BY ROB LOWMAN >STAFF WRITER

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Television>

Some of the best - and most popular - of what television has to offer is out this week.

As a crime procedural, "The Closer" is smart but not groundbreaking. It's Brenda who gives the show its appeal. She's neurotic, obsessive, smart but always underestimated and isn't afraid to deal with her emotions as a woman.

And they've found the perfect actress for the role. Sedgwick is neither classically likable nor classically beautiful, and neither is Brenda. Her failings, constant sweet tooth and ability to overcome obstacles - most of them stupidly put up by men - are what audiences relate to (especially women, who seem to make up much of the series fan-base). But no matter which gender, watching Sedgwick give her character that slightly crazy edge is always a treat, particularly when Brenda gets that look in her eye when she knows she's got her man (or woman).

"The Closer" is back July 14. The season three has 15 episodes, including the two special ones that aired in December.

"Mad Men," which returns to AMC on July 27, is likely to have a host of Emmy nominations by then. Set in the early 1960s at a New York Madison Avenue agency, it stars Jon Hamm as Don Draper, a high-level ad executive.

Less than 50 years ago, it was a different world - a pre-women's lib white man's world, with caveman (but so-called sophisticated) sexual attitudes. And everybody smoked and drank. (Think Billy Wilder's 1960 film "The Apartment," but more graphic.)

Many critics found "Mad Men" fascinating. I was less enamored. I give the show credit for finding its characters' humanity in a world that, frankly, I find repugnant. (Apart from the politics, I have never been a fan of watching - on- or off- screen - people smoking and overdrinking.)

Many of "Mad Men's" performances are quite good (Hamm gives philandering husband Doyle both a sexiness and a measure of conflictedness). But the show's pacing the first season was hit and miss. So, if you're not really enjoying the era, you might be turned off.

Tyler Perry, who we've profiled in these pages a few times, has built most of his audiences from the African-American community. His comfort-food family comedies are overly sentimental but also at times heartwarming, and while the humor is often silly, it sometimes is genuinely funny. While he never pushes the envelope, Perry also never stoops to crassness or stupidity. So give him his due. Out this week: his TBS TV show "House of Payne, Vol. 2: Episodes 21-40" and his latest movie, "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns," starring Angela Bassett as a single mother of three from Chicago who travels to a small town in Georgia to attend her father's funeral.

Also keep in mind "Rebus 3," the better-than-average crime series based on Ian Rankin's Scottish detective, and "Ganges," a visually beautiful documentary about the river.

Recent films>

"My Blueberry Nights" is the first English-language feature from Hong Kong visual stylist Wong Kar-wai ("In the Mood for Love" and "2046"). A sumptuous travelog of America, the film stars singer Norah Jones, on the rebound from a bad breakup - first in New York City, then Memphis and Vegas.

Along the way, she comes across some interesting characters - an expatriate Englishman played by Jude Law, in Memphis while working as a waitress; Arnie and Sue Lynne (David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz), who are going through marital problems; and a crazy gambler (a blond Natalie Portman) in Vegas.

Jones is an amiable enough presence and the film is amiable enough - sort of like a pleasant bus ride with cool scenery (and a nice soundtrack, on which Jones contributes one song). But it's not much in the drama department.

"Drillbit Taylor" is a comedy that misfires from the get-go. It stars Owen Wilson as a homeless man claiming to be special-ops veteran who helps three nerdy kids with their bully problem. Even Wilson's improvisational comic style can't help.

Paulo Morelli's "City of Men" - a loose sequel to Fernando Meirelles' 2002 "City of God" - dives back into the lawless shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro that are overrun by guns and drugs. It's one of those films that is hard to watch because of the poverty and dog-eat-dog environment, but it's also hard to look away from. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

"Sex and Death 101" was written and directed by Daniel Waters, whose 1989 "Heathers" (out in a 20th anniversary edition) was a delicious black comedy about suicidal teens, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. "Sex and Death 101" is about a man named Roderick Blank (Simon Baker), who gets a list of the 101 women he will sleep with before he dies. This supposedly liberates Mr. Blank but not the movie, which registers as much as its hero's name.

Older films>

Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima led a turbulent life before his spectacular death at 45 in November 1970, when, accompanied by four members of his personal right-wing army, he and a follower committed ritual suicide at army headquarters in Tokyo.

Mishima, a serious candidate for the Nobel Prize, was brilliant, sensitive and completely over-the-top - he once posed in a famed photo wearing a loincloth and pierced by arrows like the martyred St. Sebastian. He also wanted to cleanse Japan of what he considered corrupting Western influences. And while he poured himself into his writings, he wanted to make his life a work of art, too.

Paul Schrader's 1985 "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" tried to tell the writer's contradictory story by using some of the novelist's own works woven into the facts. (Schrader had been prohibited by Mishima's widow from detailing either his suicide or his homosexuality.)

While fascinating at times, "Mishima" is a difficult movie to follow - especially for those not familiar with the novelist. It's in English with Japanese subtitles. The new special Criterion edition includes a 55-minute BBC documentary on Mishima as well as interviews that help make the film more understandable. Criterion is also releasing "Patriotism," a short film made by Mishima in 1966 that shows the ritual suicide (seppuku) of a naval officer. It was believed that all copies of the film had been destroy following Mishima's suicide, but a negative was found a few years ago. It's in Japanese with English subtitles.

out tuesday>

NEW FILMS

"Vantage Point" $28.96/ $34.95 two-disc edition/ $38.96 Blu-ray

"Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" $29.95/ $34.98 two-disc edition/ $39.99 Blu-ray

"My Blueberry Nights" $19.98

"Drillbit Taylor - Unrated Extended Survival Edition" $34.99/ $39.99 Blu-ray

"City of Men" $29.99

"Sex and Death 101" $29.97/ $34.98 Blu-ray

"Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control" $27.98/ $35.99 Blu-ray

TELEVISION

"The Closer - The Complete Third Season" $39.98

"Mad Men - Season One" $49.90/ $49.98 Blu-ray

"Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Vol. 2: Episodes 21-40" $29.98

"Rebus - Set 3" $49.99

"Ganges" $19.98/$28.99 Blu-ray

"Anglo Saxon Attitudes" $39.99

"30 Days: The Complete Second Season" $29.95

"Walker, Texas Ranger: The Complete Fifth Season" $49.99

"The Streets of San Francisco - The Second Season, Vol. 1" $39.98

"Tori & Dean Inn Love Season 1" $29.98

OLDER FILMS

"Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" $39.95

"Patriotism" $24.95

"Batman: The Movie" $9.98/$39.98 Blu-ray

"Girl on the Bridge" $14.95

"Only the Valiant" $14.98

"Serial $14.95"

"Heathers - 20th High School Reunion Edition" $19.97

"The American Film Theater Complete 14 Film Collection" $199.95

NEW TO BLU-RAY

"Gangs of New York" $34.99

"In the Line of Fire" $28.95

"Point Break" $39.98

MUSIC

"Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles" $19.98/ $29.98 Blu-ray

"Thank You Australia Concert: Live 1976 - Neil Diamond" $19.98

OF SPECIAL INTEREST

"Yankee Stadium: Baseball's Cathedral" $26.99

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Rob Lowman (818) 713-3687; robert.lowman@dailynews.com