It's been a momentous spring, to be sure, what with Murder on Parade, the Complete Eighth Season DVD set, and the UK release of the Complete Seventh Season DVD set all coming out at the same time. And don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled about all of this. But the Complete Eighth Season, the subject of this post, did leave me disappointed in certain respects, and apprehensive over the possibility that after steadily increasing in quality, the DVD sets may have peaked and taken a downward turn.
There are no extras in this DVD set, you see. There were in the last couple of sets - interviews, and retrospectives - but nothing at all in this set. And why are there no extras? A full six months has elapsed since Season Seven was released; could no bonus materials be found in all that time?
The other change - not as disappointing, but not terribly reassuring - is that on the menu pages there are no screen capture images. Pick an episode, and unlike in all the other previously released sets there is no opportunity to jump to a specific chapter within that episode. Overall, there seems to be a general lack of effort shown in the preparation of this DVD set. On the plus side, at least they have not devolved to the point that they have gone back to those awful double-sided DVDs.
I suppose we'll have to see what the Complete Ninth Season brings.
