Blindspot: The Complete Third Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Blindspot: The Complete Third Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
2016’s Blindspot was a fun, and highly addicting, TV series where the vast majority of police procedural’s were all the same thing. It had a bit of a sci-fi twist to it, with hints of a deeper overarching conspiracy, as well as some fun new characters that made it lean towards an action show more than anything else. The funny thing is, the longer I watch the show through the seasons I realize just how much of your standard police procedural is in the design. The second season picked up right where the first ended with Jane Doe finally (Jaimie Alexander) learning the secret of her tattoos, and just WHERE she came from. Only thing was, this big “who’s pulling Jane’s strings?” question is a slight bit anti-climactic, with a terrorist organization who wants to reset the United States back to ground zero to weed out the political and bureaucratic corruption. Strangely enough, we wrapped up all of the clues, all of the tattoos, and all of the infamous terrorist organization, leaving Jane alone in peace.

Well, not in total peace. From what I understand the show runners were worried that the series wouldn’t be renewed for a third season, so they wrapped everything up in the second season, but still gave us the OPTION of a third season with the “flash forward” moment at the end of the final episode. Yup, you guessed it, Jane has new tattoos (now shown under ultraviolet light), and the FBI needs her back to help solve the crimes that these tattoos foretell. This time she and FBI agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) are married and the FBI gets a little bit of a makeover (including bringing in a LOT more of fan favorite criminal, Rich Dotcom, to help with investigations), with one mission. To hunt down the crimes related to her tattoos, and the terrorist organization’s one loose end to justice. Roman (Luke Mitchell), Jane’s adopted brother, to Justice before he causes anymore harm.

After three seasons of looking back at Blindspot I have to admit that there is much more police procedural tropes in the series than I was initially hoping for. The first season opened up so many questions, and had a really neat twist with the amnesia and tattoos. However, this twist is also the one that hampers the show’s believability at times. The idea that somehow all these tattoos were hidden on Janes Body was intriguing from Season One. We didn’t know what they were, just that they had ties to upcoming crimes. Digging deeper and deeper netted us more clues into Jane’s past and got us closer to finding out WHO was pulling her strings. In season 2 we found that out, with Jane getting her memory back as well, but the creators didn’t change and adapt the show to meet that understanding. Instead they continued to use the tattoo “gimmick” (all of these police procedural’s have a gimmick that makes it different than all the others) to push the single episodes alone. Even though the scope of the tattoos had already been reached, and the omnipotence of Sandstorm for predicting them all gets a little wince worthy as time goes on. Season Three continues on with that pattern, as the showrunners have realized that we’re here for the people, not the setup for each episode. Yup, that means that we get MORE tattoos, this time hidden by ultraviolet light!

All eye rolling aside, I actually really like Blindspot. The gimmicks of the tattoos has long since lost its luster, but we’re here for the individual episode of the weeks and the actual characters. Shows like this live and die by their character development, and in this area of writing Blindspot does quite well. Kurt and Jane’s relationship has been fleshed out pretty well over the last two years, but their chemistry is still so undeniable that it’s easy to see why people like them together. They are fierce, tough, and completely human with their foibles and stumblings. They even manage to bypass the infamous cliché of character arcs dying badly after the two romantic leads hook up (otherwise known as “Lois and Clark Syndrome”), something which is a tough thing to pull off historically.

However, you can’t live and die JUST by your leads. The supporting characters in a show like this fill in the cracks and add the mortar for the rest of the show by smoothing everything out. Agent Zapata (Audrey Esparza) and Agent Reade (Rob Brown) also get to spread their wings this seasons, showing much more depth and given much more to do character wise this year. Parker (Ashley Johnson) is still adorably cute and fun as the tech nerd, and the show even pulled in Rich DotCom as a more permanent guest star for the show’s comedic timing (a good choice, as he was the highlight villain of the last two seasons).




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Blindspot has followed the pattern of several other WB produced shows over the years and now has shifted over to DVD for the main market, and Blu-ray via Warner's "Warner Archive" MOD project (Manufactured On Demand), thus this will be the first season that I review as DVD instead of Blu-ray. However, if you've watched any of the first two seasons on Blu-ray or DVD you know exactly what you're getting. The Arri Alexa shot show looks very nice on DVD, especially given the full 4 DVD-9 discs given to the 22 episodes. The FBI field office is given the light blue overtones, while the rest of the outside world is much more natural in color. The colors are deeply saturated and the well done digital photography lends itself very nicely to impeccable detail levels. The show still has a mild amount of softness to it that has been present from season to season, and format to format, as well as a bit of black crush in the darker shots. Besides the softness that comes and goes throughout the series, I really can't find fault with this season. It looks great, is well detailed and the epitome of modern television shows. Meaning excellent picture without even having to try.







Audio:

The 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track for season 3 sounds as good as previous seasons did that I reviewed, but just with a slight dip in the aggression level (this is the first time reviewing the lossy Dolby Digital track vs. the Blu-ray's 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless track), which is most likely due to the change from lossless to lossy audio from the DVD vs. the Blu-ray. I still adore that the action oriented show is a great bass fest, filled with crushing mid range and some deep low end during the action shots. Vocals are crisp and cleanly located up front (not much to complain about there), and the surrounds get some hefty use with gunshots, the chirping of the FBI field station, and the copious amounts of wide open city moments, making it a fully encompassing track. As I mentioned above, this 5.1 mix feels a little bit less aggressive and "hot" compared to previous seasons, but I'm feeling this more to be an issue with Dolby Digital lossy tracks vs. the lossless awesomeness of the Blu-ray (which can be found on the Warner Archive Blu-ray though).
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Extras:

• Surveillance On Set: Agent Zapata
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel

Final Score: ​

Blindspot: The Complete Third Season has its ups and downs, but at the end of the day is very similar to season 2. The tattoos push the story along and if you can overlook the hilarious ridiculousness of that trope, the series itself it quite a lot of fun to watch. The chemistry is top notch, the action is great, and the story lines fun. It’s not as in depth and complex of a series as I had hoped coming from the incredible 1st season, but seasons 2 and 3 have proven the show to be a solid action/procedural show in this day and age where every police procedural looks and feels the same. Warner Brothers is following their pattern of putting high profile shows on Blu-ray and DVD, while their midrange shows like Blindspot, Riverdale, The Originals etc, on DVD for the main market, but still pressing Blu-ray releases through their MOD “Warner Archive” line (which is sold exclusively online through Amazon, Warner Archine themselves and select online retailers). This DVD will be available anywhere home video is sold, but if you’d like to continue watching the show on Blu-ray, check online. Recommended as a fun watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Jaimie Alexander, Rob Brown
Created by: Martin Gero
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Latin Spanish, Thai, Korean
Studio: Warner
Rated: NR
Runtime: 990 Minutes
DVD Release Date: August 21st, 2018

Recommendation: Fun Watch