After having to endure the three dreary entries in the feature-film Mission: Impossible franchise, it is wildly refreshing to screen season one of the original show, now out on DVD.

The series is sheer campy fun, from the fuse lit at the beginning of each episode, sizzling over the unforgettably catchy score (which would win a Grammy for best TV or film score). This ’66 debut is often hilariously over-the-top, with plots that are perfectly loony, making for a kind of espionage sci-fi, or spy-fi. Clearly informed by the then-fresh success of the James Bond movies, Mission: Impossible was just unadulterated fun, especially watching a pre-Space: 1999 Martin Landau (here playing a master of disguise) and Barbara Bain (as the femme fatale). Anyone in this cast is so much better than Tom Cruise! Bain would win one of three Emmys the show would net for this season.

In somewhat more arty DVD news, two films by Bernardo Bertolucci have been released in special-edition sets, 1900 (1976) and The Conformist (1970). The latter film is based on Alberto Moravia’s celebrated novel, an espionage tale in which star Jean-Louis Trintignant evades the fascists who have hired him to execute a lethal mission. A word of warning: 1900 is a 315-minute epic, a stunning film (lensed by regular Bertolucci collaborator Vittorio Storaro), if incredibly long-winded. Perhaps most strange about watching this film is looking at two young and uncorrupted actors named Gérard Depardieu and Robert De Niro. What the hell happened to these two? —Matthew Hays