Our favorite Mystic Falls residents are
back with more Delena drama, doppelgängers galore, and more
Supernaturals than ever before as season five of the Vampire Diaries
hits dvd. With wild twists, some jaw dropping transformations, and a
new supernatural race with a diabolical agenda there's plenty of
reasons that the body count is rising once more.
Elena (Dobrev) spent the summer getting
sweaty with Damon (Somerhalder) while Stephen (Wesley) spent time
drowning in an underwater safe, and no one even noticed him missing
with his shadow self Silas (also Wesley) running about. With summer
over, and college starting Elena moves into her dorm with her roomie
Caroline (Accola). Bonnie (Graham) is still MIA because she's well
dead and only Elena's younger brother and Bonnie's love interest
Jeremy (McQueen) knows, and the girls find themselves with a surprise
in the form of a new roommate. Before the beer bongs can be properly
broken in tragedy strikes and draws the girls into a far reaching mad
scientist mess that has ties to Damon and eventually the newest
edition to the supernatural roster in the form of the Travelers. The
Travelers are body jumping neanderthal witches who just so happen to
want doppelgänger blood and to destroy the supernatural ever-after.
Meanwhile, after receiving the much
sought after vampire cure Katherine is human once more. But the
blessing, Katherine finds is more of a curse as she's plagued with
aging at a rapid rate, while being hunted once again. As Katherine,
Nina Dobrev delivers some of her best material. Many props need to be
give to both Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev for pulling double and
sometimes more duty. The nuances between the different characters are
amazing, not just subtle things like posture, or more noticeable ones
like speech patterns, but even their voices are slightly different.
The descend to death of Katherine Pierce is one of the highlights of
the season because of both great writing as well as great acting.
Katherine maybe the thorn in everyone's side, but she helped shaped
them all, pushing them to be the complex characters they are and
Dobrev really shines.
The writing for the season is really
all over the place. When its good, its very good; its touching, its
poignant, its shocking. What's not shocking at this point is the
deaths, that aren't deaths because everyone comes back or the whole
we can't be together because we're bad for each other, but I'm better
with you story line. Luckily for the most part these moments are
fleeting, drowned out in the impending other world destruction, and
big bad rising story line.
There is a lot of soul searching this
season, and further exploration of the characteristics that have come
to define each of the individuals. Whether its Elena's kindness,
Stefan's balance and compassion, Damon's selfishness and selflessness
or Caroline's journey from bubblehead to caring individual, its these
aspects that are so beautifully done that keeps fans begging for
more.
The Blu-Ray is pretty flawless. It
arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded image by WB. Both
the intense dark visuals and bright colorful daylight ones look clean
in high definition. The show is certainly well produced, and the
flashback scenes with their heavily detailed sets look especially
impressive.
The audio is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
presentation is almost as good as the visual quality, which is a good
thing since the dialogue is so crucial. Although there is plenty of
loud action and whispered conversation, there is a great separation
between channels, so no blaring noise, or reaching for the remote.
There aren't a ton of extras, but the
ones included on both the DVD and Blu-Ray really do make this set a
must own for fans.
2013 Comic Con Panel is easily a
highlight of the set. Creator/showrunner Julie Plec, staff writer
Caroline Dries, and the cast members Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian
Somerhalder, Candice Accola, and Kat Graham share in some comic-con
fun with the audience and answer questions prior to the premiere of
Season 5. There are no big reveals, but the playfulness between
castmates makes it a fun watch.
I Know What You Did... in the Last 100
Episode is a short featurette celebration with the cast and crew over
the huge milestone achieved of reaching the 100th episode.
To The Other Side and Back featurette
delves into the mythology of the Veil, that other place where most of
the characters depart to.
A Day in the Afterlife is a
behind-the-scenes rundown of filming with Kat Graham taking viewers
on a filming tour.
There are the normal Deleted Scenes are
provided for seven episodes of the season.
Second Bite: Gag Reel is the standard
goofed-up forgotten lines clip-show.
Although in the fifth season, the
Vampire Diaries shows no signs of slowing, and remains one of the
most popular shows on the CW. With stunning costumes, compelling
writing and exceptional performances it remains to be a show not to
be missed. Now is the perfect time to pick up the DVD. It gives those
who missed out a chance to catch-up, and everyone else the perfect
opportunity watch it again before the show comes back the the sixth
season on October 2nd.
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