Why So Blu?

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season (Blu-ray Review)

Yahoo!  It’s time for my annual September ritual!  The Big Bang Theory returns once again to the Blu-ray format.  Truth be told I’m excited to be covering the release for now the fifth year in a row.  You can find Gregg Senko’s Blu-ray review coverage of Season 3 here and I took over in season seven here, eight here, ninth here and the tenth over here.  I also provided exclusive coverage from last year’s Hall H San Diego Comic-Con panel here, but sadly missed out on the festivities this year.  However, that 2017 panel is an extra here now so bonus!  Now it’s time for the complete eleventh season on Blu-ray right here baby.  Warner Bros. always does a bang up job on these seasonal Blu-ray releases in terms of a great looking presentation.  That’s why I’m overjoyed to be tackling this again and hopefully for years to come (please don’t end it despite the show’s contract only currently providing a twelfth season and Jim Parsons killing it all).  They can never end the Big Bang Theory and that’s that.  Ha!  I just want to be appreciative for what I have here and I need these guys in my life.  They make me smile.  Therefore, let’s celebrate this upcoming Blu-ray release and talk all about The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season.

Season 

Oh yeah!  Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Howard, Raj, Amy and Bernadette are all back for one of television’s funniest and most successful shows – The Big Bang Theory.  Once again I’m here to remind you that I’m not just making that hogwash up either.  It’s time to let the facts talk for themselves.   In its eleventh season, The Big Bang Theory garnered an audience of nearly 19 million Weekly Viewers, solidifying its spot as one of the top sitcoms, and broadcast programs in general, across all demographics.  Boom!  How’s that for fact checking (thank you to our source the Nielsen National TV View).  Thus you can now reasonably deduce that The Big Bang Theory continues to entertain and excite viewers and critics all over the world.  Since it’s now September, fans will be able to re-live every laugh and enjoy The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season on Blu-ray  (including Digital HD) on September 11th.

The hit CBS sitcom stars series favorites Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch and Kevin Sussman are all back this eleventh season..  In Season 10 we saw guest star appearances from Katey Sagal, Jack McBrayer and Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris.  Big guest stars this season include Walton Goggins, Bill Gates, Teller, Kathy Bates, Mark Hamill and more.  Those alone are some pretty heavy hitters, don’t you agree?  The latter was really appreciative to be part of this show.  Returning regulars like Stephen Hawking, Will Wheaton, Bob Newhart, Laurie Metcalf, Christine Baranski and others we all know and love revisit throughout this season from time-to-time too.  And yes, there is a tribute episode to the late, great Mr. Hawking, the show’s most beloved guest star.

With Leonard and Penny having officially tied the knot this season is all about Sheldon and Amy doing the very much the same.  Quite honestly that topic is a little exhausting as the bulk of the episodes are about that subject.  Nonetheless though those classic Big Bang Theory zingers thrown at you that will make your side and insides hurt in a good way through the power of laughter.  The onscreen chemistry and charisma is still all there.  We also find Raj still desperately looking for love while at the same time finding a new career in the cosmos.  Then there’s the expanding family of Howard and Bernadette’s with one of my favorites still very much in the mix, Stuart.  Howard has a son!  Lucky man!

So as you can see all the major attractions of the show are very much still in play, but I do have to admit that the show is running out of steam a bit.  It’s obviously not the same 4-guy nerdy, geek sitcom anymore.  The show is very much about maturity and growth.  It’s now all about the family and as we left off in Young Sheldon last year…the kids too.  Rest assured though there are still those classic Big Bang Theory zingers thrown at you that will make your side and insides hurt in a good way through the power of laughter.  The Big Bang Theory continues to provide the laughs throughout the eleventh season here, but sadly it’s all over after this coming year’s twelfth.  And that’s all she wrote (or he).

So when you slide off the outer shell from your Blu-ray Combo Pack of The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season and you open the case you’ll find the traditional two Blu-ray discs.  We’ll talk a little more about what’s all on these Blu-rays in greater detail down below in the Special Features section, but all I want to cover here before moving onto the A/V vitals of the presentations is the fact that Episodes 1-12 (as listed in order below) can be found on the first Blu-ray disc where as Episodes 13-24 are housed on the second Blu-ray disc.

1. The Proposal Proposal
2. The Retraction Reaction
3. The Relaxation Integration
4. The Explosion Implosion
5. The Collaboration Contamination
6. The Proton Regeneration
7. The Geology Methodology
8. The Tesla Recoil
9. The Bitcoin Entanglement
10. The Confidence Erosion
11. The Celebration Reverberation
12. The Matrimonial Metric
13. The Solo Oscillation
14. The Separation Triangulation
15. The Novelization Correlation
16. The Neonatal Nomenclature
17. The Athenaeum Allocation
18. The Gates Excitation
19. The Tenant Disassociation
20. The Reclusive Potential
21. The Comet Polarization
22. The Monetary Insufficiency
23. The Sibling Realignment
24. The Bow Tie Asymmetry

Video  

This one is pretty much rinse, lather and repeat in regards to the qualities on display in my past Blu-ray reviews of this series.

• Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Size: 2 BD-50s
• Clarity/Detail: I said it before each year I review The Big Bang Theory on Blu-ray and I’ll say it again here.  The level of detail and clarity is outstanding.  Compared to their initial television broadcasts, this IS the penultimate way to experience The Big Bang Theory.  If you watch the show with eagle eyes like mine, you can’t help noticing all the little details in the background, easter eggs and textures abound in the clothing, furniture, collectibles (my favorite part), electronics, etc.  Despite the characters in the foreground, everything you see onscreen is eye-popping razor sharp.  Every time I watch an episode I see things that I missed the first time around due to the clarity of it all on the Blu-ray format like a birth mark on Mayim’s right hand for example.  As you know from my pst writings I also feel like all the little artifacts and trinkets found in the backgrounds here are almost as amazing as the show itself.  I know it’s shot for television and it doesn’t have that cinematic feel like a film on Blu-ray, but anyone that nitpicks the clarity of this presentation are just out of their Vulcan minds.
• Depth: Because of the clarity and sharpness of the image, the onscreen characters all have that three-dimensional pop we know and love on the Blu-ray format since its inception.  Therefore, the onscreen subjects are so separated from the backgrounds, which are still incredibly rich and detailed in themselves, that the image seems to go on and on forever in the depth department.  Bazinga!  It’s the attention to detail in the sets that makes this show so spectacular to behold on Blu-ray.  It’s also these sets that seemingly go on forever in the depth department.  You have to love it!  Only exception to this would be the blue screen moments outside windows when driving in automobiles.
• Black Levels: Black levels are all deep, solid and inky throughout here like the ink in the iconic comic books the guys on the show all bow down to and worship.
• Color Reproduction:  Dull is a word you can never use to describe this Blu-ray television set.  I once again found the colors in this Blu-ray’s video presentation to be like the show itself, rich, full of sprite and of course so very vivacious and vibrant!  Howard is still able to pull off all those amazing, eye popping colors and clothing schemes that I can never imagine myself ever having the courage to try.  Ha ha.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones all look natural throughout thanks to the excellent use of set lighting.
• Noise/Artifacts: There’s absolutely nothing my eyes could detect here that I believe could ever conceivably distract you from enjoying this sharp, vibrant, picture-perfect Blu-ray presentation.  There are no banding issues, noise or any other nasty anomaly to complain about here.  Moving on…

Audio 

Disclaimer: Some things never change and most of this verbiage below is from my former Blu-ray reviews.

• Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Dynamics: Just like I stated up above in the video section this one is very predictable, but most importantly consistent year after year.  The Big Bang Theory is a television comedy so don’t expect me to write about any dynamic miracles here.  While I’m sure we all want the dynamics to be larger than life here, there’s nothing wrong with them just being satisfactory either when it comes to grading television comedies.    It’s the dialogue that matters most here.  That’s where the main focus is.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some noticeable moments, but for the most part it is what it is, a bunch of geeks sitting around in an apartment having fun with their inner geeks and awkward social insecurities, and their non-stop shaky relationships too!  Oh yeah…they are getting older so things are a bit mundane.  Just accept it!
• Low Frequency Extension: The LFE is very subtle and practically non-existent at times.  This is a primetime comedy, that’s it…nothing more and nothing less.  So you can kind of draw your own conclusion as to how much the LFE channel will be employed throughout, but nonetheless it is there when necessary or called upon.
• Surround Sound Presentation: Rest assured, the surrounds are here, but like the LFE at times you have to seek them out and listen for them.  Quite honestly, you really don’t notice the rears at all until the traditional transition screens appear that catapult us the viewers from one scene to another or that segregate the commercial breaks.  That familiar swishing and swirling sound creeps up and pumps up the rears behind you and at times straight at you through the center channel.  I can see you always wanting more of course.  There’s always that Bare Naked Ladies opening sequence too for some surround sound activity.  Ha ha.  Who are we kidding here?  This is very front heavy and rightfully so.  Truth be told the audience track and little nuances can also be heard in the rear channels too.
• Dialogue Reproduction:  Spoken words are spectacular here in this category.  After all, and I’m starting to sound like a broken record I know, but The Big Bang Theory is a comedy we’re watching and you couldn’t ask for anything more in the dialogue department.  From the laugh track to the loud, clear and intelligible dialogue throughout not one spoken word is missed here.  Hear you I do!

Extras 

The release will also delight fans with three all-new bonus featurettes, and a hilarious gag reel.  The Blu-ray release also includes the 2017 Comic-Con cast panel.  However, here’s the best part of this extras section.  It’s not the supplemental features listed below that matter to me.  Oh no!  It’s the fact that this 2-disc Blu-ray set also includes a Digital HD copy of all 24 episodes from Season Eleven.  Hell yeah!  I know what I’ll be watching every night for awhile on my dining room Roku TV while eating.  That’s right baby!  I’ll now be watching Season Eleven’s digital versions of The Big Bang Theory on my favorite UltraViolet player, VUDU.  However, let’s stop talking about my eating habits and instead focus on what else is here.  I took the time to watch all the below extras and here’s what you’ll find in each of them.  The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season includes all of the below.

• The Maturation Imperative (Disc 2, HD, 11:05) – Chuck Lore, the Executive Producers and cast walk us through highlights from the eleventh season here including the wedding finale.   Jim Parsons calls this the season of maturity since they are older now.  If you’re a fan of the show, it’s a very emotional piece.  Highly recommended!
• The Big Bang Theory: The Blueprint of Comedy (Disc 2, HD,5:43) – This one shows the behind-the-scenes of how specific scenes from any episode are made air ready.  You even see the audience at the taping.  It focuses a lot on scenes they taped with Sheldon’s brother Georgie.
• A BBT History of Time (Disc 2, HD, 5:05) – This one is a big tribute to the show’s biggest guest star, Stephen Hawking.  Be careful as it’s a tear jerker.
• Gag Reel (Disc 2, HD, 7:01) – It’s a long 7 minutes, but so worth it!
• The Big Bang Theory: 2017 Comic-Con Panel (Disc 1, HD, 3:31) – Woohoo!  I was here in person for this one!  I think this one is pretty self explanatory and unlike the years of past more than one actor actually made it out (6 of them including them including Penny) for this panel with the writers.

Summary 

There you have it.  Another year down and masterfully archived on the Blu-ray format and another season, albeit sadly the final one, to look forward to starting this month on CBS.  Needless to say though I appreciate these yearly Warner Bros. television Blu-ray releases and I cherish them each and every day upon my HD altar.  I’m a man of simple tastes, but Warner Bros. exceeds my expectations each and every year with the fatastic HD presentations they provide us of The Big Bang Theory.  Ladies and gentlemen, Season Eleven is once again no exception. It’s phenomenally rendered and reproduced in all its 1080p glory in this 2-disc set.  You know you need it in your home media library.  The pre-order link is down below.  The first step on the road to salvation is achieved by clicking on that link and ordering today.  Enjoy!

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Re-Live All The Laughs of

The Big Bang Theory Season 11

on Blu-ray September 11th

ORDER Now!

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