Why So Blu?

Loki: The Complete First Season (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Loki: The Complete First Season coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray isn’t just cool because I’d like to own this show I like on the best format available, its more than that. Loki’s debut marks a breakthrough in the programming made specifically for the streaming service Disney+ to be available on a physical, collectible format. It will be followed next month by WandaVision and then the first two Mandalorian seasons in December. For a while it was uncertain what was going on and if these were always going to be beholden to the streamer as an exclusive. Loki: The Complete First Season became available for purchase on September 26th. You can order yourself a copy by using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review.

Season

Marvel Studios’ Loki features the God of Mischief as he steps out of his brother’s shadow. Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, this action-packed, time-defying thriller stars Tom Hiddleston as the title characters with Owen Wilson as agent Mobius.

If I had to quickly think of one, Loki probably ranks as my personal favorite of the Marvel television spin-off department. While the visual effects do certainly feel Volume-reliant, there’s an aesthetic choice to the series that manages to catch me visually and allows my brain to absorb and appreciate the idea over the execution in some areas. Between its sets, costumes and props, there is a consistency in both their appearance and functionality that serves the show and feels just as much a part of it as does the characters.

Every episode had itself a fun journey that felt like it was peeling away a layer each week. Ultimately, the show served to surprisingly introduce the post-Thanos big bad of the MCU in that of Kang The Conqueror. Luckily though, the show didn’t feel like some wasteful effort just to get to Kang. This was a build up to what we didn’t realize was coming and by the time we arrived there, the scene was quite well done. It caught us off guard and proved to be quite tense and unsettling.

Tom Hiddleston is in tip top shape as the charming and devilish Loki. And the writing allows him to continue to be such a mischievous bastard while also carrying a story and being its protagonist. He finds some terrific chemistry with both Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino. Martino, who finds herself in a breakout performance here in her variant which also quickly became and fan favorite. And speaking of her, one of the reasons the show stood apart from its fellow MCU tv adventures, is that is wasn’t afraid to get a bit whacky and deliver us plenty of weird when it wanted to.

Loki certainly could find itself easily doing a procedural show for a taller order of episodes, but it managed to meld that with a bit heavier serializations for a six episode short series.  And in that limited capacity, I feel it becomes that tighter and stronger show that provided with such a strong reception. If you’re not into Marvel at all, but find yourself a sci-fi, time travel or multi-dimensional enthusiast…I think you may want to give this one a chance.

Episodes

1. Glorious Purpose

2. The Variant

3. Lamentis

4. The Nexus Event

5. Journey Into Mystery

6. For All Time. Always.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are studio promotional images, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail: Loki: The Complete First Season is a native 4K title, displaying as it should. The image is a pretty rock solid one. It showcase plenty of color and pop where it should. There’s a nice depth on display as well as a nicely saturated color palette. Plenty of detail comes through strong in this nicely refined image.

Depth:  Depth of field is rather good here with some nice push back and spacing on display for things like with Miss Minutes show up. Movement is smooth and natural with no issues of distortion during rapid action sequences.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural. The black levels really help give a richer image. There is some nice shadow work being done here and no issues occur from darkness hiding any information. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are quite song and gorgeous to look at. Many of the displays, lasers, lights, beams and animated characters feature a good pop from the HDR when contrast with darker/plain things.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are discernible from any given distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Dynamics: Not gonna lie, Loki: The Complete First Season has a pretty good Dolby Atmos track. Yes, we are talking Disney here, but having review a couple in a row, they are tracking quite nicely in September of 2023. This is plenty loud enough and has some rather good impact on the lower end. There’s some playfulness to this mix and its well balanced with some stronger depth.

Height: From above there are some nice touches, especially given these science fiction surroundings. I do like in the convenience store scene, you get a bit of the neon bulbs buzzing and crackling here and there.

Low Frequency Extension: There are some nice bursts with things crashing, blasting or roaring from big movements or engine-type things.

Surround Sound Presentation: The room is a 360 degree experience of good competent production as well as some playfulness. The room is full and the movements here power through with good rolling sound. There are also some good unique touches from the back channels as well as accurate dictation from screen to speakers overall.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Loki: The Complete First Season is a 2-Disc set. This particular version comes in collectible steelbook packaging and includes 3 concept art cards. For a look at the packaging, see the video above.

DISC 1

Designing The TVA (HD, 5:43) – Not only do we get a look at the production design, inspiration and choices for the show’s prime location…we get a sneak peak at its second season as well. It includes interviews, concept art and behind the scenes footage.

The Official TVA Orientation Video (HD, 1:45) – Miss Minutes guides our way!

Gag Reel (HD, 1:21)

Deleted Scenes (HD, 4:59) – “Loki’s Coronation”, “The Standoff”

DISC 2

Assembled: The Making Of Loki (HD, 1:03:01) – This is a big, detailed look at making the show, directly ported over from Disney+! Its inclusion is a huge bonus for this release.

Summary

Loki: The Complete First Season can give us all a collective sigh of relief for the current time and these Disney+ shows having physical releases. They put it out with some nice packaging to go along with worthwhile bonus material. The presentation is rock solid with terrific video and audio to bring it to life. And of course this is a step up from watching a stream. Easily. As we don’t know what the full future holds, I would treat this as a limited collector’s item as they could just as soon stop putting these shows out on physical media. We just don’t know yet.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link