Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Haven: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Is Haven troubled?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2013

There’s a fine line that needs to be walked with series that have supernatural elements and a complicated mythology. Fans of The X Files or Lost can attest to the fact that often long running series tend to tip precariously toward either incomprehensibility or, perhaps even worse, mediocrity as they attempt to further their inner folklore while at the same time delivering episodic television fare. There are probably still people who tuned into every episode of the two iconic series listed above who are to this day confused by certain elements, while also remaining frustrated that so much was left unexplained. In fact, that’s one of the salient problems shows like those two and Haven face, namely stringing the audience along with tantalizing little hints of what’s really going on while never ultimately spilling the beans, which would probably mean a quick demise for the series. Haven shares something else with The X Files in particular, namely a tendency to try to artfully blend continued mythologizing with a “freak of the week” approach that has Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) running around trying to solve the latest “trouble” to hit the apparently scenic little town of Haven. The series may have reached its veritable tipping point, however, as this third season, while still interesting, is starting to show the fraying seams of putting on the same “cloak of invisibility” (with regard to actual honest to goodness answers) while also feeling stale, at least at times, with regard to the endless array of weirdly powered residents. Part of this may simply be due to the fact that Haven is based on a Stephen King novel entitled The Colorado Kid which itself was an exercise in frustration, as the central mystery in the book was never really “solved” in a traditional sense. But the television adaptation’s decision to posit a lead character with a bizarre past (one might almost want to say pasts) and a town full of mutants puts a whole carnival like sideshow surrounding the central enigma of who (or what) The Colorado Kid is and how Audrey is connected to what happened to him decades previously.

For those who want a quick brush up of some of what's gone on so far in the Haven saga, here are links to our reviews of the previous two seasons:

Haven: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

Haven: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

I have a personal pet peeve with television series that give in to what I sense is a certain form of desperation and put their female characters in some kind of ridiculously dangerous situation. How many times have you watched a police procedural series where the leading woman returns home (or stays late somewhere), only to be accosted by a stranger who holds her hostage? Too many times, if you’re like me, and right there is one of the central problems confronting Haven as it starts out its third season: Audrey has been abducted and is being held in a mysterious location by someone she (or in fact we) can’t quite make out. And there’s next to no question that two things are going to happen. First, Audrey will of course either escape on her own or be freed by the heroic actions of her cohorts Nathan (Lucas Bryant) and Duke (Eric Balfour). Second, there’s absolutely no question that we won’t find out who the culprit is, at least not right away, and quite possibly never.

While at least part of that assumption proves to be true, in another way Haven is to be commended for at least doling out a few answers this season, and for perhaps more importantly getting away from the “freak of the week” norm to more thoroughly explore Audrey’s “identity crisis” (so to speak) as well as the identity of The Colorado Kid. While there is definitely more of a feeling of a through written arc in this season, that doesn’t necessarily mean that weekly “troubles” don’t crop up, for of course they do, though they are often folded into the overarching story of a revelation about Audrey’s future which in a weird way plays into her enigmatic past. This season also plays with time travel a bit, including a late in the season paradoxical "revelation" that any aficionado of time travel stories will see coming from a mile (and/or several decades) away.

But as much as the series moves the mythology along (and make no mistake about it, Season 3 is probably the most informative thus far in the series’ history), Haven has some really annoyingly repetitive habits. How many times are we going to see Audrey apparently facing the wrong end of a gun, only to have the threat miraculously dissipate? How many times are we going to see Nathan and Duke come to fisticuffs over various issues, most at least tangentially related to Audrey? How many times are we going to see Duke look on dolefully as Nathan and Audrey embrace? For some these will be niggling distractions in what is overall a well executed piece of fantasy, but for others they will be reminders that somewhere out there in the coastal waters are sharks just waiting to be jumped over.

Haven: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Haven: The Complete Third Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As with the first two seasons, this third season has a generally very nice looking high definition presentation, though there are a couple of issues the crop up with fair regularity this season. The first is some minor stability issues with regard to some of the aerial establishing shots. The second issue is related to inconsistent contrast that leaves some interior scenes looking slightly washed out. Also as with previous seasons, some of the CGI is decidedly soft looking. On the whole, though, this is another generally well detailed season that offers a clear, precise image. I personally would have liked some of the colors to have been more robust at times, but that desaturation adds to the somewhat bleak storyline this season exploits.

Haven: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Haven's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix makes an incremental but noticeable uptick in both surround activity as well as some nicely robust LFE this season. While the bulk of the series still tends to be dialogue scenes that play almost exclusively in the front channels, there are occasional uses of discrete channelizatio that are quite effective. When Audrey is being held captive in a basement lair and another hostage calls to her from an adjoining room, there's a quite realistic sense of aural space. The series has some nicely done ambient environmental effects, as usual, but this season has a couple of plot developments that allow for much more fulsome use of low frequencies. These include such devices as a UFO in an early episode and, later, a barrage of meteors that are raining down on Haven. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide.

Haven: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries:

  Stay with Gabrielle Stanton and Matt McGuinness

  Over My Head with Gabrielle Stanton and Matt McGuinness

  Sarah with Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman

  Last Goodbyes with Brian Millikin and Shernold Edwards

  Reunion with Gabrielle Stanton and Brian Millikin

  Thanks for the Memories with Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn

• The Haunting Truth About Haven (1080p; 42:14) gets off to a pretty shaky start with some faux complaints by various cast and crew about having to be interviewed, but then moves into some more interesting material, including some nice background on the actual locations being utilized. There are also a number of interviews with various cast members discussing their characters.


• Haven Panel from New York Comic Con (1080p; 47:50) includes Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour, Edge (or as he's credited in the show, WWE Superstar Edge), Co-Creators and Executive Producers Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, Consulting Producer Charles Ardai, Writers Shernold Edwards and Brian Millikin with Moderator Tiffany Vogt. There are some spoilers here, but this is really engaging and enjoyable. Edge is quite the comedian.


• Cast Interviews (1080i; 27:36) include Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant and Eric Balfour; Iain Glen; and Nolan North and Emily Rose.


• Escape to Haven Webisodes (720p; 16:01)


• Deleted/Alternate Scenes (1080p; 11:01). These are windowboxed with timecode captions and copyright information.


• Behind the Scenes Reel (1080p; 4:22)


• Season 3 Trailers (1080p; 3:52)


• Season 4 Teaser (1080i; 1:30)

Haven: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Haven does some very commendable things this season, including filling in some long lingering questions about Audrey's past (and future), while also detailing more information about The Colorado Kid. But those pluses are at least partially offset by what seems to be the series' continuing reliance on some (by this point) pretty tired and repetitive elements that fans of the series may simply have had enough of. Those who have stuck with the story for the first two seasons may well want to check out this season, but my hunch is unless the writers really shake things up in the fourth season, more than just a magical barn is going to be disappearing around Haven. This Blu-ray does offer generally very good video and great audio.