Rick and Morty: Season 5 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rick and Morty: Season 5



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Has it really been over a year since we reviewed season 4 of Rick and Morty? Yup, almost 1.2 years to be precise and we’re finally able to binge the 5th season in a “near” post pandemic society. I was a bit disappointed in season 4’s story arcs. They were funny, but I almost felt that the show was starting to lose some steam along the way. The show runners told fans repeatably that season 5 was going to be more serialized (which is a running gag in the show this year as Rick yells out winks and nods to the audience that this is serialized) and the results are well worth it. Season 5 returns to near former glory with more hilarious adventures, and a season finale that dumps a TON of canon back story on the audience (who have been begging for said back story for years, and is a huge joke at the end as the showrunners smile at the camera and say “you want back story? Here, we’ll give you ALLLLLLLL the back story!!”).

Rick and Morty has always thrived on visiting pop culture references and turning them into insane adventures, and season 5 is in full gear, revisiting a TOOOOOON of different premises and turning them on their ear for laughs. The show starts out with a mortally wounded Rick being helped back to Earth by Morty, who FINALLY is making a move on Jessica, only for things to go sideways in a hurry. Rick has another nemesis that crops up out of nowhere (a hilarious rip off of Aquaman). Like usual, Rick and Morty dodge around the universe with a billion different sci fi tropes to play with, dancing around until the inevitable conclusion when we get to see Evil Morty again and the huge knowledge dump occurs.

I’m not sure whether the choice to dump Rick’s back story in one fell swoop was planned all along, or whether the show runners thought it would be a fun joke to just cram it ALL down a begging audience members throats at once, but either way it turns out to be a good movie. The 2nd episode starts the serialized train down the tracks where we finally get some back story on Rick Sanchez, and what his motivations are to be universe hopping. It’s rather sad and somber, yet somehow the show manages to make you laugh yourself silly at some of the darkest premises, leading up to a season finale which opens up the universe sooooooooooo much wider.


I still find Rick and Morty to be an acquired taste. I find it absolutely hilarious and side splitting, yet just like South Park, it may not appeal to a more “conservative” audience (I’m using conservative in a non political sense here). The show is down right vulgar, crude, slap dash, but so insanely funny that I can’t help but turn purple as Rick and Morty get into adventure after adventure that should kill them a million times over. Season 5 raises itself from the mediocrity that was season 4, and does a good job righting the ship, so to speak.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

The series is pretty much par for the course in regards to video quality. Like the previous season it has all 223 minutes of the season on one BD-50 with no really bad results. The animation style doesn't exactly stretch the limitations of detail levels, so the BD-50 is more than capable of reproducing the show's animated details with picture perfect clarity. There's some mild banding going on, but overall this is an excellent show with bright colors and well defined digital animation. The show is crisp and clean with overly saturated colors and great looking image that will keep fans happy.










Audio:

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is more than capable of pulling it’s weigh too, as the star traveling adventures of our favorite duo lend itself towards a lot of surround activity. Guns, explosions, space ships, and crashes all play into the active sound design of the show. Bass is punchy and tight with plenty of low end support for the action. The series is really chaotic and insane, so the sound design leans towards that end of the spectrum as well. Dialog is crisp and cleanly located up in the center of the room, and I honestly can't think of anything negative to say about the mix.








Extras:

• "Fighting Gravity": The Making of Season 5 (Exclusive to Set): In this deep dive discussion, co-creator Dan Harmon and the crew reflect on the challenges of completing this season in the middle of a pandemic and the creative process behind the story's biggest revelations.
• "Inside the Episode": For every episode from Season 5
• B-Story Generator Vol. 1: Co-creator Dan Harmon and writer Rob Schrab reach into their box of random ideas to conjure up hilarious side stories.
• B-Story Generator Vol. 2: Co-creator Dan Harmon and writer Rob Schrab return to brainstorm even more ludicrous side stories.
• Backgrounds: The show's artists give us a jaw-dropping look at the amazingly detailed environments packed into every episode.
• Animation and Compositing: Crafting the show's visuals is a complex process and the crew is here to show us why
• Coloring Rick and Morty: Get an in-depth look at how the crew uses vibrant color to create fantastic alien worlds.
• Directing 'Mortyplicity': An inside look at the evolution of this ambitious and action-packed episode, from initial storyboards to final product.
• Directing 'Rickmurai Jack': A behind the scenes look at one visualization of one of the most ambitious episodes in the series' history.
• Season 5 Hype: Dan Harmon and the writers give you a taste of what's in store for Rick and Morty's wildest season yet.

Final Score:
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Rick and Morty Season 5 is firing on all 4 cylinders and doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. Warner was also kind enough send the steel book for review (same as the regular release just with an exclusive steelbook case) which was a nice touch. I was kind of disappointed that Rick wasn’t a future version of Morty like I was hoping, but season 5 pulled off some great back story for our favorite jack grandfather. The Blu-ray is rock solid with good extras, and great audio/video specs.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, Sarah Chalke, Kari Wahlgreen
Created by: Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, German DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Dutch
Studio: Warner
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 223 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 7th, 2021

Recommendation: Great Buy for the Fans

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.