abby82 | Sooo, about the Forever Knight: The Complete Series box set (Reply)

Let's see a show of hands if you were eagerly awaiting the new Forever Knight complete series box set.

I know I was.

The artwork looked very promising and while Mill Creek itself has a less than stellar reputation when it comes to their products, I was willing to give them a fair shake. After all, they acquired the rights to Quantum Leap and released a complete blu-ray collection with almost all the original music. That for me is admirable. Due to expensive music rights issues, the original DVD release only had a handful of the original songs. They also got the rights to Friday Night Lights, another favorite of mine, and their release was respectable.

So they get Forever Knight and while it's not a blu-ray release, I'm rightfully excited. There was of course the pretty, pretty cover art to admire.

The good news, unfortunately stops there.

Inside you will not find your typical slim digipak snap case like other repackaged series. Instead, we get a two sided piece of cardboard with a slip for a disc in the middle. Wut? In total there are six pieces of cardboard and a total of 12 discs. To open the box you have to lift the the flap from the top of the box and peer inside to see the cardboard disc holders. I found two unboxings online here and here if you're interested.

The discs themselves are nice. They list the episodes contained in the disc, as well as the season. The Toronto skyline is displayed elegantly in red on the lower left bottom quadrant. Each season has four discs.

It's just disappointing. They were so close to having a lovely release. It's almost like they spent almost all their money on the key art that they completely forgot about the case for the discs.

The initial menu is...interesting. Okay, it's rather unattractive. I get what they were trying to do. The cross motif from the original release is present in this release but honestly they should have just kept it simple. The eyes are just ugly creepy. Forever Knight as a show had some style to it. I would never use the word ugly to describe it. Instead, it makes me think of the artwork for 28 Days Later. That's right, zombies instead of vampires. By this point, they've already got you're money so the interior aesthetics don't really matter as much as the exterior ones. And of course it's still Forever Knight and Forever Knight is just so good. Hopefully people won't be turned off by Mill Creek dropping the ball in the last couple of yards and give the show a shot.

If you're looking to downsize your DVD collection and want something to take up less shelf space, then this one's for you. When on the shelf, the spine is about 3/4ths the size of the season 1 box set and a smidgen shorter. And it is an attractive box. While I like the way the trilogy of the original releases look next to each there, this box is just really attractive.

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