Grey's Anatomy (season 3) - DVD Release

DVD Release

"This release will appeal to die-hard Grey's fans who want to eat up every morsel of info they can about the show, but for casual fans the set doesn't really offer that much."

The third season was officially released on DVD in region 1 on September 11, 2007, becoming available in both the United States and Canada. It was released two weeks before the fourth season originally began airing. The title of the box set, "Grey's Anatomy: Season Three – Seriously Extended" is a pun, referring to the success the series had, using the medical term "extension". Also in the official title is the world "seriously", who is one frequently used in the series. The box set consists of episodes with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and widescreen format, enhanced for television with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It was distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. The same set was released in region 4 on October 31, 2007, being made available first in Australia. In region 2, the season was first released in Romania on August 12, 2008, shortly after the season concluded airing on national television. In the United Kingdom, the season was released on September 15, 2008, approximately a year after its original release in the United States. Although the season aired in high definition, it has not been released on Blu-ray disc in any region to date.

The box set includes all the original twenty-five episodes that aired on the American Broadcasting Company, being divided into seven discs. Subtitles are available in French, in Spanish and in English for the hearing impaired, whereas the available languages for the character voices are English, French and Spanish. It featured audio commentaries with cast members Kate Walsh, Chandra Wilson, Ellen Pompeo, Kate Burton and Sandra Oh for the first, fourteenth and twenty-first episodes. It also featured the first, seventh, thirteenth and fourteenth episodes as extended episodes, with a longer running time. The bonus features were available on the seventh disc, including interviews with cast members Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo and Elizabeth Reaser, listed under the titles of "Making Rounds With Patrick Dempsey", "One on One with Ellen Pompeo" and "Prescription for Success: Making Jane Doe a Star", respectively. The region 1 release featured footage from behind the scenes, under the title of "In Stitches: Season 3 Outtakes" and unaired scenes from nine episodes, including the season premiere and the finale, under the name of "Dissecting Grey's Anatomy". Omnipresent in the bonus material were executive producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, providing their outlook on characters, actors and the production process.

Currently ranked 2144th in Movies and Television on Amazon.com and 1713th in Film and Television on Amazon.co.uk, the box set received mixed reviews. Kelly West of Cinema Blend noted that the "seriously extended episodes" were not significantly expanded, only adding a few minutes of extra footage, which don't influence the storyline. She also noted a "weakness" in the audio commentary provided by four of the actresses, who she deemed to have been fantastic during the series, describing the features as "random chit-chats". However, she praised Sandra Oh's commentary, noting that she put the most effort in hers by trying to come up with interest topics, while being "amusing and worth listening to". She described the bonus features as "mildly entertaining", emphasizing Dempsey's interview about his passion for racing cars, which she regarded useless. USA Today had a positive perspective on the box set, by calling it "scintillating" and "addictive".