I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Complete Series - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Complete Series



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As a lifelong slasher fan since my introduction to horror in the late 80s (yeah, my brothers thought it would be fun to show a 6-year-old Friday the 13<em>th</em>), I have a weakness for bad slasher genres. I mean, even the Friday the 13<em>th</em> and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises are pretty bad in the later sequels, despite my rose colored glassed. But then there’s the I Know What You Did Last Summer movies, which were always the bottom of the barrel films for slasher fans. Sure, they were pulpy, sorta fun, and gory. But even back in the 90s we knew that both films were only a hit because everyone loved Buffy and wanted to see more of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar. But hey, I still have a weakness for the first two films. When I watched the mediocre 3rd film back in 2005, I got clued in to the fact that they made a short, 8-episode series on Amazon streaming back in 2021 that supposedly ended in a massive cliffhanger just as the series got axed. So when I saw that Sony was releasing a Blu-ray of the entire series (all 8 episodes that is), I grabbed a review copy and decided to dig in this week to check it out….and yeah...I understand why it got cancelled.

Back in 1997, IKWYDLS (which I will use for the rest of the review, as I’m not typing that title out a dozen times) diverged heavily from the novel, much to the chagrin of its original author. It still had the idea of teenagers covering up a horrific crime, but deviated pretty decently away from the source material. But that adaptation has NOTHING on the changes that were made for the 2021 series. As was the case in both original movies and the book, it has teens covering up their crimes and then suffering the consequences a year later. But the series embraces a darker and more soap opera mopey take, spinning everything downhill until a wild cliffhanger that will never be resolved thanks to its obvious cancellation.

The show actually opens up after the tragic initial crime has already happened, with the friends group having to deal with the aftermath and their guilt hovering over every turn in their lives. So, until we start getting flashbacks regarding the event, we’re mostly privy to main character Lennon (Madison Iseman) as she comes back to her hometown in Hawaii. Her first year away at college hasn’t been enough to wipe the stain of what she and her friends covered up a year prior, and reuniting with her old friends and co-conspirators only serves to remind her of what they had done. And when she is greeted with a severed goat’s head as a “gift” for returning, the flashbacks kick in, and the rest of the story starts to get filled in over the next 7 episodes.

The IKWYDLS series plays out darker than the movie, having the victim actually be one of their own friend clique, and dives straight into the deep end with the initial inciting incident being a drug/nudity/underage boozed debauchery party. And the series doesn’t get any better from there. We have love interests from the remaining cast, moping over unrequited romances, and the eternal sad boy in the form of Dylan (Ezekial Goodman). And we all know what the inciting incident is. A messed-up turn of events has Lennon running over her own sister. Margot, Dylan, and the rest of the group change from witnesses to co-conspirators in a matter of seconds as they all decide to cover everything up and act as if Lennon’s sister ran away rather than tell the cops. But even that’s told through the lens of an unreliable narrator, as the show continually peels back the onion layers to reveal that what we’re seeing is not the TRUE order of events. But hey, we all know what’s coming next, and soon we have the gory slasher guilty pleasure that we all were waiting for…..if it can get over the angsty “CW” style soap opera that drowns the entire show.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

The show is obviously shot digitally, with a 2.00:1 AVC transfer (2.00:1 is becoming more and more popular, I’ve noticed), and it looks good, but never great. Maybe it’s the honey colored “Hallmark Channel” look to the show, but it is both simultaneously sharp and revealing, yet a little soft at the same time. Highlights and ambers tend to get pushed to the point of blooming, and the CGI can sometimes take you out of it a bit. Darker shots look great though, with good shadow details, plenty of black level punch, and solid delineation. I did notice some crush in the first couple of episodes when the group of friends went up to the cliff face, but after that it was barely noticeable. Again, I ALMOST gave this a 4.5 (4.25/5 was my initial rating), but I’m rounding it down to 4/5 due to the soft vibe to the show.







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is probably the best part of the whole package, giving us a stellar performance all around. Dialog is strong, locked firmly up front, and never shows any signs of controversy. Surrounds get a lot of activity with waves lapping in the background, cars slamming into things, and the general chaos and screams when the mysterious killer starts making his rounds. Bass is powerful and punchy without being overly aggressive. And the overall ambiance is best described as “intensely immersive”.








Extras:

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Final Score: ​

IKWYDLS had potential to be interesting, but instead wallowed around in angst and over-the-top “modern messaging” that was so prevalent during the Covid-era films and shows coming out. I wanted to like it more than I did, but at the end of the day I actually have to put it BELOW the 2025 sequel/reboot that hit theaters. Simply put, the show is a mess and not worth watching unless you’re really bored. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great (still pouting about the fact that this was streamed in 4K with Atmos, but we only get 1080p, but whatever), but sadly the lack of extras and the content of the show itself has me giving this one a pass.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Drew Carey, Diedrich Bader, Kathy Kinney, Ryan Stiles, Craig Ferguson
Created by: Madison Iseman, Brianne Tju, Bill Heck
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Sony
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 385 Minutes
DVD Release Date: June 23rd, 2026

Recommendation: Meh