Posted in: DVD/Blu-ray, Movies, TV | Tagged: blu-ray, dvd, HBO, Review, silicon valley, veep

Measuring Up 'Silicon Valley' & 'Veep' On Blu-Ray: Are They Worth It?

A few weeks ago (April 11), HBO released two shows onto Blu-ray and DVD: the third season of Silicon Valley and the fifth season of Veep.

As we move closer and closer to an all-digital age, we have to ask ourselves about physical media and whether or not something is worth our money to purchase. Sure, there will be uber fans out there to buy everything under the sun, but what about the casual fan? We're going to explore both releases and see what they have, starting with Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley is presented in lovely HD quality—in fact, all ten episodes look better from the disc than they do on HBO GO. But the only thing they have to offer as far as special content is deleted scenes, many of which have already made their way to YouTube. While this set is cool, it isn't filled with anything you can't already see online.

Veep in its own way is the exact same package, all ten episodes looking sharp as ever with a small collection of deleted scenes. But where Veep has Silicon Valley beat is in audio commentaries. Some people love them, others hate them—but they offer a nice window into the making of an episode and what was happening with production. In some cases, the commentaries for the show have funnier moments than what you're watching. So while Veep is still kind of the same, this little feature gives it a slight bump above the other.

Overall, however, we have to question what's really going into the marketing and making of these releases and why HBO doesn't put more effort into them. Think about this for a moment: Where is all that behind-the-scenes footage they film? Where's all the small documentaries they make to promote the show? Where are all the cast interviews about "where is the show going this season" kind of material? All of those packages you see on HBO between airings of Suicide Squad and Rushmore that they air continuously to get you to keep your subscription and get HBO GO—where is all of it? Probably sitting in some random California storage shed filled with tons of other footage that HBO doesn't release, and not on your Blu-ray, which is where it should be. HBO has all the material in the world to make these releases pop and get people to buy them, but they don't. Which is why even though they're nice to own, you're probably just fine with the streaming service. Maybe they'll add more next year…

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