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Mini-DVD Review: Day Break - The Complete Series (March 25)

Happy Easter everyone! We don't have final ratings for Thursday and also no averages for the first four nights because of the Good Friday/Easter holiday, thus I have decided not to do a ratings report this week. As always you can always get daily final ratings on our General Sitcoms Questions & Discussions message board. So today, I decided to give you all another mini-DVD review! It is an Easter mini-DVD review weekend it seems. I am stunned we got all our planned March 25 mini reviews (Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm, Dennis the Menace, Price is Right and now Day Break today)out of the way before March 25. Today week we take a look at BCI's Day Break: The Complete Series. Day Break was an excellent action-packed drama that was gone too soon. It was the show that was replacing Lost as it went on its hiatus last season in November (2006). Unfortunately, viewers didn't flock in and they missed a wonderful thriller starring Taye Diggs. The show's final episode, which never aired on ABC, even has a conclusion to this story, so fans who gave up or didn't watch, missed out (the show's final 7 episodes aired on abc.com). See my mini-DVD review of Day Break: The Complete Series:

Day Break: The Complete Series (BCI, $39.98) brings us all 13 episodes of the thrilling action-packed Taye Diggs series that relives the same day over and over again. Detective Brett Hopper (Diggs) wakes up in the morning at 6:17am with his girlfriend Rita (Moon Bloodgood) and is later accused of the murder of state attorney Alberto Garza. He will realize that he's been framed. He will run. Then he will wake up and start the day over again. Different things happen each day and Brett has to figure out clues on who killed Garza. It's not your ordinary crime drama, as this is heavily serialized, but very thrilling and exciting. This is one of the shows from 2006-07 season I wish was still around. Anyway, Hopper remember the different things he did on that same day over and over again, but of course no one else does. If someone dies, they are not dead when the day restarts...but if he gets hurt or dies, it will remain. So if he dies, it is all over. What will happen? You'll have to see yourself, if you haven't already.
Let's now move on to the packaging. BCI has done a very good job. The box holds three slim cases inside. The box's cover art features Taye Diggs followed by the Day Break logo, the Complete Series mention, followed by a cast photo on the bottom. Surrounding the big picture of Taye are nice little images in the background. The color sceheme is like yellowish, similar to a sunrise. The back of the box is also great. We get a quote from The Hollywood Reporter on top, followed by a nice synopsis of the series. Nice photos of Rita, Andrea (Victoria Pratt), Chad (Adam Baldwin), and Spivak (Mitch Pileggi) surround the synopsis. Below that we have more photos...Jennifer (Meta Golding), Choi (Ian Anthony Dale), Brett, Damien (Ramon Rodriguez), Fencik (Joe Nieves) and Buchalter (michael McGrady)...wow they got the entire cast on this on the back...very cool. I advise you to view this website to find out details on all the characters, because there is a lot! Below that is the list of the special features. And below that we are told that this set includes 7 episodes never aired on network television. Inside the box are the three slim cases and a nice episode booklet. The booklet is four pages, counting the cover and back. The front cover has the cast and is similar in style to the cover art. Pages 2 and 3 gives us a disc-by-disc breakdown of what episodes are on each disc. We also are given the audio commentaries list for each episode. Every episode has commentary...very good job by BCI. The back of the booklet has another cast photo and credits for the production of the commentaries. Moving on to the slim cases. Get it slim? As in Danny "Slim" Yan. Anyway, each slim case features a character on the front and back of the case. Case 1 has Brett/Rita. Case 2 has Andrea/Spivak. Case 3 has Chad/Jennifer. The episodes for each slim case are listed on the back below the character image. When we open the case, nice promotional images from the show are in the background Disc artwork is very nice as well. Slim case one has disc one and the artwork on the disc is Brett and Jennifer. Slim case two has disc two and the artwork on the disc is Rita and Brett. Slim case three holds discs three and four. Disc three's disc artwork has Chad and Brett. Disc four's artwork has Andrea and Chad.
The menu screen is also very nice. It starts off with the famous sunrise. Then we get a yellow background, similar to the box art. We have a picture of Brett Hopper with a video on the bottom left of the first 15 seconds or so of the first scene from the pilot. The audio of that is also playing. Excellent scene. The menu options are easy to navigate. The episodes are listed on the main menu, with the episode # and title. We also have an option for Audio Set-Up. When we choose that option we have the option for 5.1 Dolby Digital or 2.0 Stereo. When we choose an episode, we get to the episode menu. Options are Play, Chapters, or Play with Commentary. When we select chapters, we see the scene titles and a video screen grab from the episode. Theme music is playing in the background. You can also use your remote to skip chapters if you don't want to use this option. There are 7 chapter stops.
The video and audio is excellent, as it should be. The show is presented to us in widescreen and it looks great. The audio is also excellent, as you have the option for 5.1 or 2.0 stereo. Each episode runs about 42 minutes or so each. Highest is 43:06 and lowest is 41:08. Don't worry, I can assure nothing is edited.
We get a lot of special features! I was so surprised to hear we have audio commentaries for EACH episode and some have multiple tracks! We have other extras as well, but I'll start with the commentaries. Here is a break-down:
1. Pilot - #1: Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), Jeffrey Bell (Showrunner), Rob Bowman (Director), and Matthew Gross (Executive Producer); #2: Rob Bowman (Director) and Marta Evry (Film Editor)
2. What If they Run? - #1: Taye Diggs, Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), and Rob Bowman (Director); #2: Rob Bowman (Director) and Marta Evry (Film Editor)
3. What If He Lets Her Go? - Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), Rob Bowman (Director), and Steven Maeda (Writer)
4. What If He Can Change The Day? - Victoria Pratt and Henry Alonso Myers (Writer)
5. What If They're Stuck? - Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), Taye Diggs, and Adam Baldwin.
6. What If They Find Him? - Ramon Rodriguez and Rob Bowman (Director)
7. What If He's Not Alone? - Jeffrey Bell (Showrunner) and Steven Maeda (Writer)
8. What If She's Lying? - Victoria Pratt, Meta Golding, and Henry Alonso Myers (Writer); Single Scene Commentary (5:26) by Marta Evry (Film Editor)
9. What If They're Connected? - Rob Bowman (Director), Mitch Pileggi, and Ian Anthony Dale
10. What If He's Free? - Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), and Steven Maeda (Writer)
11. What If He Walks Away? - Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), Taye Diggs, and Moon Bloodgood
12. What If She's The Key? - Mitch Pileggi, Jeffrey Bell (Showrunner), and Paul Zbyszewski (Creator)
13. What If It's Him? - Paul Zbyszewski (Creator), Taye Diggs, Jeffrey Bell (Showrunner), Matthew Gross (Executive Producer), and Rob Bowman (Director).
Wow a lot of commentaries indeed! I urge you all to watch the episodes first, especially if you've never seen the show...then rewatch it with the commentaries and you'll learn a lot!
We also have Cast Interviews that runs 12:28...Taye Diggs, Moon Bloodgood, Meta Golding, Victoria Pratt, Ramon Rodriguez, Adam Baldwin and Mitch Pileggi are interviewed. These are from when the show was first coming on the air, so it is neat to see this. Then we have Producer Interviews, and this runs 5 minutes or so and has Paul Zbyszewski, Matthew Gross, Jeffrey Bell, and Rob Bowman...and like the cast one, this is also from when the show was set to premiere on ABC. Then we have a 3:44 segment on Behind the Scenes. We see how the set looks and how a scene is filmed...pretty cool. Finally we have a 2:30 video clip of promotional images. Nice to see.
I highly do recommend this set for any Day Break fan for sure. If you have never watched the series, then I urge you to watch this because it is thrilling and it DOES have a conclusion at the end. So you're not watching for nothing. We find out why this was happening to Brett. Maybe you can guess it before you see it. BCI has done a wonderful job for this set and fans will be extremely pleased. The show is now airing on cable network TV One in reruns Sunday nights at 10pm, so you might want to sample that if you are still cautious in buying this series on DVD. Remember, for every decision there is a consequence. Although the only consequence for buying this set is that you'll have a great time and you'll be glued!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(5/5 stars)

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SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
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Stay tuned tomorrow as we head back to our regular news. We have a great week ahead of us as we expect the following: BET April, ION April, Nick at Nite April and TV One May. Will ION expand to more hours? Will BET have another nice sitcom marathon for us? And what times will Urkel and the gang air on Nick at Nite? We hope to answer all that and more this week on the blog! You won't want to miss this!