Big Picture Big Sound

The Show

Having never been much of a follower of primetime serial dramas, or what is colloquially known as "primetime soaps", I admittedly never watched a single episode of Grey's Anatomy before sitting down to review this Blu-ray release. As you might expect, I approached this series with much skepticism. Taking its name from one of the series' main characters, Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the show's title is an obvious reference to the famous medical textbook, Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, (or Gray's Anatomy as it is commonly referred to).

In the fourth season, the series follows the complicated professional and personal lives of a diverse group of surgical residents, their attending physicians, and the interns, which the residents are assigned to train. Separating itself from most other hospital dramas, Grey's focuses far less on the gore and more on the intricate relationships between the colleagues as they not only continue to learn in the fictional Seattle Grace hospital and hone their skills, but also compete against one another. That is not to say that the show doesn't also have its share of gore and medical mysteries. Over the course of the fourth season, there are episodes that deal with everything from a young man immersed in a block of concrete and a high school teenager with a pencil jammed through his eye into his brain, to a deer hit by a driver and two young, terminally ill cancer patients in love.

But, there is no arguing that the success of Grey's Anatomy is in large part due to its human aspect. The vicarious nature of the show, the nearly voyeuristic look into the lives of these people and their sexual exploits is what keeps people tuning in. The show's writers and producers handle most of this material amazingly well, keeping viewers invested in the ever evolving relationships between the characters -- who's sleeping with whom, who broke up with whom this week, etc. Even if sometimes the resolutions of certain story lines seem contrived and ready made for television, they are always heartfelt and emotionally draining.

This fourth season of Grey's Anatomy, though shortened due to the WGA strike like so many other series, feels surprisingly complete and well planned out, unlike some other shows that felt incomplete and rushed due to the strike. As a first time viewer, I was never lost and immediately felt at ease with the characters and their relationship to one another, which is a testament to the strong writing and character development of the series' writers and producers. So, if this will also be your introduction to this series, you need not have any trepidation about jumping in on this fourth season.

The Picture

Grey's Anatomy comes to Blu-ray in a 1080/24p AVC/MPEG-4 encoding in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. As a primetime serial based in a hospital, Grey's Anatomy doesn't exactly offer up any images that leap from the screen at you, but in another fine transfer to BD from the Disney/Buena Vista family, Grey's mostly well-lit hospital scenes are clearly detailed with perfect flesh tones and a fine, consistent level of the show's original 35mm grain structure. The transfer's black levels are good, with a nice level of shadow detail. Contrast is set perfectly, so that the hospital's many lights never bloom and detail never washes out. The transfer displays no artifacts, so the as to be expected clean source is able to shine. It could be just a little bit sharper, but the overall detail is still quite superb.

The Sound

Grey's Anatomy comes with English uncompressed PCM 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) and English Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes.  The PCM mix is quite obviously the best option, with beautiful, full, clear dialogue in the center channel and the occasional light use of the LFE to give some weight to the sound. The overall mix, however, is a typical television sound mix -- front heavy, with mostly ambient sound effects in the surrounds. The various sounds of the hospital make their ways to the surround channels in reserved but audible levels. To that effect, the mix can come across as somewhat stagnant, but the good level of ambience gives a spacious sound that works well with the material. The series' musical soundtrack is balanced well in the mix and aided by the LFE, but never overwhelms the dialogue. This is a decent mix, if not groundbreaking mix.


The Extras

The bulk of the supplemental material for Grey's Anatomy is saved for the set's final disc, but it is mostly self-congratulatory, promotional-type featurettes profiling the cast. Spread across the remainder of the set are a few audio commentaries for certain episodes by the producers and cast. Of most interest to those coming to Grey's Anatomy for the first time through this release will be the all-to-brief One Quick Cut featurette that recaps the first three seasons and a bit of season four as well.

The extras available on this release are:

Disc 1:

Audio Commentary: Episode "A Change is Gonna Come" with actress Chyler Leigh and associate producer Karin Gleason -- The two have a friendly conversation as the episode meanders by and offer up quite a few amusing anecdotes about filming the season's premiere episode and more.

Disc 2:

Audio Commentary: Extended Episode "Forever Young" with actress Lauren Stamile and executive producer/director Rob Corn -- These two offer up the dullest commentary on the set as Stamile hardly says a word and Corn, when he does comment, comes across too seriously.

Disc 3:

Audio Commentary: Extended Episode "The Becoming" with actress Sandra Oh and director Julie Anne Robinson.

Disc 4:

• New Docs on the Block (1.78:1/high definition) -- This featurette profile the new female members of the cast for Season Four and their characters.
• On Set with Patrick and Eric (1.78:1/high definition) -- The "McSteamy/McDreamy" team of actors Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane and their characters on the show are profiled.
• Good Medicine Favorite Scenes (1.78:1/high definition) -- The cast members discuss their favorite scenes from Season Four.
• Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: Unaired Scenes (1.78:/high definition) -- 12 minutes of deleted scenes from various episodes.
• In Stitches: Season Four Outtakes (1.78:1/high definition) --  Bloopers from the filming of Season Four.
• One Quick Cut (1.78:1/high definition) -- A quick recap of the events from Seasons One, Two, Three, and parts of Season Four.

The Grey's Anatomy set also has a nice BD-Java based feature called "SeasonPlay" that will play the season continuously and track your progress, remembering your place across each disc.


Final Thoughts

It's easy to see why Grey's Anatomy has such a fanatic following and has become such a phenomenon. The show's vicarious look into the complications of these people's lives, I must admit, is surprisingly addictive. This BD collection does not offer much in the way of extras, but the expanded episodes, and fine picture and audio quality make it a must for any fan of this series.

Where to Buy:

• Grey's Anatomy Season 4 on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Chandra Wilson,  T.R. Knight
• Format: Color, Dolby
• Audio/Language: English uncompressed PCM 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) and English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Malay, Chinese, Korean, Bahasa
• Region: A
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 740 minutes
• List Price: $96.99
• Extras:
  • Extended Episodes
  • Audio Commentaries
  • New Docs on the Block
  • Good Medicine: Favorite Scenes
  • Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: Unaired Scenes
  • In Stitches: Season Four Outtakes
  • Includes SeasonPlay and Total Menus