With the first real week of 2010 coming at you, so begin the first major retail releases of the year.

It’s still sort of quiet post the holidays, but there are 3 major releases worth checking out, and I’m featuring them in this weeks…Awesome-O-Rama.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Hey wait! Come back! I know, I know.  You’re already thinking that I’ve lost it. Just a few instances of A-o-R later, and I’ve gone mad just linking things for the Amazon referral cash. NOT TRUE. At least in this case. While I, and many others, figured Cloudy to be just another quick CGI cash in, the cast and writing team took the work to another level.  On the voice side, you have Bill Hader as lead, plus hilarious supporting turns from Andy Sandberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Mr. T and Bruce Campbell.  On the writing side, you have Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Names aren’t ringing a bell? Well, these days they’re producers on How I Met Your Mother, but more importantly - they created CLONE HIGH. THE GREATEST ONE SEASON CARTOON EVER.  I admittingly checked Cloudy out as an illegal download earlier tonight, and now I’m convinced - I’m gonna need the blu.

Chuck: The Complete Second Season Way back in the year of our lord Two Thousand and Seven, a show called Chuck premiered on NBC in the then super-crucial-to-me “pre-Heroes” slot.  A show about a nerd who has government secrets downloaded to his brain, produced by the guy behind The OC and his buddy who directed Sugar Ray videos and failed his way up into ruining the Terminator franchise, I should’ve hated it. But holy crap, did I enjoy every minute of the first season. And then, Season 2 premiered in the Fall of ‘08, and every awkward moment of the show clicked instead into moments of pure awesome.  It rests in a very small pantheon of TV shows that I must watch live, NEVER on DVR. Only this and Mad Men have the “honor”.  Trust me on this - if you never saw Chuck before, pick up this season. It’s written for new viewers. Then check out Season 1. But most importantly, jump on Season 3. I really don’t want another Arrested Development scenario here.

Bayonetta One of my gaming guilty pleasures has long been the Devil May Cry series.  Having started as a dumbed down, flashier version of the Resident Evil games, and grown into an even flashier, crazy ass shooter series, I love every game, even though they’re basically the same.  Unfortunately for Capcom, a lot of the staff behind the series left them, and moved onto Sega.  And their first title is this, Bayonetta.  While you can look at it and go “Ooh, Devil May Cry with ladies and boobs”, the gameplay has been pushed forward, taking an insane run and gun shooter, and if you can believe it, making it crazier.  The weapons are stranger, the action is wilder, and if the reviews are true, it’s the first great game of 2010.  Click the name for 360, click here for a PS3 version.

That’s all for this week - next week looks even bigger, containing one of my favorite films of 2010, and what might just win the Oscar this year.  See you then!