The Blu-ray Disc
Burn Notice is presented in 1080p high definition with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. As solid as the show is, it’s a shame how poor the picture quality on this release is. This is by far the worst Blu-ray picture presentation I have ever seen.
Almost every shot is bathed in extremely heavy grain, which totally undermines the slick feel the show is going for. Digital noise in the picture is common -- it cracks and pops so much in some episodes that I was convinced the first disc might be defective, but the problem persists across all three discs. Colors are wildly inconsistent, definition within shadows is awful, and the image almost always looks soft.
At best, the visual presentation is jarringly inconsistent; at worst, it’s downright atrocious. This kind of quality from a Blu-ray presentation is unacceptable.
The audio, which is presented in Dolby 5.1 DTS-HD, fortunately doesn’t suffer nearly as much. Front channel dialogue and music is crisp and clear, while the frequent explosions add plenty of rumble. Ambient sound is also present fairly often.
Special Features
There’s not much worth spending a whole lot of time on as far as extras go. Several episodes on each disc come with a commentary track, and most have one or more deleted scenes, which tend not to be very interesting in a show like this. Also included is a featurette with series creator Matt Nix, a fairly entertaining gag reel and a spoof on the show entitled “Boom Notice,” that features the boom mic operator, and is just downright awful.
The Bottom Line
Burn Notice is well worth checking out, especially for fans of the spy genre, but I can’t see any reason to purchase this massively disappointing Blu-ray. I can’t imagine the DVD quality being any worse; in fact, it’s probably better.
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