Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

A plain release for a plane show.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 2, 2025

Jeff Rake's Manifest is a supernatural drama that aired for three seasons on NBC before its abrupt cancellation in June 2021... but then an interesting thing happened. A relatively new addition to Netflix at the time, surging viewer interest prompted the streaming platform to resurrect the series for a fourth a final season split into two halves debuting in late 2022 and mid 2023. As luck would have it (and stay with me here), I'd just randomly rewatched Cast Away days before seeing the first episodes of Manifest, and they just so happen to share a creative link in Robert Zemeckis, who directed one and executive produced the other. That's not all they share, of course: both deal with plane accidents that separate their passengers from civilization for just over five years. But whereas Cast Away puts us alongside Tom Hanks' Chuck Noland on a remote desert island, Manifest takes the Lost route and tries to explain the mystery as it goes along.

Those who watched (endured?) the later seasons of Lost can cite its, *ahem*, spontaneous approach to writing as a reason why their DVD or Blu-ray sets are collecting dust on the shelf... and as much as I hate to say it, this might be the closest comparison I make to Manifest as a whole. At the risk of getting ahead of myself, it's pretty clear that what starts out as an interesting premise almost immediately flakes away at the edges and, though certainly not without a few decent moments, episodes, and ideas along the way, fails to fully deliver on its initial promises.

Those initial promises begin with Manifest's pilot, the only one of 62 episodes to accidentally be named after airplane-related terminology. It's an admittedly solid start to the series and introduces most of its main players led by detective Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh); she's returning from a vacation with family members including brother Ben (Josh Dallas) and his son Cal (Jack Messina) and board Montego Air Flight 828 at the last minute due to overbooking. Other family members including Ben's wife Grace (Athena Karkanis), Cal's twin sister Olive (Luna Blaise), and grandparents Karen and Steve (Geraldine Leer & Malachy Cleary) take the original flight. Severe turbulence rocks Flight 828 but it's otherwise a smooth ride, yet they're diverted to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, NY rather than NYC when air traffic controllers seem surprised at their request for landing. Michaela, Ben, Cal, and the other 187 passengers are greeted by police and press on the tarmac, who inform them that over five years have passed and they've since been presumed dead. Eventually, the "survivors" are ultimately released into a world that's changed quite a bit.

There are obvious differences right away, such as the fact that twins Cal (who's battling cancer) and Olive are now five years apart. Michaela's co-worker and now ex-fiancé Jared (J. R. Ramirez) is in a relationship with her former gal pal Lourdes (Victoria Cartagena), which complicates matters when she's cleared to return to work. One of her parents has passed away as well. But there are deeper changes too, and they apply to Flight 828's passengers: it's soon discovered that each of them now possesses some kind of special ability, whether it be glimpses of the future or even a variant of telepathy. This extends to others, of course, including medical researcher Dr. Saanvi Bahl (Parveen Kaur), who just so happened to be working on a cancer breakthrough before the time jump, as well as Kelly Taylor (Julienne Hanzelka Kim), who breaks their strict non-disclosure agreement for a tell-all interview and pays the ultimate price.

Manifest's main M.O. feels like it should be a full exploration of how or why the accident occurred, but it explores a number of detours and avenues during all four seasons while never really wrapping things up in a truly satisfying way. There's of course the obligatory shadow government angle, led in part by NSA director Robert Vance (Daryl Edwards), while those different abilities are discovered and explored in an attempt to establish lore but mostly just amount to a surprising number of "monster of the week" episodes. I'll admit that portions of Manifest hint at potential greatness (or at least goodness) and its final fourth season, which again was a result of the 2022 Netflix resurrection, at leaset builds to a more fitting resolution than the third season finale. But a nagging sense of unevenness and low momentum really hurts Manifest as it tries and mostly fails to find a truly engaging path, while the show as a whole is also handicapped by Hallmark-style acting and a just plain awkward coat of religious paint that leaves something of a sugary aftertaste. (It's right there in the title, of course, but still feels terribly out of place more often than not.)

The end result isn't terrible, of course... but like the passengers of Flight 828, Manifest just feels late to the party. Long-form television shows need a lot more than a half-decent premise and occasional standout episodes to have real staying power, and in my opinion it doesn't really carry much more than that. But what do I know? Manifest was quite literally brought back from the dead due to steady and prolonged viewer interest, so there's obviously wider appeal here than most shows of its type, yet this is still a questionable one to recommend sight unseen.

Like the show itself, WB's 13-disc Blu-ray collection also has a couple strikes against it. The most obvious ones are a total lack of bonus features, as well as the fact that WB just released the complete series on DVD a little over a year ago; this will understandably anger fans who didn't think it would ever reach high definition. The packaging (discussed in a bit more detail below) is another problem: not only is it clunky and definitely prone to damage, but no episode list is included. It's fine for marathon viewing, of course, but not so much for locating specific episodes. Much like WB's similar treatment for Super Friends!, I've taken it upon myself to create one below for your convenience.

As a quick aside, I'd like to point out that this Blu-ray set has 13 discs, rather than the DVD set's 14, which means that the 62 episodes are arranged slightly differently. Where am I going with this? Rather than mirror the DVD set's episode distribution and re-use its disc-by-disc episode list (which was printed on the inside cover), I'm guessing that WB saved a couple of bucks by eliminating one disc and saved even more by just skipping the helpful inner print entirely. (There's also no slipcase now either.) In other words, they really went out of their way to cut corners here.

SEASON ONE

• DISC ONE: "Pilot", "Reentry", "Turbulence", "Unclaimed Baggage", "Connecting Flights", "Off Radar"

• DISC TWO: "S.N.A.F.U.", "Point of No Return", "Dead Reckoning", "Crosswinds", "Contrails"

• DISC THREE: "Vanishing Point", "Cleared for Approach", "Upgrade", "Hard Landing", "Time of Departure"

SEASON TWO

• DISC ONE: "Fasten Your Seatbelts", "Call Sign", "False Horizon", "Black Box", "Coordinated Flight"

• DISC TWO: "Return Trip", "Emergency Exit", "Carry On", "Airplane Bottles", "Course Deviation"

• DISC THREE: "Unaccompanied Minors", "Call Sign", "Icing Conditions"

SEASON THREE

• DISC ONE: "Tailfin", "Deadhead", "Wingman", "Tailspin", "Water Landing"

• DISC TWO: "Graveyard Spiral", "Precious Cargo", "Destination Unknown", "Bogey", "Compass Calibration"

• DISC THREE: "Duty Free", "Mayday: Part One", "Mayday: Part Two"

SEASON FOUR

• DISC ONE: "Touch-and-Go", "All-Call", "High Flight", "Go-Around", "Squawk"

• DISC TWO: "Relative Bearing", "Romeo", "Upright & Locked Position", "Rendezvous", "Inversion Illusion"

• DISC THREE: "Final Descent", "Bug Out", "Ghost Plane", "Fata Morgana", "Throttle"

• DISC FOUR: "Furball", "Threshold", "Lift/Drag", "Formation", "Final Boarding"

NOTE: In the show's official thread in our forum, one member reportedly received a duplicate disc in their set which was addressed by distributor MovieZyng. As far as I know this isn't a widespread issue and my set was perfectly fine... but if you have this problem, please contact the distributor at customerservice@moviezyng.com.

Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Manifest earns a decent but not revelatory set of 1080p transfers on Blu-ray, which aren't exactly setting foot in solid four-star territory but just barely get the nod. This digitally shot series looks decent in its presumed native 2K, showing solid levels of fine detail and visible textures in ideal lighting conditions, as well as good color representation and even signs of depth as well. That said, it'll never be mistaken for something shot on actual film with its slightly shallow and processed appearance, but in no way is that item a fault with its transition to home video, which likely uses whatever source material was originally broadcasted or streamed. My main gripe here lies with encoding, as at least one of these discs crams in six episodes (most have five) on a single dual-layered disc; this leads to bit rates that rarely jump above the mid 20Mbps range. As a result, some of Manifest's busier or darker sequences show fleeting but noticeable amounts of macro blocking and posterization with related black rush, although the latter might occasionally be tied to its source material. It's certainly not a deal breaker and probably a couple notches better than what you'll see on Netflix... but in a sentiment that'll repeat itself later in the review, cost-cutting is the real culprit here.

Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Manifest stands a bit more firmly in steadfast 4/5 territory for its DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, which by and large isn't terribly active yet kicks in admirable when the situation demands it. All-out action is rare, so sonic immersion is more dependent on both suspenseful and emotionally-driven scenes as well as occasional demonstrations of newly-learned abilities (or "Callings", as they're usually referred to in the show); otherwise, rear channel activity and channel panning is lightweight and fully related to specific locations, such as office buildings, city streets, and the like, with related support for more tangible elements such as the original score by Danny Lux, who's contributed music to a handful of films during the last several decades but most of his work has been for television shows including Grey's Anatomy (400+ episodes over 20 years!) and Ally McBeal (100+ episodes). While this mix as a whole doesn't exactly carve out new sonic territory for TV drama, it's still a sturdy presentation that pulls its weight well enough.

Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This 13-disc set ships in an "Epic" keepcase, that chunky DVD-height packaging with multiple hinges and overlapping hubs that's prone to breakage. It's not an ideal solution for collectors, although at least Blu-ray's durable outer coating should prevent any real damage in the event of a loose disc during shipping. As with Babylon 5: The Complete Series, Super Friends! - The Complete Collection, Twin Peaks: From Z to A (the reprinted version), and many other "Complete Series" releases, I'm sure that die-hard fans would have gladly paid an extra $20 or $30 for individual keepcases in an outer slipcase. What's even lazier about WB's treatment of Manifest is that no disc content list is included (hence the homemade one above), which is fine for marathon viewing but not so much for finding individual episodes.

No bonus features are included either, but this can also be tied to the rock-bottom price tag.

Manifest: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A supernatural series that oddly mixes sci-fi intrigue with lukewarm family drama and Hallmark-grade acting and writing, Jeff Rake's Manifest starts off decently enough and has its moments but gradually loses control of its flight path. I can't say I hated it, but I sure didn't love it. That said, its popularity on Netflix was strong enough to warrant a resurrection and fourth and final season, so anyone who liked what they streamed might appreciate having a high-def physical copy. Warner Bros. clearly didn't go all out here (no bonus features, lazy packaging)... but, despite my mixed feelings about the show and this collection, it's currently priced similarly to a single boutique label movie release, so this isn't exactly a high-risk purchase and thus might be worth a shot for curious newcomers as well.