What was once one of the best DVD series around crawls to an end this week with the final release, Masters of Horror: The V Word. Maybe 26 individual releases of anything is just too much, but the MOH series started to go downhill months ago and now it ends with a mediocre presentation of a mediocre episode of the sometimes-great series. The V Word, from writer Mick Garris and director Ernest Dickerson, isn't the worst MOH episode but it's far from the best and it's hard to believe that anyone is going to be starting their Horror DVD collection with this one. Please don't. If you're a completist like we are and want to have all the MOH releases, you'll find an audio commentary by Ernest and Mick, a photo gallery, a DVD-ROM screenplay, and two featurettes on The V Word, the story of two kids who accidentally wake up a vampire played by the great Michael Ironside. If you're new to the world of Masters of Horror, please start with one of the great episodes and DVDs below:

Dario Argento's Jenifer and Pelts: The first season offering from Argento, Jenifer, is a better DVD because all the first season DVDs were better, but the second season episode, Pelts is a better episode. So, get 'em both and have complete proof that Dario is still making some fascinating cinema and the great retrospective on Jenifer of his whole career.

Takashi Miike's Imprint: Showtime wouldn't air it. Isn't that reason enough for you to want to see it? Oh yeah, Billy Drago's in it too. Now you have to take a look. Seriously, Imprint took chances and tried to be more than just an episode of anthology series, which is the major problem of most of the episodes of MOH that didn't work - lack of ambition. You may think Miike is crazy but you can't fault him for lack of ambition.

Joe Dante's Homecoming, John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, and Stuart Gordon's The Black Cat: The best three episodes of the series and the place to start your Masters of Horror collection. Homecoming and Cigarette Burns, in particular, are must-buys for horror fans just because of how complete a look they are at the masters they made them.

The best plan of attack now that every Masters of Horror episode is available is to buy the complete first season set. Trust me, it's worth it just for the round table discussion with all the masters and the stand-out special features the first time around the block. And it's very affordable for thirteen episodes of anything. Everything about the series, from the episodes themselves to the special features and transfers, fell victim to the sophomore slump, but you should still pick up the second series releases of The Black Cat, Pelts, Sounds Like, and The Screwfly Solution. Then you can move on to the rest. But don't say we didn't warn you.