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Blu-Ray : For Fans Only
Ranking:
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Release Date: April 19th, 2016 Movie Release Year: 2015

Haven: The Final Season

Overview -

For five eye-opening seasons, fans tuned in to the hit Syfy series Haven, based on Stephen King's novella "The Colorado Kid." Following former FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and her supernatural exploits in the small town of Haven, Maine, the series was hailed as "a must see show!" by Entertainment Weekly.

Haven: The Final Season presents hometown heroes Audrey, Nathan (Lucas Bryant), Duke (Eric Balfour) and Dwight (Adam Copeland), with challenges unlike any they've experienced before. Across 13 action-packed final episodes, the town of Haven has been cut off from the rest of the world by a mysterious fog bank and is on its own. Through journeys into the past, the future, and the very fabric between worlds, events in Haven hurtle towards a cataclysmic showdown. Will the heroes be able to rid Haven of "the Troubles" forever, or will the town and its inhabitants continue to suffer the curse? Watch and see as tensions rise, allegiances shift and in a harrowing closing chapter, the mystery of "Croatoan" is finally revealed.

OVERALL:
For Fans Only
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
4-Disc Set
Video Resolution/Codec:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
Length:
559
Aspect Ratio(s):
1.78:1
Audio Formats:
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH
Special Features:
Haven Origins: Trust Kills Fear
Release Date:
April 19th, 2016

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

'Haven' had a lot of promise and potential. There were a ton of good moments throughout the series, which started back in 2010 on SyFy that created a very interesting universe that drew similarities to a few big shows on major primetime networks. Personally, I enjoyed the show quite a bit, however, like many shows, things got a bit lazy towards the end of its run, where too many things tried to come to fruition in the final moments. 'Haven' is one of those examples.

Still, this series is one to watch for fans of sci-fi. Two shows come to mind, when comparing 'Haven'. One is 'The X-Files', due to the creature, monster, or paranormal outing of the week, where a couple of law enforcement type of agents go out and investigate and solve the crimes or strange happenings that are going on in the town of Haven. The other show that 'Haven' resembles is 'LOST', in which is creates a fairly expansive universe where more questions are conjured up than answers to why and how things are happening.

The show is based on Stephen King's 'The Colorado Kid' where Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) are partners in law enforcement where something called 'The Trouble' takes over a town. 'The Trouble' are a series of paranormal happenings that cause for a lack of a better word, trouble in the small town of 'Haven'. Audrey and Nathan tend to tackle these strange occurrences in the vein of 'The X-Files’ every week, while taking care of their personal issues.

This final season was split in two parts with each part consisting of thirteen episodes. This is part II and it seems that writers tried to get in everything at the last minute, or at least the final few episodes, which all felt fairly rushed. The series hired William Shatner who plays a character called Croatoan, which if you remember anything from US History class, should tell you some of what you need to know here. He is trying to find a crystal that is important to him, along with Dwight (Adam Copeland, formally Edge from WWE) and Vince (Richard Donat).

Rounding out the main cast is Duke (Eric Balfour), who might be one of the funnier characters of the series. The key word phrase of these last thirteen episodes is “bigger is better”, which doesn’t always work out. There are a ton of twists and turns and reveals, but it all just kind of jumbles together in a rushed manner, which should most of the audience still questioning what really happened.

The performances by everyone involved were for the most part, top notch, however the script and some of the storylines were too ridiculous to become fully invested without laughing. Still, the actors all turn in good performances. These final episodes try to wrap things us nicely, but again, it’s a little lazy and tiny bit rushed. Overall, ‘Haven’ was still a solid show for those who like the sci-fi genre.

The Blu-Ray: Vital Disc Stats

‘Haven’ The Final Season comes with four 50GB Blu-ray Discs from Entertainment One that are Region A Locked. There is no insert included, nor a digital download. The cover art is reversible that contains episode information as well as the bonus features. The discs are cased in a hard, blue plastic case with a cardboard sleeve.

Video Review

Ranking:

'Haven: The Final Season' comes with a good 1080p HD transfer presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The series in my opinion has looked better visually since 2010. Being on SyFy, there are some budget limitations for sure, but this final season looks the best out of any season. That being said, there are still some small issues. One of the bigger issues is that the overall look still looks somewhat soft and not crystal clear at all times. Sure, some closeups in good lighting reveal the makeup effects, and facial lines, but other than that, there is a softness to it all.

Wider shots, particularly the heavier CG scenes tend to look fake and blurry. It doesn't help that a dense fog covers the town of Haven here either, because it just makes things softer. Colors look good for the most part, however there is a greenish tint to the show with very little bright and bold primary colors bursting out. Black levels are deep and inky for the most part and skin tones are rather natural. There were some minor issues with banding and video noise, but it wasn't a huge problem. All that being said, this final season still looks good and even better than previous seasons.

Audio Review

Ranking:

This release comes with a nice lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, and since this is the final season, there are a ton of heavier action climaxes that bring the sound level to the top. Sound effects are full and pack a punch in these scenes. Each noise is well-balanced and realistic with some great directionality. The strange noises of the paranormal activities are robust and cover the entire speaker realm nicely.

The ambient noises of the town and other paranormal sounds are full of life and come pouring through the rear speakers, particularly during the heavier action moments. Dialogue is always crystal clear and easy to follow, although I did notice that the dialogue sounded a little low during some of the heavier action scenes. The score sounds good and the bass kicks into high gear from time to time. There were no issues with any pops, cracks, hiss, or high shrills either, leaving this audio presentation with solid marks.

Special Features

Ranking:

Audio Commentaries - There are thirteen different commentaries here, one for each episode. Pretty much the entire cast and crew show up on these commentaries, as they discuss each episode in detail with the overarching story lines, themes, characters, and even some fun anecdotes from the set. Fans of the show will enjoy these.

Mythology Refresher (HD, 4 Mins.) - This is basically a recap of the key story arcs.

'Haven' Origins: Lovers Conquered All (HD, 9 Mins.) - Here is some backstory to some of the characters set in Colonial times.

'Haven' Origins: Trust Kills Fear (HD, 11 Mins.) - More backstory of some of the characters set during WWII.

'Haven' Revisted: Livestream with Cast and Crew (HD, 12 Mins.) - The cast talks about some of the funnier moments they remember from filming.

'Haven' Archives: Entries from the Crocker Diaries (HD, 7 Mins.) - These are some particular moments from the 17th century diary of Humphrey Crocker.

Inside 'Haven' Featurettes (HD, 41 Mins.) - Each episode has a short and brief behind the scenes featurette with the cast and crew discussing the story and filming process.

Interviews (HD, 44 Mins.) - Most of the cast is interviewed in great length about working on the show and their characters.

Final Thoughts

‘Haven’ was a decent sci-fi series that went big on a small budget. The mythology and characters they came up with were expansive and a lot of fun. With twists, turns, good action set pieces, and great characters and actors, this show was like the little sci-fi series that could. That being said, ‘Haven’ had some issues throughout, but overall, it still stands tall. These last thirteen episodes was more or less a jumbled mess or rushing to get everything wrapped up nicely, but instead, it just conjured up more questions. The video and audio presentations were both good here and the extras were plentiful and worth watching for fans of the show. Recommended for fans of the series!