Rick and Morty: Season 8 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rick and Morty: Season 8



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Like many of you, I was rather worried about how Rick and Morty was going after last year. Not to rehash too much, but with the show losing co-creator Justin Roiland (who also voiced both Rick AND Morty), the 7th season was a bit subpar. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the overall season arc was plagued with some slightly boring episodes amidst all of the culminating major themes that had built up over the last 7 years, ending on an anticlimactic finale. I was just a bit worried that Rick and Morty had gone over the top of the bell curve and were on a possible downward trajectory. Well, those fears were put to rest with season 8, which solidified a new change in the show’s “prime” directive, as well as a return to form with some of the more oddball episodes.

The show’s driving force, and biggest boon (but also its biggest hurdle), happens to be Rick and Morty’s lack of adherence to a major serialized plot. Sure, some big thematic elements have crossed over season to season, but the series thrives on the one-off episodes that go COMPLETELY bonkers. And the series has definitely been able to keep the creativity up over the years. The “ahem” dragons, assassin Beth, crazed maniacal time jumpers, and countless more spring to mind. This season, by far, has some of the best side episodes that the series has to offer, peaking with the Easter episode, where Jerry turns into the Easter Bunny, with dire consequences (the most dire consequence would be me nearly throwing my back out from laughing so hard).

But really, this is a show that has fun with the insanity, but at its core is still a show about Rick bonding with his family. It’s just done in a way that very well may put most people trying to make something serious about the show into a mental asylum. The first episode puts a new twist on Summer and Beth’s relationship, told through the lens of Rick putting Summer and Morty into a version of the Matrix where they lived an entire life as punishment for stealing his charger. Now that they’re in the outside world, Beth and Summer have to figure out a way to re-establish their bond when both of them have minds of adults. The same with Jerry and Beth in the Easter episode, as they reignite some passions that have gone dormant over the years. But then again, don’t read TOO much into things, as we deal with random episodes of Rick and Morty in a cloning facility, the family turning into child versions of themselves, and well. A LOT more.

Rick and Morty loves being meta, and this season is no different in that aspect. It indulges in all of the insanity while winking directly into the camera with glee. I was a bit worried last season with Justin Roiland being replaced, but both Harry Belden and Ian Cardoni have done REALLY good jobs replicating the voices of Mory and Rick, respectively (though I think Ian does a nearly seamless job, while with Harry, you can actually tell that it’s not Justin voicing Morty some of the time). The show still has plenty of fire left in its belly, and with the finale, we get a nice setup for what is to come.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

Rick and Morty has always had very stable Blu-ray encodes (except for the first 1 or 2 seasons), and I’m going to sound like a broken record here as I repeat the same things that I’ve said for the last few seasons. A single BD-50 holds all 10 episodes of the season, and it still looks fantastic. The bright neon colors of the show explode from episode to episode, ranging from the radioactive green of Rick’s teleporter to the deep yellows of Morty’s shirt. Laser beams sizzle with purple and blue energy, while detail levels remain high for the simplistic animation style. I did notice some mild banding here and there (most likely because the disc’s bitrate hovers in the high teens to low 20s), but I didn’t notice any black crush, etc… all in all, it’s an impressive looking encode and still pleases as it has previous seasons.







Audio:

Again, broken record and all that jazz. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track (the last few seasons have switched over to DTS instead of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix that it had previously had for the first several seasons) sounds just as good as it always does. The show is a kinetic roller coaster of a series, and the audio mix follows right along. We have everything from the bizarre score to the sounds of Alternative Beth’s lasers blowing up bug bodies, and pretty much everything and anything in between. The surrounds are constantly active with the insanity, and the bass line is impressive. Maybe not GREAT, but still very solid LFE presence. Dialog is strong as always, and while the show’s audio mix isn’t SUPER bombastic and intense, it makes up for it by being one of the most agile and directional animated audio tracks I’ve heard.







Extras:

• Inside Season 8

Final Score:
​

As I said above, I was genuinely worried that Rick and Morty was on a downward trajectory after season 7, and the even worse received Rick and Morty: The Anime side project that was pretty painful to watch. But this season seems to have righted the ship, with a return to classic form for Rick and his grandson. Rick, having had a MAJOR plot point wrapped up in the finale of season 7 made for an interesting attempt at his character being reinvented, and while it’s kind of weird, it still works out for the most part. Warner Bro’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great as usual, but this time the extras are nearly nonexistent (if I could give a ¼ star for the 9-minute extra found on the disc, I could). But all in all, technical merits are great and the show is a blast, so collect away.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden, 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, DD 2.0, German DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Dutch
Studio: Warner Bro's
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 223 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 11th, 2025

Recommendation: Decent Watch for the Fans

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