Five great deals on big ticket DVD/Blu-ray box sets
Digital distribution is triggering massive price cuts for big-ticket DVD and Blu-ray collections. Here are five great sets jammed with bonus features.
Online streaming services and digital download purchases have opened up a world of new options for the discerning TV and movie fan. It's easier than ever, these days, to get what you want when you want it -- via your friendly neighborhood Internet connection.
But the flip side of that coin is that digital distribution is also triggering massive price cuts for certain kinds of DVD and Blu-ray collections. These big-ticket box sets -- typically released just before the holidays -- are jammed with bonus materials you can't get online, and aimed at hardcore fans of specific TV or film series. Shop around in the off season and you can find some serious deals. Here we look at five "big box" collections for those who still like to keep a personal library of shows you can actually, you know, put back on your shelf.
Seinfeld: The Complete Series (DVD) —$430
Seinfeld is, of course, a pop culture masterpiece and arguably the greatest TV sitcom ever made. But this well-crafted and exhaustive DVD set clues you in as to how and why it was so good, with more than 100 hours of excruciating minutia, behind-the-scenes details, mini-documentaries, bloopers and deleted scenes. It's a masterclass in TV comedy genius. You can get individual Seinfeld episodes online via Hulu and other vectors, but serious fans and scholars should consider archiving this show on disc -- it's the sort of thing you can dip into for years. Be sure to track down the high-quality original DVD set released in 2007 (in the black case), not the repackaged version put out in 2013 (blue case).
Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection (Blu-ray) — $78
Nobody makes movies like Quentin Tarantino makes movies, although a curious number of people continue to try. This meaty box set from 2012 collects eight of his films -- Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds -- along with five hours of special features, including the fascinating retrospective documentary 20 Years of Filmmaking. Tarantino movies should be savored on high-definition home theater systems, if you can, and the technical specs on this Blu-ray set are top-notch.
The Sopranos: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) — $95
With the advent of TV series collections, online and on disc, the phenomenon of binge-watching has become a pleasant epidemic. And if you're looking for a serious binge-watching project, you can't beat The Sopranos. The show's long, swerving dramatic arcs are thrilling to follow in three-to-five hour chunks. Issued late last year, this top-shelf box set collects all broadcast episodes over 28 discs with an avalanche of new material in which cast, crew, celebrities and scholars discuss the series. You also get lost scenes, backstage details, and 25 episodes with audio commentaries. This is luxury binge watching.
Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection — $126
Another one for serious film nerds, the 10-disc Blu-ray set Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection is the definitive artifact, so far, celebrating one of cinema's greatest filmmakers. The handsomely packaged set includes eight films -- Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut -- plus two new documentaries and a 78-page hardcover photo book. Like Tarantino, Kubrick is a master stylist whose visual and aural compositions are best appreciated with high-definition video and sound.
30 Rock: Seasons 1-7 Bundle (DVD) — $80
Tina Fey's workplace sitcom 30 Rock is, in my slightly obsessive opinion, the best-written TV comedy in the history of television. The show packs its jokes in dense layers and no comedy rewards repeat viewings like 30 Rock -- you'll hear new lines and bits with every additional pass. You can get individual episodes via Netflix, but if you really want to dig into the clockwork precision of it all, the DVD collections add deleted scenes and episode commentaries plus a good (but not great) selection of bonus materials. Be aware that this package offered through Amazon is technically a bundle and not a box set. It's simply a stack of the individual season collections, with a price that's a little better than what you'd get purchasing individually. There's no word yet on a bonafide box set from the 30 Rock team, so this is currently the next best thing.
