Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 23, 2013

Note: This season is also available in the box set Duck Dynasty: Seasons 1-3 Collector's Set, which streets December 3, 2013.

As an Oregonian, I must state up front that Duck Dynasty is evidently not about the University of Oregon’s sports teams, nor is one of the series’ character’s obsession with beavers a reference to Oregon State University. With that pressing piece of business out of the way, perhaps it’s time to burst another preconception bubble—so-called reality television is not real. I know several people (whose names will not be divulged due to their wishes to remain employed) who work on various “reality tv” shows in different capacities, and they all tell pretty much the same story. While there are no “writers” on the shows, and while things are filmed in a supposed “verité” style that ostensibly catches things happening off the cuff, “suggestions” are often made to the shows’ participants, and certain “storylines” are discussed at length before the cameras ever even show up to capture the action. Furthermore, most shows are assembled with a team of editors who, along with the shows’ directors and other “creatives”, deliberately shape things to give these efforts some sort of dramatic (and/or comedic) arc. Duck Dynasty is simply the latest in a long line of cable outings which have melded characters’ work lives and family environments. As my wife stated when we began watching this new six disc Blu-ray set, “Hey, it’s Cake Boss on the bayou!” That pretty much sums up this show’s approach, which follows the “true life” adventures of the Robertson family, a group of good ol’ boys, their wives, children and employees, who run a multimillion dollar enterprise called Duck Commander, a unique duck call invented by paterfamilias Phil Robertson, whose son Willie, who built the business into its current day success. Rather incredibly, the saga of the Roberston family has become one of the biggest phenomena in cable history, recently smashing audience records for the series’ fourth season premiere episode. The series is having an impact in some unusual arenas as well. Both Fox News and MSNBC, hardly cable outlets prone to covering the same sorts of stories, recently mentioned that a Robertson endorsement of a so-called “mainstream” GOP candidate in Louisiana helped to get that guy elected over the Tea Party candidate (who was expected to handily win the race). With the show's (and its characters') popularity soaring, A&E and Lionsgate have made the unusual decision to release a Blu-ray box set featuring the first three seasons, which will be followed around a month later by standalone Blu-ray releases of those seasons.

A cursory review of the ratings trajectory for Duck Dynasty prove what a cultural phenomenon the show had become by the beginning of its third season. The first season slowly grew from a little under two million viewers to a little over that benchmark by the time the season came to a close in late spring 2012. Absence evidently made the heart grow fonder, for when Duck Dynasty returned for its sophomore year in fall 2012, the audience had had a rather impressive growth spurt to close to four million viewers, a figure which admittedly waxed and waned a little throughout the season, until the season finale brought in a then record six and half million (give or take) viewers. Even that record fell by the wayside when season three opened in February 2013 to an astounding (by cable standards, anyway) eight million-plus viewers. While this season, like its predecessor, had a few little dips along the way, once again new audience records were set for this season’s finale, when well over nine million viewers tuned in to catch the adventures of the extended Robertson clan and their employees. Obviously, something about this show is clicking in a major way with television viewers.

The Robertsons continue in their by now familiar ways in the third season, though there is perhaps a growing realization that the show (despite its increasing audience numbers) may be treading the same well worn path too many times for its own good. That means this season has at least a couple of attempts to get the family out of their day to day routines, including some camping and hunting outings and, in a gambit that smacks of some well worn sitcom clichés that saw everyone from The Brady Bunch to The Partridge Family to the Happy Days crew take off on excursions, a season finale trip to Hawaii. Once again seemingly trivial upsets between family members momentarily grow to outsized proportions, only to ultimately put into their proper perspective by a little common sense and unity.

I have to be honest and say that the cynic in me increasingly wants to scream every time Miss Kay embarrasses the young ‘uns, or Willie and Jase engage in a little sibling rivalry, or Phil tries to instill some good, old fashioned common sense into his ever increasing brood. But I also can’t deny the sweet natured aspect to virtually all of the Robertsons, even with the unavoidably artificial environment the show itself creates. The third season has “more of the same”, which to those who love the family and the show will be a boon, while to those who tire of these exercises in decided unreality (or at least non-reality), will most likely be a bane. There’s an obvious comfort in the familiar, something Duck Dynasty continues to offer in droves in its third season, but as a wise old country boy once said, “Familiarity breeds contempt”.

Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unlike Duck Dynasty: Season 1 , both the second and third seasons of Duck Dynasty offer a 1080p presentation delivered via the AVC codec in 1.78 (courtesy of Lionsgate Films and A&E). The progressive presentation helps to subtly solidify and smooth out the image (and perhaps the show's success led to better equipment and technical crew). While some of the establishing shots (which at this point seem to be stock footage taken from the series' first season) are still mildly problematic, the bulk of both the second and third seasons is nicely sharp and very well detailed. Colors are nicely saturated and very accurate looking, and a lot of the outdoor footage boasts nice depth of field and admirable clarity. The "up close and personal" first person confessional segments offer superior fine detail. Contrast, black levels and overall image sharpness is excellent throughout all episodes.

Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All three seasons of Duck Dynasty come equipped with a perfectly fine lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which capably captures the narration, on screen confessionals and back and forth between various characters. The mixes also nicely capture more forceful moments, as when the boys go hunting or target shooting. There is no damage of any kind to report in any of these tracks, and fidelity is excellent, delivering dialogue, ambient environmental effects and the twangy music cues effortlessly.

Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Duck Dynasty Phenomenon (1080p; 18:48) is an enjoyable enough if not especially illuminating piece that contains a lot of interviews with folks like Terry Bradshaw as well as "everyday" people who come to West Monroe to see where the show takes place. There are brief interviews with some of the Robertsons as well.


• Cast Interviews (1080i; 10:53)


• Deleted Scenes (1080i; 6:52)


• Webisodes (1080i; 8:27)


• Mash-Ups (1080i; 8:22)


• Amanda Ryan Song Recaps (1080i; 3:12)

Duck Dynasty: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The third season of Duck Dynasty doesn't really break any new ground, but of course why should it, especially when the show simply seems to get more and more popular as each succeeding week goes by? But there's a flip side to all of this overwhelming success, and that is the fickle nature of the average television viewer. The fourth season of the show already has shown signs of an at least incrementally decreasing audience, and the shelf life of the Robertsons, like so many other overnight flashes in the pan, may be reaching its expiration date. It might be time to gather around the dinner table and say a prayer. The third season has its share of light laughs and gentle tugs at the heartstrings, and its Blu-ray release also includes some good supplementary material. Recommended.