The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Third Season – Blu-ray Disc Review

September 15, 2010 – 3:36 pm - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: BD-Live, Bill Prady, Blu-ray, Chuck Lorre, Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Kunal Nayyar, Lewis Black, Simon Helberg, The Big Bang Theory, Warner, Wil Wheaton

has an average rating of 8.4 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on TWO 50gb discs
Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kpbs
are short but sweet (and in HD)
–
– 2009 – 2010
– 472 minutes
– Warner
–

Overall Verdict – Fans Will Be Somewhat Pleased

Buy it for $27.91 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

The Show Itself was created by Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men“) and Bill Pardy (“Dharma & Greg“) who also serve as executive producers on the show and on occasion serve as writers too. “The Big Bang Theory” airs on CBS where it originally premiered back on September 24, 2007.

The show is set in Pasadena, California. The main characters are two geeky roommates that just so happen to be geniuses and work at Caltech as physicists. “Leonard” (played by Johnny Galecki) is an experimental physicist and “Sheldon” (played by Jim Parsons) is a theoretical physicist. The two guys in the first episode of the show are somewhat surprised to discover they have a new attractive female neighbor by the name of “Penny” (played by Kaley Cuoco). Penny has just moved to California from Nebraska and is aspiring to be an actress, but in the meantime is a waitress at “The Cheesecake Factory” restaurant. The guys have two even more geeky best friends. One best friend is an overly confident Jewish guy named “Howard” (played by Simon Helberg) and the other is a shy Indian guy named “Raj” (played by Kunal Nayyar). Both Howard and Raj also work at Caltech.

These guys (all four of them) aren’t exactly a hit with the ladies, so it’s strange to see them have such a close friendship with the neighbor Penny. One of the two main roommates strikes up a relationship with the female neighbor Penny in the previous seasons of the show. This relationship between the two is carried on into this (the third) season. Throw in the fact that Leonard’s roommate Sheldon is (still) very OCD, neurotic and both a metaphoric & literal smart ass and that really sets up the show and its cast of characters.

All 23 Episodes of the third season of the show are included. They are as follows.

Episode 1 – “The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation“
• Originally Aired: September 21, 2009
Episode 2 – “The Jiminy Conjecture“
• Originally Aired: September 28, 2009
Episode 3 – “The Gothowitz Deviation“
• Originally Aired: October 5, 2009
Episode 4 – “The Pirate Solution“
• Originally Aired: October 12, 2009
Episode 5 – “The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary“
• Originally Aired: October 19, 2009
Episode 6 – “The Cornhusker Vortex“
• Originally Aired: November 2, 2009
Episode 7 – “The Guitarist Amplification“
• Originally Aired: November 9, 2009
Episode 8 – “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency“
• Originally Aired: November 16, 2009
Episode 9 – “The Vengeance Formulation“
• Originally Aired: November 23, 2009
Episode 10 – “The Gorilla Experiment“
• Originally Aired: December 7, 2009
Episode 11 – “The Maternal Congruence“
• Originally Aired: December 14, 2009
Episode 12 – “The Psychic Vortex“
• Originally Aired: January 11, 2010
Episode 13 – “The Bozeman Reaction“
• Originally Aired: January 18, 2010
Episode 14 – “The Einstein Approximation“
• Originally Aired: February 1, 2010
Episode 15 – “The Large Hadron Collision“
• Originally Aired: February 8, 2010
Episode 16 – “The Excelsior Acquisition“
• Originally Aired: March 1, 2010
Episode 17 – “The Precious Fragmentation“
• Originally Aired: March 8, 2010
Episode 18 – “The Pants Alternative“
• Originally Aired: March 22, 2010
Episode 19 – “The Wheaton Recurrence“
• Originally Aired: April 12, 2010
Episode 20 – “The Spaghetti Catalyst“
• Originally Aired: May 3, 2010
Episode 21 – “The Spaghetti Catalyst“
• Originally Aired: May 10, 2010
Episode 22 – “The Staircase Implementation“
• Originally Aired: May 17, 2010
Episode 23 – “The Lunar Excitation“
• Originally Aired: May 24, 2010

“The Big Bang Theory” in its third season is pretty funny at times, in some episodes more-so than others. My personal favorite episode from this season has to undoubtedly be “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency” (Episode 8). Also worth mentioning, we get guest appearances from the likes of comedian Lewis Black, Laurie Metcalf and by fellow geek Wil Wheaton (of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” fame). I’ll have to admit, going into this I had never watched more than half of an episode of this show when it aired on CBS because I felt a bit confused by it and turned off by the laughter being so excessive by the audience at jokes that weren’t exactly all that funny. I gave the show a chance, a little over a couple dozen episodes later I have to say I went from honestly disking the show to actually finding it to be not just tolerable but pretty damn funny at times. Still though, it has its moments where it still gets on my nerves with the audience laughter or dumb jokes (aimed at obviously geeks) or just dumb circumstances. Overall, I’ll give it a “3.5 Star Rating” for this, its third season.

Video Quality on this release is in 1080p using the VC-1 codec on TWO BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Discs) in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio.

According to numerous sources online this show is shot digitally in Hi-Def on the Panavision / Sony HD900F camera. This can be confirmed on the official website for the camera under the credits tab. It there lists this show as being shot on the camera. This holds a good amount of detail in shots, especially close-ups. The color palette here is very vibrant, much thanks to mainly the cast’s wardrobe as well as decor in their living spaces and workplaces and whatnot. The flesh tones are accurate with Kaley Cuoco (the only female on the show, with her constant cleavage) serving as a good example of such. I say that because she seems to bare the most flesh in all honesty; as the three other male cast members are most always wearing long sleeved shirts and pants. The black level here is very solid and helps bring out the detail (mentioned above).

DISC USAGE:

Disc 1 uses 34.4GB total. Disc 2 uses 33.4GB total.

Disc 1 contains 12 episodes and Disc 2 contains 11 episodes.

All and all “The Big Bang Theory” looks pretty solid and holds a good amount of detail (as mentioned above) here in its Blu-ray Disc debut in Hi-Def. This holds a lot less compression and such than the original television broadcasts plus it’s in 1080p/24Hz unlike the 1080i/60Hz broadcast. The visual presentation here is worthy of a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality. Fans of the show will be pleased, but considering most of them are likely geeks who like to complain, I’d say they’ll find things to complain about. On the more common other hand, the not-so-obsessive fans or just casual viewers will be pleased with their viewing experience here.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in crummy old, heavily compressed AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps) to be “Sheldon“-like in my exactness and sure of being correct. Speaking of things to gripe about, let me first get this out of the way. I’m not a huge fan of this show’s overly high use of the audience laughter as it at times can be annoying and almost feel like a “laugh track” at jokes that aren’t the funniest. Here’s how the laughter is mixed. It gets presence in the front left and right channel speakers as well as the rear channels (faintly). Now with that out of the way, let’s move on to what’s important on a sitcom like this, dialogue. The dialogue is delivered perfectly through primarily the front center channel speaker and is never drowned out or such and requires no volume adjustments. This isn’t a completely “front-heavy” mix but I’ll be honest it does not have the most rear channel and LFE presence. The only real highlights of the rear channel presence and LFE can be found in the show’s intro theme song (performed by Barenaked Ladies) as well as the transitions or any music used in the show. This isn’t a huge disappointment but it’s not really something that will leave the geeky crowd, sticklers for tech, totally pleased. This earns a just slightly above average “3 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus Materials are presented in Hi-Def (HD) video using the VC-1 codec with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo 192kbps sound.

• BD-Live is included on this Warner Blu-ray Disc release which allows you (if on a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player and with Internet connectivity) to access online content from the studio.

Disc 2 includes:

• “Take-out With the Cast” (10:25 – HD) is pretty self-explanatory by the title.
• “Set Tour with Simon and Kunal” (7:40 – HD) is again, pretty self-explanatory by the title. You’ll get a set tour by co-stars who play “Howard” and “Raj“, the two geeky best friends of our main characters.
• “Gag Reel” (7:51 – HD) is pretty funny and runs somewhat lengthy but it, despite being in Hi-Def, isn’t always the best video quality; in fact it’s awful looking video quality. This appears to have been film that didn’t get post-production treatment as it still has timestamps and just really was probably upconverted to Hi-Def for this.

Overall, the bonus materials are short, but sweet, as in they are pretty funny and entertaining and such as well as in Hi-Def video quality — with the exception of the “Gag Reel” which is just atrocious video quality. Fans of the show will enjoy this 30 minutes or so they roughly get in bonus materials (supplemental material) for this season.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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