The Blacklist Season 2 Blu-ray review

Aug 18, 2015- Permalink

Fans of the always intriguing Raymond “Red” Reddington can now binge-watch more of his activities as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases a 5 disc Blu-ray of the second season of the hit NBC series The Blacklist.

To catch you up, James Spader plays Red, a criminal mastermind who turns himself into the FBI in exchange for immunity. He offers up a way to go after a list of the most dangerous and corrupt criminals, terrorists and politicians. All he asks in exchange is to work with a rookie FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone).

Critically-acclaimed and a bona fide hit for NBC, the second season began airing on September 22nd, 2014 and NBC even aired an episode in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot.

So is the video and audio presentation worthy of a touchdown? I’d say so. The video, which is in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, is transferred from material shot on Sony’s PMW-F55 4K cameras. The results are beautiful. The images are crisp, details like clothing and other materials are sharp, and the black levels are extremely satisfying. Some of the CGI effects look a bit off, but the viewer has to remember that this is being shot on a TV budget.

On the audio end, we have an English and dubbed French 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack as well as subtitles for English, English SDH, and French. The discs give us a good level of immersion, with good use of the rear tracks and low-frequency moments during explosions and gunshots. Dialogue is crisp and understandable.

Extras on the discs include deleted scenes, four featurettes interviewing James Spader and members of the production staff, and commentary from series creator Jon Bokenkamp and executive producer John Eisendrath on a couple of the episodes.

If your FBI profile says you’re a fan of The Blacklist, you’ll want to add this set to your home entertainment library.