CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Blu-Ray Review: Fox Cashes in With ‘Glee Encore’
CHICAGO – You truly know that something has become a phenomenon when a studio begins to take advantage of its fans with repetitive releases designed to pry open the purses or wallets of teenagers who must have everything related to their favorite pop culture trend. Witness “Glee: Encore,” a Blu-ray release with nothing new and little reason for anyone who owns the excellent first season to pick it up.
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
The “Glee: Season One” release includes a feature called “Glee: Music Jukebox” in which only the musical numbers from the season play in chronological order. “Glee Encore” consists of only 30 musical numbers from the first season that play in chronological order, by shuffle, or as you pick them. This may be a first — a greatest hits release from a season of television. Imagine a release tied into “The Simpsons” with just the 30 best jokes. Or a season of “Modern Family” with the 30 funniest scenes. That’s the basic idea behind “Glee Encore.”
Glee Encore was released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 19, 2011
Photo credit: Fox Home Video
What is a studio to do when they have a hit like “Glee” and little way to make money off of it between seasons? I understand the desire to milk the cash cow until it’s run dry and I have no problem with attempts to appease a hardcore fan base outside of one Blu-ray release a year, but can’t they put a little effort into it? Why not provide a single new special feature? Why not focus on the production of these musical numbers?
A greatest hits Blu-ray release is just weird to me and the fact that they didn’t provide anything new reeks of exploitation of the fan base. They must know that the most likely buyer for a title like this one already has everything included on the disc. They couldn’t give them something new? Not even one special feature, deleted scene, maybe even a whole deleted musical number? Maybe next time they try to sell the same material again in new packaging, they’ll put a bit more effort into it.
By BRIAN TALLERICO |