The fifth season of The Walking Dead picks up quickly from where the previous finale left off with our survivors discovering the terrible truth behind Terminus and quickly marches ahead almost like an odyssey through the zombie infested wasteland as characters meet tragic fates and an almost too good to be true opportunity tests their resolves as they struggle with the reconciliation with what life has made each of them over the last two years do to survive and whether they could ever reintegrate within civil society again. The zombie threat continues to be great as some characters are graphically eaten alive with shockingly greater amounts of gore than has been previously exhibited before. Perhaps it not really more gory, but it is the close ups in particular with one character that is simply disturbing because the actor playing the victim was the star of a popular sitcom on American broadcast television for several years.
The performances and casting are all up to the same quality we have come to expect from the previous seasons and one is left with great wonder for the sixth season to come which will debut in the States on AMC this October of 2015. All sixteen episodes are spread out across four Blu-Ray Discs with the majority of the extra value features found on the fifth disc. Each episode is presented in a gorgeous (1.78:1) broadcasts aspect ratio in full 1080p24fps, (where available), high definition resolution and English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Surround Sound as well as a French Language Dubbed Dolby Surround Soundtrack with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options too.
The audio commentaries are informative and in some cases were recorded during the production of the sixth season with speakers sounding like they are in the same room despite very often the participants may be talking with one or more in Los Angeles and the rest on location in Georgia where the series is shot. The fifth season premiere features two episode length audio commentaries. One with Executive Producer Scott M. Completely and Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd while Makeup Effects Master and Series Director Gregory Nicotero does the other track with Actress Melissa McBride. On disc two, Steven Yeun, Michael Cudlitz, Christian Serratos, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, and Allanna Masterson participate in the commentary for the episode, "Self Help."
Chad Coleman and Gregory Nicotero deliver a screen specific audio commentary on disc three for the episode "What Happened and What's Going On" while Norman Reedus, Sonequa Martin-Green participate with series Director Julius Ramsay participate in an episode commentary track and a third audio commentary with Greg Nicotero Tom Luse and Danai Gurrira making it a total of three episode length audio commentaries on disc three. The season finale episode features optional audio commentary with Gregory Nicotero and Scott M. Gimple on disc four.
A reel of deleted scenes (16:01), sixteen making of spots as well as sixteen inside featurettes are also included along with featurettes covering the making of Alexandria (9:45), the character arcs of Beth (4:20), Bob (4:54), Noah (4:28) and Tyreese (6:33), featurettes of a day on the set for Actors Michael Cudlitz (7:58) and Josh McDermitt (7:56) and the liquified walkers sequence (4:35) encompass what is on the fifth disc. A few short AMC TV spots for the upcoming season premieres of Comic Book Men and The Walking Dead and series premieres of Fear The Walking Dead and Into The Badlands are on the first disc too. The interactive menus are all well rendered and easy to navigate. An insert containing a limited time only redemption code for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy of Season Five of The Walking Dead and a twenty page booklet of tie-in merchandise are included within the blue BD case too.
The Walking Dead: The Complete Fifth Season is available now at retailers on and offline either on Blu-Ray Disc or DVD courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2015 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
