Cast: Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour
Release Date: Now Available On Blu-ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Disc Rating: 9/10
Synopsis:
Based on the novella “The Colorado Kid” from Stephen King, the hit Syfy series follows former FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), who became a cop in the small town of Haven, Maine, and quickly found herself involved in the return of “the Troubles,” a series of supernatural afflictions that have plagued the seaside village for generations. Partnered with local residents Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) and Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour), Audrey began to realize that Haven‘s fate was linked to her own, and only she can save the town and the people she loves from the weight of their curses.
The fifth season of ‘Haven’ picks up immediately following the memorable showdown in the cave that wrapped season four; William is now gone, but Audrey has unexpectedly vanished as well, Mara now inhabiting Audrey’s body. As Nathan desperately searches for a way to bring Audrey back to the surface, the rest of the town including its head of both the police and guard want Mara gone or used for the purpose of removing the troubles from Haven for good, regardless of what it might mean for Audrey who still has a small hold inside of Mara, sneaking out for a brief moment on occasion. As things drastically become worse than ever in Haven, even those friends who always previously worked together begin to find themselves at odds with one another, each maintaining their own beliefs of what is right for the town and the actions required to make it happen. In a town such as Haven where things are already problematic enough, everything is only about to get a great deal worse.
The first half of ‘Haven: Season Five’ (which oddly enough is the same 13 episode count as all previous seasons of the series, apparently forming one giant 26 episode season spread between the course of two years) brings things to yet another level of insanity, events in this already chaotic small town reach a breaking point and nothing can ever possibly be the same once everything is concluded. The fifth season delivers all of the excitement, action and twists we’ve come to expect and appreciate from this wonderfully unique and enthralling series. The regular and recurring cast certainly haven’t lost any of their charm either and continue to pull us into these characters’ world and truly feel for them throughout every step of their journey. While I won’t go into any detail for those not currently up to date, the cliffhanger which wraps this half of the (recently announced) final season at least guarantees one wild final 13 episode run which hopefully manages to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the series.
Fans of the series will definitely want to make certain to pick up a copy of ‘Haven: Season 5 Volume 1’ on Blu-ray to add to their collections. While some fans may be slightly disappointed by the lack of a slipcase this time around (a new pattern eOne appears to have switched over to at this point on their Blu-ray TV releases), the release nonetheless includes impressive high definition video and audio presentations, along with a healthy collection of bonus content including Audio Commentary with various members of the cast and crew on all 13 episodes and more (more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below) making this a definite must own, especially for the fans who have been collecting the previous season releases.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Haven: Season 5 Volume 1’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the included fifth season episodes. The video presentations look quite impressive as a whole, delivering rich, detailed presentations on every episode, holding up impressively even during the frequent fast moving and darkly lit sequences which are fairly common in the series, never resulting in anything occurring on screen to become indiscernible. There are some mild artifacts and brief occurrences of banding, yet they fairly uncommon and nearly unnoticeable for the most part when they do occur. Overall, these are pretty top notch high definition video presentations that should easily satisfy the fans.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on all 13 Season Five Volume One episodes. These lossless multichannel soundtracks sound great, providing clean, discrete and often fairly active audio presentations on each episode. All five available channels are regularly utilized in order to surround the viewer with the series’ wonderful score, in addition to any number of suitably fitting action or supernatural oriented auditory effects, while never causing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, these are competent and impressive 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtracks that should not disappoint.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Haven: Season 5 Volume 1’ includes an impressive collection of bonus content. Included on the release are Audio Commentary tracks with various members of the cast and crew on all 13 episodes. Also included are ‘Inside Haven’ Featurettes for each of the 13 included episodes which run approximately 47 minutes in length altogether and include Behind the Scenes footage and interviews/comments with the cast and crew. Lastly, we are treated to two ‘Haven: Origins’ shorts that explore the mythology behind the series’ focus town, they are: ‘Haven: Origins: Witches are Born’ (running approximately 7 minutes), and ‘Haven: Origins: Native Breaks Free (also approximately 7 minutes).
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Disc Rating: 9/10
‘Haven: Season 5 Vol. 1’ is now available on Blu-Ray & DVD from Entertainment One.
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