Here are the week's best releases from the pop culture universe

TV: The Closer
TNT's best show returns for its third season at 9:00 p.m. Monday with a commercial-free episode. Golden Globe-winner Kyra Sedwick anchors the series as a ball-busting interrogator, but its supporting characters (including Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson, J.K. Simmons) are becoming television's most reliable detective crew.

VIDEO GAME: Shrek the Third
This tie-in to the big green ogre's latest adventure can be as overblown and as predictable as the movie at times. But it's also as fast-moving. It's available for almost every console, but we prefer the Nintendo DS version, which features cool cooperative multiplayer play in wireless mode—so you and three pals can save Far Far Away as your favorite talking donkey or cat.

BOOK: Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
The centerpiece of this insightful bio is the kooky music mogul's last interview before he was charged with murder four years ago. Writer Mick Brown touches on all the usual subjects—Spector's troubled childhood, his teenage genius, and his penchant for pulling guns on the artists he worked with. The book is the first to truly probe Spector's fractured mind, which eventually shattered.

COURTESY FLUSH, PLEASE: The Best of Acoustic Jethro Tull
The flute-lovin' prog-rockers are barely tolerable plugged in, so imagine how insufferable they are when the amps are turned off. This 24-song CD spans the band's career, pulling cuts from albums like Living in the Past, Aqualung, and Thick As a Brick. Too bad they're not the ones you want to hear.