6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Charlie's Angels is an American crime drama television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men.
Mystery | 100% |
Crime | 80% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
5.1 2011 series only
English
Blu-ray Disc
Twenty-disc set (20 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Mill Creek has released the entirety of the original 'Charlie's Angels' television show to Blu-ray in a twenty-disc set, which also includes the short-lived 2011 remake. Technical specifications include original aspect ratio video and two-channel lossless audio for the original series and 1.78:1 video and 5.1 lossless audio for the 2011 show. No supplemental features are included, but as always the studio has priced the set somewhat aggressively for the content and quality of presentation.
Note: The video score above reflects only the original series. See the end of the review below for an individual score for the brief 2011 series.
Mill Creek delivers Charlie's Angels: The Complete Series to Blu-ray with a largely satisfying, though certainly imperfect, 1080p transfer. First,
to get the problems out of the way. The image suffers from a fairly regular barrage of heavy splotching, a massive field of yellow blots that pop in here
and there. See the beginning of season one's final episode, the 7:15 mark of season two's first episode, and again at the 10-minute mark of that
same episode for just a few examples. These are not the only occurrences in these episodes or through the series, just a couple of reference points for
the problem. This represents the most severe blemish to be found. Others include the odd spot and speckle that are rarely intrusive but dense enough
to take notice. Compression is handled remarkably well all things considered. This image is not free of macroblocking but rarely does the image appear
on the verge of digital degradation, either. It maintains a fairly sturdy appearance without digital artifacts plaguing backgrounds.
The series is presented on Blu-ray at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, preserving the original broadcast parameters, resulting in vertical "black bars" on either
side of the 1.78:1 HD display. The picture is largely attractive, with grain that is maintained if imperfectly manicured. It fluctuates in density from
time to time but never does the image appear scrubbed down or the grain so dense as to overwhelm the screen. The picture reveals quality detail that
compliments the film-based source. It's relatively sharp and visually appealing, showcasing character skin, hair, and clothes with impressive visibility
and fairly intimate detail. The show is always in a state of visual flux, meaning attire and locations frequently switch out, so there's always something
new and exciting to explore. Mill Creek's Blu-ray is more than capable of revealing the entirety of the Charlie's Angels visual spectrum to
satisfaction.
Colors are pleasing, showing positive saturation and depth across the board. While contrast could probably stand a little tweaking, the core palette
impresses through the series' varied costumes and locations. Consistency is one of the highlights; the show maintains a good, positive feel for tonal
accuracy within its visual parameters, never straying from its established appearance. Tones are never gaudy, and even bright reds don't bleed or
appear garish. Skin tones appear fairly true and black levels never stray too far from accurate, occasionally looking a little flat but never veering too
deeply to
crush. By the end of the run, the show is looking terrific. It's not a leap over early seasons but offers a bit more solidification to clarity and color. Mill
Creek
has
done a good-to-great job here.
The 2011 show fares much worse, despite being much newer. It was shot on video and presents at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, filling the contemporary
HD frame. Unfortunately, the image is riddled by compression artifacts. Chunky macroblocking is commonplace in practically every shot, destroying
any goodwill that comes from the high definition video textures, which are not particularly impressive anyway. The macroblocking wants to tear the
image apart at the seams, but in the most stable shots there are at least some decently clear and intimate facial features, clothing lines, and
environments. Colors are flat but effective at the core. Skin tones are more or less fine, ditto black levels. The final episode, unaired in the United
States, looks terrible, like it was yanked off a poor web stream, amplifying the instability and compression artifacts many times over. See the final five
screenshots in this review for a basic visual reference. SCORE:
2.0/5.0
Note: The audio score above reflects only the original series. See the end of the review below for an individual score for the brief 2011 series.
Charlie's Angels: The Complete Series features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is about as expected, a
rather unassuming, straightforward experience that captures the limited constraints of a 1970s TV show and presents it with as much fidelity and
clarity as the source allows. The two-channel constraints limit opportunities for the track to flourish in terms of scale, and while width is never stifled it's
never truly glorious, either, never quite stretching as far and as limitless as one might expect. Somewhere between cramped and flowing, the track finds
adequate stage engagement but certainly favors a more reserved approach that keeps most everything pushed more towards the middle. The exception
is music, which generally enjoys a little more breathing room out to the edges. Musical clarity will never be mistaken for perfect, but core notes and
details present with welcome accuracy in the lossless deployment, limited more so by the inherent sound design and less the DTS encode.
Support effects range from ideally delivered to questionably faithful. There's a certain crunchiness to many effects, a lack of clarity and authenticity that
renders various moments less than sonically ideal as the track struggles to bring even simple environmental details to life with more than crude
approximations of any given sound. Some of the more intensive action scenes, while obviously lacking high end sonic firepower, do find enough core
vigor and detail to please, but as with everything else in the track the rule is that everything falls into a middle ground where core faithfulness suffices
but clarity and detail beyond is lacking. The track gives a good honest effort, however, and the sum of the parts more often than not works well enough
to please. Dialogue is usually well prioritized but occasionally stumbles around competing elements; ocean waves at the beginning of season one's "The
Killing Kind," for example, conflict with dialogue rather than melt into the background. Still, for the most part, dialogue clarity is just fine, prioritization
by and large good, and imaging to the center satisfies.
The audio presentation for the short-lived 2011 series comes in the way of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's not first-rate but it's
passably good in key areas. Gunfire is
wimpy and additional action elements lack punch. Music generally finds a good, healthy width, some surround integration, and decent low end
engagement. It's more open and immersive than the older show's track, more detailed and precise, and compliments the show well. Dialogue is clear
and center focused. SCORE: 3.5/5.0
This Blu-ray release of Charlie's Angels: The Complete Series contains no supplemental content across all twenty of its discs. The main menu screens offer only options to select episodes individually, play all, and toggle subtitles on and off. The twenty discs ship in two large cases, each with several leafs holding discs one per side. Both fit into a modestly sturdy, but not fully rigid, slip box.
Despite its early success and longstanding name recognition, history has not been particularly kind to the Charlie's Angels brand name. The original series' popularity waned with a decided lack of forward development and multiple casting changes. The death knell came in season one with Fawcett's departure, though it was a slow-burn process for reality to sink in, with the producers and the network fighting to keep the show afloat despite all indicators pointing to the contrary. The big screen revitalizations that would come a couple of decades later in Director McG's feature film of the same name and its 2003 sequel amplify big budget splash and sex. Neither are remembered as bastions of great cinema. The 2011 television show, which was hoped to spark a major return to glory for the familiar title, was a flop of historic proportions, cancelled after just a handful of episodes. Sony was hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with the 2019 feature film, but box office returns have been disastrous. This is a franchise that has lived on allure and sex appeal more so than meat and dramatic quality, and it's no surprise that it never can quite seem to gain a foothold as anything more than a popular culture name brand. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of the original TV show and the short-lived spin-off isn't at all bad. The only downside is the video presentation for the 2011 show, which is rather poor in the aggregate. The original series translates quite nicely to Blu-ray albeit with some flaws. Recommended.
Special Edition
1974
Collector's Edition
1976-1994
2008
1972
1984-1990
1987-1990
1986
Collector's Edition
1982
2K Restoration
1991
1982
2014
2013
1981
2016
1990
2008
1975-1979
1966
1980-1988
1999