The Bible is a 10-hour mini series originally aired on the History Channel. The show is 10 episodes long and it provides another interpretation of the Bible in the most spectacular way. The Bible miniseries covers the most emblematic figures of its history and the most important stories from its pages. Key figures and stories are told on single 1-hr episodes that attempt to cover as much details from the book as possible.

The series is based on the Bible in this highly stylized production. The production attempted to stay as true to the book’s spirit, but at the same time in the task to pick the stories that were to be told some major stories were omitted. The show depicts a combination of the Old Testament and New Testament, but this isn’t your typical show with in your face preaching which is find rather refreshing. Instead the producers took a rather different route by creating a more compact storytelling. This decision impacts the character development more so than anything else. Even with the rapid move of events in the storyline, somehow Keith David’s narration allows the viewer to follow along with great ease. Definitely a great choice for narrator.

I will say that there are important stories that did not make the cut and this will definitely drive people away from the show. However, that’s not the only the only thing that will be apparent while watching The Bible is the violence more so than the message behind the stories. I am not overly sensitive about violence, but I am sure that part of the audience will feel uncomfortable. The acting was somewhat over the top, but the end of the show it just almost seemed as good as it could be. The show does not try to tell the story word by word, what it does is try to appeal to a newer pop culture and a younger generation.

The Bible arrives onto Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The picture features a very nice and clean digital transfer. The majority of the episodes feature a great deal of excellent pristine shots. The detailing is great, most close up shots are very revealing and the garments/armor filled with intricate details. The colors are consistent with no visible over saturation. Black levels are well reproduced. Overall, The Bible looks great can’t complain with the transfer.

The Bible arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. The series is dialogue driven, but occasionally the track gives us a little more. The dialogue is clear and clean, but most of all well prioritized. Directionality is good, but the first few episodes the mix seemed to have a few issues. The rears are subtle and they used from time to time, but they are mostly heard during battle scenes. The bass is almost non-existent and only comes alive in a few scenes throughout the series. The first two episodes had narrator voice sounds somewhat muffled, but from the 3rd episode and on the audio was clean.

The Bible: Genesis – Executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey talk about daunting task of filming the stories of the Bible.

The Cast of The Bible – The cast and crew talk about the task of bringing the Bible to life.

The Bible: Creation – A three-part journey through the making of The Bible: Creation: The Vision; Creation II: Production Stories; Creation III: Crucified & Resurrected.

Scoring The Bible – Take a look behind the scenes in a recording session with composer Hans Zimmer and award-winning soloist Lisa Gerrard.

Believing in Miracles – The cast and crew talk about the magical moments during filming.

The Bible: Visual Effects – A quick look at how the special effects were done for the show.

The Bible was everything I expected nothing more and nothing less. With a well compacted (albeit somewhat rushed) storyline that glosses over some bigger stories in order to keep the story interesting. Coupled with a great narration, I have to say it was an interesting interpretation of the Bible. The Blu-ray video and audio are actually quite good and the supplements gave us an inside look into the production. If religious material is your thing I recommend at least give it a chance.