FTC Notice Of Compliance: "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own."
The one thing that cannot be denied is at the time of this writing and posting, unlike Marvel, where you may need a subscription to Netflix to enjoy several TV series as well as a cable subscription to view more, leaving only one series at this time on free over the air broadcast television, you can watch all of the DC television shows on free over the air broadcast television without a cable or streaming subscription required. I think that is awesome because the quality of the DC television series has actually been more well received than the feature films thus far. Now while technically the Marvel TV series are in the same universe as the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe feature films, there has been some lines rumored to have grown between who can appear in the feature films and who can appear in the television shows. This has prompted some noteworthy actors like Giancarlo Esposito to turn down the possibility of appearing in an MCU television show because of the possibility that he may not be able to have his character crossover into the feature films. This is a shame since while I found the first season particularly disappointing, it was nice to have cameos from the likes of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury on Marvel's Agents Of Shield. Part of the problem between the television and feature film departments at Marvel has been rumored to be a division between who runs both departments and the challenge of maintaining continuity over various media.
In contrast the DC Extended Universe basically presents a multiverse where continuity only must be maintained between the current crop of DCEU TV series, the majority of which air in the States on The CW, and the feature films, which began with Man Of Steel in 2013 and continued this year with Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice as well as Suicide Squad and will continue with films to come in the future. Basically it appears that thus far in the DCEU, television universe, Gotham takes place in it's own specific timeline and at least for now, has no crossover or connection with the other TV shows. Gotham airs in the States on Fox. Supergirl also takes place in it's own parallel universe though during it first season on CBS, there was a crossover where The Flash appeared on Supergirl. The second season of Supergirl will air on THE CW. In the meantime, Arrow, which spun off The Flash takes place in the same universe as did the short lived TV series Constantine, which aired on NBC, but the perfect casting of Actor Matt Ryan in the title role has enabled the character as played by the Actor to appear on this past season's Arrow and he will be lending his voice for the animated version of the character in a Justice League Dark cartoon feature. One hopes that when the rumored DCEU feature film version of Justice League Dark comes to fruition that they will cast Matt Ryan regardless because if these are all different realities within the DCEU, there is no reason not to cast Matt Ryan as Constantine, when he is simply so good at it that he might as well have been born to play the character.
Another new entry in the TV portion of the DCEU to premiere on The CW last season was DC's Legends Of Tomorrow. Combining characters from both Arrow and The Flash as well as new characters from the DC pantheon to create an epic series, DC's Legends Of Tomorrow concerns itself with a time traveling rogue by the name of Rip Hunter, who is tasked with assembling a rag tag group of heroes and villains to confront the immortal Vandal Savage, who threatens not only to destroy the Earth, but all of time and it's quantum realities that make up the DCEU as a whole.
With a terrific 1920 by 1080p full HD resolution and presented in it's (1.78:1) broadcast aspect ratio, DC's Legends Of Tomorrow is breathtaking to behold on Blu-ray Disc. The complete first season, which is comprised of 16 episodes, including the two-part pilot are spread across two Blu-ray Discs with an aggressive English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Soundtrack and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options. Extra value material on disc one includes the 2015 Comic Con Panel and a gag reel. The bonus content on disc two includes featurette covering how Jonah Hex was bought into the episode, "The Magnificent Eight" and how his Old West style was integrated into the series with behind-the-scenes footage. Also included is a tour of the Waverider set and a look at the crossover through time the characters encounter in different eras during the series,
Within the Blue BD Case is an episode guide insert and a limited time only redeemable code for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy of the complete first season. The BD Case comes housed in a nice glossy cardboard slip. DC's Legends Of Tomorrow: The Complete First Season is available now on either Blu-ray Disc or DVD, but sold separately, at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Come back tomorrow because with the Emmy's behind us and the Fall TV season about to begin, I will have Blu-ray Disc reviews of the other DCEU sets all this week so please stay tuned.
(C) Copyright 2016 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
