Relic Hunter - Season 1 Review

I used to love Relic Hunter, not in a dress-up-as-your-favorite-character way, but it was one of my "must see" shows (I had lots back then), and I caught every episode when it aired. Years ago I tracked down someone at Fireworks Entertainment (the production company) that was working on a DVD set for the series. The plan was to release season 1, but instead they put together a "best of" for the series. That set sells for big bucks these days, though I suspect the prices will be coming down a bit now that the first two seasons are heading to DVD (and at great prices).

This 6-disc set from Alliance Home Entertainment includes all 22 episodes from the first season. Though it's only distributed in Canada, it'll play in any Region 1 player (both Canada and the US are Region 1):

Disc 1 (3:00:00)
Buddha's Bowl (45:00)
The Headless Nun (45:00)
Smoking Gun (45:00)
Affaire de Coeur (45:00)

Disc 2 (3:00:00)
Thank You Very Much (45:00)
Transformation (45:00)
Flag Day (45:00)
The Emperor's Bride (45:00)

Disc 3 (3:00:00)
Diamond in the Rough (45:00)
Nine Lives (45:00)
The Book of Love (45:00)
The Myth of the Maze (45:00)

Disc 4 (3:00:00)
Afterlife and Death (45:00)
Etched in Stone (45:00)
Irish Crown Affair (45:00)
A Vanishing Act (45:00)

Disc 5 (3:00:00)
Love Letter (45:00)
A Good Year (45:00)
Nothing but the Truth (45:00)
The Last Knight (45:00)

Disc 6 (1:30:00)
Possessed (45:00)
Memories of the Montmartre (45:00)

Video

YIKES! This isn't really what I was expecting when I started watching the show. The picture is plagued by heavy misquote noise, to the point where a lot of the picture, especially skies, is buzzing with movement. That really surprised me because the show is relatively new (11 years old), and the amount of noise in the image is pretty staggering at times. It's almost worse when a perfect, pristine shot pops on the screen, because it makes the bad scenes that much worse.

Alliance seems to have stepped into a time warp when it comes to certain aspects of this release. For some reason they've put their logo at the start of every episode in the set; that's something Universal did back in 2004. They also failed to place a chapter after the opening of the episode, and the opening credits clock in at over 1:30 (there are chapters in the show, but the first one is around the 9 minute mark). At least there's a "play all" option.

Audio

The English stereo track is pretty standard; it does a good job of reproducing the original broadcast audio. There aren't any subtitles or captions on the release.

Extras - How we rate extras

There aren't any extras on the set.

Summary

While it's nice to finally have the show on DVD, I wish it were a better set. The video quality isn't as good as it should be, and the packaging leaves a lot to be desired. It's a fold-out style package, that has two panels holding the discs. That means there are THREE overlapping discs, which a lot of consumers hate. I haven't seen this type of package before; the discs sit on each other, and aren't held in by the hub. Instead there are little tabs on the top-sides of the discs, and bendable clips on the bottom. It's hard to describe, but it's something I'm not a fan of, and I can't imagine too many consumers getting excited by the packaging either. At least the price is extremely good, but unfortunately the quality reflects it.

Season 2 is already scheduled for May 18, with season 3 out on June 8. It's amazing to think we've waited years and years for the series to be released, and now all 3 seasons will be out in 3 months.