Syd Shock

The first time I went into this, I was aware of Critical Role and that this was a crowdfunded adaptation of their DnD campaign, but not much more. I thought it was a bit crass at times, but it had its charms (in its own chaotic way) and was a solid 3/5 (good enough for me to not mind another season). Then, as with most 3/5s, I forgot about it for a few months. But, for some reason, something compelled me to delve into Critical Role on a deeper level. And boy, was I pleasantly surprised by what I found. I suddenly realized just how much backstory and depth there was behind this 12-episode series. It seemed almost impossible to adapt 100+ hours of raw content into a couple hours of animation, but for what it's worth, they didn't do a terrible job. Upon rewatching, the first season had a very specific vibe- it felt like it was trying to figure out what it wanted to do with itself. Which, I'll admit, isn't a very good way to start a series, but that doesn't necessarily signal an immediate death-sentence for it. Venture Bros is a good example of this. I'll get more into that later. For now I'll get into the rough stuff first. Not gonna lie, writing-wise, they went really hard on the "adult" humor: cursing, gross-out humor, s*x, etc. It's not as bad as it could have been- however, in this case, there were some moments that felt like they were there only for shock value (especially in the first two episodes, which are probably the weakest of the entire series) and those parts did cause some groans and eye rolls. Despite that, some of the best moments came within the following Whitestone arc. Now, they were actively attempting to tell a serialized story/plot. There were bits of sincerity and dabbles of genuinely witty comedy here and there. It felt like they were finally gaining some momentum. We also get some really good character development for Percy, who (as of right now) feels like the only member of Vox Machina that isn't a caricature of themselves (with the possible exception of Vex). This is understandable, since it's his arc and he should be the one getting the most attention. We get hardly anything for everyone else, and what we do get is somewhat flawed- this sort of leads into the next issue. The character depth (or lack thereof) was probably the biggest thing that jumped out at me upon revisiting. I wish I could elaborate more, but I'm running out of space- so let's just say that Scanlan and Keyleth are the biggest offenders. I hope this can be chalked up to time constraints, covid, and not being sure if they'd be getting more seasons, so they just did whatever. But to sum it up, they honestly picked some of the worst traits to represent everyone with, lol. Anyways, going off the campaign, the next big arc after Percy's is Westruun, Grog, and the Herd of Storms (with the Chroma Conclave looming in the background). This is honestly my favorite part of campaign 1, and adapting it seems like a staggering feat. My only hope is that they learned from the production of the first season and that they at least attempt to work Vox Machina out of the heavy tropes they've fallen into. Venture Bros did this- the first couple of seasons were pretty crass (and in somewhat poor taste) and the characters were really one-dimensional. But as they got into the more serialized stuff and delved into the characters/ world more, it got absurdly good- it's honestly some of the best tv out there. I could see Legend of Vox Machina turning out like that, if not better.