From superheroes to Supernatural, TV fans strike gold on Blu

Warner Bros Television

The new TV season is just getting under way, but you still have time to catch up on your favorite shows from last season courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The second season of Gotham premiered September 21 on FOX, basically resetting the series and giving it the subtitle “Rise of the Villains,” but you’ll want to check out the Blu-ray to see how things got to this point. Gotham had some issues at the start, but those got ironed out and the show became a weekly habit. The Blu-ray contains all 22 episode of the first season in a beautiful high-def presentation. The show’s color palette is very muted and dark, and the Blu-ray handles this admirably making the occasional bright shocks of color even more intense. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack keeps voices front and center and uses the surrounds to immerse the viewer in this new television universe.

The Blu-ray also contains the following Special Features:

Disc 1

• Extended version of the pilot episode

Disc 2

• Unaired scenes on “Penguin’s Umbrella” (Episode 7), “Lovecraft” (Episode 10), “Rogue’s Gallery” (Episode 11), “What the Little Bird Told Him” (Episode 12)

Disc 3

• Unaired scene on “Welcome Back, Jim Gordon” (Episode 13)

Disc 4

• Unaired scene on “Beasts of Prey” (Episode 19)
• Gotham Invented: Building Our Gotham (13:19) – The executive producers take viewers behind the scenes to look at the creation of the world of Gotham, including keeping the time frame and location very ambiguous.
• Gotham Invented: Paving the Way for the Caped Crusader (6:56) – A look at how the world of Gotham paves the way for the arrival of Batman.
• Gotham Invented: Fractured Villains of Gotham (11:13) – Taking a closer look at the hows and whys of Gotham‘s villains.
• Gotham: Designing the Fiction (20:01) – A look at the concept and design for the city of Gotham, including how characters are color coded and how the color scheme of Fish Mooney’s club changed when Penguin took over.
• The Game of Cobblepot (26:25) looks at the gamesmanship of Oswald Cobblept as he climbs his way to the top of Gotham’s underworld.
• Gotham: The Legend Reborn (21:37) is a behind-the-scenes look at the pilot episode, from comic book to television production.
• DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014 Presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and Arrow (29:31)
• Character Profiles (14:00) introduces the series’ main cast of characters.
• Gag reel (4:55) – Lots of flubbed lines, bleeped cursing and giggling.

The only thing really missing from the extras — besides some input from Jada Pinkett Smith — are some audio commentaries on key episodes. Overall, it’s a good set for a good show that will hopefully get even better in its second season.

Warner Bros Television

While DC Comics and Warner Bros. Television did well with Gotham, they hit a home run with the debut of The Flash. This show hit the ground running, was an instant hit for The CW, brought back the original TV Flash, John Wesley Shipp, as the new Flash’s father, as well as Shipp’s co-star Amanda Pays and special guest villain Mark Hamill reprising his role as the Trickster for one episode apiece, introduced Captain Cold and The Atom (who are being spun off to a new show in 2016), and made a star out of Grant Gustin. Unlike Gotham, The Flash is full of bright, comic book colors and, again, the Blu-ray presentation in both video and audio is comparable to that of Gotham.

This Complete First Season Blu-ray set is a real treasure trove for the fans with Special Features including:

Disc 1

• Audio commentary on Episode 1, “Pilot,” with Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns.
• Deleted scenes on Episodes 1 (“Pilot”), 2 (“Fastest Man Alive”) and 3 (“Things You Can’t Outrun”).

Disc 2

• Deleted scenes on Episodes 7 (“Power Outage”), 9 (“The Man in the Yellow Suit”), 10 (“Revenge of the Rogues”), 11 (“The Sound and the Fury”) and 12 (“Crazy for You”).

Disc 3

• Deleted scenes on Episodes 13 (“The Nuclear Man”), 16 (“Rogue Time”) and 17 (“Tricksters”).
• Behind the Story: The Trickster Returns (8:39) – Mark Hamill and John Wesley Shipp discuss the Trickster from the original series and the new iteration, the protegé and where the character may go in the future.

Disc 4

• Deleted scenes on episodes 20 (“The Trap”), 21 (“Grodd Lives”), 22 (“Rogue Air”) and 23 (“Fast Enough”).
• The Fastest Man Alive! (30:39) offers an in-depth look at the character and how The Flash was brought from the pages of a comic book to full life on television.
• Creating the Blur: The VFX of The Flash (26:25) looks at the amazing special effects achieved within the limitations and schedules of a television show.
• The Chemistry of Emily and Grant Screen Test (4:20) shows how Grant Gustin landed the role of Barry Allen.
• DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014 presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and The Arrow (29:31).
• Gag Reel (8:24) – Lots of flubbed lines, funny faces and … dance moves.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment gets an A+ for this set, and any fan of The Flash should be very happy with this set. Season 2 premieres October 6.

Warner Bros Television

Of course, there would be no The Flash without another DC Comics hero who made the transition from the page to the TV screen – Arrow. When Arrow first debuted, it really tried hard not to be The CW’s recently retired Smallville adopting a more somber and very dark tone, both in storytelling and visually. By the third season, the producers have finally embraced the character’s comic book roots with characters like Black Canary and Ra’s al Ghul joining the show while other characters also got their own superhero identity. With Season 4 premiering October 7, now is the perfect time to catch up on Season 3 with another terrific Blu-ray set. The specs for audio and video are what you’d expect from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, with my only quibble being some of the more excessively grainy night scenes in some episodes (which may be inherent in the master video).

The Arrow complete third season set includes enough extras to make any fan happy including:

Disc 1

• Audio commentary on episode 1, “The Calm,” with Marc Guggenheim and Wendie Mericle.
• Deleted scenes on episodes 1 (“The Calm”), 2 (“Sara”), 3 (“Corto Maltese) and 5 (“The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”).

Disc 2

• Audio commentary on episode 9, “The Climb,” with Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle.
• Deleted scenes on episodes 9 (“The Climb”), 11 (“Midnight City”) and 12 (“Uprising”).

Disc 3

• Deleted scene on episode 17, “Suicidal Tendencies.”

Disc 4

• Unaired scenes on episodes 20, “The Fallen” and 23, “My Name Is Oliver Queen.”
• The Man Beneath the Suit: The Atom’s First Fight (7:17) – Brandon Routh and Marc Guggenheim discuss the origin of the TV version of Ray Palmer and The Atom.
• Nanda Parbat: Constructing the Villain’s Lair (22:48) looks at the creation of the physical and virtual set and how the artists blend them together as an epic set piece, and how they avoided mirroring the concept already established in the comics and Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight films.
• Second Skins: Creating the Uniforms of Arrow (17:12) – Costume designer Maya Mani shows how her design team creates the uniforms for the characters that look amazing but are also functional for the actors and production.
• Gag reel (3:57) – A highlight is Matt Nable having difficulties with the line “we shall see.”
• Arrow at Comic-Con 2014 (28:54) – Cast and creative team discuss the third season of the show.

Warner Bros Television

While each of these Blu-ray sets have their merits and should be appreciated by the fans, there is one more set that has always set a high bar for Blu-ray presentations and that is The CW’s longest running series Supernatural. The producers and the studio know they have legions of fans who live and breathe Supernatural and have made the Winchester Brothers a part of their lives for ten years now, and with the eleventh season set to premiere October 7 Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has spared no expense in making the tenth season Blu-ray extra special. As with all the other sets, the audio and video quality are top-notch and will give no one anything to complain about. And while the true fans will want to watch the episodes over and over again, the season ten Blu-ray contains a wealth of bonus material also worth repeat viewings:

Disc 1

• Supernatural at Comic-Con (28:54) – The cast and producers discuss the surprises in store for season ten.
• Supernatural Theatre: Staging the 200th Episode (25:25) – The director, writer and composers discuss creating the musical episode celebrating the show’s 200th episode. Production designers discuss the challenge of creating a stage show that had to have the look of a high school production.
• Unaired scenes on episodes 5 (“Fan Fiction”) and 6 (“Ask Jeeves”).

Disc 2

• Audio commentary by Curtis Armstrong, John Badham, Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner on episode 10, “The Hunter Games.”
• Audio commentary by Felicia Day, Phil Sgriccia and Robbie Thompson on episode 11, “There’s No Place Like Home.”
• Unaired scenes on episodes 7 (“Girls, Girls, Girls”), 10 (“The Hunter Games”) and 11 (“There’s No Place Like Home”).

Disc 3

• Audio commentary by Timothy Omindson, Phil Sgriccia and Robert Berens on episode 14, “The Executioner’s Song.”
• Unaired scenes on episodes 14 (“The Executioner’s Song”) and 18 (“Book of the Damned”).

Disc 4

• Unaired scene on episode 22, “Brother’s Keeper.”
• Supernatural FANS (56:28) – Documentary exploring the world of Supernatural fandom, highlighting some very special fan stories.
• The Winchester Mythology: Battling the Mark and the Blade (20:50) – Cast and crew discuss how the Mark of Cain storyline affected Sam and Dean during season 10.
• A Very Special Supernatural Special (29:50) – A retrospective special looking back at the first nine seasons and what’s ahead in season ten.
• Gag Reel (6:57) – Always fun watching the guys crack up and you wonder how they get anything done. Funny stuff.

Once again, the people who put together the Supernatural Blu-ray gets everything right, including multiple audio commentaries! The real highlight of the Special Features is the documentary about the fans which shows just how much Supernatural means to them, even helping to save lives. It is a terrific look at the show’s fandom.

All of the Blu-ray sets come with Digital HD copies of the episodes as well so that you can take them with you wherever you go. The seasons are also available on DVD.