'Rick and Morty' The Complete Seasons 1-7 DVD Box Set Shakes Up the Multiverse (Review)

The series is back with a brand new box set for collectors, cord-cutters and binge-watchers.

By Michael Hein

Rick and Morty fans can finally complete their collections this month with the release of The Complete Seasons 1-7 box set on DVD. The entire series up to this point is now available in one package, and it's so full of special features and bonus content, it feels like it was designed with Rick's teseract technology. Best of all, it puts Season 7 in context and puts a fresh perspective on the re-casting.

Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 "out-of-this-world" box set comes from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, and it went on sale on Tuesday, Sept. 10. It includes all 71 episodes of Rick and Morty up to this point, as well as all the bonus content that has been included in previous home media releases. That includes the "Inside the Episode" segments, deleted scenes, audio commentary, animatic sketches and other featurettes. The whole thing is housed in exclusive box art that encapsulates the show's evolution over the years, and the development of its distinctive style.

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(Photo: Adult Swim)

This follows the stand-alone release of Rick and Morty Season 7 back in March, which is available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Steelbook Blu-ray. In general, Rick and Morty has done well with physical media releases – perhaps because of the contrast between its audience and its platform. While Rick and Morty appeals primarily to a cord-cutting demographic, it premieres exclusively on Adult Swim when it's in season. It can be streamed on the Adult Swim app, but a valid cable log-in is required to access it in real-time.

That leaves viewers with one option to stream the season while it's airing – PVOD stores. You can rent or purchase the season on platforms like Prime Video or Apple TV, which allow you to watch it from week to week. However, those digital purchases do not grant access to the same bonus material that comes on physical media. Add to that the fandom's penchant for collecting deep-dives, and it's easy to see how the physical releases get their sales.

The glaring issue that die-hard collectors are likely to take issue with here is that Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 box set is only available on DVD, not in a special-edition Steelbook and not even on Blu-ray at all. Those who want to start a complete collection from scratch can still go back and get previous box sets on Blu-ray – it looks like the full series box sets were released on Blu-ray up until Seasons 1-6, so they'll only need to get Season 7 on Blu-ray to have a matching set. However, collectors can be notoriously picky about the uniformity of their shelves and displays, so this still might leave some unsatisfied.

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On a practical level, DVD is a strong choice for this box set since high fidelity is not necessarily coveted in cartoons. This makes the collection cheaper and compatible with more hardware, as most Blu-ray players and game consoles are backward compatible with DVDs. On top of all that, having a physical media collection is a great way to avoid the licensing shuffle of streaming services, save money on data usage and even cut down your carbon footprint.

Rick and Morty Season 7 saw some monumental changes for the series, both behind the scenes and in the story. There are at least three more seasons of the show coming to Adult Swim, but now is a great time to start collecting the series yourself, or pick up a gift for a loved one that will keep them laughing. Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 box set is available now wherever DVDs are sold.

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