Following an outbreak of a deadly virus in the 21st century, the Earth’s population was decimated to less than 2 million people. Those who survived ended up blind, as well as the generations that followed. It has been centuries since that outbreak and the idea of vision is now just a myth, and those who even speak of it are considered heretics and witches. However, that is about to change. The former area of Western Pennsylvania is now part of the Payan Kingdom, ruled over by the slightly insane Queen Sibeth Kane (Sylvia Hoeks, Blade Runner: 2049). She believes that she was chosen by God to rule, and won’t take No for an answer when she hands out orders.

At the edge of the Payan domain, deep in the mountains, is the small Alkenny Village. Several months earlier, the Chief of the Alkenny tribe, Baba Voss (Jason Momoa, Aquaman, Game Of Thrones) found pregnant Maghra (Hera Hilmar, Mortal Engines) in a frozen wilderness and rescued her, bringing her back to the village and eventually marrying her. Now Maghra is about to give birth to her twins, and is being assisted by village elder/shaman Paris (Alfre Woodard), who has the ability to see into the future. There is a prophesy that says that these children will be born with sight, which soon proves to be true. But Baba and Maghra want to keep this a secret until the children are much older.

Meanwhile, in the Payan capital city of Kanzua, the Queen has put out a warrant for the children’s biological father, Jerlamarel (Joshua Henry), for the heresy of being sighted, and the rumor that he has been siring more sighted children. This goes against the law and the Queen wants to wipe out all the sighted. (It’s certainly not due to the fact that Jerlamarel was a former lover who spurned and left her, and that she has been touting a prophesy that she would be the bearer of the first sighted child.) The Queen sends Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo, The Hurt Locker), the royal tax collector and Witchfinder General of the Payan army, on the hunt to kill Jerlamarel and all his offspring. Tamacti Jun is a ruthless killer, burning villages to the ground as he hunts for these heretics. But he is quickly making his way to the Alkenny Village, and Baba Voss must lead his family and friends to safety before they are discovered by the Witchfinders, who will show no mercy. While he is able to relocate the tribe, and keep them hidden for over a decade, the Queen and Tamacti Jun are very determined and will never give up the hunt.

The AppleTV+ original series See aired for three seasons, from 2019-2022, and is now available to watch without a subscription on Blu-ray from Fifth Season. There are some pretty surprising twists and turns to the series, particularly at the end of the first season. I have tried to sidestep any details that could be spoilers. The three seasons can be broken down as follows:

In the first season, pregnant Maghra delivers her twins and discovers they are sighted. Queen Sibeth Kane has put her army at the disposal of Witchfinder General Tamacti Jun, who is hunting for the children and their biological father. However, Alkenny Chief Baba Voss leads his people to safety and is able to hide out for nearly two decades as the children get older. But once they come of age, twins Kofun (Archie Madekwe, Saltburn, Gran Turismo) & Haniwa (Nesta Cooper, Travelers) are eager to learn more about their biological father, who had left them instructions on how to find him at the House of Enlightenment, where they would start a whole new world. Though things may not be quite what they expected.

At the start of the second season, the family has been split up, and are trying to find their way back to one another, not knowing if each other are dead or alive. The Payan rival is the Trivantian Republic, which is ruled over by a triumvirate called The Triangle. Baba’s vengeful younger brother Edo Voss (Dave Bautista) is the Commander General of the Trivantian army, and has taken Haniwa captive in order to lure his brother and finally get his revenge for Baba’s killing of their father. Guarding Haniwa is Trivantian lieutenant Wren (Eden Epstein), who harbors a secret of her own. Meanwhile, Queen Sibeth names Pennsa the new capital city of the Payan kingdom, which is currently ruled over by Lord Harlan (Tom Mison, Sleepy Hollow), a childhood friend of Maghra’s. A battle is brewing between the Payan and Trintian empires, and while the Queen says she is trying to make peace with the Trivantians, her actions seem to imply that she may be trying to provoke a war. Other new characters this season include warrior Charlotte (Olivia Cheng), a member of a group called The Compass, which is tasked with protecting the sighted; and Witchfinder soldier Toad (Hoon Lee).

The final season opens about 9 month after the battle at Greenhill Gap. There has been a prolonged conflict at the Trivantian-Ganite border, with the Trivantian army severely outnumbered. However, the tide may soon turn as the chief science officer of the Trivantian army, Tormada (David Hewlett), has developed an explosive new weapon using sighted tocology. These new bombs are concerning and threaten all of humanity. In Pennsa, anti-sighted sentiments are on the rise, and Trivantian Ambassador Trovere (Trieste Kelly Dunn) arrives to to discuss a peace treaty with the Queen. Meanwhile, Baba has left on his own journey of self-discovery, meeting up with old friend Ranger (Michael Raymond-James) in the mountains. And the Witchfinders face an insurgency as a new leader emerges to control the army. Some of the other new characters this season include Tormada’s right hand man, Trivantian soldier Lieutenant Maddox (Matthew G. Taylor); former Witchfinder Lucien Bray (Dean Jagger) and his second in command Shiloh (Murry Peeters).

See is a creative and unique take on a post-apocalyptic world. It may initially take some suspension of disbelief at the way this futuristic society full of non-sighted people are able to build, hunt, deliver babies, etc when everyone is completely blind. It’s especially interesting when it comes to the fight scenes, where the soldiers seem to know exactly where to block, punch and stab, and no one ever seems to miss. Or when they go running through a building at full speed but seem to know exactly where the doorway is on the other side of the room. That said, the series is quite action packed and exciting. The filmmakers do a nice job of transporting you into this very different world, and making you believe. The first season immediately launches the viewer into the action, as the Alkenny tribe finds itself under attcack by the Witchhunters. I also appreciated how the first season quickly ages up the children, only spending a couple episodes with them as babies before moving on with them at a more interesting age.

There is this nice blend of action and drama in the series, with some pretty big twists and turns to throw obstacles in the way of this family. The first two seasons have some pretty strong villains for the main characters to face off against, with the Witchfinder General Tamacti Jun and Edo Voss. These two seasons I found to be a bit more solid than the final as there was a clear enemy and mission to each. The final season I found to be a bit more confusing and muddled as there were several different factions all going after power, and there wasn’t one clear enemy or goal—Tormada and his bombs’ was the closest. That said, I think that by the end of the final season, the series did a solid job of providing a conclusion.

The filmmakers have done a nice job of fleshing out this world, and exploring how people have adapted. There is a system of rope knots for passing messages, and clicks and sounds for communicating. Hearing senses are heightened, so people can recognize one another’s voices easily, or identify a person by a familiar gait. The one part of this new society that I couldn’t fully grasp was the religious aspect, which was primarily focused on Queen Kane. She was constantly spouting religious messages and saying she was chosen to be Queen by God, but the really awkward and inexplicable moments were when she would suddenly stop to “pray”—which meant either having sex or pleasuring herself—it was just bizarre, especially a scene with her reciting the Lord’s Prayer while in the bathtub.

There is a lot of fighting in this series, and even though people can’t see one another, they can detect where their enemies are by listening. Since people can’t see, there’s no use for things like bows and arrows and guns as they wouldn’t be able to line up targets in the sights. Instead, there is the more brutal fists and swords. Jason Momoa’s Baba Voss has a very unique way of moving and fighting and this was consistent throughout the series, giving the viewer the sense that Baba has honed this technique over the course of his life. He walks hunched over, sort of side-stepping while scraping a sword on the ground like a walking stick. And when he’s managed to flip or knock down his target or grab ahold of them, he follows this up with quickly feeling for the enemy’s face and whipping out a dagger for some rabid jabs. The fighting can be bloody and brutal in this show (it definitely seemed to be amped up starting in the second season), but everything is well choreographed and exciting. Bautista was an especially great addition to the second season.

Speaking of the cast, the ensemble is generally quite good, with some big names like Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, and Dave Bautista. The series gives you characters to care about, root for or against, and feel happy or sad when they are eliminated. And each season introduces some great new characters into the mix. The series ultimately builds to a satisfying conclusion that brings closure for most of these characters.

The Complete Series of See has been released on Blu-ray by Fifth Season, so now folks who don’t subscribe to Apple TV+ can watch this show. The series ran for 3 8-episode seasons, and makes for a great binge—I watched it all over the course of a couple weekends. The Blu-ray presentation looks great, with a clean, detailed picture that looks solid in both darker nighttime sequences as well brighter daytime scenes. I only noticed two very short instances of some banding (one during a bright blue sky and once during a nighttime sequence) but each lasted only a few seconds. This series relies on sound a lot due to the nature of the characters, and the audio track doesn’t disappoint. It provides clear dialogue throughout, showcases Bear McCreary’s wonderful score, and makes nice use of the stereo and surround channels to provide an immersive ambiance. This is especially noticeable in the film’s title sequence, which is an aural trip. Speaking of the title sequence, one annoyance I had with this Blu-ray release was that there were no chapter stops to make it easy to skip over the opening titles. If you try to skip ahead it jumps 10 minutes into the episode instead of just over the 80 second titles.

The Blu-ray release includes 6 discs, 2 for each season, which are placed on trays in a slightly thicker than normal Blu-ray keepcase. This is place inside a matte cardboard slipcover. There are no extras on the disc and no digital copy is included.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (21:34:07)

• All 3 seasons of the series on 6 discs:
  • Season 1 (2019) – 8 episodes – 2 discs
    Disc 1 (3:37:48): “Godflame”, “Message in a Bottle”, “Fresh Blood”, “The River”
    Disc 2 (3:30:49): “Plastic”, “Silk”, “The Lavender Road”, “House of Enlightenment”
  • Season 2 (2021) – 8 episodes – 2 discs
    Disc 1 (3:43:45): “Brothers and Sisters”, “Forever”, “The Compass”, “The Witchfinder”
    Disc 2 (3:47:06): “The Dinner Party”, “The Truth About Unicorns”, “The Queen’s Speech”, “Rock-a-Bye”
  • Season 3 (2022) – 8 episodes – 2 discs
    Disc 1 (3:27:53): “Heavy Hangs the Head”, “Watch Out for Wolves”, “This Land Is Your Land”, “The Storm”
    Disc 2 (3:26:46): “The House of Enlightenment”, “The Lowlands”, “God Thunder”, “I See You”
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: None

Extras:

There is no bonus material on this release.

Final Thoughts:

I never got around to watching See as it originally aired on Apple TV+, so I was excited to check it out on this Blu-ray release. The series is quite creative, setting up an interesting post apocalyptic world and society, primarily following this one family as they are constantly split up and need to find one another, while also dealing with various factions trying to control the power. It’s also a look at how people are judged and vilified just because they are different. The series has a lot of bloody and exciting action sequences, a great cast, and does a nice job of wrapping things up to a conclusion over the course of the three seasons. Fifth Season’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, and should please any fans of the series. Unfortunately there is no bonus material, but it’s still worth picking up for the series itself.