redvsblue Season 10

Season 10 marks the final season included in the ten year redvsblue anniversary set off Amazon. It is part two of two of the Project Freelancer saga (trailer), and clocks in at one of the longest RVB seasons yet at a whopping two hours and forty minutes! It continues the same narrative as the previous season where half of it is a prequel with the freelancer team working under the director (John Reed) and the counselor (Asaf Ronen) set “many years ago” before the events of the first seasons of RVB.

The other half of the narrative takes place in the present. The end of season nine was with Church/Epsilon (Burnie Burns) getting yanked out of the bizarre alternate reality he was stuck in. To his rescue is Caboose (Joel Heyman), Sarge (Matt Hullum) and former freelancers, Carolina (Jen Brown) and Washington (Shannon McCormick). They meet up with Grif (Geoff Ramsey), Simmons (Gus Sorola) and Tucker (Jason Saldana) as we find out that Carolina is leading them all to track down the director to settle some unfinished business.

That unfinished business is told through the prequel narrative with the freelancer squad as we follow them on a few missions in the opening half of the season. Not all is well as we find out that Agent CT (Samantha Ireland) is a traitor and she meets her maker courtesy of Tex (Kathleen Zuelch). Things get a bit intense on the prequel half of the season as the cracks forming between the agents in part one of Project Freelancer come to a head in part two with several alliances and rivalries erupting between the agents. Like last season the freelancer half of the story features the bulk of the stunning animation scenes that has been present since season eight of RVB. The animators Rooster Teeth has employed since season eight do some marvelous work with their super detailed battle scenes that are a joy to witness, and like last season I cannot help but feel spoiled while indulging them after several seasons without them.

Watching the freelancer side of the story this season is a bit edgier than the everyday lighthearted tomfoolery involving the reds and blues in the present storyline. The last couple years I have been getting into the Flash and Arrow TV series and it reminds me a lot of that similar dynamic between those two shows that both fall under the same story arcs. Like last season the two balance each other out nicely, because after seeing the bubbling storylines come to a boil and the heated firefights with the freelancers it is much appreciated to get a helping of some of the trademark humor from the reds and blues. I recall knowingly nodding along with Sarge as he quipped that it was hard to keep tabs on what was what with all the double crosses, time travelling, deaths and fake deaths transpiring. He is not kidding, because like I mentioned in last season’s blog, the RVB cannon is right up there with Lost on how to keep track of everything.

Even though this is the longest season of RVB yet, the storyline being split in two parts definitely helps make it go by faster. I particularly enjoyed how the final act went down. The freelancer prequel side ends fittingly enough with all the pieces falling in the right places and tying in directly to the beginning of the first story arc of RVB that is known as The Blood Gulch Chronicles. Back in the present, the reds and blues unite in a very memorable scene after an unlikely voice we have not heard from in awhile motivates them to overcome their differences where the reds and blues hook up with Carolina and Church/Epsilon against what else but insurmountable odds to lead them to their fateful meeting with the director. Make sure to watch after the credits this season also as there is a two minute stinger tying up some loose knots that were dangling throughout the season.

As usual we get the standard slate of extra features for season 10 of RVB. I dug the commentary track the most as it features several Rooster Teeth cast and crew members. There were rarely any lulls in the commentary and the cast had a great ebb and flow throughout as they pointed out easter eggs, timeline discrepancies, overall thoughts on filming with Halo Reach and visiting 343 to use their first Halo 4 machinima for the final sequence in season 10. If you want to know more about how they pulled off their animation, they have a couple animators on the commentary that definitely go into detail on certain scenes. Rounding off the extras are seven minutes of outtakes and five PSA bonus videos, with my favorite of the five easily going to their ‘net survival guide PSA. That PSA compares how the Internet has evolved over the years and what it takes to survive in the modern era dominated by social media.

While part two of the Project Freelancer saga is the final season included in theten year box set, it will not be the final RVB blog here. I only covered two of the four discs of extra features so far, so expect the next RVB article to detail the remaining box set extra features. I also own seasons 11 and 12 of RVB, so expect blogs of those in the next few months. Oddly enough, I had to purchase season 10 separate from the box set, because in a onetime only instance from the countless things I purchased from Amazon over the last 16 years, I had the case ripped open and the disc with season 10 was missing. Why only one disc was swiped from the 14-disc set will forever remain a mystery. Regardless, I will see you all again soon for at least a few more RVB entries to come.

Past redvsblue Blogs

Season 1 Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9