DVD/TV Series Review: Blindspot Season 5

 

The 11-episode fifth and final season of Blindspot aired during the summer of 2020. It was brought back for the limited run to tie up the remaining storyline, namely to resolve the cliffhanger, allow the team to clear their names and take down Madeline, and secondarily to get the show to an even 100 episodes. The season initially picks up immediately before the drone strike on the safe house and the aftermath. I will not spoil the aftermath, but needless to say, the team does not come out unscathed. Then, what seems to be the requisite time jump occurs, and we find that the team has been scattered and comes back together when yet another tattoo clue draws them out. From then on, it is a cat-and-mouse game between the team and Madaline for the rest of the season.

All of the major characters/actors return, to some extent, for the season. Sullivan Stapleton, Jaimie Alexander, Rob Brown, Audrey Esparza, Ennis Esmer, and Ashley Johnson all do excellent jobs in their roles, especially the last two. I will not spoil how things play out, but some of the highlights of the season are learning Patterson's first name, more Bill Nye as Patterson's father, and cameos from most of the various characters who have appeared throughout the series run (mainly in the series finale) with the one notable exception being Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The series finale presents fans with two different endings without ever identifying which was the real ending, leaving things open to interpretation, which was a very novel way to end the series.

The DVD set is a three-disc set. It is a very bare-bones MOD DVD release. There are English captions but no extras at all, just the episodes. It would have been nice to get some behind-the-scenes material or commentary tracks like those included in the Blu-Ray releases for the first couple of seasons or to get a MOD Blu-Ray release to at least get the episodes in HD. Still, the reality is that the show was not popular enough to garner a Blu-Ray release now that physical media (especially for TV series) is going the way of the dodo bird. So, really, the only reason to get the DVD set is if you have purchased the prior seasons and want it to have a complete collection. Otherwise, you are much better off streaming it.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Blindspot Season 4

 

The 22-episode fourth season of Blindspot aired during the 2018/2019 TV season. It does another shakeup of the show now that the threat of Sandstorm is (mostly) over. The season picks up shortly after the events of season three, with Remi back, Weller just out of the hospital, and Zapata missing. It is hard to not say too much and not give too much of the season away. As you can imagine, the team is ultimately back together by the end of the season, but I will not spoil how they get to that point. The season ends (again) on a massive cliffhanger that has the team (again) in danger, courtesy of the season's big bad, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

The show has to, and again does a good job of, juggling the large ensemble cast, all while giving more expanded roles to Zapata (Audrey Esparza), Patterson (Ashley Johnson), and Rich DotCom (Ennis Esmer who has finally been promoted to series regular). Given that the show started with a big mystery to resolve, and has actually resolved it (which is usually the death knell for those kinds of shows) it has managed to remain compelling and interesting. The writing and acting are very good throughout the season, setting up what looks to be a strong final season.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. It is an MOD set, so it just includes the episodes. There are no extras of any kind. However, you get captions and a true play-all feature that allows you to pick up where you leave off, even if you stop in the middle of an episode. But, if you only get discs when there are a ton of extras, then you should stick with streaming this unless you have the prior seasons on disc and want it for a collection.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Blindspot: Season 3

 

++++Warning, this will contain spoilers from prior seasons, but no major giveaways from this season++++

The 22-episode third season of Blindspot aired during the 2017/2018 TV season. It starts by revisiting the time jump that ended season two. The first couple of episodes fill in the gaps of what happened to the team during the nearly two-year time jump, and then the rest of the season is about the team (the same people, but with a different dynamic after the time jump) trying to take down Roman (Luke Mitchell), who has an agenda of his own aside from just getting back at Jane/Remi that plays throughout the season. All of the main cast members, Sullivan Stapleton, Jamie Alexander, Rob Brown, Audrey Esparza, Ashley Johnson, and Mitchell return as series regulars. Ennis Esmer has a larger recurring role as Rich Dotcom, and Mary Stuart Masterson joins as another recurring character.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc MOD set. Unlike some MOD DVD and blu-ray sets it has subtitles and extras. The latter include deleted scenes for most of the episodes, a 6+ min gag reel, and a 4 min behind the scenes with Audry Esparza highlighting her character, Zapata. Good for what is there, but not a ton. It may or may not be worth the extra cost to you. Chances are if you got the discs for seasons 1 and 2 you will want this one to have a complete collection. But if you only get discs when there is a lot of bonus material, then you may just want to stream it. One benefit to the MOD discs, however, is that there is a true play-all mode that allows you to pick up where you left off. Even in the middle of the episodes. That is not something that the "regular" Warner Brothers and Fox blu-ray sets do not.

The season is a bit uneven. It really tries to get its footing as a show after playing out the time jump. Some parts of the story work better than others, but where it really hooked me is the end, doing basically another couple of cliffhangers which really set up season four to potentially be the best season yet. It mostly has a long serial arc that builds throughout the season, but does have some self-contained episodes that are more like what you see in procedural dramas. It is well-written and acted with a good blend of action, drama, suspense, and humor. Even though it takes a while for the season to really pick up, it is absolutely worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Blindspot: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season 1, but no major season 2 spoilers+++

The 22-episode second season of Blindspot aired during the 2016/2017 TV season. The second season picks up three months after the events of the season 1 finale in which Weller discovered that his father did indeed kill the real Taylor Shaw and that Jane had been faking Taylor's memory (unbeknownst to her) and the death of Mayfair. Jane has been in CIA custody since being arrested and ends up breaking out. She convinces Weller and the team to use her as a triple agent against the terrorist organization Sandstorm, to which she is somehow tied. From there, the show mostly follows the format of season one, with some case or mission of the week that is usually tied into the larger story arc of Jane's identity and Sandstorm's plans (which are revealed throughout the season). In addition to the returning main cast, this season includes Archie Panjabi (from The Good Wife), the great character actress Michelle Hurd, and Luke Mitchell. Ennis Esmer returns for a few episodes as Rich Dotcom to "help" and/or make life miserable for the team and steals every scene he is in. The season ends on a partial cliffhanger that includes a two-year time jump. 

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. The A/V quality is outstanding again. While the show does not have a ton of computer-generated effects, what it does have looks seamless, and there are some very good location shots of New York that look wonderful in HD. The extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, a portion of the 2016 Comic-Con panel, and a handful of making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes. All totaled, the bonus features end up at a little under an hour, give or take. They are not extensive, but what is included is good if you like watching the bonus content.

The season is very good. While most of the character development is centered on the new characters, there is some for the established characters. Patterson (Ashley Johnson) is a bit more involved in the action this season and is not always stuck in the lab, and the characters of Rede and Zapata are fleshed out a bit more. Jamie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton are great as the leads, and the show does a good job of throwing wrenches in the way of their relationship. This is definitely not a show that you can just jump into in season two without seeing season one because even though it is partly a procedural show, the episodes are not totally self-contained and often contribute to the larger serial arcs. But if you liked season one, this is definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Blindspot Season 1

 

Blindspot was a combination serial and procedural drama from 2015 starring Jamie Alexander (best known for her role as Lady Sif in the MCU) and Sullivan Stapleton (best known for the series Strike Back). The show opens with a mysterious bag in the middle of Times Square that suddenly stops moving. A naked, heavily tattooed woman (Alexander) emerges from the bag with no memory of who she is but has the name of FBI agent Kurt Weller (Stapleton) tattooed on her back. She is dubbed "Jane Doe" and brought to the NY FBI field office where it is discovered that the tattoos contain a clue leading them to a terrorist, and subsequently discover that other tattoos contain clues to active plots, old cases, etc. The series then launches into a blend of a case-of-the-week procedural in which the team tries to solve a new tattoo and several serial arcs. One of the serial arcs involves Jane's memories slowly coming back through flashbacks and the other involves a childhood friend of Weller's who went missing as a kid.

The show has a very strong supporting cast including Rob Brown as Edgar Reade, an FBI special agent and member of Weller's team, Audrey Esparza as Natasha "Tasha" Zapata, an FBI special agent and member of Weller's team, who used to be an NYPD officer, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, an FBI special agent and head of the FBI Forensic Science Unit, Ukweli Roach as Robert Borden, an FBI psychiatrist who helps Jane to retrieve and understand her memories, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Bethany Mayfair, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the A/V quality is very good, and what special effects there are, look great in HD. The extras include featurettes on the tattoo clues, several deleted scenes, a portion of the Comic-Con panel, a gag reel, a commentary track on the pilot episode with the series creator Martin Gero and the director Mark Pellingham, and then there are several making-of featurettes that range in length from a few minutes to just under ten. So, if you like watching the bonus material, there is a good amount there for you.

Overall, the season is very good. It has a good blend of action, suspense, and drama, with some humor mixed in. The humor is mostly dry humor from the overly stuffy (with the exception of Patterson) FBI agents, and the non-dry humor comes in large part from the character of Rich Dotcom, played by Ennis Esmer, who is in just one episode in season one but would become more involved in subsequent seasons. It is definitely a show that you have to watch from the beginning to know what is going on because, even though some of the main storylines of particular episodes are self-contained one-off storylines, there is always a secondary storyline about one of the larger serial arcs that will make little sense if you just jump into it. But, if you are a fan of crime dramas that have a lot of action, then this is definitely a good one to check out.