I took some time and watched the web series, as well as the leaked finale, and my feelings are mixed. I think that the concept, of being stuck in a digital "prison" and attempting to escape while dodging the obstacles that the computer program is throwing up at you, is a very cool one. I think that the characters, at least initially, were all generally compelling and hit the right notes for an ensemble cast. It could've theoretically gone on forever with the imitation of episodic television, with the "adventures" happening and some kind of plot arc being alluded to once in a while. Maybe I'm a goyslopped retard but I like this sort of thing, the whole "I'm trapped and how do I get out and what's really going on here?" It's a perfect set up for a story, with all the plot threads basically written for you, and I think someone will eventually come around and do the concept justice. But this is unfortunately not it.
Gooseworx, in my view, failed to really do anything with all of the potential in The Amazing Digital Circus. The interesting parts (What causes the abstractions? Where did everyone from? Why does the program exist at all? and those are just examples) were either unanswered or answered in a horrible manner. The characters are sort of reduced, over time, to one-bit support players for Pomni and Jax. The worst, in my view, is that the whole "sit-down-therapy-session" thing is extremely intolerable and it happens repeatedly. It worked, for instance, with Pomni and Kinger, but every other time it happened with any other character it felt tonally off and dissonant and just poorly written.
I'm not sure what the logic was in the finale. It is probably the most bizarre, discordant, and fake-pump finale in history. The big question all of the characters have been trying to solve ("What are we and how do we get out?") is given in a literal blink-and-you-miss scene and is basically accepted at face value and uninterrogated until the saccharine montage at the end. What makes it worse is that Pomni, the actual protagonist, is a backseat in the finale of the show to Jax, who is probably the least interesting and most insipid character in the show. Am I supposed to feel bad for him? All of it feels very pointless and not even given a tragic weight, considering everything he abstracted over would've been told to him in the compilation montage Caine whipped up for the final seconds.
Oh well. Maybe someone will make a more interesting story out of the concept.
Optimism showing.
