Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 1, 2016

Strike Back is a big, noisy adrenaline rush of a series, one that pauses only fitfully to deliver supposed “character beats” as it otherwise offers a virtually nonstop assault of action sequences which typically include lots of gunfire, hand to hand combat and things that go boom (in a very big way). Depending on whether you count the limited first UK season (or “series” as they call it across the pond), this season was either the fourth or fifth at bat for the show, and according to some online sources will be the last (something reinforced by the cover of this release, which announces "Final Season"). Strike Back doesn’t really require a grounding in previous seasons to understand what’s going on or to divine the interrelationships between various characters (I had little prior viewing experience before getting this to review), and in fact the show rushes headlong into such over the top action so quickly that many newcomers will probably be happy to simply tag along for the ride without worrying too much about the ins and outs of picayune matters like plot mechanics and character development. For those who do want to catch up on (and/or remind themselves about) previous seasons (the first limited UK season never made it to domestic Blu-ray apparently), my colleague Ken Brown’s reviews can be found here:

Strike Back: Season One Blu-ray review

Strike Back: Season Two Blu-ray review

Strike Back: Season Three Blu-ray review

This season of Strike Back evidently aired overseas as Strike Back: Legacy, and while it does carry over some “legacy” characters from previous seasons, it updates its initial setting to Bangkok, Thailand, something that provides the series with both some incredible scenery as well as an underlying sense of political corruption and social upheaval. Perhaps just a little weirdly, then, the actual plot dynamics ultimately have to do with North Korea, a kind of odd disconnect that actually manages to make “sense”, at least within the hyperbolic confines of the series. This season starts with a scenic beach party in Thailand, where a young expat tourist named Chloe (Eliza Bennett) is lured away from the festivities by her Asian boyfriend, only to find herself the victim of a kidnapping scheme. That then sets the initial plot dynamics into motion when it’s revealed that Chloe’s father, Robin Foster (Tim McInnerny), is the British ambassador to Thailand, and is knee deep in negotiations with the North Koreans, managing to have finally brought them to the negotiating table (over a host of nuclear concerns) after years of trying. In one of the series’ too facile connections, Robin is an old friend of Colonel Philip Locke (Robson Greene), the commander of Section 20, the supersecret British intelligence black ops aggregation on which Strike Back is focused.

It becomes apparent that Chloe has been kidnapped in order to control the ambassador, but it also becomes apparent that the bad guys are being tipped off to the efforts of Locke and his crew to rescue the kidnapped girl. The upshot of all of this is that the first episode spends quite a bit of time with the guys and gals of Section 20 repeatedly coming close to finding Chloe, but always falling short, while Locke tries to figure out who the mole is passing information off to what turns out to be an organized crime syndicate that involves the Thai police force and various other villains. A not very surprising denouement in the second episode reveals the mole (potential spoiler coming, look away now: for anyone who thinks that Michelle Yeoh signed up to play the fawning wife of the ambassador, think again).

Strike Back wends a rather circuitous route through several competing interests (and, ultimately, locations) as Locke and his team ultimately try to keep North Korea from either lashing out militarily or gaining access to nuclear materials. The series manages to do a commendable job in building suspense and delivering at least occasional character moments, but where this series excels is in its balls to the wall action sequences, sequences which tend to spill out in a breathless array that often leaves little time for anything else. The set pieces in this series are truly spectacular and are often stunningly staged and filmed.

That proclivity probably helps the series to overcome some deficits in those aforementioned character moments. The biggest arc this season probably involves the wayward son of Sergeant Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton), a kid named Finn (Christian Antidormi) who shows up with little advance notice and of course soon gets embroiled in all of the shenanigans, leading to some fairly rigorous father-son bonding time. It works in dribs and drabs, but feels overly contrived, especially when Finn threatens to become the “next Chloe”. Probably better handled is the slighter but somehow more real feeling banter between the various Section 20 cohorts. While this is a pretty traditional “boys’ club” sort of group, it’s notable that there are women involved here, and they prove to be at least as capable as any of the guys.

Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Strike Back: Season Four is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The lush tropical environment of Thailand provides ample opportunity for this series to exploit some pretty stunning scenery, and the good news even in aerial shots traveling over both urban and forested environments, there's absolutely no image instability as is often seen on things like parallel lines on skyscrapers or dense foliage. Imagery is excellently sharp throughout this season, offering great fine detail in close-ups (see screenshot 4) and commendable general detail in midrange and even wide shots. Contrast is occasionally pushed here, something that tends to get whites close to blooming territory at times. Blacks are occasionally just a bit milky looking, but never overly problematic. There are slight but noticeable issues with noise and other compression anomalies (see screenshot 10), but again, nothing ever rises to truly objectionable levels.

Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Strike Back: Season Four features an incredibly boisterous and immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. There is literally no episode in this season that does not feature a glut of forceful sound effects, including fairly regular trips to the floorboard rattling LFE well. Panning effects are rampant in several key set pieces, and the regular gunfire and hand to hand combat also offer regular and convincing use of the side and rear channels. Dialogue is well rendered and nicely prioritized. Fidelity is top notch and there are no issues of any kind to warrant concern.

Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• How to Strike Back (1080i; 10:54) offers brief featurettes about a number of set pieces and/or sequences and includes:

  How to Jet Ski Through a Marketplace

  How to Piss Off an MMA Fighter

  How to Bulldoze a Car

  How to Scale a Skyscraper in Bangkok

  How to Interrogate with Electricity

• Season 3 Recap (1080i; 1:01) is more or less a trailer for the previous season. This is also tucked away in a corner of the disc's menus. Under Episodes is an Episode Index choice, and then this is found as a "supplement" to the first episode on Disc One.

Disc Two

• How to Strike Back (1080i; 2:54) includes:

  How to Say Goodbye

Disc Three

• Production Recon (1080i; 5:22) offers some brief but fun behind the scenes footage and includes:

  Day 14 (Bangkok, Thailand)

  day 36 (Krabi, Thailand)

  Day 62 (Haimasker Military Base, Hungary)

  Day 63 (Budapest, Hungary)

Strike Back: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe I was just in the mood for some good, old fashioned testosterone pumping action, but I was unexpectedly surprised by how effective this last season of Strike Back proved to be. The series tries to offer some complex plot points, some of which land, some of which frankly don't, but the show rushes headlong into so many exciting action sequences that it really doesn't tend to matter all that much. Technical merits are first rate, and Strike Back: Season Four comes Highly recommended.