Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Bronson Pinchot, Mark Linn-Baker

Release Date: August 25, 2026

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Release Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

When Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) arrives in America from the Mediterranean island of Mypos, he shows up unannounced on the Chicago doorstep of distant cousin Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker), forcing two perfect strangers into an unlikely roommate situation. Balki, an earnest shepherd with boundless optimism and a love of American culture, clashes with Larry, an uptight aspiring photographer. Despite their differences, the pair gradually grow from fifth cousins three times removed into best friends.

‘Perfect Strangers’ tells the story of two distant cousins and drastically different individuals with no knowledge of each other who are thrown together and begin working together and sharing an apartment. Larry lives in Chicago, finally on his own after a life living with a big family and is trying to realize his dream of becoming a photographer when his distant cousin Balki randomly arrives at the door of his apartment after coming to America from the Mediterranean island of Mypos. Reluctantly allowing Balki to stay with him, the clashes between them soon begin to evolve into a close friendship as they tackle the everyday struggles of life together.

‘Perfect Strangers’ was created for television by Dale McRaven (Mork & Mindy) and starred Bronson Pinchot as Balki Bartokomous and Mark Linn-Baker as Larry Appleton. The series also featured numerous other regulars and recurring stars over the years with some remaining longer than others and including Melanie Wilson, Rebeca Arthur, Belita Moreno, Sam Anderson, Jo Marie Payton and Ernie Sabella, along with plenty of others. Pinchot and Linn-Baker are certainly the stars of the show and hold it all together with their chemistry, while most of the supporting cast does a nice job of contributing to the show’s fun, laughs and heart along the way as well.

The series first debuted on primetime television in 1986 airing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before moving into a Friday night slot on ABC’s long-running TGIF block where it settled in and become a regular staple of the lineup for some time, airing on the same night as its spinoff series ‘Family Matters’ saw years of success. ‘Perfect Strangers’ had a solid, successful run of 8 total seasons and 150 episodes before concluding in1993 with a shorter final season run and a two-part series finale.

It originally started with Larry and Balki sharing a one bedroom apartment and working in the downstairs store run by their landlord before switching things up in the third season which suddenly saw Larry working at a local newspaper and their apartment suddenly now notably bigger and with two bedrooms (no more sleeping on the couch for poor Balki!) and while such a shakeup can often make or break a show, this one seemed to only benefit the sitcom and start its real success. It’s a thoroughly funny, heartwarming and at times surprisingly emotional and moving series that is consistent with the laughs and clever bits, while also never hesitating to explore some real life scenarios such as careers, love and plenty more as Balki’s kind ways and overwhelming optimism lead him into more than a couple troublesome situations. It always wears its heart on its sleeve yet is never hesitant to have fun and of course keep the laughs coming like all sitcoms should.

‘Perfect Strangers’ comes home fully remastered and in High Definition on Blu-ray and it’s such a happy occasion that fans will surely do the dance of joy to celebrate! The 17-disc ‘Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series’ Blu-ray set from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment features all 150 episodes of the show’s 8 season run with spectacular full High Definition presentations that look even better than expected and every episode is perfectly paired with a lossless DTS-HD MA soundtrack that combined have this beloved sitcom looking and sounding better than it ever has before, and better than most probably ever expected it to.

The 17-disc Blu-ray set ships in a DVD-sized Epik-Pak case with all seventeen discs packed within which may disappoint some that are understandably not overly fond of the packaging style and the release is a bare bones set with the episodes alone and no extras. Even so, for any fans of the series that would love to physically own it in HD it’s still very highly recommended and the video and audio upgrades alone will surely make this one a must own for dedicated fans.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio on every episode of all eight seasons. The video presentations look awfully impressive and offer clean, sharp and richly detailed presentations on every episode that look better than ever, and even better than most might expect. Details are typically sharp and clean throughout on characters, backgrounds and everything else with nice, clean coloring to back them back. There are a handful of sequences that see a slight shift in quality on a few brief occasions such as a softer and less sharp look on certain camera angles when the perspective shifts back and forth but they’re few and far between and don’t detract too much from the overall look and this series looks incredibly good on Blu-ray for certain. Overall, these are terrific High Definition presentations that look wonderful throughout and should easily thrill fans of this beloved sitcom.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio dual-mono soundtrack for every episode of seasons 1-4 and a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio stereo soundtrack for the final four seasons. These lossless soundtracks provide clean, crisp and well-balanced audio presentations for every episode of the series. They capably share the channel(s) and make sure that all audio elements from dialogue to music and more are all nicely balanced, ensuring that everything remains clean and audible throughout and no simultaneously occurring audio elements ever clash with one another. Like the video presentations there are some very brief shifts where things are briefly a tad more muffled, but they are always very brief and never detract or cause any issues deciphering any audio elements from one another. Overall, these are great 2.0 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that do their job well and shouldn’t elicit any complaints.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series’ does not include any bonus content.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Rays 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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Release Rating: 7/10

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‘Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from Warner Bros Discovery Home Entertainment

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You can Purchase ‘Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE! & at Movie Zyng HERE!

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