Season 5 DVD Review

The Fifth and Final Season (Region 1)
Release Date: 1/17/12
4/5

Similar to the previous seasons, the Fifth and Final Season set of Sliders is displayed in a metallic-appearing shiny cardboard slip which contains a slide in dvd case … pardon the pun. This set contains all 18 fifth season episodes. I’ll get back to the DVD case in minute. This set has it’s ups and downs but as far as overall case design it’s really somewhat of an improvement.

The shiny cardboard slip however, leaves little to my satisfaction. You can barely make out the image of the Sliders on the case, not to mention the “Sliders” font. I know the metallic appearance is different and it does draw your attention. Yet they could have at least printed the photo on a non-shiny surface and leave the “Sliders” font in metallic. And that goes for all of the previous sets. Anyway, the back of the cardboard slip is designed nicely like the back of the season four set with three images and a vague series synopsis.

The best and most unexpected design of this set is that it actually has a standard DVD slim case. It’s just like a DVD movie case, but it’s clear (translucent) and holds two discs on each side by overlaying them like the Third Season set. The discs are blue and single sided, so I don’t think you’ll have to worry about scratching them.

One of the neatest things about this set is that the menus are actually in a widescreen format. The main menu in previous sets did have some short collaborated video of the Sliders, but now it’s just a single still image with the end credit season 4/5 theme. Speaking of the image why in the world is “Mallory” the centerpiece of the artwork? It really doesn’t make sense if you’ve been watching the series. They could have had Rembrandt or at the very least Maggie as the lead character in the artwork. And yes, “Mallory” is on every disc of the episode index screen.

Now on to one on of the worst things about this set. There are absolutely no episode summaries on this set – none. In the past DVD sets they were in the episode menu or at least on the set itself yet this season fails to have any. However the episode titles are printed on the discs themselves – and in order, so that’s definitely a plus. To my disappointment there are no Sliders extras for this set, just previews for other Universal Studios material.

Overall this set is an improvement on case design yet brings in flaws like bad artwork/printing, no episode summaries, no scene selection and the total lack of extras. I know it sounds like I have given this set quite a rough critique, but other Sliders fans like myself petitioned Universal by sending them requests for it’s release. So if you’re a diehard fan down to the very end, really, how can you complain? Thanks Universal!