Another Apple TV+ Show is Coming to Blu-ray this December
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Another Apple TV+ show has just been announced for an upcoming Blu-ray release, marking the third time a show from the streaming service has come to physical media.
While it’s no Ted Lasso, the first season of Apple’s popular dark thriller Severance recently showed up for pre-order on Amazon and is slated for a release on December 17, 2024.
What’s particularly interesting about this release is that it’s the first time an Apple TV+ show has been sold on Blu-ray and DVD while still actively streaming on the service.
Severance is a sci-fi drama that follows the twists and turns of the main character, Mark, who works at a mysterious company that puts its employees through a “severance” procedure to isolate their work and home lives so that when they arrive at work they have no memories of who they are, nor do they know what they do all day at work once they return home. Here’s the description from the Amazon listing:
SEVERANCE centers on Mark Scout (Adam Scott), leading a team of office workers whose memories are surgically split between work and personal lives. This ‘work-life balance’ experiment is questioned as Mark faces a mystery forcing him to confront the true nature of his work and himself.
The series premiered in early 2022 to a favorable reception and critical acclaim, including 14 Emmy nominations. It was quickly renewed for a second season, but fans were left hanging after the initial nine-episode run due to a combination of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike and creative differences between the two showrunners.
After a cliffhanger that had us on the edge of our seats, Apple announced in July that the show would return for season two on Friday, January 17, 2025. However, Fifth Season, the studio behind Severance, is putting the first season out on Blu-ray and DVD just in time for the season 2 premiere.
While the timing could help attract new Apple TV+ subscribers when season 2 arrives in January, there’s no need for existing subscribers to pick up the Blu-ray edition unless they’re a serious fan, as all of the season 1 episodes are still available to stream on Apple TV+.
There’s also little information on what to expect from the Blu-ray edition. The back cover image shown on Amazon notes that the “3-disc set includes all 9 episodes” and shows DTS-HD 5.1 sound and subtitles in English (only) but doesn’t mention any special features.
The first Apple TV+ series to come to Blu-ray was Defending Jacob in 2021. This was followed last year by Ted Lasso: The Complete Series. Both of these Blu-ray editions came from their respective studios (not Apple) a year after their final episodes were released on Apple TV+, suggesting there was some kind of one-year exclusivity deal precluding their release.
Leaving aside the fact that “The Complete Series” of Ted Lasso may not be “complete” after all, Fifth Season and Severance are in a unique position in pushing out a release that seems to be done entirely in anticipation of a second season on Apple TV+.
Severance Season 2 begins on January 17, 2025 on Apple TV+ and will have a ten-episode run through March 21, 2025. The full ensemble cast is slated to return to the second season as “Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.”
