The first three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina have been released on Prime Video. While I don’t believe in reviewing a series until it has finished, here are some of my initial thoughts. Not sure I would consider anything I say spoilers, but I’m putting a spoiler warning here just in case you know nothing about the show and want to stay that way until you see it.
So far, I like it but I don’t love it. I suspect this is because we’ve only had one episode of the main storyline so far, but I kind of wish we had a story that more firmly established the group before doing Whitestone. I’m familiar with Critical Role and while I never finished listening to the first campaign, I did get through the Whitestone story arc, so I am excited to watch it unfold.
That being said, it seems like it would have been better to spend a season helping people not at all familiar with these characters get to know them first. That whole dragon story line went so fast, and for good reason, with only 12 episodes in the first season they needed to get to their main story quickly. But moments that are impactful because they are out of character lose their impact when you don’t know the character very well and I worry that those who have never listened to Critical Role will lose some of that magnitude. The show is also a little gory for my personal taste, but given the battle descriptions for the show, I really shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was by that.
Criticism aside, I have enjoyed watching the show. The animation looks good and of course the voice acting is spot on because everyone who plays in Critical Role is a professional voice actor. The cast they got for the other characters has been phenomenal so far too. The show has done a good job at capturing the overall tone of Vox Machina which is frequently irreverent but intense and dramatic when they need to be. They have definitely leaned into being an adult animated show and have done so well at reflecting the group dynamic that fans of Vox Machina should really like it. I admit that I do miss hearing the banter that happens at the table, but it is nice to be able to streamline the story down from hours and hours of content. I’d love for them to be able to continue the show to the end of campaign 1 and then go on to do campaign 2 which is the one I have listened to in its entirety.
I hope that those unfamiliar with Critical Role will enjoy this show as much as fans. If you are a fan of adult animated series and fantasy then I think this is worth watching even if you know nothing about the source material. I’ll keep watching to the end and I’ll let you know what I thought of the series as a whole then.