NCIS: Los Angeles: The Complete Series DVD review

Sep 02, 2023- Permalink

NCIS: Los Angeles premiered on CBS on September 22nd, 2009. Fourteen years and 323 epiosdes later, its successful run on CBS ended on May 21, 2023. The series follows two special agents, Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and Grisha Callen (Chris O’Donnell), who work undercover for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The supporting cast has included Peter Cambor, Daniela Ruah, Adam Jamal Craig, Linda Hunt, Barrett Foa, Eric Christian Olsen, Renée Felice Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Nia Long, Medalion Rahimi, Caleb Castille and Gerald McRaney. Paramount has just released NCIS: Los Angeles: The Complete Series on DVD and I had a chance to take a look.

The fourteen season set is spread over 81 discs which means this hefty package is not only entertainment but also probably qualifies as home workout equipment. And now we answer the inevitable question: “The show is streaming in HD, so why is this a DVD and not a Blu-ray?” The answer is market analysis. Yes, some previous individual season releases were on Blu-ray but Paramount figures that the market for this complete series set is not big enough to warrant Blu-rays and/or really care if it’s in HD. So we get a DVD release, as DVDs still lead physical media sales and are cheaper to manufacture. The video presentation is presented in a 16:9 aspect ratio and is pretty good for DVD. The colours look good and though we don’t get the same deepness of black levels or shadow detail as a Bu-ray, the video presentation is good. There is some artifacting and compression issues here and there but with an 81 disc set the video does have a bit of room to breathe.

On the audio side of things, you have the typical mish-mash of language choices that TV releases have, with no consistency across the whole series. So, seasons 1-2 have English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Dolby Digital, and French 2.0 Dolby Digital. Seasons 3-11 have English 5.1 Dolby Digital and English 2.0 Dolby Digital. Seasons 12-14 have English 5.1 Dolby Digital. As for subtitles, seasons 1-2 have English SDH, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Seasons 3-5 have English SDH, Portuguese and Spanish. Seasons 6-7 have English SDH and Portuguese, while seasons 8-14 just have English SDH. Confusing, huh? As with many TV releases, the 5.1 soundtrack can sometimes be front-heavy, while in other scenes the surrounds do get some use with ambient sounds and action effects. LFE usage is quite good. Dialogue is clear and centred.

The 81 disc set doesn’t come with a digital code for the series, but it is packed with over 17 hours of bonus content including crossover episodes with NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i ,behind-the-scenes pieces and deleted scenes.

If you’re an NCIS: Los Angeles fan, this set has good audio and video and a nice selection of extras. It would be great if it was on Blu-ray, but since they may not happen, fans will love NCIS: Los Angeles: The Complete Series DVD set.