Bionic Woman R1 DVD review.

Well, the Region 1 Bionic Woman DVD set hit the street this week, mid-March, and if you're wondering what it's like, we're here to give you the low down on it.

As you know the 2-disc set contain all 8 episodes of the series so far and it is a topic of debate on the internet whether we will get any more episodes or not. All the episodes are presented in 1:78:1 format and English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Nice. While we're not techno-geesk, the transfers looks good, with clear picture and sound on all episodes, but this should be expected from a series that was shot for High Def. TV transmission.

The main menu for each disc is animated with a nice montage of scenes from various episodes. From here you can navigate into the subtitles screen, or the BonusFeatures, more on these later. There is a redundant SneakPeeks section with trailers other NBC/Universal movies or shows.

The episodes are broken across the 2 discs with the Pilot. Paradise Lost, Sisterhood and Faceoff on disc 1, and The Education of Jaime Sommers, The List, Trust Issues and Do Not Disturb on disc 2. Disc 1 also includes the set's only comentary track, by Executive Producer David Eick, whilst Disc 2 has The making of the car Crash, Real Life Bionics, The Stunts and Profiles.

EXTRAS
Well, a mixed bag here. The audio commentary by David Eick is deifnitely the disc's best feature with an elighteneing and entertaining talk by the show's executive producer. David reveals that this was one of the most frustrating projects he has worked on and you get the impression that too many cooks really did spoil the broth. With additiona people coming on board the project to intervention from studio executives, control of the Pilot and subsequent series was mor eby commitee than anything else. In one revealing section david niavely says he hoped the project was going to remain under the radar during the Pilot phase but he suddenyl found it above the radar and attarcting ALOT of attention. How a many of his experince could have possibly thought a project like this, with a series that is almost as popular with fans 30 years after it's first transmission would not garner attention is almost beyond beleif. Without giving too much awaym David talks about the challneges of bringing the Pilot in on time and within budget, his disatisfaction with some of the final results. but his pleasure at the casting decsions which were made: Michelle, Miguel, Molly and Will Yun Lee.

The other extras are a huge disapointment, merely being brought across from the show's web site and are purely standard EPK [Electronic Press Kit] fare, most lasting no more than 2 minutes and all from the early days of the show, before the series aired. It would have been nice to hear the cast and crew talking about their experiences on the show and new material for hard-core fans who have already dissected the official web site.

PACKAGING
A the plastic DVD case gets an identical slip case cover, which has an intersting picture on the back of Michelle lifting up a car with her Bionic arm - something I don't remember seeing in any episode or previous publicity material.

The discs themselves are a plain black with white lettering. No sign of any kind of booklet.

OVERALL
Fans will buy this to get pristine episodes of their show and I would definitely recomend it for the commentary track alone which will have fans smiling and frowning in equal measure. The extras are a definite wasted opportunity to give the set some extra sales value. No trailers, no exclusive interviews, no photo gallery. The set has a rushed feel about it and one where they wanted to put some extras on it, but not spend any more money doing so.

Should you buy it? I would say yes, if you;re a fan, but it's unlikely to convert the casual viewer. The Region 2 version is due out in May and we'll let you know if there are any differences or additions to this one.