Why So Blu?

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

It’s time for my annual fall ritual with something a little special for all your Christmas Wishlists.  The Big Bang Theory returns once again to the Blu-ray format.  However, the buck stops here literally speaking.  Sadly this twelfth year of the show was its final.  I still feel like they could have kept going with or without the character of Sheldon Cooper, but who am I make to make such a hypothesis like that.  Truth be told though I am excited to be once again covering this annual release for now the sixth 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, nine HERE, ten HERE and finally eleven HERE.  And now it’s time for the complete twelfth and final season on Blu-ray.  As stated by me in prior reviews 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 series again on Blu-ray, but wait!  That’s not it!  Warner Bros. hooked me up!  Today we’re not only here to celebrate all things Big Bang Theory Season 12, but the COMPLETE SERIES!  That’s right!  Down below we’re going to pay tribute to all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory and take an exclusive look at what’s all inside this big box set.  I’m excited!  You can’t see me, but I have smile on my face from ear-to-ear.  Let’s get started!

Series 

Believe it or not, but in its twelfth and final season, The Big Bang Theory averaged audiences of nearly 18 million weekly viewers, cementing its status as the number one broadcast sitcom across all demographics and the undisputed number one series on CBS among Total Viewers.  That statistic alone should suffice to justify my decision to score The Big Bang Theory as a whole “complete series” a P-E-R-F-E-C-T 5-doggie score.  Alright, so I may be a bit biased.  I do know for a fact that a lot of my peers find the show repulsive and there are those that go to great lengths to explain why the show is a fake representation of geek culture.  Life to me is way too short to argue about such petty sentiments.  What’s important to me is that for 12 years these guys and girls of The Big Bang Theory made me laugh, cry and grow old with them.  In essence they feel like an extended family to my fiancé and I.  And you know what they say about family.  You don’t turn your back on them.  Sure there are a few episodes where even I will agree weren’t perfect, but as a whole The Big Bang Theory will go down as one my most beloved and cherished sitcoms ever right there alongside Seinfeld, Friends, Sanford & Son and more.

For 12 years now, fans have been delighted watching their favorite physicists Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) navigate the complex universe of everyday life along with the girl next door, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), and fellow scientists Howard (Simon Helberg), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), as well as other beloved characters and endless guest stars.  The show literally evolved from four hopeless geeks and the token girl next door to hard life lessons learned, family and relationships, undeniable comradeship and so much more (basically all the ways they ultimately matured).  When I mentioned up above that I grew old with these characters I really did.  It was during a time in my life where I needed an extended family like this and honestly to this day my fiancé and I still watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory every day during dinner.  I guess that’s another way they all became a second family to us too.  We shared our table with them and still do.  The show may be over, but thanks to this comparative set the show will always live on in our hearts and that of the rest of the countless Big Bang Theory fans out there.  You know who you are!

Before I go into a quick summary of season twelve and how it all wraps up I do want to take a moment to reflect on one not so nice thought I have.  I find it heartbreaking that the show’s producers didn’t seem to have any faith in the show existing without Jim Parsons.  Don’t get me wrong we have all enjoyed his zany character of Sheldon Cooper over the past twelve years, but I believe the show had equal if not better characters they could have focused on.  Major characters aside, whom all seem like they would have easily signed on for a thirteenth season, it’s the supporting characters like Stuart (Kevin Sussman) for example that I could easily lose myself in a spinoff on.  There were so many dynamics of Howard, Raj, Penny and Leonard’s journeys to examine too.  While I felt the show losing a little steam in the latter seasons, I always felt the minor characters like Stuart or Denise (Lauren Lapkus) were just starting to take off.  However, I digress.  All I’m trying to say is that for me the sun doesn’t rise and set around Sheldon Cooper.  I mean he has his own show for that (Young Sheldon).  I held out hoping that either Kaley or Johnny would keep the show alive, but alas the 1-hour season finale came and went this past May.  That was all she wrote!  A boy can still dream though.

The last thing I want get off my chest before we briefly explore the twelfth season is an absolute fact.  The Warner Bros. tapings for The Big Bang Theory were one hard ticket to acquire.  I came close many times, ended up as an alternate for a few and even had a ticket once only unable to acquire a second one for my fiancé.  That would not have been a pretty conversation to have.  Can you imagine how that would go down?  Hey honey I know your favorite show is The Big Bang Theory, but would you mind if I fly to California to see a taping of a show in the twelfth season?  I would never do that to her hence why I gave up the only ticket I ever was able to get.  However, I did make all her dreams come true in 2017 when I got her as close as possible (in a literal sense in the press pit next to the Hall H stage) to the cast in San Diego at Comic-Con that year.  You can read all about that adventure HERE.

Season 2 of Young Sheldon ended with quite a bombshell (don’t worry no spoilers are contained within this paragraph).  We learned something about Sheldon that I thought for sure we’d see play out in the final season of Big Bang Theory, but I was completely wrong.  They never went there and instead the big news belonged to another couple on the show.  So I will digress there.  I would say Season 12 off the show really tested the relationships (parenthood, new love, marriages and even arranged ones).  There were a few shockers that I didn’t see coming, but for the most part the episodes leading up until the final one never hinted at any doom and gloom (besides the conflict of whether or not Amy and Sheldon would ever get that Nobel Prize).  The way they left things the show could easily pick up in another ten years without missing a beat.  There was one event, however, I did correctly predict.  Perhaps some of the best moments of the show involved not only the fantastic guest stars the show frequently had (Bob Newhart, Sean Astin, William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Joe Manganiello, Ellen DeGeneres, Sarah Michelle Gellar and so many more), but also the crossover moments between the Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, which saw Jerry O’Connell as George Cooper.  For all of you who want an exhaustive, but outstanding recap of the final two episodes I would definitely recommend hitting up Jessica Radloff‘s humongous coverage of it all HERE.

Video  

The below critique of the 1080p video presentations housed on the various Blu-ray Discs is an overall look at the entire series as year after year every season has been rinse, wash and repeat in terms of exceptional quality.

• Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Size: 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 in every season on the Blu-ray format.  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 and so much more.  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 in the broadcast 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 past writings I also feel like all the little artifacts, trinkets and Easter eggs 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 always find 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 always 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 set lighting.
• Noise/Artifacts: There’s absolutely nothing my eyes could detect here that I believe could ever conceivably distract you from enjoying these sharp, vibrant, picture-perfect Blu-ray presentations.  There are no banding issues, noise or any other nasty anomaly to complain about here.

Audio 

Like up above with the video the below critique of the DTS-HD Master Audio surround presentations housed on the various Blu-ray Discs is an overall look at the entire series as year after year every season has been rinse, wash and repeat in terms of consistent quality.

• Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (Except Season 3), English 5.1 Dolby Digital (Season 3 only), Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital (Except Seasons 3 & 4)
• 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 though, 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 and science experiments too!
• 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 though 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 Big Bang Theory: The Complete Series, as reviewed here, includes all 279 original episodes from the 12 seasons.  The complete set also features nearly 12 hours of extras along with an additional disc including three exclusive and never-before-seen featurettes (that’s the real icing on the cake here).   This special Limited Edition Blu-ray Boxset comes housed in a beautiful lay-flat book with a fun front pop-up (as shown in our exclusive unboxing pictures below) and includes a digital copy that gives you all 12 seasons of the show.  Since we don’t have a separate review for The Big Bang Theory‘s 12th season on Blu-ray I do want to briefly mention the extras from that set here (and in more detail below).  The 12th season Blu-ray extras include a featurette on the final episode with behind-the-scenes and cast interviews, the CBS special “Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell,” the 2018 Comic-Con Panel, a hilarious gag reel and more.  Before we go into everything found here in the way of extras I want to unbox this bad boy complete with exclusive photos below of me doing so.  Come on!  Let’s rip this boxset wide open and take a closer look inside!

The below thumbnails are all clickable and enable you to enlarge the view for maximum viewing pleasure.  

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Here’s a look at all the sides of the box before we rip that shrink-wrap plastic off and let it breath.

    

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Here’s a closer look at the front and back of the two books inside.

 

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Now let’s take a look at the book with the white covers which contains all these great B&W shots and guide pages for all 279 episodes and what’s on each of the 25 Blu-ray Discs (I’ve only included one page of the latter as an example below).

   

  

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And finally let’s take a closer look at the popup book that houses all 24 Blu-ray Discs (see below for details about the 25th disc).  Each page contains the 2 Blu-ray Discs per season with the 25th disc being the one that houses the exclusive extras in this Complete Series boxset.

   

  

 

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The below are The Big Bang Theory: The Twelfth and Final Season extras, which we have never covered before on the site.

• Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell Special (HD, 21:17) – Here Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco take fans down memory lane by sharing some backstage secrets and favorite personal memories.
• The Last Days of The Big Bang Theory (HD, 14:11) – In this extra we go behind the scenes of the series finale as the writers, cast and crew say goodbye and they take their final bows.  Keep your Kleenex handy.  How sad!  This one also includes preparations for the final episode and snippets of the table read.  The cast, especially Simon, look really sad at this table read.  Damn Jim Parsons!  It was truly heartbreaking seeing Kaley and Johnny say goodbye to the audience here.  Actually though everybody was crying at the table read.  So sad!  This was a great, but very depressing watch.
• The Big Bang Theory’s Impact (HD, 7:33) – Here we see the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, and the cast honor the first class of recipients of The Big Bang Theory Scholarship Endowment, who will be graduating from UCLA in Spring 2019 (or should I say would have).
• The Sweet Spot (HD, 12:42) – Here you get to meet the man, Mark Sweet, who has ben warming up and entertaining the live studio audiences (200 people) before every single taping.  Holy wow!  What a great job!  This gives you a great look at what it’s like to be at a taping.  It was interesting to learn how Mark got his start in entertaining audiences at just 9 years of age.  Nice!
• The Big Bang Theory Cast Visits Ellen (HD, 12:29) – You guessed it!  In this supplement the cast visits The Ellen DeGeneres Show to chat about the series finale.
• Best of The Big Bang Theory Comic-Con 2018 Panel (HD, 39:25) –  This one involves the writers and some of the cast on stage at Comic-Con last year.  I wasn’t there for this one so it’s not that special for me like the 2017 panel was.  I’m just saying.
• Gag Reel (HD, 7:05) – This is your usual bunch of flubs, messed up delivery of lines and action moments gone awry.  The best ones in my opinion were with Kathy Bates.

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The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Series on Blu-ray, as reviewed here, includes all the below mentioned extras spread across the 25-disc set.

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Series boxset includes nearly 12 hours of previously released bonus content from Seasons 1 through 12, plus the following exclusive special features.  Sadly these 3 “exclusive” extras are all housed on the 25th disc in this boxset, which is inexplicably a DVD.  A DVD!!!  I couldn’t believe it when I removed the 25th disc and it was not a Blu-ray, but an SD DVD.  Ugh!  What a complete bummer.  I can’t express that sentiment enough.  The three extras you’re paying for here in this Blu-ray Boxset are housed on a DVD sourced in SD.  I’m at a loss for words.  Sorry guys.  Now you know why this section didn’t get a perfect score from me.

• The Big Bang Theory: A Retrospective (SD, 28:34) – This is it ladies and gentlemen.  Ever wonder how it all began…the thought…the concept…how it all came together…etc…it’s all here!  This one zooms in close to explore how the characters were created and ultimately fleshed out.  It’s truly interesting to see where the cast all came from.
• BBT’s Greatest Hits: 12 Years of Comedy in 24 Minutes (HD, 25:05) – This one is what the title advertises…quick clips of episodes in order from every season.
• All The Stars in the BBT Universe (HD, 12:20) – This one recaps all the cameos, guest stars and scientists that appeared on the show over its 12-season run.  It’s pretty cool reliving all these memories with all the big names that graced the stage here.

Summary 

Well as you can see from my biased series score up above I’m absolutely smitten by this complete collection of one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory.  If you’re a fan and you don’t have this on your Christmas Wishlist, what are you waiting for?  I do completely get it though if you already own seasons 1-11 on Blu-ray.  What’s in it for you?  That questions begs to find out how big of a Big Bang Theory fan you are I guess.  You’re getting three exclusive extras here, but sadly they are only on a DVD (hence not a 5-star score from me here in this summary section).  If that’s not enough, then you’re getting the episode booklet and a popup book that houses all the seasons on Blu-ray Discs (as pictured up above).  Therefore, if the latter two mentioned items don’t appeal to you, then all you have to do is click HERE to bring Season 12 home on Blu-ray to “complete” your Big Bang Theory collection.  The choice is yours.  The Force is strong in you.  I’m confident you’ll make the right decision as to what works best for you.  Me, on the other hand, I want them both…this Complete Series and the standalone release of Season 12 on Blu-ray.  It could be worse.  They could have released all of these season on DVD only.  That would have been so humbug of Warner Bros.  Thankfully that’s not the case.  They only inexplicably did it to the three extras you’re buying this set for (sigh).  Merry Christmas to me!  I can finally have my cake and eat it too here for the last time.  However, fret not as the spirit of The Big Bang Theory still lives on in Young Sheldon and in our hearts for the rest of our lives.

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The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Series

was released on Blu-ray November 12th.

Order Yours Now!

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