I haven't looked at MLP in years for reasons far, far too emotional for a TV show. This is the first thing in fucking forever that I just couldn't get out of my head today and it's time for it.
Greg God dammit now because of you my recommendations are infested with TADC reviews. Not even episodes, reviews, like "episode X is..." or "such character has done Y". Tell Slick Sam to stop selling me.
I think that tadc has some nice heart to it I do agree that it's lost in execution But I feel like it can be better and i hope it does get better I anyways appreciate that you can find humor in this show because should be exempted from criticism or comedy I like the wife bit where kinger shares too much
Oh, man. TADC makes so much more sense as a meandering trpg adventure with Lowery as the main character. You've got the improbable setting, which has been specifically contrived around having exactly six diverse strangers who have no in-character inclination to work together, go on linear, self-contained adventures in random scenarios every week, before returning to their clubhouse totally unharmed. Gamemaster / annoying impish GMPC, who really just wants people to run through the detailed, but very linear and inflexible adventures he spent all week writing. Is open to the concept of player-led games and deeper character stuff, but not really comfortable with it, and doesn't work to encourage it. Role-Player who can't get over how stupid the worldbuilding is, and takes every opportunity to tug on the threads of inconsistency, implications, etc. Instead of engaging with adventures straight-forwardly, goes off on weird tangents to push the limits of the setting. Stays in character in the sense that they react to stuff the way a real person probably would if placed in that situation. Game-Player, who also realizes just how dumb and contrived the setting is, but tries to play along with it on its own level anyway. Reasons that the whole purpose of the setting is as a frame for the adventures, and that the adventures are most fun when you take them seriously. Intentionally takes a support role for less confident players, acting as a low key team leader. Also feels pity for the Gamemaster, and wants to throw him a bone. Class Clown who doesn't take the setting seriously on any level, and instead just uses the adventures as catharsis for his sadistic power fantasies. Usually goes too far, making the other players feel uncomfortable, but the Gamemaster likes him because he tells good jokes. Probably working through some serious emotional issues. Two very inexperienced players who are dipping their toes into role-play for the first time, and made the typical mistake of going way off the deep end. Their idea of playing a character is to have some really bizarre gimmick that totally debilitates their ability to function as an adventurer. Finally, there's the one player who's not really suited to role-playing games, or just too embarrassed to give it a fair shot. Doesn't engage with the game on either a role-playing or a mechanical level. Plays so passively that you forget they're in the room most of the time. Primarily shows up to game night for the free chips and orange crush.
I gotta object to calling it "exposition" when its just writing. Like, the core of the series isn't the plot but the interactions between characters, not all of whom will get to have the same focus every episode. It made sense to shit about "the implications" and "the plotholes" and "exposition" before I knew what any of those things meant as a kid but now it feels like that kinda talking and jokes just seem kinda childish and boring like there was no real effort to engage with the media itself, just the nebulous concepts and "implications" that fans often really just drive off into the sunset with. If you tried to put similar complaints onto something like the Babadook(using a horror example that's also based around trauma and the death of a loved one) like "wow nothing happens they just talk and the monster is only there for like a few seconds they could've cut all the scenes of the parents talking and gotten a 30 minute movie" you'd get laughed at the room for missing the point. Dialogue matters. Talking is literally wired into our brains. And sometimes, sitting in a dark room with someone, quietly, calmly, lingering on the feeling and then just, talking for a bit, is therapeutic. I know ya probably don't care but that's just my thoughts as someone who grew up with the same type of logic watching stuff, getting it from all my fav childrens media youtubers, only to realize that way of "criticism" is surface level and misses the forest for the trees, only ever making sense to people who don't know how to engage deeper with what they're seeing.
So, Angel Hare. Season 1 is a great self-contained mystery that now defines wholesome horror. Season 2 only makes sense for those who watched the Easter episode but was still great. Season 3 was that guy, who wants to shake hands with that other guy, but they take six episodes to do it by playing a video game. No I haven't watched the Circus thingy.
Digital Circus is a wholesome psycho-comedy planned to be told and completed in 9 episodes. The pilot is an exposition dump carried by impressive animation (for such a then-obscure studio) and very funny gags. Episode 2 is a companion piece to the pilot that makes up for its lack of character building while keeping its strengths. Episode 3 and the next three upcoming episodes begin to answer the mysteries about the cast's lives and personalities. The last three episodes are a mystery, but right now, the creator imagines there won't be a second season, even with its smash success.
I never noticed how much this show relies on exposition (besides that bloated info dump in episode 1), but watching the episode again made me realize why: I like the exposition. I like it because it's the payoff to the things the show was hinting towards in past episodes. For instance, episode 2 shows us Kinger speaking normally while wearing a bucket on his head, hinting at how the darkness affects his ability to think and remember things clearly. There are also other hints like the door with a crossed-out queen face that looks like Kinger in episode 1. The climax of episode 3 is where he puts it all into words, and it honestly feels earned. I think the main problem is that the events of each episode on its own don't exactly warrant having a big speech as its climactic moment. The moment where Pomni learns to appreciate Ragatha is exactly how I hoped it would go after the first two episodes, but like you said, Ragatha barely does anything in episode 3, so it feels out of place. The show is so focused on painting a bigger picture that the little details fall short. As for the future, I'm keeping my eye on Ragatha. We've seen that she's obsessed with being liked by people and avoids any sort of negativity when she can help it, no matter how she's been wronged. I doubt she means anything bad by it, but it's clearly a coping mechanism. My prediction: now that her kindness has finally begun to pay off, she'll latch onto Pomni even harder than before, and that will lead to another conflict. As long as they don't lose focus like that, I'm all for it.
Your content is always a joy Greg. How do you feel about Murder Drones? I kinda liked it. Although it is kind of a mess and I always felt like I missed an episode. Guess I mostly just like the animation and characters.
I like how the obvious message of the episode, cherish your memories like the people you love because they could always go, is completely lost and Greg got the opposite message of “don’t think about it”
@@FerinitheBloodHusky lol I sell paintings I make by putting food coloring in my mouth and spit it across the room on a canvas. I make 6figures a year but okay. Go huge your pomni plushy
@@Dawnsomewhere that's cool, I appreciate you responding to my question. I've also been wondering what you think about the comparisons between the main character of haz hotel and this pomne character, they both are white mime characters with red cheeks. Does this have some sort of broad resination with our current Zeitgeist or is it just a coincidence
One impression I haven't seen anyone make is the idea that the circus's usual palette and lighting might overstimulate his character and make him unable to focus. Also, as always, I refuse to stop thinking about it, as that is my enjoyment.
I know sardonic and cynical is your preferred flavor of analysis Greg, but lately it feels more like someone either trying to put down others who enjoy a property you aren't a fan of, or because this particular piece of media didn't grasp you exactly the way you wished it to, it's "low-brow" and not worth enjoying. I felt this way about your much later Mentally Advanced negative series. Maybe it's me looking into it with too much emotional investment, but it seems like the general critique from this parody is "too much explaining things" and "the only way you could like this is to turn your brain off".
well yea, thats probably because people dont enjoy a show talking down to them or see greater potential in a work that doesn't spell everything out to its viewers
It definitely hits differently when the act is only deconstructing the target. Yes, you knocked down a sandcastle, but now what? You proved you can knock over a tower of sand. Cool, I guess? The catharsis is fine, but it's a finite high. Parody can be constructive too, and typically lasts a bit longer.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable rug pull that the Circus is actually an ironic punishment where the actual villain transferred a bunch of people's consciousnesses into a digital realm. Because everyone is giving me massive vibes that each could represent a job role at an office. Jax is a manager, Kinger is a programmer/IT technician, etc. Or maybe they all entered the Circus willingly but the process makes them forget everything before joining the Circus so they don't remember they digitised themselves to escape the environmental hellscape of reality.
I reject the mystery of the series. I see the whole trapped in a digital realm as an excuse to have anything the author can think of happen with wacky nonsensical characters, while also pretending to have stakes. Cause *gasp* they might die IRL. The mystery will never be solved, cause then the show is over. In fact I don't believe the show is interested in solving the mystery at all, but its a very clever hook for all the lore theorists out there. The main thing about the setting is a marketing gimmick and it would make no difference if they were just 100% digital, without a pretend real world.
I mean they've stated there's a set number of episodes (8, if I remember correctly) so it really doesn't seen like they're gonna drag it on forever. Glitch seems to understand that shows need to end
@@Pro8500A I have a lot of respect for the production team behind Digital Circus, mostly because they've stated their ideals and seem to be following them, and it genuinely seems like they're trying to put better media out into the world. that being said, the "they're digital but the danger is REAL" plotline has been used before, and not everyone really vibes with it, and that's fair
Pretty sure the "stakes" are not dying IRL, but abstracting and going insane in an eternal dark prison cellar. With those stakes in mind, the mystery of what the circus is doesn't actually matter that much compared to how the characters react and deal with their situation. Considering the direct inspiration is "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream", which also had a setting with barely any plot relevance compared to how the characters we followed reacted to their situation, I'm not sure what trouble you're having here.
Ragatha: “Did you learn anything ground shaking that would massively change the setting or the plot?” Pomni: “I learned how to repress my memories of the creepypasta monster in the basement.”
"If you want to enjoy The Amazing Digital Circus, the first thing you need to do is stop thinking about it." Equally funny and tragic that the show is full of theory bait and obviously wants you to think about its worldbuilding and characterization, but the best way to enjoy it is to turn off your brain and eat it like potato chips
@norsehorse84 Never said you couldn't enjoy it that way. I also enjoy the show despite the mediocre aspects of its writing. It's just easier to have fun if dont put too much thought into it, because the writing flaws become much more obvious when you do lol
@norsehorse84 One of the first things I thought about by the end of episode three was Pomni's characterization and how it conveys the weight of the situation to the audience. Pomni has been consistently depicted as a high-strung bundle of anxiety and nerves, which makes sense considering her situation and the trauma she's experienced. However, when you think about it more deeply from a storytelling perspective, it highlights some flaws with the show. If Pomni is on the verge of a mental breakdown in episode one, the impact of her breakdowns in episode two and three are diminished because the character doesnt have much room to "grow" in that direction. It also fails to properly convey the stakes of a situation when we are watching Pomni react to it, since "anxious wreck about to have a mental breakdown" is her established baseline. If you don't put a lot of thought into it, Pomni is a perfectly adequate protagonist. But I found myself thinking about it too much, and now I can't unsee Pomni's stagnant characterization lol
I like this video, but under no circumstances can my friends find out about it. Some of them don't respond well to criticism of things they like and it keeps me from talking about online cartoons with them. I like The Amazing Digital Circus, but man, I really wish it did more showing than telling. I mean, could you imagine how it might flow if it had no dialogue? Sure, then some of my favorite voice actors wouldn't be in it, but that's a sacrifice I'd be willing to make. I think Gooseworx's stuff works best when nobody's talking. It leaves more stuff to the imagination, which can make things more funny or macabre for different audiences. Good show, but more "common denominator" than something like Little Runmo or some episodes of The Pink City.
It struggles most with pacing, I think. In episode 2, it takes them almost five minutes (a fifth of the run time!) just to genuinely start the adventure. During that time, we don't learn anything about Gummygoo. They finally wind up trapped underneath the stage ten minutes in. There is now fifteen minutes to truly introduce us to Gummygoo, walk him through his grief, and establish him as a friend to Pomni, BUT the show chooses to have a B plot with other characters which snatches away small fits of time. What the show winds up doing is just having everyone announce how they feel so that they rapidly go through the motions of what that story is supposed to be, and blow Gummygoo up at the end. Episode 3 is built differently, but has a similar problem of not taking its minutes seriously, only to then have to cram the whole story into a smaller box all at once.
Love the animation, but not super blown away by the heavy reliance on exposition. It's clear they've got some firm ideas on what's going on with their characters, but they don't really know who the characters are and have to fall back to giving a clear, verbal transcript of their motives. They could have haunted Kinger with visions of his wife throughout the episode, but instead, none of the adventure is relevant, and the big expository revelations are all that matters - but it's weird because they could be saying these things in their rooms, or the main lobby, or anywhere, and it's underutilizing the premise.
@@Dawnsomewhere I thought the mirror of Kinger and Mildenhall was part of the point of the "scary room" parts. You even see Kinger visibly shaken when Midlenhall mentions himself killing his wife. Was it obvious only to me?
@@Dawnsomewhere Dunno about this one. Ragatha, Jax and Zooble were all pretty clearly characterised without going on exposition tirades. Also Kinger's personality of not there but moments of clarity was well represented too, and him giving exposition was also just him showing he clearly still has his wits in certain situations, which I'm not sure if it would have come across well just by alluding to it. As for not knowing who the characters are: We are in episode 3. We have the basics of everybody down, and there clearly is more to them, but exploring that will take time, and I think that's a good way to go about it honestly. Also in disagreement that the adventures don't matter. In episode one, the adventure was contrasted with the abstraction to show what usual daily life in the circus is and what can happen if you try to break out of it. In the second, the whole concept of NPCs is used to put Pomni in Ragatha's situation - someone trying to help somebody else who is completely out of their depth and cannot handle the new situation, planting the seed that Ragatha was just trying to do what Pomni did for Gummygoo. We see that resolve in this episode with Pomni thanking Ragatha. Sure, could have stuck that onto the last one, but the funeral was a nice ending to that one, and more about Pomni accepting her situation rather than Ragatha in particular, so it's fine I think. And finally: The whole horror is about a married couple. One of them went insane, the other stayed a pleasant person throughout, because they care and want to help people even if they themselves are miserable. Killing the "monster" only served to put them deeper into hell, and only when they calmed down and helped each other did they make it out. It's kinda fun what you can get out of the show if you think about it, isn't it?
As someone who kind of "grew up" to prominence in the environment of MLP, I am very familiar with the idea that fans will feel there is basically nothing to criticize and that the whole IP is right-as-rain, no matter what. Given the design of the internet today, there should be a stream of theory content that is, for the intents and purposes of our mortal lives, more endless than we are. I don't worry that much if people agree with me. I just personally think the show isn't hitting emotional beats that well and is frequently circling back to exposition.
