Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Haven: The Final Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Trouble free.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2016

One way or the other, the troubles are all over for Haven. This fitfully engaging series has had a probably over long stay, tending to fall into the same sort of traps that variously plagued shows like Lost and The X- Files, where the story threatened to buckle under the weight of an increasingly complex mythology. Can even diehard fans of Lost adequately explain the show’s endgame? (I know I can’t.) And I have yet to meet a fan of The X-Files who can give an apt summary of that show’s labyrinthine conspiracy theories, especially as they were “reinvented” in the show’s closing seasons. Haven’s genesis in Stephen King’s “The Colorado Kid” has often seemed tangential (at best), but the creative staff make at least a passing attempt to bring things home (so to speak) in the series’ closing moments, though it’s worth noting it took some post-broadcast interviews with various members of the creative staff to confirm that connection to the source material. Haven has often seemed related to X-Files in some ways separate from both shows sharing a perhaps over convoluted mythology, with Haven’s Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) acting as this show’s Scully and Mulder, often on the hunt for weird mutant like characters who have unexplainable powers. Haven has hit several speed bumps along the way, while also maintaining enough general interest to continue being compelling for longtime fans. This final season (actually a “part two” of the final season of sorts, due to its broadcast order) is often overheated, with some pretty silly dialogue and a wrap up that may indeed leave some viewers feeling, well, Lost.

Fans of Emily Rose have had the pleasure of watching her “become” a number of what might be termed alternate personalities through the years, and it’s not much of a spoiler to mention that the actress has that opportunity going for her this year as well. Haven perhaps still unexpectedly takes a stumbling step backwards and goes the “Trouble of the week” route throughout these final episodes, despite trying to wrap up what seems like an almost impossible amount of mythological material. The show’s tendency to flirt with camp probably didn’t need the addition of William Shatner in a recurring role, and there are some probably unintentionally humorous moments in the show’s endgame where dysfunctional family dynamics get pushed to cosmic levels.

The show’s tendency to engage in litanies of arcane terminology and ideas gets to almost ludicrous levels throughout this second half of the last season. With Croatoan (the aforementioned Shatner) lumbering about trying to get his hands on a magical crystal that is also of some interest to Dwight (Adam “Edge” Copeland), not to mention Vince (Richard Donat), answers seem to be getting proffered, though some of the series’ explanations are confounding at best. To give but one example without posting too much of a spoiler—how does “the barn” become the barn when it’s not, well, the barn? (This nonsensical question may actually make sense to diehard Haven aficionados.) There are also some lurching plot dynamics as things draw to a close, with a completely ridiculous change by Croatoan that falls dramatically flat even if it provides the series with a quick way to get to a more or less happy ending.

Haven’s strength has always been in the commitment its performers give to sometimes underwhelming material. There are some nice little bits sprinkled throughout this final aggregation of episodes for many of the series’ large supporting cast. Eric Balfour gets to exploit Duke’s heroic and more asinine (or “dickish”, as another character terms it) qualities, and his series sign off is quite funny. A supposed heart tugging subplot between Dwight and his daughter Lizzie (Gabrielle Trudel) probably tries to inject too much actual honest human emotion than this supernaturally charged show can deal with.

While this final season attempts to draw things out on a larger scale with a number of two part episodes, there’s ultimately a probably too convenient wrap up to the whole “triangle” aspect between Audrey, Nathan and Duke. There’s frankly also a bit of illogic at play in how things ultimately work out for the none too surprising “final” couple, especially in terms of Audrey's final dispensation (even if she's not "really" Audrey, so to speak). After years of the troubles infecting Haven, it’s almost as if the showrunners decided to channel Gilda Radner’s iconic Emily Latella and simply tell viewers, “Never mind”.

Haven: The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Haven: The Final Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As I mentioned in our Haven: Season 5 Vol. 1 Blu-ray review, this series can look a bit soft and pallid at times, though overall I'd upgrade this final set of episodes at least slightly from their immediate predecessors. That said, there is still some roughness on occasion, especially with regard to some establishing shots, which often look to have been sourced from up-rezzed video (see screenshot 15). Otherwise, though, while colors aren't especially vivid (the series still tends to exploit a kind of sicky green ambience a lot of the time), detail levels are often commendably high even if some of the CGI still looks pretty questionable. The dreamlike environment that surrounds Nathan and—well, whoever she is makes the softer look of several scenes in the closing episodes perhaps more "accurate" for the tone being attempted.

Haven: The Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with previous releases, Haven: The Final Season's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track tends to spring most forcefully to life when there are Troubles a-brewin' (so to speak), and this final set of episodes continues to exploit good surround activity in several nicely done special effects sequences that dot most outings. Dialogue continues to be cleanly presented, though struggles with regard to prioritization just slightly on occasion in a couple of noisier moments. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range very wide on this problem free track.

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

Disc One

• Audio Commentaries

  Episode 14 "New World Order" with Brian Milliken and Nick Parker

  Episode 15 "Power" with Adam Higgs and Sam Ernst (I'm actually guessing here, since they don't properly introduce themselves).

  Episode 16 "The Trial of Nathan Wuornos" with Adam Higgs and Sam Ernst (again, guessing)

  Episode 17 "Enter Sandman" with Lucas Bryant and Shernold Edwards

Disc Two

• Audio Commentaries

  Episode 18 "Wild Card" with Brian Milliken and Nick Parker

  Episode 19 "Perditus" with Lucas Bryant, Adam Higgs and Joshua Brandon

  Episode 20 "Just Passing Through" with Colin Ferguson, Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn

  Episode 21 "Close to Home" with Joshua Brandon, Colin Ferguson, Brian Milliken

Disc Three

• Audio Commentaries

  Episode 22 "A Matter of Time" with Brian Milliken, Colin Ferguson, and Joshua Brandon

  Episode 23 "Blind Spot" with Nick Parker, Shireen Razack, Joshua Brandon and (what sounds like) Brahma Clark

  Episode 24 "The Widening Gyre" with Nick Parker, Shireen Razack, Josh Brandon and Brahma Clark

  Episode 25 "Now" with Gabrielle Stanton and Matt McGuinness

Disc Four

• Audio Commentary

  Episode 26 "Forever" with Matt McGuinness and Gabrielle Stanton

• Mythology Refresher (1080p; 4:08) is a decent if generalist recap of various story tropes.


• Haven Origins: Lovers Conquered All (1080i; 8:36) offers yet more backstory.


• Haven Revisited: Livestream with the Cast and Crew (1080p; 11:17) offers some fun reminiscences by the cast.


• Haven Archives: Entries from the Crocker Diaries (1080i; 6:31) offers tidbits from the 17th century diary of Humphrey Crocker.


• Inside Haven Featurettes (1080p; 40:36) offers brief behind the scenes and interview segments on each of this season's episodes.


• Interviews (1080i; 44:08) feature Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour, William Shatner, Adam Copeland and Shawn Piller.

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

Haven arguably wraps up its twisting and winding mythology with at least as much grace as those two aforementioned series in the opening paragraph of this review, but that still doesn't mean answers are clear and convincing enough to totally satisfy longtime fans of the series. What probably hobbles the endgame of this series more than the lack of truly logical answers is an overheated ambience that gets awfully close to camp whenever a certain Mr. Shatner bursts into view. Longtime fans of the series will no doubt appreciate the care that has been taken to at least attempt to provide them with a reasonable wrap up to the series. Technical merits are generally strong and the supplemental package well done. Recommended.