The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series follows the intricate and magical love story between Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem…time travel.
Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, the series stars Rose Leslie as Clare Abshire, Theo James as Henry DeTamble, Desmin Borges as Gomez, and Natasha Lopez as Charisse.
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Video Quality
The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series comes to DVD with 6 episodes over 2 discs, which offers a grand amount of room to avoid compression issues. As we believe with most HBO shows, this series should have made the cut for a Blu-Ray release, as some of the imagery would look marvelous in HD. Due to the limitations of the format, these episodes are not going to fare as well as they do in high definition streaming on HBO Max, but they are more than acceptable within the limitations of the DVD format.
Skin tones appear natural, and close ups look quite good with a bit of texture within the setting and outfits. Colors are one of the stronger aspects of this presentation as they radiate with a nice vibrancy. These hues especially stand out in some of the vegetation and within clothing. Shadow detail is one of the main elements which struggles a bit in the underwhelming black levels that lose distinct edge detail. There is some decent depth within the more brightly lit settings. It is a fair bet that we will ever get a Blu-Ray release, so this stands as a fine backup for the series if you do not want to trust HBO Max to keep it around.
Audio Quality
This DVD comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 track that showcases this series quite admirably within its format limitations. Dialogue comes through clearly with a focus in the center channel and some stretch into the surrounds. The rear speakers create a three-dimensional atmosphere as the sound of various environments create a distinct soundscape. Sound effects and ambient chatter never interfere with the dialogue causing lost information. The music flows through the room with an unwavering fidelity at all times. The mix establishes a formidable sense of directionality so that nothing ever feels like it is coming from the wrong place. While this show would work better with a lossless track, it does everything it can within its limitations on DVD. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.
Special Features
- Chapters Of The Relationship: Every episode is given a post-show breakdown in which the cast and creative team discuss the plot developments of the episode, production details, perspectives on evolving relationships and themes, and much more that gives some decent context to what you just watched.
- Episode One (4:02)
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- Episode Two (6:24)
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- Episode Three (4:37)
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- Episode Four (5:30)
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- Episode Five (5:13)
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- Episode Six (5:21)
- Anatomy Of A Scene – Making The Car Crash: A five-minute featurette which takes a look at the pivotal car crash that shaped Henry and how it was realized on screen.
- Anatomy Of A Scene – Filming The Housemate Dinner: A five-minute look at the filming of an important dinner in episode four, how it fits into the overall story and how the production brought this to life.
- The Time Traveler’s Wife – A Love For All Time: A nearly nine-minute exploration of the core love story at the center of this narrative and the challenges faced by the two main characters.
- Rose & Theo: Uncensored – Would You Rather…?: An amusing three-minute game with the two leads answering “tough” questions.
- Time Travel Explained: A four-minute examination of the time-travel element of the story and how it impacts beyond just the person who is popping in and out of time.
Final Thoughts
The Time Traveler’s Wife is a text that has a lot of interesting ideas but is difficult to translate to a visual medium without a few hiccups. The movie had its fair share of issues, but one thing it definitely had over this television adaptation is the chemistry between the two leads. Rose Leslie and Theo James are fine actors, but they never really sell the longing and passion of this romance necessary to make audiences overlook some of the more eyebrow-raising moments of the narrative. Desmin Borges makes more of an impression on the audience than the focal characters themselves, which is a bit of a problem. The series is not a complete failure, but it has some major flaws that makes it difficult to love. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has delivered a DVD with a pretty good A/V presentation for the format and some solid special features that fans will appreciate. If you are a fan, you will want the security of physical media in case this ever disappears from streaming, but a Blu-Ray release should have been provided as an option.
The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series is currently available to purchase on DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. 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.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.