‘Your Honor’: Season 1 Blu-Ray Review – Bryan Cranston Once Again Impresses In A Thrilling Crime Drama

Bryan Cranston stars as a New Orleans judge who is forced to confront his own deepest convictions when his son is involved in a hit and run that embroils an organized crime family. As a storm of vengeance, lies and deceit threatens to engulf the entire city, Michael Desiato faces a series of increasingly impossible choices and discovers just how far an honest man will go to save his son’s life. From the producers of The Good Wife and The Night Of.

For thoughts on Your Honor: The Complete First Season, please check out our previous article here. 

Video Quality

Your Honor: The Complete First Season comes to Blu-Ray with a top notch 1080p presentation that makes you grateful that this was not kept to a DVD-only release. The series is filled with stylish cinematography and textured environments that are presented with perfect clarity on this disc. There are many situations that could have potentially been a hazy mess if not for the crispness of high definition. Black levels are very deep and never lose the edges of the objects on screen. 

From the more brightly lit scenes to the prevalence of darker, shadowy sequences, the skin tones and facial details are incredibly rendered in a way that brings the most nuance out of the cinematography. Colors from the environments and outfits pop off the screen. No instances of compression artifacts crept up during the viewing. This is what you hope for from a modern series in high definition. 

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that is quite rewarding. The dialogue primarily stays anchored in front center channels 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 overpowers any exchanges. This show allows for some robust environmental effects that keep the surround speaker filled with precise sounds. 

There is some welcome ambient activity in the rear channels, especially during moments where tension is building to a nice payoff. The series music brings a vital element to the atmosphere that fills up the room on this track. In certain key moments, there is some power to the low end that is appreciated. Fans will have no issues with this excellent audio experience. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided. 

Special Features

• Deleted Scenes: There are nearly eight minutes of unused material provided here including scenes with Michael and his son after the accident, Jimmy and his children and more. 

Final Thoughts

Your Honor can at times feel like a hodge-podge of prestige television tropes all swirled together into one tight narrative, but it executes what it is attempting at such a high degree of competency that we argue that it is not a bad thing. We have seen many of these developments before, but the way in which the arc builds and coalesces over these ten episodes is pretty riveting television. Bryan Cranston has a high bar to clear after starring in one of the greatest television shows of all time, but he delivers top tier work in his return to the small screen. CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount have released a Blu-Ray featuring a gorgeous A/V presentation and a couple of deleted scenes. This series has been a bit overlooked during its run, but it makes for a captivating viewing experience if you are in the mood for high drama. Recommended  

Your Honor: The Complete First Season 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: CBS 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.