That Dirty Black Bag: Season 1 (Blu-ray Review)
In the debut season of THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG, in a town full of bounty hunters, bandits and bloody vendettas, Arthur McCoy is the incorruptible sheriff who’s trying to overcome his troubled past to bring law and order to this new frontier. On the other side of things is Red Bill, an infamous solitary bounty hunter known for decapitating his victims and stuffing their heads into a dirty black bag. When the paths of these two men collide, they both learn that in the wild west, there are no heroes, nobody is invincible, and the predators may become the prey. That Dirty Black Bag: Season 1 is available on Blu-ray!
Series 
Red Bill (Douglas Booth) is a no-nonsense bounty hunter that collects his bounties by dispatching his targets as efficiently as possible. He only collects the heads and deposits them into a dirty black bag, because a head weighs less than a body…
On the other side of the spectrum there is Sheriff Arthur McCoy (Dominic Cooper) who oversees a frontier desert town. He rules the town with an iron fist but also has to see to the various threats from the outside world.
Going into That Dirty Black Bag I had only watched the trailer a bunch of times and though it looked terrific. Once I popped in the Blu-ray it was game on! It’s a mix of traditional, acid, spaghetti, and even steampunk rolled into one. I mean you have a character that has a gun attachment to his arm and looks like the tubes going into his arm siphon blood to operate it. I guess that’s cyberpunk, too, right? What adds to the atmosphere is that this series was also filmed in Spain and Morocco just like the spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s.
The action-play is a brutal and pulls no punches. The narrative structure fluctuates just a bit when flashbacks are employed, so the viewer should pay close attention when watching, because it’s easy to lose one’s place.
That Dirty Black Bag: Season 1 does a great job of multi-layered world-building that looks to lead into some creepy stuff if the latter episodes are any indications. These themes are only touched upon briefly, so I assume they are saving it for next season. What we do get now, is a thrilling acid-fueled western romp that is sure to please western fans aplenty. That Dirty Black Bag: Season 1 gets my highest possible rating.
Video
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Clarity/Detail: The clarity and detail on this Blu-ray presentation, as is usual with RLJE, is truly a knock out. Sharpness and contrast levels are terrific and no artificial tinkering about was detected with regards to those settings.
Depth: As good as the interior scenes look, the real star are the exteriors. The show was shot on location in these valleys that the Blu-ray specs will pull you right into the action.
Black Levels: There were no instances of crush on this Blu-ray.
Color Reproduction: The color wheel on this presentation was stellar. Being that it takes place in several desert environments – there’s a gold sheen to those. The rest, down to the some of the colorful costumes come through quite vivid on this Blu-ray release.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones appear nice and natural, but you will be able to see and possibly smell the sweat and grime on some of the characters. This is frontier country after all and it gets hot!
Noise/Artifacts: None.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS HD-MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Dynamics: RLJE continue to produce some of the stellar and consistent reference soundtracks on Blu-ray in the business. That Dirty Black Bag has an amazing lossless soundtrack that will put you right in the action.
Low Frequency Extension: The low-end LFE channel produced some serious bass in those scenes involving dynamite explosions and heavy artillery.
Surround Sound Presentation: The surround sound channels elevate the front sound-field, with some great ambiance and action sounds. Get ready to do a lot of ducking when the bullets start flying.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue was clean, clear, and crisp.
Extras 
There are no extras on the Blu-ray set.
Summary 
That Dirty Black Bag is a masterpiece of a western show using many different elements in popular sub-genres of the past, present, and future. The video and audio are reference level, but the lack of extras is a true bummer. Nonetheless, That Dirty Black: Season 1 is a great series and I hope it comes back for a second season!
That Dirty Black Bag: Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray!
ORDER NOW!
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Gerard Iribe
Gerard Iribe is a writer/reviewer for Why So Blu?. He has also reviewed for other sites like DVD Talk, Project-Blu, and CHUD, but Why So Blu? is where the heart is. You can follow his incoherency on Twitter: @giribe
