Supergirl: The Complete First Season [Blu-Ray] 
Cast: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh
Release Date: August 9, 2016
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Disc Rating: 7/10
Synopsis:
Born on the doomed planet Krypton, Kara Zor-El escaped at the same time as her cousin, Superman, but didn’t arrive on Earth until years later after being lost in the Phantom Zone. Raised by her adopted family, the Danvers, Kara grew up in the shadow of her foster sister, Alex, and learned to hide the phenomenal powers she shares with her famous cousin. Years later, at age 24, and now living in National City while working as an assistant for Catco Worldwide Media mogul Cat Grant, Kara has spent so many years trying to fit in that she forgot to ever stand out. All that changes when she decides to embrace her superhuman abilities and become the hero she was always destined to be. With the help of Daily Planet photographer James Olsen, her bioengineer sister Alex, and the research of the super-secret, off-the-grid Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO), who are tasked with keeping the Earth safe from aliens, Kara takes to the skies to protect her world.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.
One of two new entries introduced last fall into the continually expanding DC Comics Television Universe, ‘Supergirl’ tells the story of Kara Danvers, the cousin of Clark Kent/Superman who was initially sent to watch over him until becoming lost in the phantom zone for numerous years and arriving only to discover he had already become Superman. Feeling as if something was missing for some time, after her adoptive sister is put in terrible danger forcing her to reveal herself, Kara decides to attempt becoming a hero in her own right and adopts the name of Supergirl, working alongside a secret government agency that aims to protect earth from alien threats. Always in the shadow of her famous cousin, Kara/Supergirl works tirelessly with the help of her friends and a maddening, yet honest boss to make her own way and show the people of National City that she is a hero that can be trusted; assuming she can handle the barrage of threats she is forced to tackle including a few that hit painfully close to home.
The debut season of ‘Supergirl’ delivers the out of this world excitement, intensity and heart we’ve come to expect from the talented team who also created ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and more. Some folks such as me that might not be overly familiar with the story of Supergirl (or Kara) may take a moment to really find themselves engulfed, but it shouldn’t take long before any fellow fans of the DC TV world and the DC Comics world in general are entirely sold. The series takes things to a new level in many aspects, as tackling the monumental powers at Kara’s disposal provides a number of breathtaking action sequences that will likely cause most to promptly find themselves fans. Another element that makes ‘Supergirl’ such a treat is its introduction to some additional DC Comics character favorites that are certain to result in goose bumps upon their reveal, including (but certainly not limited to) the ever impressive Martian Manhunter who has been one of my absolute favorite characters in the DC Universe for some time and it’s fantastic to see the creative team (once again) treat a crucial comic character with the care and obvious respect he deserves. Prepare yourself for one wildly entertaining ride with the first season of ‘Supergirl’, another outstanding DC Comics TV series that any fellow fan won’t dare to miss out on, especially once the series moves to The CW for its sophomore season, thus allowing the creators the ability to truly merge it with the other DC shows they control which all already call The CW home.
Those who caught the series during its initial airing and quickly become fans will almost surely want to make certain to pick up a copy of ‘Supergirl: The Complete First Season’ on Blu-ray to add to their collections. The Blu-ray release of the debut season delivers fairly impressive high definition video and audio presentations on every episode, in addition to a number of enjoyable extras including ‘Deleted Scene(s)’ for nearly half of the season’s episodes, and more(more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below), sure to make this one a definite must own for many of the fans and likely also for a chunk fellow DC Comics and DC Television fanatics who haven’t yet had the pleasure of the series.
Overall, fans of ‘Supergirl’ who caught the debut season during its initial airing on CBS will likely want to be sure to pick up a copy of ‘The Complete First Season’ on Blu-ray to relive the epic adventure of every episode time and again in the best quality currently available. The fellow DC TV (or DC Comics) fans like myself who missed the season during its initial run will definitely want to give this one a whirl, particularly fans of ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ who are almost certain to fall in love with this one as easily as I did considering the creative team behind them never seems to disappoint in the slightest. ‘Supergirl’ is yet another wonderful edition to the ever expanding DC Television Universe that I would highly recommend.
VIDEO:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Supergirl: The Complete First Season’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the first season’s episodes. The video presentations look pretty great overall, delivering sharp, detailed and colorful presentations on every episode in the debut season. They hold up fairly well even during the numerous fast moving and/or darkly lit sequences and while suffering from the occasional instance of video noise and banding as a result of the somewhat limited bitrate, everything always remains pretty clean and sharp, never allowing anything occurring on screen to ever become rendered indiscernible or anywhere close. Overall, these are pretty solid high definition video presentations that are easily the best quality currently available, even with the mildly restrictive bitrate.
AUDIO:
The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 20 Season One episodes. These lossless multichannel soundtracks deliver crisp, clean, discrete and often quite hard hitting audio presentations on each episode. Utilizing all five available channels regularly in order to send a plethora of activity whipping throughout the various channels including flight elements, bullets, debris, crowd chatter and plenty more, while never causing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted, let alone rendered inaudible. Overall, these are fantastic 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtracks that contribute immensely to the overall enjoyment of the series and they shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Supergirl: The Complete First Season’ includes a few solid bonus goodies. Included on the release are ‘Deleted Scene(s)’ from 9 episodes in the season (running approximately 16 minutes in length altogether), in addition to the ‘Supergirl: 2015 Comic-Con Panel’ (running approximately 15 minutes). We are also treated to a couple of Behind the Scenes Featurettes that include behind the scenes footage and interviews/comments with the cast and crew, the included Featurettes are: ‘The Man from Mars’ (approximately 10 minutes), and ‘A World Left Behind: Krypton’ (11 minutes). A ‘Gag Reel’ for the season is also included (4 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: 7/10
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