- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Subtitles: English
- Rating: Not Rated
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Discs: 3
- Studio: A&E Home Video
- Blu-ray Release Date: March 29, 2011
- List Price: $49.95
[amazon-product align=”right”]B0049TC8GM[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Gangland: The Final Season on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Series
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
The Series
[Rating:3.5/5]
If I were an optimist I’d say that The History Channel’s long-running Gangland series came to a close because they’d either run out of criminal entities to profile or that such behavior was on the decline. I’m not an optimist, however, so I’m more inclined to believe that after seven seasons of plowing the seedy underbelly of American society for every organization of misfits, racists, drug dealers, murderers, rapists, pimps, and thieves, the series just became far too repetitive.
Going through the fifteen episodes of the final season, or Season Seven, of Gangland is familiar territory for anyone who has seen the series before. For those unfamiliar, what you’ll see is a series of individual episodes dedicated to one gang or another from across the nation. Neo-Nazi white supremacists, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Mexican-American gangs, even Native American gangs, etc. What they all have in common is a penchant for violence, drug dealing, and rivalries with other gangs.
This season profiles, among other gangs, the famous Crips, focusing on the gang’s East Coast chapter, and their bloody rivalry with the East Coast Bloods – it’s truly stomach turning. The season also has a special episode hosted by rappers Ice T and Snoop Dog highlighting the most notorious gangsters from the series past six seasons.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The video quality of the variously sourced 1080i/60 MPEG-4 encodement is pretty much the same as all the previous Gangland releases. The HD interview segments look crystal clear and detailed with strong, natural flesh tones, but much of the rest of the imagery is sourced from archival footage and old photgraphs that bring image quality down dramatically. That is unavoidable, I suppose, and the encodement and transfer do there best not to add anymore issues to the image’s reproduction.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack is pretty straightforward, focusing more on the dialogue and stentorian narration than anything else. The score sounds a bit scratchy in the high frequencies, but it is so low in the mix that never really becomes an issue.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Gangland arrives with zip, zilch, nada in the supplemental department. Not even some extra footage of a drive-by or beat down.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
Gangland is a voyeuristic ride through the violent side of US society that has existed from the very formation of the nation and has only gotten more and more emboldened over the centuries. If you want to take a peek out from behind the safety of your gated community, then this is the package for you.
Additional Screen Captures:
[amazon-product align=”right”]B0049TC8GM[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Gangland: The Final Season on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Series
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
