Rick and Morty: Season 4 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rick and Morty: Season 4



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Rick and Morty is sort of an Adult Swim legend, as it has become one of the biggest cult hits for the cable channel, and has got people either LOVING, or hating the show. I fall into the “generally love it” category, but fully understand why some people hate it. The show is so over the top, so insane, and so crazy, that it’s the veritable Super Troopers of the animated TV universe. That means crudity, grossness, cheap humor, and basically things that a 12 year old boy will find funny, as well as the grown millennials (seriously? We’re grown ups now?) who have the hearts of 12 year old boys. King of like South Park, American Dad and Family Guy, you’re going to either dig the show, or wonder what kind of drugs the creators were taking (although, even as a fan of the show you still wonder what kind of illicit substances may or may not have been used during the creative writing sessions).

Season 4 starts out with a bang, as it goes full crazy with classic tropes, as well as MASSIVE controversy about one of the creators (I’m not going to go into the controversy here as it’s not suitable for a family discussion, but if you ARE curious to find out why said content creator got put on blast the last 6 months, just google “Dan Harmon doll video” and you’ll understand why they’ve come under scrutiny again). But hey, the show is still as zany and funny as ever, with a whole host of old “rules” for the who getting broken, Rick once again gets to meet his fate (this time due to Morty), a host of clones take over the world, and Pickle Rick is still as funny as ever.

However, this is also the season where there are some pretty significant misses as well as the well deserved hits. Even creator Dan Harmon admitted in interviews that he felt that the episodes revolving around his hate for heist movies, or people falling into vats of acid just didn’t sit well with audiences. They just weren’t that funny. HOWEVER there are plenty of great bits of entertainment in this season and the hilarity full bore to the end. I mean, where else can you get a show that makes a big deal around a person needing a private poop station, or the infamous blaming of Summer for literally EVERYTHING That goes wrong in the show.

Yup, the 4th season is probably the weakest of the show besides the first season, but it is still banging on at least 3 of the 4 cylinders provided to it. The gonzo show has a surprising amount of character development, and the sheer insanity is what makes shows like South Park, Big Mouth and Rick and Morty really thrive.






Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

I was a bit worried about Warner putting all 10 of the episodes AND the special features on one disc, but at barely 223 minutes worth of material it’s surprisingly good. The animation style doesn’t lend itself towards massive amounts of detail, so the bitrate is more than sufficient at doing the job. Colors are bright and garish, while the line art shows no signs of jaggies or other issues. Compression is actually really good, and I didn’t notice much more than a few blips of banding to mar the image. Everything is really crisp and clear, with great detail for the low budget animation, and no real major issues outside of minor banding, as mentioned before.






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. Lazer blasts, crushing boulders, space ships flying off, all have a wildly kinetic sound stage, and keep everything fast and furious. There’s some really neat subtle sounds as well, ranging from footsteps crunching in gravel, the thunk of a gear locking into place, or even just the breathing of Morty. Bass is tight and punchy, adding a lot of oomph to the action oriented scenes, and the dialog is above reproach. Basically an all around great sounding mix from WB.





Extras:

• A Day at Rick and Morty: Inside Season 4
• Inside the Episode for each episode
• Creating Snake Jazz
• Directing Rick and Morty
• Samurai and Shogun
• Prop Process
• Character Creation
• Animation Challenges

Final Score:
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One of the big advantages that Rick and Morty has over some of bigger serialized shows is its gonzo nature. We’re stuck in the back end of the pandemic and being stuck in doors with nothing to do (unless you’re wearing a face mask) and this sort of brainless escapism works perfectly at alleviating the boredom. Season 4 suffers some mishaps along the way, but overall it’s still a very fun show with a very bizarre premise. The WB Blu-ray gives us excellent special features and audio/video specs, making this a great package (albeit the runtime is a bit short). Great buy for fans of the show.


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: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 223 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own on Blu-rayTM and DVD 9/22/2020

Recommendation: Great Buy for the Fans

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I love this series. However, I only catch it every once in awhile but I do enjoy seeing it. Will check it out.