Since last season was interrupted by The Writer’s Strike, and because some shows did not make the summer rerun circuit, these TV shows recently released on DVD are a great way to get caught up before the new season begins.

Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fourth Season Sizzling Secrets Edition

$59.99 Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The fourth season of “Desperate Housewives” featured births (and in true “Desperate,” fashion – one of the women fakes a pregnancy), deaths, a twister, three new neighbors and, of course, a mystery at the center of Fairview’s most notorious street, Wisteria Lane.

The mystery this season revolved around a former Lane resident, Katherine Mayfair (played with catty glee by Dana Delany), who returns to the fold to find herself at odds with Bree (Marcia Cross), each trying to out-Martha Stewart the other. She also butts heads with the-still- battling-cancer Lynette (Felicity Huffman), when she runs for head of the Home Owner’s Association; which is brought on by a fountain the new gay neighbors (Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm) erect in their front yard.

The only person Katherine seems to have no beef with is Susan (Teri Hatcher), who is pregnant and who discovers new hubby Mike (James Denton) is addicted to painkillers. Meanwhile, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria Parker) begins an affair with former husband Carlos (Ricardo Chavira), while she tries to figure out how to end her marriage to the mayor (John Slattery). All the while Carlos tries to reconcile his guilt over Edie’s (Nicollette Sheridan) suicide attempt at the end of season three.

The show certainly isn’t showing signs of aging, and has the ability to keep viewers guessing at the mysteries and laughing at the bitchy barbs the ladies hurl at each other.

Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Second Season

$59.99 Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The sophomore season jinx that often plagues shows seems to have escaped this engrossing family drama, with its slew of plot twists and turns.

The Walker Family continues to swim against the tide of drama, with matriarch Nora (Emmy-award winner Sally Field) proving to be the sturdiest swimmer; she’s even given a love interest (Danny Glover) during the second season.

Oldest sister Sara (Rachel Griffiths) sees her marriage shatter; gay brother Kevin (Matthew Rhys) attempts to pick up the pieces with his ex, Scotty (Luke MacFarland); and Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) finally swings his closet door wide open.

Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert (Rob Lowe) are trying to conceive; Tommy (Balthazar Getty) has an affair; Justin (Dave Annable) comes home from Iraq; and the newest member of the drama-prone clan, Rebecca ( Emily VanCamp), may not be who she thinks she is.

The second season also showcases televisions first same-sex wedding.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season

$28.98 Warner Home Video

This is the type of TV show that High Definition was tailor-made for. Big and bold in its color schemes, Pushing Daisies is a whimsical take on the tried-and-true whodunnit detective-type series and its visual direction has a very surreal quality.

This should come as no surprise to fans of director Barry Sonnenfield (The Addams Family), who filmed some of the series’ episodes. The show is also produced by the folks behind the eye-popping 2003 feature film, Big Fish.

In front of the camera, it has one of the best casts on television. Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie maker who has the ability to bring people back to life for one minute, including his childhood love, Chuck (Anna Friel), with romantic complications ensuing.

In his spare time, he aids detective Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) in solving crimes, while fighting off the advances of his smitten employee, Olive (Kristin Chenoweth), and keeping an eye on Chuck’s aunts, Vivian and Lily (Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz).

With guest stars such as Paul “Pee-Wee Herman” Reubens upping the cool quotient on this first season series, and with only nine episodes aired, Pushing Daisies’ return to television on Oct. 1 seems an eternity away. The series on DVD is the perfect chance to become reacquainted with this charming show.

In the past year, more transgender character showed up on the small screen. We’re spotlighting “Ugly Betty: The Complete Second Season,” where Alexis Meade is played by actress Rebecca Romijn; and “Dirty Sexy Money,” which has the first real-life transgender actress, Candis Cayne, featured in a prominent role.

Ugly Betty: The Complete Second Season

$59.99 Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The question “Ugly Betty” fans faced at the start of the second season was: can this show get any gayer?

The answer is a resounding yes!

Marc (Michael Urie) got a boyfriend, Cliff (David Blue); Betty’s nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato) absconded the family’s Christmas tree lights for a production number staged in his closet; and there was a whole episode built around the musical, Wicked. Plus, the last episode of the season featured a multitude of Madonna songs.

Viewers were also left with a bounty of questions from the first season cliffhanger. The result of the car accident Daniel (Eric Mabius) and Alexis were involved in left Alexis in a coma (and subsequently forgetting her gender reassignment operation), and Daniel in deep remorse thinking he caused the accident.

Luckily, he has Betty (America Ferrera) for an assistant – but her life was not all smooth sailing during season two (is it ever for her?), as she was faced with choosing between two suitors: the not-so-available Henry (Christopher Gorham) and Gio (Freddy Rodriguez).

And of course, there was the guest appearance by Victoria Beckham, in the episode, “A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding,” which featured Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams) getting wed to Bradford Meade (Alan Dale), and hatching her most sinister plot yet to take over Mode Magazine.

Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete First Season

$39.99 Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Welcome to the world of the uber-rich and scandalous Darling Family of “Dirty Sexy Money,” headed up by Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland), his wife Letitia (Jill Clayburgh), and their five children: Brian (Glenn Fitzgerald), Karen (Natalie Zea), Patrick (William Baldwin), and twins Jeremy (Seth Gabel) and Juliet (Samaire Armstrong).

In short order, the reason the aristocratic family is always embroiled in some sort of controversy is because “Dirty Sexy Money” is a return to the nighttime soaps that populated the small screen during the ’80s.

Brian, who is a reverend, has sired a child out of wedlock. The twins use their access to excess to the extreme, throwing lavish parties that close down the Brooklyn Bridge. Patrick is a political figure having an affair with the male-to-female Carmelita (Candis Cayne). Karen goes through husbands like Kleenex, and is already on number four when she confesses she loves another man.

The other man in question is Nick George (Peter Krause), whose late father was the attorney who guided the Darlings out of the many messes they had gotten themselves into. And now, with his father’s death shrouded in mystery, he begrudgingly takes on the duties of playing babysitter to the Darlings, while following the clues to unravel the mystery behind his father’s untimely demise.

Deeper Dish

Marc Harshbarger

$24.95

Lulu.com

Pop culture aficionado, Marc Harshbarger, returns readers to the heyday of soap opera guilty pleasures, such as “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” even though the Davenport and Haze families of his novels might feel more at home in the cul-de-sacs of “Knots Landing.”

The suburbs of Chicago house more than family units; they are also a hotbed of deception and secret trysts. And Harshbarger promises “more nail-biting cliffhangers, passionate encounters and disco fever,” in the sequel to his first novel, 2007’s Deep Dish, a campy love letter to soapy days-gone-by.

Deeper Dish chronicles those with only one life to live, who are going to make the most of it – no matter who gets in their way!

Two female characters (Abra Davenport and Charlotte Haze) may not being booking passage on “The Love Boat,” but each lady wants something exciting and new in the amore department, and find unconventional romance blooming.

But, these ladies are not the only ones getting down and dirty; each character, in his or her own way, is trying to take a stab at love, even if it involves a knife right into the back of someone close to them.

Bette Midler

Jackpot: The Best Bette

$18.98

Rhino Records

The woman who began her career playing to crowds at The Continental Baths in New York City, and is currently entertaining the masses in The Showgirl Must Go On, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, is of course the one and only Bette Midler.

And Jackpot: The Best Bette showcases the talent and versatility that this venerable performer has instilled into her catalog of hits.

Her standard and practice of recording Big Band tunes, such as Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” and The Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy;” to putting her distinctive vocal stamp on other previously recorded material, such as The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman,” and The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” are all on the CD.

As are the songs featured on soundtracks to a few of the movies she has starred in: The Rose and Beaches specifically. (If you don’t know these songs, your gay card just went up in flames!)

Plus, there is a previously unreleased track, “Something Your Heart Has Been Telling Me,” to quench even the most die-hard Midler fans’ thirst for something new from their diva.

Sex and the City, Vol. 2: More Music

$16.99

New Line Records

To coincide with the DVD release of Sex and the City: The Movie on Sept. 23, a second soundtrack to the movie will also be hitting stores that day.

Sex and the City, Vol. 2: More Music features an interesting blend of artists – similar to a musical cocktail that could be christened a “groove-tini.”

In a way, the CD represents a facet of each of the four women of Sex, as established and upstart artists combine to showcase the diversity of the Metropolitan quartet of women we have come to love.

The sexual prowess of Samantha is heard on the Janet Jackson track “2Nite.” Newcomer Estelle featuring Cee-Lo with “Pretty Please (Love Me)” seems to represent the eternal hopefulness of Charlotte. By title alone, “Trouble,” is the best way to describe the state of Miranda’s marriage; while “Fool’s Gold,” by Amy Winehouse, definitely sings volumes about Carrie and Mr. Big’s relationship.