DVD Review: SEAL TEAM: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Home » DVD Review: SEAL TEAM: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Dec 22 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

The military drama SEAL Team ran for 7 seasons/114 episodes, from 2017-2024. While the first 4 seasons aired on CBS, the series then switched over to Paramount+ for its final 3 seasons.

The series follows the the soldiers of Bravo Team, the most elite unit of the Navy SEALs, as they take on dangerous missions around the globe. The series also explores the toll the job takes on these soldiers’ lives back home. Heading up Bravo Team is Senior Chief Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz, Bones, Angel), who is dealing with the recent loss of a team member, as well as trying to weather some rough times in his marriage. His second-in-command is best friend Ray Perry (Neil Brown, Jr., Insecure, Suits), and filling out the team are Sonny Quinn (A.J. Buckley, CSI: NY),Trent Sawyer (Tyler Grey), and Brock Reynolds (Justin Melnick). Clay Spenser (Max Thieriot, Fire Country, Bates Motel) soon joins as Bravo Team’s newest member, but he’s not new to the job. Clay is a second-generation SEAL, who can be a bit cocky at times, but has the skills to back it up. Often giving the team their assignments is Lieutenant Commander Eric Blackburn (Judd Lormand), and serving as Bravo Team’s Intelligence Officer is Lisa Davis (Toni Trucks), and CIA liaison is analyst Amanda “Mandy” Ellis (Jessica Paré).

While this remains the team for much of the series, some of their positions change over time, and we do see some other new soldiers join in later seasons—such as Omar Hamza (Raffi Barsoumian, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) in season six, and Drew Franklin (Beau Knapp, The Good Lord Bird) in the final season.

The writers have done a nice job of balancing both the more action-packed missions along with the personal and relationship drama. You really get to care for these characters and feel like you are experiencing what they are going though. Each of the characters is given a chance to grow and evolve over the course of the series, facing both on-the-job dangers and challenges, as well as some emotionally-charged hardships back home. Bravo Team is like a family, who are all there to help and support one another.

While some of the series was filmed on location, much of the show was filmed domestically, but the filmmakers have done a good job transporting the viewer to these foreign locations where the team is said to be carrying out their missions. In general, the series has high production value. The folks behind the series also knew that the seventh season was planned to be the last, so the series builds to a somewhat satisfying conclusion, rather than leaving viewers on a cliffhanger.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released the Complete Series of SEAL Team only on DVD, despite the series originally airing in HD/4K on CBS/Paramount+. However, the series is available for digital purchase in HD. The series 114 episodes are split across 30 discs, along with bonus material for each season. The first 5 seasons are presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen format that fills a modern TV screen, while the final two seasons switch to a more cinematic letterboxed 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The picture quality is generally clean and solid but it is lacking that extra level of clarity and detail that you would get with an HD or 4K presentation. Occasionally there’s a bit of noise during some of the darker scenes, or scenes bursting with the green glow of night vision goggles. The audio 5.1 track provides clear dialogue throughout and makes nice use of the stereo and surround channels to provide an immersive ambiance.

This Complete Series DVD set is a repackaging of the separate releases for each of the 7 seasons, and doesn’t include any exclusive bonus material outside of what was included in the individual releases. The first three seasons also lack any Play All option for the episodes—maybe binging wasn’t really.)a thing yet when those were first released. The 30 discs are placed in overlapping stacks on trays in a 3-inch thick plastic keepcase, which is covered by carboard slipcover. The back of the case’s insert details the contents of the disc, but needs to be removed from the case to read it. The discs contain over 5 hours of bonus material, which includes extensive behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted/extended scenes, gag reels, an audio commentary on one episode, and more. There is no digital copy included.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (82 hours and 53 minutes)

All 7 seasons/114 episodes of the series on 30 discs:
- Season 1 (2017–18) – 22 episodes – 6 discs
  “Tip of the Spear”, “Other Lives”, “Boarding Party”, “Ghosts of Christmas Future”, “Collapse”, “The Spinning Wheel”, “Borderlines”, “The Exchange”, “Rolling Dark”, “Pattern of Life”, “Containment”, “The Upside Down”, “Getaway Day”, “Call Out”, “No Man’s Land”, “Never Get Out of the Boat”, “In Name Only”, “Credible Threat”, “Takedown”, “Enemy of My Enemy”, “The Graveyard of Empires”, “The Cost of Doing Business”
- Season 2 (2018–19) – 22 episodes – 5 discs
  “Fracture”, “Never Say Die”, “The Worst of Conditions”, “All That Matters”, “Say Again Your Last”, “Hold What You Got”, “Outside the Wire”, “Parallax”, “Santa Muerte”, “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, “Backwards in High Heels”, “Things Not Seen”, “Time to Shine”, “What Appears to Be”, “You Only Die Once”, “Dirt, Dirt, Gucci”, “Paradise Lost”, “Payback”, “Medicate and Isolate”, “Rock Bottom”, “My Life for Yours”, “Never Out of the Fight”
- Season 3 (2019–20) – 20 episodes – 4 discs
  “Welcome to the Refuge”, “Ignore and Override”, “Theory and Methodology”, “The Strength of the Wolf”, “All Along the Watchtower: Part 1”, “All Along the Watchtower: Part 2”, “The Ones You Can’t See”, “Danger Crossing”, “Kill or Cure”, “Unbecoming an Officer”, “Siege Protocol: Part 1”, “Siege Protocol: Part 2”, “Fog of War”, “Objects in Mirror”, “Rules of Engagement”, “Last Known Location”, “Drawdown”, “Edge of Nowhere”, “In The Blind”, “No Choice in Duty”
- Season 4 (2020–21) – 16 episodes – 4 discs
  “God of War”, “Forever War”, “The New Normal”, “Shockwave”, “The Carrot or The Stick”, “Horror Has a Face”, “All In”, “Cover for Action”, “Reckoning”, “A Question of Honor”, “Limits of Loyalty”, “Rearview Mirror”, “Do No Harm”, “Hollow at the Core”, “Nightmare of My Choice”, “One Life to Live”
- Season 5 (2021–22) – 14 episodes – 4 discs
  “Trust, But Verify: Part 1”, “Trust, But Verify: Part 2”, “Nine Ten”, “Need To Know”, “Frog on the Tracks”, “Man on Fire”, “What’s Past Is Prologue”, “Conspicuous Gallantry”, “Close to Home”, “Head On”, “Violence of Action”, “Keys to Heaven”, “Pillar of Strength”, “All Bravo Stations”
- Season 6 (2022) – 10 episodes – 3 discs
  “Low-Impact”,”Crawl, Walk, Run”,”Growing Pains”,”Phantom Pattern”,”Thunderstruck”,”Watch Your 6″,”Strange Bedfellows”,”Aces and Eights”,”Damage Assessment, “Fair Winds and Following Seas”
- Season 7 (2024) – 10 episodes – 3 discs
  “Chaos in the Calm”, “Chaos in the Calm Pt. 2”, “Ships in the Night”, “Heroes and Criminals”, “A Perfect Storm”, “Hundred-Year Marathon”, “Mission Creep”, “Appetite for Destruction”, “The Sea and the Hills”, “The Last Word”
480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 (Seasons 1-5), Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, English 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo (Seasons 1-4)
Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

Season 1
- Deleted Scenes
  - Tip of the Spear (4:48) – 4 scenes
  - Collapse (1:36) – 2 scenes
  - In Name Only (1:28) – 2 scenes
  - Enemy Of My Enemy (1:50) – 2 scenes
- Launch Promos (2:40)
  Five 30-second promos play back-to-back.
- SEAL Team: Season One Debriefing (22:15)
  The cast and crew discuss how the series came about, keeping things in the POV of the team, the process of creating the show, keeping the series accurate, the characters, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with creator/executive producer Benjamin Cavell, executive producers Ed Redlich & Christopher Chulak, co-executive producer John Bellucci, and stars David Boreanaz (“Jason Hayes”), Neil Brown Jr. (“Ray Perry”), Max Thieriot (“Clay Spenser”), A.J. Buckley (“Sonny Quinn”) & Jessica Paré (“Mandy Ellis”).
- Corporal Canine: Meet Dita (5:13)
  A behind-the-scenes look at the canine behind SEAL dog with technical consultant Justin Melnick.
- Tour of Duty: Set Tour (5:38)
  A tour of the set with production designer Stuart Blatt.
- On Location (2:47)
  The producers talk about filming at Blue Cloud Ranch in Santa Clarita, starting with episode 13, to double as Afghanistan. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with creator/executive producer Benjamin Cavell, line producer Ian Foster Woolf, executive producer John Bellucci, and executive producers Ed Redlich & Christopher Chulak.
- Gag Reel (2:33)
  Fun with the cast as they flub/forget lines, and have fun on set.
Season 2
- Deleted/Extended Scenes
  - Fracture (1:57) – 2 scenes
  - The Worst of Conditions (3:05) – 2 scenes
  - Outside the Wire (1:17) – 1 scene
  - Prisoner’s Dilemma (2:37) – 2 scenes
  - Medicate and Isolate (1:31) – 1 scene
  - My Life for Yours (1:13) – 1 scene
  - Never Out of the Fight (2:33) – 3 scenes
- The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday: SEAL Team Season Two (26:40)
  The cast and crew discuss some of the storylines and character developments of the second season. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with showrunner/executive producer John Glenn, executive producer Christopher Chulack, and stars David Boreanaz, Judd Lormand(“Lt. Commander Eric Blackburn”), Neil Brown Jr., Toni Trucks (“Lisa Davis”) & Max Thieriot,
- Operation: Puerto Rico (6:39)
  The cast and crew talk about filming in Puerto Rico as a double for Mexico City. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with showrunner/executive producer John Glenn, executive producer Christopher Chulack, unit production manager Wayne Carmona, production designer Stuart Blatt, and star David Boreanaz.
- Nothing Fake About It: The Props of SEAL Team (9:50)
  Property Master Leonard E. Hancock Jr. shows off a lot of the guns and gear used in the series.
- Gag Reel (2:36)
  Fun with the cast as they flub/forget lines, and have fun on set.
Season 3
- Welcome To Serbia (10:30)
  Go behind-the-scenes with the cast/crew as they shoot on location in Serbia. Includes interviews with showrunner/executive producer John Glenn, producer Jonathan English, production designer Stuart Blatt, and stars David Boreanaz, Justin Melnick (“Brock”), Tyler Grey (“Trent”), A.J. Buckley, Max Thieriot, Neil Brown Jr., Toni Trucks & Jessica Paré.
- Shifting Gears (3:49)
  A behind-the-scenes look for the episode “Objects in Mirror”. The cast heads to a NASCAR track to shot a SEAL race training session. Includes interviews with stars Judd Lormand, David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., Max Thieriot & A.J. Buckley.
- Lights, Camera, Execute (5:52)
  A behind-the-scenes look for the episode “Drawdown”, the first episode directed by star Max Thieriot. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with Thieriot and co-stars Neil Brown Jr. & David Boreanaz.
- Worlds Apart (5:14)
  The cast discuss their characters’ romantic relationships this season. Includes interviews with stars David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot & Neil Brown Jr..
Season 4
- Audio Commentary (42:42)
  Producers/writers Spencer Hudnut & Kenny Sheard provide an audio commentary for the season premiere, “God of War”. They share some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the production, and talk about how this episode was the last one filmed before production was halted for COVID.
- Deleted Scenes
  - The New Normal (1:14) – 1 scene
  - The Carrot or The Stick (1:22) – 1 scene
  - Horror Has a Face (2:05) – 3 scenes
  - All In (2:31) – 2 scenes
  - Cover for Action (:43) – 1 scene
  - A Question of Honor (1:01) – 1 scene
  - Limits of Loyalty (3:24) – 2 scenes
  - One Life to Live (3:37) – 4 scenes
- Brothers in Arms (19:24)
  The cast/crew talk about restarting production following the COVID shutdown, how this changed the way they wrote the stories, the character journeys in the fourth season, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producers Christopher Chulak & Spencer Hudnut, and stars David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., Max Thieriot, A.J. Buckley, Toni Trucks & Justin Melnick.
- Meeting of the Minds (24:56)
  Host Scott Mantz sits down with star/producer David Boreanazexecutive producers Christopher Chulak & Spencer Hudnut to discuss the fourth season’s storylines, filming during the pandemic, and more.
- If You Build It (4:25)
  Production Designer Stuart Blatt talks about how the pandemic brought the need to build more sets rather than going on location. Includes behind-the-scenes footage of the sets being built.
Season 5
- Deleted Scenes
  - Trust, But Verify: Part 1 (1:34) – 1 scene
  - Trust, But Verify: Part 2 (:52) – 1 scene
  - What’s Past Is Prologue (:34) – 1 scene
  - Conspicuous Gallantry (:58) – 1 scene
  - Close to Home (1:10) – 1 scene
  - Head On (:35) – 1 scene
  - Keys to Heaven (1:19) – 2 scenes
- Bravo Team: Operation Season 5 (22:35)
  The cast/crew discuss the breaking from format in the fifth season, emulating North Korea in Los Angeles, flashing back 20 years to 9/11, and some of the other journeys the characters go on this season. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producers Spencer Hudnut & Christopher Chulak, and stars Justin Melnick, A.J. Buckley, David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., Max Thieriot & Toni Trucks.
- Bravo One Behind the Camera (4:23)
  David Boreanaz talks about the challenges and his process of directing an episode. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with Boreanaz & executive producer Christopher Chulak.
- From the Ground Up (4:39)
  Production Designer Stuart Blatt gives a tour of the coffee factory set.
- Uncaging the SEALs (3:18)
  Star Justin Melnick shows off some of the climbing and other equipment that Clay has in his cage on set.
- Gag Reel (4:41)
  Fun with the cast as they flub/forget lines, and have fun on set.
Season 6
- Deleted Scenes
  - Fair Winds and Following Seas (2:53) – 3 scenes
- Filming in Jordan (15:38)
  The cast/crew talk about wat it’s been like filming in Jordan. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producers Spencer Hudnut & Christopher Chulak, producer Sara Spring, production Designer Stuart Blatt, property master Leonard “Lenny” Hancock, and stars David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., A.J. Buckley, Raffi Barsoumian (“Omar Hamza”) & Justin Melnick.
- SEAL Team: All In, All the Time (24:16)
  The cast and crew talk about the season 6 storylines and character journeys, losing a team member and adding Omar to the team, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, footage of the show’s 100th episode celebration, and interviews with executive producer Spencer Hudnut, and stars Max Thieriot, A.J. Buckley, David Boreanaz, Raffi Barsoumian, Tyler Grey, Neil Brown Jr. & Toni Trucks.
- Give It All You’ve Got (5:43)
  The cast and crew talk about working with Max Thieriot, saying goodbye, writing off Clay to accommodate the actor’s new project, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Spencer Hudnut, and stars Max Thieriot, David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., A.J. Buckley, Justin Melnick, Toni Trucks & Tyler Grey.
- Syria By Design (5:39)
  Production Designer Stuart Blatt gives a tour of the Syrian safe house set.
- Gag Reel (5:13)
  Fun with the cast as they flub/forget lines, and have fun on set.
Season 7
- Deleted Scenes
  - Appetite for Destruction (:39) – 1 scene
  - The Sea and the Hills (1:32) – 1 scene
  - The Last Word (2:47) – 2 scenes
- SEAL Team: Season 7 Bravo’s Last Stand (21:04)
  The cast and crew talk discuss the character storylines of the final season, and saying goodbye. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Spencer Hudnut, unit production manager Mark Bashaar, stunt coordinator Matthew Taylor, line producer Princess Nash, and stars David Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., Drew Franklin (Beau Knapp), Raffi Barsoumian, Toni Trucks, Justin Melnick & Tyler Grey.
- Operation: Colombia (9:06)
  The cast and crew talk filming in Colombia, production designer Stuart Blatt gives a tour of the Honduran safehouse set, and more.
  Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Spencer Hudnut, producer Juan Aura (Colombia), line producer Princess Nash, production designer Stuart Blatt, and stars David Boreanaz, Justin Melnick, Tyler Grey & Toni Trucks.
- Gag Reel (4:32)
  Fun with the cast as they flub/forget lines, and have fun on set.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

SEAL Team is an entertaining series that finds a nice blend between the character drama and the action-packed missions. This Complete Series set is a repackaging of the discs from the previous individual Season 1-6 releases, along with those from the concurrently-released Final Season. The presentation is pretty solid for a DVD, but I wish action-packed shows like this one would at least get a Blu-ray release since the show originally aired in HD/4K. The discs include over five hours of entertaining bonus material that will surely please fans. For those who already purchased the previous individual releases of Seasons 1-6, there is a separate release available for Season 7 to complete your collection. Either way, fans of the cast or of action-packed procedural/military dramas will want to add this to their collection.