Amazon has this set on sale for $34.99. It is the Gold Box deal of the day, apparently part of an HBO week of sales. If you are reading this on January 29, 2009, you are already too late. I’m sure no one will read this in time. It’s funny, I was going to make a post in a couple of days after I completely finished my most recent and most awesome viewing of this incredible series, so I figure I might as well make it now.

This is probably my fourth run through the show — the first in a number of years — and it’s just as great as I remembered, if not better. Some of the CGI is showing its age, not being helped by the higher resolution of Blu-ray, but such a minor quabble is outweighed by each beautiful shot that is magnified by the sharper picture. “Bastogne”, the last episode I watched, was particularly amazing. The snow, the tree bursts, the ruins of the town — everything looked better than I thought it ever could.

But the real star of the Blu-ray set is the interactive field guide. I actually turn off the interactive part while watching, letting the disc run its automated version of pop-up video that includes brief soldier bios, military information, actual training and propaganda videos from the 40s, and other cool tidbits. Basically, if you don’t own this set, you are not an American. What? You don’t own a Blu-ray player? That only adds to the evidence pointing to you not being American. You have not embraced your inner consumerist yet.