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Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: August 26th, 2014.
Director: Various
Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, David Morrissey, Chandler Riggs
Year: 2013/2014
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The Movie:
Based on the long running Image Comics series of the same name, written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Tony Moore and then later Charlie Adlard, the fourth season of AMC's smash hit The Walking Dead arrives on Blu-ray just in time to let you get caught up before the premiere of Season Five this fall. It'll come as a surprise to no one to learn that season four picks up where season three left off. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), his son Carl (Chandler Riggs), Hershel (Scott Wilson) and his two daughters Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Beth (Emily Kinney) are making a go of it in the prison along with Daryl (Norman Reedus), Michonne (Danai Guirra), Glenn (Steven Yuen), Carol (Melissa McBride) and a few others. Rick has more or less stepped down from his role as the man in charge, content to farm the grassy areas behind the fence that keeps the hordes of zombies at bay. Things take a nasty turn when an infection starts spreading in the prison, killing off a few of the newer, weaker residents and almost taking out Glen and a few others.
Not too far from the prison, however, The Governor (David Morrissey) has taken on a more domesticated role acting as a surrogate husband and father to a woman named Lilly Chamber (Audrey Marie Anderson), her daughter Megan (Meyrick Murphy) and sister Tara (Alanna Masterson). They wind up joining a fairly militant group and before you know it, The Governor has restored to his old self. He takes charge and talks them into launching an assault on the prison. After all, they have a tank now. Chaos ensues, some characters die and the group that had called the prison home winds up splintering. Rick and Carl go it alone and then meet up with Michonne, Daryl winds up with Beth, Carol with Tyreese (Chad Coleman) and two young girls named Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) and Mika (Kyla Kennedy), Glen with Tara and then later with a military man named Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) who along with his lady friend Rosarita (Christian Serratos) wants to bring a scientist named Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) to Washington - apparently he knows what caused all of this. Maggie winds up with Bob (Lwarence Gilliard, Jr.) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and after Daryl and Beth split, he winds up with a gang of biker trash types who have a connection, or more specifically, a score to settle with Rick.
As these groups try to figure out how to survive outside of the prison, they all wind up seeing the same signs encouraging people to head to a place called Terminus where sanctuary will be offered to all survivors…
The sixteen episodes that make up season four are spread across the set as follows:
Disc One: 30 Days Without An Accident / Infected / Isolation / Indifference
Disc Two: Internment / Live Bait / Dead Weight / Too Far Gone
Disc Three: After / Inmates / Claimed / Still
Disc Four: Alone / The Grove / Us / A
What makes this season interesting is, by splitting the core group off into what are effectively little splinter cells, the writers are able to flesh out characters who in the past didn't have as much to do. The perfect example here is Beth, who previously didn't have a whole lot to do in the show except to tend to Rick's baby daughter, Judith. Here, by having her split off with Daryl, who is her polar opposite in many ways, we get to see how she copes with the events that precede the Governor's assault. Like any teenage girl, she's a bit of a mess and given what she's gone through we understand that but here we also see her strengths and by being forced to spend time with Daryl just to survive, it's interesting to see how they complement one another and even change as people through the shared experience. We see this in most of the smaller groups and it helps to not only develop these formerly lesser characters but also to provide plenty of believable human drama to anchor the storylines.
Of course, as integrated and complex as all of the show's various storylines can and do get, this is still a series that revolves around one central problem - zombies. As such, the horror elements need to be there and the series does not pull back in that regard. The gore is plentiful and very graphic and while some of the digital effects work is a bit too obviously pixels in place of plasma, there's a lot to appreciate about the makeup and gore effects work featured in pretty much every single episode of the entire series so far. And on a side note, eagle-eyed horror movie fans should keep an eye out for a fun cameo from Bub, the zombie from George A. Romero's Day Of The Dead. He appears in the Us episode as one of the walkers in the train tunnel where Glen and Tara get trapped.
Through all of this drama and horror and death and destruction, viewers are forced to think for themselves about what they might do in situations similar to those we see the characters dealing with. If you pay attention to the way that these characters interact with one another and what their motivations are, you can typically understand both points of view. Even someone as outwardly evil as The Governor has a logic to his actions that can sometimes be difficult to argue with. This makes the show pretty thought provoking as you're constantly asked 'what would you do to survive?' and 'what would you do to protect those you love?' The show is realistic enough to confirm for us over and over again that there really are no easy answers here, and that again is where the human element comes into play as key to the series' success.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Walking Dead was shot mostly on 16mm film, so expect a fair bit of grain in the presentation (thankfully the powers that be chose not to scrub it out). The quality of the 1.78.1 widescreen AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation is strong throughout offers nice depth and detail, much better than standard definition could have provided, but sometimes appears a bit on the soft side when compared to other HD presentations. This appears to have been an intentional decision on the part of the production team and in the context of the series' sense of impending doom and apocalyptic despair, it actually works quite well. Color reproduction has a nice, natural feel to it and though the series tends to rely more on earth tones and drab interiors there are bright spots where it pops, such as the green of the plant life or the warmth of a light in a dimly lit room. There aren't any problems with compression artifacts to note save for a couple of darker spots where some minor bits block up, nor are there any issues with heavy edge enhancement to complain about. Things shape up quite well here, really, and the series looks very good.
The same high praise can also be levied to the series' English language Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix, which comes with optional subtitles in English SDH and Spanish. Pretty damn close to perfect, this mix offers fantastic bass response and a really tight lower end, which you'll notice when you feel the impact from every bullet fired and every punch thrown. There's some great surround activity present throughout the six episodes that make up this first season, be it the moan of a zombie in the rear channels, a bullet zipping from left to right or some insects buzzing around near a still corpse. Directionality is tight and well placed and the excellent quality of this mix really enhances the viewing experience the way a good lossless mix should. Dialogue is perfectly balanced and the series' instrumental score is mixed in perfectly to compliment the action, drama and horror without burying any of the effects or dialogue. The quality of the sound in this set is very impressive indeed. An optional French language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is also included here.
Extras are plentiful here, starting with commentary tracks recorded by the cast and crew for the following episodes spread out over the first four discs in the five disc set:
30 Days Without An Accident (with executive producers Scott M. Gimple, Tom Luse, and makeup effects director Greg Nicotero) / Internment (with Gimple and actor Scott Wilson) / Too Far Gone (with director Ernest Dickerson and writer Seth Hoffman) / After: Extended Edition (with Greg Nicotero, co-executive producer Denise Huth, and actress Danai Gurira) / Still (two commentaries, the first with director Julis Ramsay and actress Emily Kinney and the second with writer/producer Angela King and actor Norman Reedus) / The Grove (with Gimple, Huth and actor Andrew Lincoln).
The rest of the extras in the set are on the fifth disc, starting with Inside The Walking Dead with is a collection of episode specific featurettes that take a closer look at the core story events and characters from each episode. There's approximately ninety minutes of material included in this section and while these only run between four and a half and six minutes each, they're pretty interesting. These are complimented by a series of The Making Of The Walking Dead featurettes that give us a behind the scenes segment for each episode. There's about eighty minutes of content spread out across the sixteen segments and if you're into seeing what it's like on set, how makeup effects are used and location shoots you'll definitely enjoy this content.
From there we move on to a selection of more 'series specific' featurettes (as opposed to the aforementioned 'episode specific' supplements) starting with the six minute Drawing Inspiration piece. This is a look at the original comics that Image has been publishing and that obviously served as inspiration for the series. It's an interesting look at how the two different versions of the material coexist and complement one another. The eight minute long Hershel featurette is, as you could probably guess, a discussion with the cast and crew about the importance of the character that Scott Wilson played in the series while the nine minute The Governor Is Back pays similar tribute to the character that David Morrissey played. Both of these characters play very large, pivotal roles in season four so it's only fitting that they get centered out the way they are here. The five and a half minute long Society, Science & Survival is an interesting bit in which some educators and academics talk about how some online courses have actually started using The Walking Dead as course material. Inside KNB Studios is, as you could probably guess, a look at the effects studio's work on the series that runs just over eighteen minutes in length. This is a really interesting piece as it really goes into some good detail about how the gore and zombie effects are handled on the show. The eight minute A Journey Back To Brutality featurette gives some focus to the story arc that the Rick Grimes character experiences throughout season four and lends some insight into why he acts the way he does in the show.
Rounding out the extras are just over nine minutes of deleted scenes from the following episodes: 30 Days Without An Accident, Live Bait, Dead Weight, Too Far Gone, Still, The Grove, Us and the final episode, A. All of the extras in the set are presented in high definition. Each disc includes menus and episode/extras selection and the Blu-ray discs come bundled with an insert card containing a download code for digital copies of each episode. There's also an insert booklet that is basically a catalogue of Walking Dead related merchandise. The five discs fit inside a Blu-ray case that in turn fits inside a cardboard slipcover.
The Final Word:
The fourth season of The Walking Dead does a great job of expanding on the storylines from seasons past while simultaneously ramping up the tension, the horror and the drama that make this show one of the most intense on TV these days. The Blu-ray set looks and sounds fantastic and is pretty jammed with extras making this pretty much an essential release for fans of the series. Very highly recommended!
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
