Ann Chovi

An okay adaptation- the acting is pretty great, and the cinematography was nice, but coming in as a fan of the original podcast.... well, it left a lot to be desired. I understand needing to make changes to make it more accessible to a broader audience, but so much of the original vibe was lost with the alterations to a lot of the characters. Turning Melody straight is the most glaringly obvious and jarring, but certainly not the only instance. They also dialed the cosmic horror elements down from an 11 to like, a 1. Which I mean, come on- that was the charm of the original. All of the residents of Visser constantly surrounded by things that most folks would see as unsettling red flags and just chalk it up to "that's just how apartment living is" is an incredible darkl comedic theme, and dropping that for the overplayed "oh no evil cult" storyline instead just felt like such a letdown. All in all- a decent series, but not the Archive 81 I know and love. At least Ratty made an appearance.

Started strong, ended in a poorly animated fever dream. It's too bad, the premise was great, the character designs were really interesting, and I truly WANTED to like it- but you could see where either the budget ran out, or the animators just stopped caring about quality to meet a deadline. It felt like watching the end of Birdy the Mighty Decode, but 20x worse. 😰 And what, in the name of the muses, happened to the plot at the end there??? Whatever happened to pacing in storytelling??? It went so off the rails so fast it felt like I got whiplash just trying to follow along. I genuinely hope there isn't a season 2. It ended on such a disappointing, nonsensical note. 2 stars for the halfway decent start to the series.