Complete boxed sets released – which to choose?!
The news of two upcoming boxed set releases have come in quick succession this month.
Mill Creek Entertainment The Complete Series – 14th July 2020
*Updated 29 July 2020*
The first is from Mill Creek Entertainment, and is available on both DVD and BluRay from July 14, 2020 with a $75.99 MSRP. (You’ll find it much cheaper at placed like DeepDiscountDVD)
Order from Amazon.com here
Note that the DVD and Bluray have different artwork (The DVD set is the red monkey cover).
The Mill Creek website has some information on the releases. English subtitles/closed captions have been confirmed for all seasons, which has not been available for season 3 and 4 previously. The Bluray set comes on 8 disks.
Special features include: Deleted Scenes Gag Reels Cast Auditions Webisodes Emily Hampshire Improv Speech Podcast Commentary Inside 12 Monkeys Featurette.
While the Bluray is listed as region A, there have been confirmed reports these disks will play on Region B players.
Someone did an unboxing video:
https://youtu.be/fuZ1pP65BBE
ViaVision Ultimate Collection – 19th August 2020
The second announced box set is from ViaVision Entertainment in Australia. This set is due for release on August 19th 2020 and will be available on Bluray only. It has a RRP of AU$149 (about US$100). This is listed as a limited release of just 1000 sets.
This set has got fans quite excited, as it will include a special feature that’s been the holy grail for many avid fans – an A1 size fold out copy of the ‘Word of the Witness’ map.
The set also comes in a hard case, includes the original Twelve Monkeys feature film, and a ‘bonus’ disk of extras.
A word of caution , especially for those that care about having subtitles. The set will come with the previously released season Blurays – which means while Season 1 & 2 are the excellent Universal quality releases, the Season 3 & 4 sets made by ViaVision are more bare-bones, and don’t include English subtitles / Closed Captions. The sets are very different in quality and inclusions.
There is limited information available on their website. The disks will be region free, and the set includes 12 disks in total.
So which one to buy?
Obviously if you want the WotW map, or the collector box, the decision is a no-brainer. However if having season sets that are uniformly encoded, and with English subtitles available is important to you, it looks like Mill Creek will be the way to go.
As Terry Matalas has indicated that each set will come with different (and new) special features, if you’re a seriously committed fan you might want both!
