Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray

Chuck: The Complete Second Season

 (TV) (2008)

Action | Comedy



This season, Chuck is in luck. Intersect II is ready for espionage service. And that means the old Intersect (Chuck) can go back to his old life. But if Chuck goes, he’s gone: Casey has orders to off him. In the series called “TV’s funniest comedy” by EW.com, Chuck survives to unravel mysteries of the past, become a hero in the present, and – in a stunner of a season finale – chop-and-drop himself into an even more perilous future!

For more details about Chuck: The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray, see the Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Review

Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


The Complete Second Season's 1080p/VC-1 transfer suffers from many of the same problems that made The Complete First Season such an underwhelming visual letdown. Noise and artifacts clutter the image, fine detail falters as searing contrast and rampant softness invades the proceedings, and skintones are frequently flushed and oversaturated. While each issue is a bit less pervasive than it is on the series' first season release -- the show's source seems to be at fault more often than Warner's technical encode this time around -- the subsequent picture is nevertheless a garish disappointment. Colors are exceedingly vibrant, blacks are deep and a number of scenes look quite nice, but contrast has been boosted to near-ludicrous levels. Likewise, detail proves itself to be satisfying here and there, particularly when comparing the Blu-ray edition to its standard DVD counterpart, but texture clarity and edge definition are fairly inconsistent from shot to shot. Worse still, compression anomalies swarm the bright skies above the Buy More (among other locales), aliasing and crush are constant distractions, delineation is mediocre at best (especially during nighttime shots), and macroblocking is apparent at various points in each episode. It's difficult to separate Chuck's unattractive aesthetics from what I suspect is a lackluster transfer, so I'll just go with my gut. Fan or newcomer, prepare yourself accordingly.

Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Why Warner insists on cursing the majority of their television releases with lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks is beyond me, but I doubt anything, be it a TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio mix, could help The Complete Second Season's front-heavy, sometimes two-dimensional soundscape leave a more lasting impression. While each episode's dialogue is intelligible and well-prioritized, rear speaker activity is surprisingly restrained in all but the most action-oriented sequences (surges in the series' musical score being one of the lone exceptions). Immersion takes an obvious hit, as does pan transparency and directionality. A crowded banquet hall rarely sounds like a crowded banquet hall, but rather a mixer's approximation of one. The same applies to bustling dinner parties, chaotic shootouts, noisy underground bunkers, and car chases. LFE output is more aggressive -- granting gunfire and explosions notable oomph -- and dynamics inject some much-needed power into an otherwise average track. Ultimately, as much as I enjoy Chuck as a series, putting up with its AV shortcomings is a trying experience. Diehards will shrug off such nuisances after a handful of episodes, but everyone else will have to work to ignore its lesser qualities.

Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Chuck Season 2 Blu-ray Announced - October 28, 2009

Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

Topic

Replies

Last post