Non-US Blu-ray Releases of TV Series

[phelings]

UK series Hustle is not out on Bluray in the UK or US.
But season 8 - the final season is out on Bluray in Germany.
Might not be too important for US viewers but UK viewers should note that the episodes on the Bluray are the international versions running up to 10 minutes less per episode at just over 50 minutes instead of the 59 minutes in the UK and that's at 25p- so for completeness the UK dvd remains the best option

[phelings]

The Invisible Man release mentioned in the list - is this the 1975 McCallum series or the much later show?
Is the longer version of the pilot just the standard one we have on the US set?

[JamesF]

Rectify Season 2 is on blu in Australia. Only DVD release is coming in June in US.

I asked eOne whether they intend to release Season 3 on Blu-Ray, and sadly they don't. Shame, as their releases of seasons 1 and 2 were great. Fingers crossed the French oblige and their release doesn't have forced subs!

Over a year later, I'm happy to say that the Netherlands has come to Rectify fans' rescue with Blu-Ray releases of season 3 (out now) and 4 (out in August). Neither have the bonus features from the US DVDs, unfortunately, but those are mostly puff pieces, so worth losing in the trade-off to get Blu-Ray versions. I got season 3 yesterday and A/V is very good.

[McCrutchy]

Paramount Germany (via Universal) are releasing the first five seasons of NCIS as an Amazon.de Exclusive on 18 January 2018. It's a 29-disc set for the relatively bargain price of €99,99 (€84,03 without VAT). The only other release of NCIS was a US/Australia Blu-ray of The Twelfth Season. I'm finally going to start watching the show on Blu-ray, after it has yet again been named the most watched drama...in the world.

Amusingly, when that Season 12 Blu-ray was released back in 2015, I resolved to start watching the show, as I don't mind these sorts of highly digestible crime drama series (like Law & Order), so I went to eBay looking for a Season 1-11 DVD bundle. There I found one, for a reasonable price of $111, from a reliable seller in the US, using a stock photo, but registering under the correct UPC (there are loads of DVD configurations for this show in the USA). What I received were eleven individually wrapped slipbox seasons with slimline DVD cases. I popped in the first disc of the first season, and the menus loaded and I selected the first episode. As I often do, I went to check the subtitles with my remote, when, to my surprise, Chinese subtitles appeared, and even though English subtitles were also available, neither were listed in the menus, and I grew concerned. I looked further into the menus and the audio commentary on the pilot, which was listed on the box and in the menus, was not present. A check of the discs in my PC confirmed that all six discs were DVD-5 bootlegs, with suspicious mint marks on the data sides, and a closer look at the packaging revealed it was a not-that-obvious color facsimile, right down to the cardboard slipbox.

The next thing I went to do was to check then then-newest Eleventh Season set. I was totally stunned to find it was an even better bootleg, with all the correct subtitles, extras and audio commentaries in the right places, but still on DVD-5 media, and with suspicious mint marks. I fully believe 9 out of 10 people would have been fooled by these discs, and I would never have known had the first season not erroneously featured Chinese and English subtitles (the legitimate R1 DVD of The First Season has no subtitling). For both seasons, everything had been reproduced in minute detail, including disc art, barcodes and copyright information. The discs did not look like DVD-R media, and as I recall, were not read as DVD-R by my computer, either

Of course, I did what I could, and got in touch with CBS/Paramount. Long story short, these people did not care, even though this seller was selling several of these bundles that were high-quality bootlegs. And not helping matters is that the eBay e-mails I saved do not contain the member name of the seller (since they never had to message me), so I have no idea if the account was ever terminated. But even now, there are listings for that bundle on eBay for shockingly low prices, and I would have to guess these are fakes.

Of course, I bought the Season 12 Blu-ray on release day, and eventually, I did buy the legitimate (I hope) DVD sets from Best Buy after I was refunded, but I still haven't found the time to watch them yet. Now, I'm going to end up waiting for the Blu-ray editions from Germany! Maybe the third time is the charm, here?

[domino harvey]

The first two seasons of the Good Place have been/will be released in the UK on Blu while being DVD-only in the states

[Boosmahn]

Does anyone know if the German Blu-ray releases of Masters of Horror are uncut? bloody-disgusting.com says so but a review on amazon.de (in German, so the translation could be wrong) suggests otherwise.

[solaris72]

The first season of the British series THE HOLLOW CROWN was DVD only in the states but on blu in the UK.

[jazzo]

The first season of Channel 4's astonishing UTOPIA was also a region-free blu-ray. The second (and final) season was, sadly, a b-locked DVD only, though.

The the same thing happened with Shane Meadows' THIS IS ENGLAND television series. This is England '86 and '88 were region-free blu-rays, but the final series ('90) was region-locked. None were released in any region A format.

[The Curious Sofa]

Seasons 1 & 2 of For All Mankind, my favourite science fiction series of the 21st century, have been released on Blu-ray in the UK. Hopefully season 3 will get a release too.

[senseabove]

Over a year later, I'm happy to say that the Netherlands has come to Rectify fans' rescue with Blu-Ray releases of season 3 (out now) and 4 (out in August). Neither have the bonus features from the US DVDs, unfortunately, but those are mostly puff pieces, so worth losing in the trade-off to get Blu-Ray versions. I got season 3 yesterday and A/V is very good.

Anyone know another source for these? There’s a third party seller at this link for S3 that won’t ship to the US, S4 is out of stock, and eBay isn’t turning anything up current or sold…

[domino harvey]

Jim Henson’s Storyteller coming to Blu in Australia - I remember really enjoying this show as a kid, which had a wonderfully eerie quality to it

[knives]

It’s good and daring in a way that Almost always works.

[beamish14]

Jim Henson’s Storyteller coming to Blu in Australia - I remember really enjoying this show as a kid, which had a wonderfully eerie quality to it

Wonderful show. I wish The Jim Henson Hour would get a release as well. That blew my mind as a child

[jazzo]

Just as a side note, because these are only DVDs, but ViaVision has released all four seasons of MY BRILLIANT FRIEND on physical media, and they are region free.

And like with HACKS, HBO only did the first season on disc, then abandoned future season releases.

[The Curious Sofa]

I'd buy the entire series on Blu-ray, but I wouldn't want to watch a show as sumptuously produced as My Brilliant Friend on DVD. I've sung its praises on one of the main TV threads, it can hold its own as one of the greatest drama series ever made. Thanks to period design that rivals Mad Men, but with the advantage of a far larger budget, and a gorgeous score by Max Richter, it's also an audiovisual treat. While its core is the ebb and flow of a complex friendship between two very women, it's also a vast family epic about a working-class community spanning six decades. It's a mystery to me why it's flying under the radar. Maybe it would have received more attention had it been on Netflix rather than HBO, where foreign-language shows aren't doing so well.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I hesitated for the same reason despite the books being on my to-read list for awhile. Relatedly, it took me awhile to find out Veneno is on there. And there was a sequel Dressed In Blue that apparently HBO doesn't look likely to license, sadly.