'Alias,' lawyer dramas highly entertaining

ALIAS: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON (Touchstone, 2005-06, four discs, $39.99). Her boss is her enemy, her sister is in a coma, the father of her child has been killed (maybe) — oh, yeah, and she has to save the world again.

It's just another day at the office for the pregnant superagent played by Jennifer Garner in "Alias" as the fifth and final season begins.

Despite that soap-opera description, "Alias" actually got better as it wound down in this season, and the show was allowed to give us a satisfactory wrap-up ... which far too many other TV shows with ongoing stories have not been allowed to do before going off the air. That alone is reason enough for some huzzahs.

And despite the confusing Rambaldi plot (which is the subject of a featurette) and a few ridiculous plot twists, I found this season much more entertaining than the past two years. It's also nice to see faces from "Alias" episodes past, chiefly Lena Olin and Bradley Cooper.

Extras: Widescreen, 17 episodes, deleted scenes, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers

PERRY MASON: SEASON ONE, VOLUME TWO (CBS/Paramount, 1958, b/w, five discs). This set is the second half of the first season of this show about the undefeatable defense lawyer, perfectly embodied by stoic Raymond Burr, who loves to elicit confessions at the end of the show from witnesses or observers. Guest stars here include Utah native Marie Windsor, Angie Dickinson, Johnny Mack Brown, Joe E. Brown and many more.

Extras: Full frame, 20 episodes

BOSTON LEGAL (Fox, 2005-06, not rated, seven discs, $59.98). Perry Mason would never make it in this firm. Weird, zany, off-the-wall, often very funny and sometimes just plain jaw-dropping, David E. Kelley's hard-to-describe show about sleazy defense attorneys makes his earlier "Ally McBeal" seem positively sane. The great cast is led by James Spader, William Shatner and Candice Bergen, and guests this season include Michael J. Fox, Heather Locklear, Parker Posey, Freddie Prinze Jr., Larry King and Betty White.

Extras: Widescreen, 27 episodes, featurettes

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: SEASON ONE (Fox, 2005-06, three discs, $39.98). This hit-and-miss sitcom, which is now in its second season, has an intriguing idea, as it is essentially told in flashbacks, about how a couple became a couple. Josh Radner stars as an architect who woos his kids' mother, surmounting various obstacles along the way. Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan are among the better players here. Some funny stuff, though it often sinks into the sexual morass that traps too many modern sitcoms.