Out on DVD: "Spin City", "What We Do is Secret", "Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon"

If you're looking for a break from the obsessive CNN-watching and blog-checking that will render most of our minds quivering mounds of jelly by 11PM tonight, there are a few gay-interest DVD releases worth checking out.

Portraits of a gay porn icon and a punk rock legend, plus a blast from gay television's past, after the jump! 

Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon
Okay, this one actually came out last week but I was too slammed to mention it ... but don't let that be a reflection on how enormously entertaining I found this fascinating, hilarious, and mildly scintillating documentary on gay porn legend Jack Wrangler. Combining non-explicit footage from Wrangler's gay and straight porn days with from-the-time interviews as well as recent footage, Icon paints a wonderfully gonzo portrait of one of the gay adult movie industry's most lasting icons while giving a fascinating lesson in gay history.

Gay and straight film critics, essayists and porn luminaries weigh in and Wrangler himself provides some hilarious running commentary on what he clearly sees as being a rather amusing career path in porn. (And why he eventually married a woman.) Seriously fun stuff.

Jack Wrangler
 

What We Do Is Secret
For a considerably more somber but just as fascinating look at a gay icon from a more volatile time, the biopic What We Do Is Secret is definitely worth checking out. The story of gay punk legend Darby Crash (played here with hypnotizing, open-wound intensity by ER's Shane West), Secret looks at the formation of seminal LA punk band The Germs and the figures that built the scene around them. While Crash committed suicide via overdose before he had the chance to come out (or truly enjoy his fame), Secret makes his sexuality clear in his relationship with a young admirer (played by Ashton Holmes of A History of Violence). Filled with great music and an energetic young cast, this portrait of an unsung gay rock legend is worth checking out.

Spin City: Season 1
Can you believe that it's been 12 years since Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman) arrived on our television screens? One of the first gay men of color on television (and the first cast regular in primetime), Boatman's life and loves sadly fell to the back-burner pretty quickly, but he was there through every episode of all six seasons. To relive it all from the beginning, check out the Season 1 box set, out today.