Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 4, 2023

In 2014, A&E put a gun to Longmire's head. Cancellation. The last word many a series hears before being sent into the great beyond. But something rare and astonishing happened. The trigger wasn't pulled. The news of Longmire's cancellation was suddenly, itself, cancelled. Netflix rode in on a high horse, tipped its hat and said, "I got this one, little fella", and saved the show from execution. And not just to close out the story with a final season or a last-chapter style movie or limited series. No, three additional, full-length seasons. To the delight and shock of fans, disappointment was replaced with relief, and Longmire began a slowburn walk, not into the sunset, but towards a proper ending, which comes to Blu-ray in all its high definition, lossless audio glory.

Official Synopsis: The sixth and final season of 'Longmire' finds Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), deputies Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) and The Ferg (Adam Bartley), best friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) and daughter Cady (Cassidy Freeman) facing personal and professional crises. Walt’s job and home are under threat from a powerful, unscrupulous lawyer. Vic must decide what to do about her secret pregnancy. The Ferg struggles to balance a new relationship with his commitment to duty. Henry is a target, and Cady’s loyalty is torn. With their world in turmoil, Walt and everyone he cares about must make the most difficult decision of their lives. Is it time to pack it in? Or is it time to fight? The final ten episodes of the suspenseful, action-packed Netflix series builds to a dramatic finish under the wide-open, wild skies of Absaroka County.

Final seasons and series finales are notoriously tricky to nail. The events leading up to the end can be great, but botch the landing and fans will riot and disown even their favorite shows. (Ahem. Game of Thrones.) And so let's focus on what we all care about. How does it all end? Where do our heroes end up? Who lives? Who dies? Is it satisfying? Or does the series phone in its closing minutes? Spoilers ahead. First things first, it's been a minute since I've seen a series give so many of its mainstays -- beloved or no, deserving or otherwise -- a big ol' sloppy wet kiss of a happy ending. Not just multiple happy endings either, but uncharacteristically rainbow-and-sugar-cookie denouements that felt (to me) a tad too sweet and too manufactured. I'm sure many a six-season watcher will be pleased and breathe more than a sigh of relief to see so many people make it to the end credits. But I'm a guy who loves a few dark twists, some gut punches, some bittersweet send-offs, and far more blood and heartache than Longmire seems willing to offer.

Walt, our once and not-so-future Sheriff, practically and literally rides off into the sunset, or would if he saddled his horse later in the day. More than that, like the books upon which the series is based, he beds Vic, and not just for a night, apparently for what will presumably be the rest of their lives. Romance has arrived for our good lawman and law-lady, and... I just don't buy it. The age difference alone yanks the air right out of that heart-shaped balloon in my brain. And Vic? She cleans up well, drinks some coffee and enjoys her breakfast brew as she watches Walt ride off. Which strikes me as decidedly un-Vic. I'd expect her to hop in a police cruiser and head into town the minute he disappears over the horizon. She's got work to do, dammit. But instead, in odd fashion, she smiles a bunch and quickly takes to her girlfriend-at-home trappings. Oh, and for some reason they explain to each other how it probably won't all work. The tonal disparity is enough to make you pull your hair out.

Nighthorse and Henry probably have the most satisfying closure of the season and series, with redemption taking its place where we all wanted it to be. Walt's eyes are opened, villains shed their villainy (or perceived villainy), and true baddies emerge. Hooray. And Henry takes his place in the casino, free of the madness and danger that's dominated his life, determined to bring honor to the region's gaming once and for all. Meanwhile, Walt passes the torch to, surprise surprise, Cady, revealing the only reason he didn't hang up his spurs is that he was waiting for the right Sheriff to rise from the primordial law enforcement ooze, and it's her. Out of nowhere? Eh, yeah. But I dig it. Even if it's clearly been created to give people like me a fist-pump and a much-needed exhale when it comes to Walt and Cady's relationship. And the rest of the crew? Good times for all. Minus Malachi, that back-stabbing bastard. Good riddance.

But alas, it's not good riddance to Longmire; a show cancelled at A&E after three seasons before being miraculously saved and revived by Netflix, for not one, but three more seasons. Fans will miss the series but it lived much longer than it was meant to. Be thankful for six seasons and a full story, properly told without being rushed, cut or unceremoniously dismissed. The Blu-ray release of Longmire: The Complete Sixth and Final Season features all ten S6 episodes:

1. The Eagle and the Osprey - A bank robbery ends in a shooting, giving Mayor Sawyer Crane more leverage against Walt. When Henry goes missing, Cady tells Walt about her disturbing vision.

2. Fever - As Henry fights for his life and recuperates, Walt takes a moment to investigate the violent murder of a goat farmer whose land has become popular with treasure hunters over the years.

3. Thank You, Victoria - Chance Gilbert's court appearance takes a sudden and dramatic turn that pulls Walt away from the civil suit that had been dominating his attention, instead leading him into a showdown with Vic.

4. A Thing I'll Never Understand - An emotional Vic re-examines her life. Henry and Nighthorse team up against the vicious Malachi. The Ferg helps his girlfriend's mother resolve an issue with the tribal police.

5. Burned Up My Tears - As the trial for Walt's civil suit begins, things don't look good for the gunslinger or his legal options, especially after a strange murder somehow leaves both Vic and Walt at its center, as suspects.

6. No Greater Character Endorsement - The bizarre death of a drug dealer points to a new and violent Hector. Cady tries to help a sick child whose parents don't trust Western medicine. Jacob Nighthorse shares surprising testimony in Walt's trial.

7. Opiates and Antibiotics - Walt wonders if a presumed dead member of the Irish Mob may actually still be alive. Mathias questions Cady about Catori and other subjects that have come to his attention. A mobile clinic raises Henry's suspicions.

8. Cowboy Bill - As The Ferg works diligently on the in's, out's and particulars of the Cowboy Bill case, Vic and Walt try to find Shane Muldoon. Cady's office is trashed and she works to discover who did it and why.

9. Running Eagle Challenge - Vic gets a surprise visit from her father. An FBI agent helps Walt uncover and pin down the mole working for Malachi. A tough race enables Vic to move forward in more ways than one.

10. Goodbye Is Always Implied - Nighthorse's problems at the casino escalate and reach a deadly boiling point. Walt gets an unexpected visitor and makes a long-awaited connection. An inevitable confrontation leads to lives changed as the series draws to a close.

Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like the Blu-ray release of its five previous seasons, Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season boasts an excellent 1080p/AVC-encoded beauty of a video presentation. Colors are rich, warm and vibrant, with natural skintones, searing sunbathed hues, deep black levels and vivid contrast. Every now and then a bit of softness creeps in but it's so rare that it barely registers. There's also a few instances of banding but, again, it disappears as quickly as it appears. Detail is razor sharp and pixel perfect, with clean, crisp edges and wonderfully resolved fine textures (especially in close-ups of old, grizzled gunslinger faces, with their etched wrinkles and graying stubble). The image is free of artifacts, inexplicable noise, crush and other anomalies, and there really isn't much of anything that amounts to a distraction. Yes, the series has the sheen of a digitally filmed production. It always has. And yes, a more grainy, filmic appearance probably would have suited its neo-western framework better than its modernized look. But take that complaint up with Season One. The Sixth and Final Season's video presentation is everything fans will want it to be.

Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Also like its previous season predecessors, The Sixth and Final Season features a strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. I do wish the series would deliver a slightly more immersive experience -- with rear speaker activity at work in every scene, not just when suspense, action or murder is afoot -- but it isn't too frustrating, and the rear channels do help create plenty of engaging environments, convincing acoustic spaces and believable nuances in everything from small rooms to large warehouses. LFE output is solid and weighty, lending strength to heavier elements, gunshots, punches and beatdowns, and dialogue is clear, precise and neatly grounded in the soundscape. Bottom line? No surprises here.

Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Longmire's sixth and final season doesn't earn any supplemental love from the Warner Archive Collection.

Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Longmire doesn't shy away from character complexities, nor is it beholden to formula (despite its six-season procedural trappings). It's final episodes offer too much of a clean-cut happy ending for my tastes, but I'm sure fans will breathe a sigh of relief that so many of the men and women we've been watching for six years, across two distributors, make it to the end credits largely unscathed. The Warner Archive Collection 4-disc Blu-ray release of Longmire: The Sixth and Final Season is even better, thanks to a terrific AV presentation... so long as you ignore the fact that it doesn't include any special features. If you already own the first five seasons on Blu-ray, this one is a no-brainer.