The Nevers: Season 1 Part 1 [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Laura Donnelly, Ann Skelly, Olivia Williams

Release Date: October 5, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9/10

 

Synopsis:

August, 1896. Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event which gives certain people – mostly women – abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular “turns,” all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger. It falls to mysterious, quick-fisted widow Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) to protect and shelter these gifted “orphans.” To do so, they will have to face the brutal forces determined to annihilate their kind.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘The Nevers’ tells the story of a mysterious event in Victorian London, 1896 where a mysterious object in the sky leads to various individuals appearing to suddenly develop strange gifts and talents, commonly known as “the touched”. With the majority of those developing abilities being women, many find sanctuary in an orphanage of sorts dedicated to helping them where a young and talented widow named Amalia True helps to protect these women with the assistance of clever inventor Penance Adair who has a talent for understanding electricity and circuits. Together the two uncover a dangerous group of masked strangers who seem to be abducting women like them for terrifying experiments and must race against time to unveil the mastermind behind it, while also trying to help as many others as they can before they are claimed by the masked group. All the while, they must attempt to combat a deadly mass murderer who is using her newfound talents to kill.

‘The Nevers’ introduces viewers to an enjoyable and somewhat original tale of gifted women in the late 1890’s who fight against injustice and protect those like them who were granted gifts after a strange day in 1896 changed everything. The series takes off without any delay and sends us into an action-packed car chase almost from the get-go. While the pilot occasionally becomes a bit jumbled as it tries to tackle the beginnings of so many different stories at once, the series soon begins to find its balance as it progresses and by the end of the first part of season one you’ll almost certainly be itching for more thanks to some very unexpected twists and turns along the way which quickly transform this into another kind of beast entirely.

The series definitely takes some chances and ends up going a few directions you won’t expect, but those who enjoy an off-beat ride that’ll keep you guessing every step of the way should find a lot to love about this quite enthralling show, while fans of Joss Whedon’s unique style of television should also thoroughly enjoy this one (although it is worth noting that he stepped down after this batch of episodes so it’ll be interesting to see how the second half of season one matches up without his heavy involvement). ‘The Nevers’ also owes plenty of credit to its great cast which includes Laura Donnelly, Ann Skelly, Olivia Williams, James Norton, Tom Riley and more; each helping in their own right to make this one as exciting and fun as it is. I would urge anyone already intrigued by the series to try and give it a shot whenever you have the chance. Those who caught it on HBO during its initial airing and quickly became fans should appreciate this solid Blu-ray release of ‘Season 1 Part 1’ as well. While it may be somewhat irking to only have half of the season released on disc, it’s at least understandable with the gap of what looks to be at least a year in between each half of the season airing (part 2 is currently expected at some point in 2022).

Overall, ‘The Nevers’ is an exciting, fast-paced tale of magic, unexplained events and a group of gifted women who fight to protect their own against ever-increasing disdain once their unique talents become known. It gets off to a slightly rocky start, but quickly finds itself and by the end of the sixth episode evolves into a compelling and twist-filled ride that’s worth taking. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s 2-disc Blu-ray release of ‘The Nevers: Season 1 Part 1’ definitely shouldn’t disappoint the show’s fans (or newcomers for that matter) and serves up quite fantastic high definition video and audio presentations on all six included episodes, along with an impressive collection of bonus content. For anyone already considering a purchase, this Blu-ray release is definitely recommended. Those who haven’t had the chance to check out the series yet may also want to consider doing so, although you might want to try and give it a whirl on HBO Max before making a blind purchase of the Blu-ray release just to be safe.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Nevers: Season 1 Part 1’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all six included season 1 episodes. The video presentations look great as a whole and deliver sharp, richly colored and nicely detailed video presentations on every one of the included episodes. They hold up smoothly even during the various darkly lit, fast moving and heavily populated moments throughout and never allow anything that’s occurring onscreen to become negatively affected, let alone rendered indiscernible. Overall, these are pretty wonderful high definition video presentations that should easily please fans and newcomers to the series.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 6 episodes from Part 1 of Season One. These multichannel soundtracks are quite the treat in their own right and provide clean, crisp and aggressive audio presentations on each episode. They repeatedly take advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, vehicle and action effects, along with bits of crowd chatter and nature content zipping throughout the various speakers, in addition to any other fitting audio effects, and never causing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, these are great 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that never disappoint and add their share of extra fun to the viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Nevers: Season 1 Part 1’ is jam-packed with bonus content spread between both discs. Included on the release are various Behind the Scenes Featurettes that feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The standalone Featurettes featured include ‘’Introducing The Nevers’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length), along with ‘A New Age of Power’ (running approximately 5 minutes), ‘A Touch of Power: The Themes of The Nevers’ (approximately 17 minutes) and ‘Accustomed to the Impossible: The Making of The Nevers’ (12 minutes). The release also features three other groups of Featurettes if you will, the first group titled ‘Character Portraits’ which takes a look at various notable characters from the series and includes ‘Amalia True’ (3 minutes), ‘Penance Adair’ (3 minutes), ‘Mary Brighton’ (3 minutes), ‘Bonfire Annie’ (3 minutes), ‘Detective Frank Mundi’ (4 minutes), and ‘Augie Bidlow and Hugo Swann’ (4 minutes). The second group of included Featurettes is ‘Creating The Nevers’ and explores the process of creating some of the biggest moments in the series so far. It includes the Featurettes/Segments ‘A Night at the Opera’ (7 minutes), ‘A Charitable Event’ (7 minutes), ‘Walking on Water’ (8 minutes), ‘Confrontation and Translation’ (8 minutes), ‘Shock and Awe’ (7 minutes) and ‘Telling Time’ (10 minutes). The third and last group of Featurettes is ‘The Craft’ which showcases some of the talented individuals working behind the scenes and includes the Featurettes/Segments ‘Editor, Lisa Lassek’ (2 minutes), ‘VFX Supervisor, Johnny Han’ (2 minutes) and ‘Director, Zetna Fuentes’ (2 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9/10

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‘The Nevers: Season 1 Part 1’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from HBO & Warner Bros Home Entertainment

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