For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray review

Nov 09, 2023- Permalink

The Apple TV+ science fiction drama series For All Mankind looks at an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union was the first to land on the moon. With morale at NASA damaged, the US ups the ante on the PR side and makes their pool of astronauts more diverse. The series spans stars Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Jodi Balfour, Wrenn Schmidt, Sonya Walger, and Krys Marshall. The series has been renewed for a fourth season and now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released For All Mankind: Season One on Blu-ray. I had a chance to take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. The image is sharp and detail is abundant in facial features, textiles and environments. The colour palette is natural, whites don’t bloom and the black levels don’t crush with detail in darker scenes. The show is in 4K on streaming, so hopefully, if this sells well, we might see a 4K release in the future. That’s no knock on the Blu-ray image, which is just stunning.

On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French and Spanish. The soundscape is front heavy, but surrounds are used for environmental atmosphere. The score, which includes some contemporary music, is bright, while dialogue is clear and centred.

The four-disc set includes no extras nor a digital code.

The For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray combines a great cast, audio and video with a science fiction storyline that examines an alternate history to the space program. Recommended.