He spends much of  his time though hunting down the men on a list (discovered in season 4) who originally burned him.

Even without all of that background story, much of Burn Notice holds up pretty much okay on its own. If you are looking for a modern twist of the whole spy/CIA genre, Burn Notice certainly delivers.

The DVD set includes an extended episode, deleted scenes and more.