Big Little Lies Blu-ray review

Aug 12, 2017- Permalink

Big Little Lies, the HBO dark comedy-drama miniseries written by TV icon David E. Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, is now available to bring home on Blu-ray. HBO Canada gave us a look at the release, which is based on the novel by Liane Moriarty. The miniseries, whose actors like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgård are all nominated for Emmys, takes us to Monterey, California, where the sand and surf and well-heeled mothers are at the centre of a murder. Fans loved peeling away the layers to get to the truth in the seven episodes of season one.

The 1080p Blu-ray is presented in the series’ original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and spans three discs. Vallée and cinematographer Yves Bélanger shot mostly with natural light but the video presentation doesn’t lose any of its detail or sharpness, though some night scenes tend to have a bit of a bluish hue. Scenes have a bit of gauziness to them, but I file that under a style that Bélanger and Vallée were going for as opposed to a problem with the video presentation. Black levels are good but not great.

On the audio side of things, viewers get an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack as well as a French DTS 5.1 track and a Spanish DTS 2.0 track. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The surround channels get a good workout and you’re immersed in the landscape’s ambient sound well enough that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re getting hit with salt spray. The dialogue is obviously important when you’re uncovering all the murky details of a mystery and its presentation here is clean and crisp.

In the extras department we get Inside the Episode clips for the show with the cast and crew talking about each episode. There’s also a slightly longer featurette with more commentary.

Great writing, wonderful direction and a solid cast leading us through a mystery where we not only don’t know whodunnit, but to which person it was done to. You’ll love adding Big Little Lies to your home library.