Snowpiercer: The Complete Series - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Snowpiercer: The Complete Series



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Snowpiercer was one of those shows that I thought was never going to be completed in Blu-ray. Like many shows of the 2017-2023 era, Warner decided to stop releasing the TNT series after its second season, not even opting to put the series out via their MOD Warner Archive line, like Lucifer, or what Universal did with 12 Monkeys (one of the most underrated sci-fi shows of the last 20 years). So ever since 2021, when Warner put out both the 1st and 2nd season, fans have been DYING for the rest of the series to get released on physical media (heck, we didn’t even get a DVD of the last two seasons!). But Shout! Studios have stepped up and gained access to all 4 seasons, and released them this last month on a gorgeous 8-disc set that finally gives us what we’ve wanted. A complete series.

You can read my individual reviews of the first two seasons HERE and HERE for a comprehensive breakdown, but for this set, I’m going to give my review of the series as a whole.

Based on the cult hit Snowpiercer by Bong Joon-ho, the TV show takes the same ideas as the Korean-directed sci-fi thriller and stretches it out over 4 seasons, and adds some dimensionality to it all. Thankfully, the show doesn’t rehash the movie at all, but takes the same basic premises and expounds upon them, and creates something totally new. Which means some things are going to be better in the film, and others in the show. But at the end of the day, this is a solid performing sci-fi show for sure.

The story initially follows the two main characters on the train, with the first being Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly), who is the head of hospitality and commander of the train. The second main lead revolves around former detective Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs), who has been called up into the “first class” section of the train to investigate a murder. And like anyone could have expected, his findings are more than what he or Melanie ever wanted/expected.

The 2nd season diverges a good bit from the first, focusing on the builder and “leader” of the 1,000-car train, who is actually not just a disembodied voice over the intercom. He is alive and well and acts as the main antagonist that year. With the side effect that Melanie turns out not to be nearly as vicious and villainous as everyone painted her out to be in the previous year.

Season 3 is where things got weird fast. Melanie was off the train, establishing a solo research station, and is now stranded after a meteorological event damages the station. Effectively splitting up the locations even further. And to make matters more interesting, the show’s focus is on finding “Eden”, the mythological green spot where humanity could survive again off of the train’s safety net. Personally, I found that this was the weakest of the seasons, delving deeper and deeper into the J.J. Abrams puzzle box motif, asking way more questions than it has the possibility of answering.

And then we have season 4, which is by far the most polarizing of the seasons. I’m going to state up front that I actually liked the last season. It wasn’t as controversial as I remember, airing on TNT a second go around, and I felt that it did a really good job, actually wrapping things up. Too many TV shows leave you on a massive cliffhanger when they’re canceled, but Snowpiercer wraps everything up nicely regarding finding a New Eden for humanity to survive. That being said, there are some definite complaints about the show, with this season definitely feeling rushed. Character arcs come to a close faster than they should have, and the narrative felt a bit helter-skelter. As such, I’m going to give this season a 3.5/5 alongside the 3rd season for not being able to keep up with the momentum that the first two seasons enjoyed.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

I feel like I’m just going to regurgitate my thoughts on the first two WB released seasons here, as they all look extremely similar. The Shout! Studios encode looks really nice, with a very stable performance across all 8 discs. The heavily stylized show is steeped in that deep blue and dark teal tone that was ever popular, with a brighter and hotter look outside of the train. Seasons 3 and 4 add the most color to the spectrum, with fewer monochromatic teal/gray looks and more primary shades thrown in. Fine details are good, and noise spikes are minimal at best. Detail levels are superb, but the heavy use of CGI sort of keeps things from looking AS crisp as it could have been. Overall, this is about what we saw on the WB releases, and an excellent transfer from Shout!







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is pretty much the same thing as well. I couldn’t hear a difference between it and the WB release, and the last two seasons follow that same road. The ambient usage of surrounds is excellent as you hear the rattle and rumble of the train cars traveling over the snowy tracks, and the hustle and bustle of the train cars make for a very active sound stage. There are more than a few moments of heavy dialog-centric bits where the surrounds fade into the background, but it’s a good mixture that doesn’t get too heavy one way or the other. LFE is punchy and impressive, but never really going into that “super aggressive” arena. Once more, a good, solid performer across all 4 seasons.










Extras:

• Behind-The-Scenes Interview with actors Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs
• Behind-The-Curtain Featurettes:
• Series Overview
• “Class Warfare: From First to Tailies"
• “The Train"
• “Art of the Frozen World"
• Season Two Overview
• “Mr. Wilford"
• Season Two Roundtable
• Season Three Overview
• “Building The World"
• Roundtable Discussion
• “A Tale Of Two Trains"
• “The Great Engineer: Bringing The Mysterious Mr. Wilford Aboard"
• Season One Recap
• Season Two Recap
• Season Three Trailer

Final Score: ​

Snowpiercer is a fun show, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of the Bong Joon-ho and Chris Evans film, it was way better than it should have been, either. The first season was a solid 4/5, with the 2nd ramping it up to 4.5/5, while I give both seasons 3 and 4 a 3.5/5 rating (the whole series slightly rounded up to 4/5 as a result). Warner released both seasons of the show on Blu-ray back in 2021, and then dumped the physical media releases for the last two, and from what I’m seeing, I’m guessing Warner Bro’s gave Shout! Studios the same masters, as the seasons look REALLY close to the Warner releases. It seems like Shout! Studios did their own encodes, and that was that, and they put them on disc. The same 2 discs per season are replicated here (for a total of 8 discs for all 4 seasons), and they sport very nice video/audio scores, and even some extras for season 3 (season 4 is bare though). All in all, a fun watch and well worth picking up if you’ve been waiting for the show to FINALLY get finished in physical media.

Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Sean Bean, Mike O'Malley
Created by: Joosh Friedman, Graeme Manson
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout! Studios
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 1849 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 19th, 2026

Recommendation: Highly Recommended