6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In 2014, the mission of Navy Seal Team Six to kill a Taliban leader unravels when they discover one of their own is working with the terrorists.
Starring: Barry Sloane, Kyle Schmid, Juan Pablo Raba, Edwin Hodge, Dominic AdamsDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Paul Harvey made much of his reputation as a radio personality with his oft quoted (and just as often mimicked) phrase, “and now. . .for the rest of the story,” with that ellipsis in the quote standing in for a pause that a radio DJ friend of mine once said was “long enough to drive a truck through”. In a way, I reacted to Six as a sort of “rest of the story” presentation of some of the missions that have taken place tangentially (and sometimes in the background) over the course of the many seasons of Homeland. If Carrie Mathison gets to (or at least got to) call the shots on various takedowns of terrorists, at least some of the incursions depicted in Homeland required a little “extra” assistance, often seen as various agents simply monitored the goings on from the safety of their high tech headquarters. Six wants to revisit some of the same paranoiac tendencies that have informed Homeland, albeit from the perspective of those who have their own “boots on the ground”. If Six had stuck mostly to the whole terrorism angle, and the efforts of SEAL Team Six to confront it, it might have been a home run from both a narrative and general action-adventure standpoint. Unfortunately, as tends to be the case in a lot of History efforts (whether “scripted” or supposedly “real life”), a bunch of supposedly supporting information is stuffed into the proceedings, not all of which is helpful or even very illuminative of the characters. The male bonding on display is somewhat reminiscent of other testosterone heavy efforts like Strike Back, and much like that Cinemax series, Six tends to do best when it’s focusing on big action set pieces, faltering somewhat more precariously when it tries to peer into the private lives of its focal characters. There are some other kind of interesting and perhaps not totally coincidental intersections between Six and Strike Back, including a character whose shaded past has led to his departure from an anti-terror organization.
Six: Season 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of History and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There's no real authoritative technical data on the shoot that I was able to unearth, but this looks digitally shot, though the image has been tweaked variously throughout the first season, as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review. While some of the techniques, light "night vision" green, tend to minimize fine detail levels, other techniques, like the kind of grainy, sepia toned approach toward Rip's captivity, actually still offer decent detail and fine detail levels. That said, the attempt to give a lot of the sequences a "distressed" look tends to tip precariously close to noise some of the time. Commendably, almost all of the combat sequences seem to have used practical effects, and whatever CGI there is (which I have hunch includes the helicopters seen flying over Afghanistan in the series' opening moments, and, later, an explosion in an urban area) tends to look very good. When not being intentionally toyed with, the palette looks natural, and contrast and black levels are both consistent.
As I've mentioned in some previous reviews of History titles, I've been at this reviewing game long enough that I remember taking History DVDs to task for not offering anamorphically enhanced video presentations. History has now taken an audio step backwards by offering only lossy Dolby Digital tracks on some of its most recent Blu-ray releases, and that unfortunate choice continues with Six: Season 1's Dolby Digital 5.1 track. While there is sufficient immersion and good surround activity present in virtually every episode, especially with regard to some of the missions, audiophiles are probably going to wonder how much more energy, and especially low end, could have been provided by a lossless track.
Don't be fooled by the "Extras" menu on both discs in this set. The only so-called supplements being offered are trailers for other Lionsgate releases and bookmarks, neither of which I count as a scorable supplement.
I found the combat aspects of Six routinely compelling, and the main story of Rip being held by terrorists is also interesting and relevant. But this series' tendencies to go for soap operatic gusto in detailing the private lives of these characters mostly left me cold. Six just got picked up for a second season, and it will at least be interesting to see how the show's creative staff wants to attack these dual approaches as the series continues. The series has a lot to recommend it, but History's unfortunate decision to continue offering only lossy audio on its releases, as well as no real supplements, may dissuade some who are otherwise interested in this show.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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