The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season [Blu-Ray]
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Disc Rating: 10/10
Plot Summary:
The vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore, eternal adolescents, having been leading ‘normal’ lives, hiding their bloodthirsty condition, for centuries, moving on before their non-aging is noticed. They are back in the Virginia town where they became vampires. Stefan is noble, denying himself blood to avoid killing, and tries to control his evil brother Damon. Stefan falls in love with schoolgirl Elena, whose best friend is a witch, like her grandma.
*Warning: This review contains spoilers for previous seasons of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and mild spoilers for Season Four!
While I know there are a large number of people out there who refuse to give this series a shot, I must say once again how great of a show this really is. For fans of supernatural and vampire focused shows, you really should consider
checking this one out if you’re not already watching it, because it’s one of the best by far, and certainly twice the show ‘True Blood’ is. I had to be convinced by a friend to watch the show myself, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I have since convinced a number of other people to give it a shot, and every single one of them has found themselves enjoying it as well. The series is created by Kevin Williamson (Scream 1, 2, 4, The Following) and Julie Plec, and loosely adapted from the book series of the same name by L.J. Smith.
Season four picks up where three left us, just finding out that Elena had been given vampire blood prior to the car accident and is now a vampire who must choose to either feed and 
complete the transition within 24 hours or die for good. The season focuses largely on a group of original vampire hunters known as ‘the five’ and the relation Jeremy appears to have to them. Now he will have to choose whether this is something he wants to pursue while dealing with the fact his sister is now a vampire as well and he has lost all living members of his family. Meanwhile Elena’s difficult transition causes more friction between Stefan and Damon and soon Elena finds herself falling for Damon. And that is only the beginning, because there is a far more evil being that is determined to arise.
The season certainly pulls no punches and continues this great series without losing any of the wonder, hear and neck breaking action that it’s held over the previous three years. I feel that if anything the series continues to improve as it grows further into itself and I’m certainly looking forward to season five which is set to premiere this October on The CW, along with the shows new spinoff series ‘The Originals’.
For fans of the series, this release certainly holds up and being a fan myself, I can’t imagine a better way to relive this season again and again in the future. If you own the previous seasons, you will certainly want to pick up a copy of Season Four, and you should be quite pleased with the release.
VIDEO:
The video on the Blu-Ray release of ‘The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season’ is a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The transfer on the Blu-Ray looks tremendous and is once again a big step up from the HD television broadcast in which I first viewed the season. Fans of the show should once again be quite satisfied with the video presentation on this Blu-Ray set.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features an uncompressed English 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 23 episodes which sounds wonderful. I must say I am extremely pleased that Warner TV titles have begun getting the lossless audio treatment over the last couple of years. It was really the only factor previously absent in their television releases, and now that it has been implemented their TV sets are about as good as you can get.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release features six all new featurettes for the series in addition to a ‘Second Bite: Gag Reel’, a fan artwork gallery, and unaired scenes on near half the episodes. Plenty of goodies to keep fans of the series entertained for some time after they finish watching or re-watching all 23 episodes in the season.
Disc Rating: 10/10
‘The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season’ is now available to own on Blu-Ray & DVD from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.
