Catch the first season of 'Veronica Mars' via DVD

One of best TV shows to debut last year was "Veronica Mars," which has just started its second season. But if you want to catch up, it comes to DVD on Tuesday, along with quite a few other programs.

• "Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season" (Warner, 2004-05, not rated, $59.98, six discs). Kristen Bell has the makings of a big star, and this is a snazzy vehicle for her, a sharp blend of high school politics, traditional private-eye mysteries and soap-opera family baggage.

A murder mystery develops over the 22 shows and is satisfactorily resolved in the final episode (with some nice twists that don't sacrifice logic). There are also individual mysteries to be solved each week.

Bell's Veronica is smart, witty and tenacious in her efforts to unravel the truth. She's also a loyal daughter, and her relationship with her father (Enrico Colantoni, of "Just Shoot Me") is one of the show's best assets.

Extras: Widescreen, 22 episodes, extended pilot episode, deleted scenes, subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.

• "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" (Universal, 1974-75, not rated, $39.98, three double-sided discs). Darren McGavin starred as Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak in "The Night Stalker," an excellent vampire comedy-thriller that became the highest-rated TV movie of all time in 1971. The next year, a sequel, "The Night Strangler," had Kolchak in Seattle, tracking an ageless serial killer.

This set is the one-season series that followed two years later, with McGavin again as Kolchak, now a Chicago reporter, whose exasperated editor (Simon Oakland, who was also in the films) wishes he'd just do normal stories instead of monsters of the week.

These episodes are up and down in terms of quality, but what keeps it going is the show's bright sense of humor (something lacking in the new TV remake). And McGavin is perfect as the rumpled Kolchak.

The big disappointment is that the two "Night Stalker/Night Strangler" movies are not in this collection (but you can get them in a double-feature DVD from MGM).

Extras: Full frame, 20 episodes, trailers, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.