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Tag: The Legend of Vox Machina

  • REVIEW: ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Closes One Door and Opens Another

    REVIEW: ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Closes One Door and Opens Another

    It’s not always easy to remain consistent. In life, sure, but especially in storytelling. Take HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones, for example. Once adored by fans the world over, most adulation for the show came skidding to a controversial halt when the final season failed to meet fans’ immense expectations. On the other side of the coin, one might find a series like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which managed to find it’s footing in later seasons after a rough start out of the gate. Obviously, neither of these situations are ideal for a writer’s room. In the first scenario, you have years of hard work seemingly derailed by a single batch of faulty episodes. In the latter, you have a glorious comeback seen only by those who were willing to stick with the show through the worst of times. It is with immeasurable pleasure that I state The Legend of Vox Machina has avoided the second prognosis, and shows no signs of being diagnosed with the first anytime soon.

    In my last review of the series, it was mentioned that Vox Machina was doing an excellent job of bringing its multiple plot lines together towards a satisfying payoff. As the last three episodes of the season played out, they proved this theory was even more correct than initially believed. Nearly every major character on the show receives a proper conclusion to their arc, often overlapping with each other in ways not expected but wholly rewarding. It almost feels as though the story could not have happened this well on accident, despite its humble beginnings as a recorded tabletop game improvised among friends. There are also quite a few moments of genuine surprise sprinkled throughout the final first season installments, keeping the viewer on their toes and managing to avoid a lot of the unsavory finale tropes that plague multiple tales of the genre.

    The passion behind the project is so evident in the way its writers and performers take care of the titular group, each emotion felt by the main cast feeling as though the chaos was actually happening in the recording studio. These lively bits of vocal recording help to heighten the show’s finest moments, adding an extra push to triumphant climactic battles and forcing out that first teardrop in emotionally weighted scenes. Speaking of which, the finale of Vox Machina proves more than willing to venture in the direction of sadness than the early previews of the series ever suggested. After a full season of expertly executed bonding with the merry band of misfits, the surprisingly frequent instances of true drama hit fairly close to home. Yet, the adult cartoon is able to balance these bits with its signature humor and violence quite well, resulting in a wonderfully calculated assault of emotions on the audience.

    Perhaps the best aspect of the season’s close is the way it sets up the series promising future. With a second season already in the bag, it makes sense to leave the show off on some sort of tease for what’s to come. But what’s impressive is the way the Critical Role crew is able to leave their characters open for another chapter. So far, the plot has mostly revolved around the hidden personal life of emo gunslinger Percy de Rolo. As that story comes to a close, the door opens for another to begin, and the follow-up could center around any one of the team’s many intriguing members. All the remaining adventurers have been put into a position to succeed going forward, and I can’t wait to see where the series takes them next.

  • REVIEW: Darkness Reigns and Heroes Rise as ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Continues

    REVIEW: Darkness Reigns and Heroes Rise as ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Continues

    When the first half of Amazon Prime’s The Legend of Vox Machina came to a close, it really felt more like a new beginning for the animated series. The violent, raunchy hijinks of the show’s intrepid protagonists had made the initial mish-mash of adventures a fun watch, but building tension and a genuinely surprising mid-season cliffhanger seemed to be promising something different was on the horizon. In its latest batch of episodes, the series delivers on this promise with exciting confidence and a whole lot of gravitas. After taking its time to introduce its audience to a wide cast of characters, and the expansive world which they inhabit, the series dives headfirst into tightening loose ends and streamlining its story. This allows for some wonderful growth on the part of a handful of leads who felt stagnant in previous episodes, while still leaving room for more developments to come.

    Vox Machina‘s continued run is, by nature of its own plot, also quite a bit darker than what viewers will have seen prior. This is by no means a bad thing. While the series’ general gimmick, having been based on the tabletop antics of jovial friends, would seem to imply a lighthearted adventure, the latter half of this season is going in very much the opposite direction. Franchise creator Matthew Mercer and voice acting staple Grey Griffin delight in causing chaos as the merciless Briarwood couple, who serve as genuine, anxiety-inducing antagonists.

    A combination of their immense bloodlust and a never-ending supply of monsters lends itself to creating a darker tone and balances surprisingly well with the comical dialogue often spewing from the mouths of the titular group. For example, a massive horde of the undead makes it possible for the leads to maintain and bounce their charming chemistry off one another while keeping the stakes fairly high. It also allows for the series to keep up a constant stream of its increasingly signature violence in some of the most creative ways it can imagine.

    An eerier tone brings with it a renewed sense of drama, with the new episodes wasting no time to capitalize on the dramatic final reveal from the ending moments of the season’s sixth entry. Fans are gifted with a litany of new information about Taliesin Jaffe‘s Percival de Rolo, whose origins have quickly become the emotional crux on which the series thrives. The fleshing out of his character comes at exactly the right time, shining a light on why exactly it is we should care about him and his objective in the first place.

    Not to mention, a lot of it is just really cool. Vox Machina does an excellent job of mixing nerdy clichés with actually well-done character progression, leading to several moments that are both rewarding and joy-inducing. Thankfully, Percy isn’t the only character who gets a promotion in storytelling. The first half of the season featured not one, but two gnomes with somewhat flat development. Obviously, it’s unfair to claim a character lacks dimension before a full set of episodes has even aired, and Vox Machina proves to it’s audience why.

    Ashley Johnson‘s Pike Trickfoot felt like a hero meant to be a fan favorite, but her lack of contributions to the team and the continuous sputtering of her abilities left her character trailing behind the others. Luckily, her side quest pays off in a big way when the series returns, giving her the big moment it always felt like she would have down the road. Sam Reigel‘s Scanlan Shorthalt was in a similar predicament. Though always good for a dirty joke and a hearty laugh, it never quite felt like he had as much depth as some of his fellow companions.

    Here, however, the rockstar bard gets an episode all to himself and rises to the occasion in a way that cements him as a genuine article going forward. Some of the leads who flourished in the spotlight earlier in the show get to take a backseat for a while, but this will prove to be worth it in the long run. By the time the show begins hurdling towards its finale, the audience will have an emotional connection, and familiarity, with each one of its protagonists. With any luck, this means the final three episodes will be able to take all of what we’ve seen so far and wrap it up with a nice, hilarious, bloody bow.

  • REVIEW: ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Is Raunchy, Violent, Fantasy Fun

    REVIEW: ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Is Raunchy, Violent, Fantasy Fun

    The world of animation is home to a rather wide variety of genres, and most of them are designed to cater to a very specific audience. Those with a flair for the theatrical tend to love an action-packed anime, filled with an ample amount of drama and enough fast-paced violence to make a vampire blush. Escapists will frequently stray towards fantasy epics, which transport them away from the realities of life and towards a more magical land of adventure. Late-night crowds love adult comedies, which typically go to great lengths to make their raunchiest jokes an auditory and visual experience. Pleasing an audience is no easy task, so it’s impressive when a show can hit the mark on any one of these concepts. It’s even more impressive when it succeeds in hitting on all three.

    The Legend of Vox Machina is Amazon Prime’s latest animated offering, based on a long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign played by some of the industry’s most talented vocal performers. The group, who initially presented their journey in the form of a web series called Critical Role, all return to voice their respective characters in a new adaptation that entertainingly balances the earnestness of good storytelling with the jolly aura of nerds just messing around. Though the humor may sometimes be a bit on the nose, its honest bluntness makes it hard not to laugh. For example, when one of our protagonists is confronted by a monstrous demon beast, he appropriately exclaims something along the lines of ‘What in the actual [insert expletive] is that!?’ This, being probably exactly what the viewer was also thinking, makes for a good reminder that the majority of the show’s jokes stem from someone sitting at a table and reacting to plot twists with as much humanity as any viewer.

    As hinted above, however, it’s not just the R-rated comedic material that makes Vox Machina so charming to watch. Jokes hit harder when an audience is engrossed in the plot, and more so when the characters involved are actually made to be interesting. Throughout the series’ first six episodes, those ready to observe will be introduced to a seemingly expansive world of magic and monsters (or rather, dungeons and dragons). None of the concepts presented are especially new or groundbreaking, but a handful of genuinely fun-to-watch sequences and the sporadically very cool character design will surely be quick to convince viewers of their right to exist. The exaggerated nature of animation, paired with the occasionally brutal nature of fantasy, serves to make the action scenes sometimes shockingly violent. It’s most definitely not a show for children, and some moments may even be too grotesque for grown adults, but fans of a satisfyingly choreographed fatality should be pleased by what the series has to offer.

    The likability of the story’s titular band of misfits also helps to keep a potential fandom wanting more, whether it be to see further evidence of the easy chemistry between actors or simply because they’ll want to know what happens to their sort-of-heroes next. By the tradition of role-playing games, all protagonists are a bit of a stereotype. Yet, the dualistic authenticity with which each is portrayed in Vox Machina helps to inject a certain amount of lifeblood into the plot. Travis Willingham‘s Grog Strongjaw is your typical meathead barbarian, but the actor delves into the role with enough heart to make him one of the team’s softest members. Laura Bailey‘s half-elf ranger Vex Vessar is as independent as they come, and Sam Reigel‘s Scanlan Shorthalt is a musical gnome with a penchant for sex and self-obsession, yet somehow both keep finding themselves in danger for someone they care about. Some of the more prominent character developments can’t be discussed without giving away some really intriguing spoilers, but suffice to say the rest of the cast has a lot of fun as well. Especially when the story deviates from the expected.

    Ironically, a final bright spot worth mentioning is just how gleefully dark the series can get. With old-fashioned villains who are bad for the sake of being bad and cherish the idea of causing others pain, it sometimes feels like nothing is off the table. Despite a generally jovial tone, any show with evil books, giant wolves, and mustache-twirling bad guys is sure to make it to some scary places. What’s surprising is just how willing Vox Machina is to embrace the chaos.

    While every minute spent watching The Legend of Vox Machina was thoroughly enjoyable, it does seem like the series is meant to flourish with a very specific niche. Those who love the original web series will flock to this new take, and they’ll more than likely fall for it quicker than most. However, anyone unfamiliar with the source material should prepare themselves for a ride that pulls out quite a few stops. If you’re expecting a straightforward show that commits to any one style, you might want to look elsewhere. If you’re willing to let yourself be open to anything, then you just might find yourself a new favorite adventure on Amazon Prime.