Bill Pullman stars as Detective Harry Ambrose in the hit crime anthology The Sinner. Each self-contained season follows Det. Ambrose as he investigates a mysterious crime that seemingly defies explanation. Executive produced by Jessica Biel, the critically acclaimed thriller has earned multiple award nominations, including an Emmy nomination, two Golden Globe nominations, and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

In the first season, Detective Harry Ambrose delves into the past of Cora Tannetti, a troubled woman, to determine why she stabbed a man to death.

In the second season, Ambrose returns to his hometown after a young boy named Julian Walker confesses to poisoning a couple and learns secrets that the inhabitants are determined to keep buried.

In the third season, Ambrose investigates a fatal car accident in Upstate New York and uncovers a much larger and disturbing case behind it.

In the fourth and last season, the now-retired Ambrose travels to northern Maine to recover from the previous case. A tragedy occurs there involving the daughter of a prominent family, and he is recruited to help the investigation.

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Video Quality

The Sinner: The Complete Series comes to Blu-Ray with a terrific 1080p presentation that allows the series to look the best it possibly can. Each of the four seasons consists of eight episodes spread across two discs per season. No egregious instances of compression artifacts crept up throughout this journey. Black levels are strong and never lose the edges of the objects on screen. Many environments could have potentially been a murky nightmare if not for the benefits of high definition.

From the sporadic brightly lit scenes to the prevalence of darker, shadowy exchanges, the skin tones and facial details are carefully rendered in a way that brings the most nuance out of the cinematography. The series delivers a moody, cinematic palette that transcends normal network television fare. The transfer allows for textured environments that are presented with impeccable clarity on this disc. Colors from the environments and clothing pop off the screen. Universal has treated this prestige series with respect by presenting it in high definition.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray sets come with a favorable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that unleashes the sonic nuances of the series. The music brings a pivotal element to the narrative and overall atmosphere that saturates the room on this track. While not a notable aspect of the track, some real texture comes through on the low end to help enhance special moments. There is some rich ambient activity in the rear channels, especially during moments where tension is building to a nice payoff.

Dialogue largely stays fixated in the front center channel and comes through clearly at all times. The track does an admirable job of making sure neither sound effects nor the score or music ever overshadow any exchanges. This show provides some excellent environmental effects that keep the surround speaker filled with dynamic sounds. This audio experience delivers everything it needs to. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.

Special Features

Season One

Deleted Scenes: There are four minutes of unused material presented in HD provided with DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio.

Season Two – Four

There are no special features provided for the remaining seasons.

Final Thoughts

The Sinner is one of the first shows to really put USA Network on the level of more critically acclaimed networks following a successful run of their “Characters Welcome” era. The first season was especially riveting with the second outing nearly as captivating. The third season became a bit tedious despite the talent at hand, but thankfully the final season finished the series out on a strong note. If you love a good mystery-thriller, this series delivers very consistently with great writing and strong performances. Universal Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray set featuring a fantastic A/V presentation and some good special features. Recommended

The Sinner: The Complete Series can be purchased on Blu-Ray directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Universal Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.