Young Sheldon: The Complete Series [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Iain Armitage, Zoe Perry, Lance Barber

Release Date: September 24, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

From creators and executive producers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro, Young Sheldon centers on Sheldon Cooper, a once-in-a-generation mind capable of advanced mathematics and science, which isn’t always helpful in a land where church and football are king. And while the vulnerable, gifted, and somewhat naïve Sheldon deals with the world, his very normal family must find a way to deal with him. For 12 years on The Big Bang Theory, audiences came to know the iconic, eccentric, and extraordinary Sheldon Cooper. This single-camera, half-hour comedy takes viewers through his childhood, as he embarks on his innocent, awkward, and hopeful journey toward the man he will become.

‘Young Sheldon’ joins 9-year old genius Sheldon Cooper and his family (his father George, his mother Mary, his older brother Georgie, his twin sister Missy and his beloved Meemaw Connie) growing up in the late 1980’s in Texas and chronicles the family’s lives as they struggle with the everyday headaches and rewards of life, as well as living with Sheldon and all that accompanies raising such a gifted child. For the most part the Coopers are just your average American family and even with a genius in the family (or especially) it will take some love and understanding to get through it all, but anything is possible when they stick together.

The first spinoff from the smash hit sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘Young Sheldon’ serves as a prequel that chronicles the younger days of snarky genius Sheldon Cooper and his family living in Texas and it does a fantastic job of crafting a beloved new sitcom that not only stays true to many of the ideals and ideas of its predecessor while changing things up enough to allow it to very much become its own series. Filled with a great deal of heart and of course laughs, it’s an endearing and undeniably fun take on the younger life of Sheldon that if anything only managed to exceed expectations. I personally was somewhat surprised to discover that I likely enjoyed it even more than ‘The Big Bang Theory’ more often than not.

The series does a fairly good job of capturing the era that it takes place in with nods and references to everything from computers to cars and other forms of technology, not to mention various television shows and films that made a mark at the time. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that it doesn’t go out of its way just to include them but instead allows them to feel organic in their inclusion such as a simple reference to what a character is watching on TV, or a hilarious comment about an uncanny resemblance between Georgie and a hit actor of the time.

‘Young Sheldon’ also benefits tremendously from a marvelous cast at its disposal that includes Iain Armitage as Sheldon, Zoe Perry as Mary, Lance Barber as George Sr., Montana Jordan as Georgie, Raegan Revord as Missy, Annie Potts as Meemaw and Jim Parsons as the voice of adult Sheldon who serves as narrator for the series, each offering mostly solid and in many cases even noteworthy performances in their respective roles that help to make this prequel series work as beautifully as it does. The sitcom also features numerous noteworthy recurring and guest stars such as Wallace Shawn, Craig T. Nelson, Matt Hobby, Emily Osment, Ed Begley Jr., Wyatt McClure, Melissa Peterman and Wendie Malick along with many more.

‘Young Sheldon’ arrives home on Blu-ray in its entirety courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment in the 14-disc set ‘Young Sheldon: The Complete Series’ which features all 141 episodes of the spinoff’s seven season run with full high definition presentations on every episode which look quite magnificent as a whole. The solid HD video presentations are only further complemented by fully capable DTS-HD MA multichannel soundtracks on each which bring the series home looking and sounding quite marvelous, while also featuring a handful of entertaining Featurettes on various seasons throughout.

For any fans of ‘Young Sheldon’ and/or ‘The Big Bang Theory’ who would love to own the entire series on Blu-ray in one convenient collection the release doesn’t disappoint (although some may be mildly disappointed by the DVD sized Epik-Pak case it ships in (yet a Slipcover does ship with it), similar to many of WB’s other recent complete series sets such as ‘Succession’, ‘Veep’, ‘The West Wing’ and some others). If you already own any or all of the previous season releases it likely won’t be worth double dipping as the content should be identical, but if you don’t yet own the previous sets and are contemplating a purchase, then this nice complete Blu-ray set is definitely recommended.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Young Sheldon: The Complete Series’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with its original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on every episode of all seven seasons. The video presentations look quite nice as a whole and offer sharp, clean and nicely detailed presentations on every episode throughout. Detail is great and everything looks sharp and solid from characters, clothing and other specifics to the various locations and backgrounds utilized throughout, while coloring remains rich and clean at all times. Things never suffer noticeably from any issues to be uncovered along the way and black levels are acceptable throughout. Overall, these are generally very nice high definition presentations that should have no trouble satisfying fans of the series.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 141 episodes of the series. These multichannel soundtracks deliver clean, crisp and at times somewhat immersive audio presentations for each episode of the series. They take advantage of all five available channels in order to contribute some ambience and nature effects, plus other minor tidbits throughout the various speakers when appropriate, while never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously with one another to become distorted or negatively affected along the way. Overall, these are solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that may not serve up a whirlwind of activity but do deliver in every way required of them and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Young Sheldon: The Complete Series’ includes a few enjoyable extras in the way of some season-specific Featurettes. I’ve broken down the extras by disc below for easier navigation.

Season 1, Disc 2 includes ‘Young Sheldon: An Origin Story’ (running approximately 10 minutes in length) and ‘Sibling Revelry’ (running approximately 4 minutes).

Season 3, Disc 2 includes ‘The Coopers, East Texas, and the ‘80s’ (approximately 5 minutes).

Season 4, Disc 2 includes ‘Cooped up with the Coopers’ (approximately 8 minutes).

Season 5, Disc 1 includes ‘Time Flies When You’re Having Fun: Young Sheldon at 100’ (8 minutes).

Season 7, Disc 2 includes ‘Sheldon’s Secret Origins & Easter Eggs’ (11 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally 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.

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Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Young Sheldon: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray & DVD from Warner Bros Discovery Home Entertainment

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You can Purchase ‘Young Sheldon: The Complete Series’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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