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My Thoughts of The Amazing Digital Circus

Last year, my sister introduced me to this show cause I had never heard of it. At the time only 6 episodes had been out. She was talking about it as she found a merchandise of the show at a local GameStop, it was like one of those squishy things in the shape of the character's head. (She got one of the purple bunny which I come later to know as Jax, her favorite character.)

So she had me binge watch the first 6 episodes and while watching it I couldn't help but think of this story I remember hearing about called I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. (Which I found out the creator of Digital Circus said was the inspiration for the show.) Anyway, after watching the show, I actually did like it. I thought it was pretty impressive for an indie production to make a show this well.

So I patiently waited for the last three episodes and I wanted to wait for the finale to give my full thoughts on the show. The finale just came out on YouTube and I didn't get a chance to see it in theaters so I watched it on YouTube.

So now that the full show is out and I took a bit of time to think it over, what did I think of it?

I think the show is a pretty decent and enjoyable show but I do think the show had a bit of an identity crisis and that it didn't live to its full potential. Some of the show felt like it was gonna be this like mystery, world building type of story with interesting characters and how these characters would get out of this digital world but then the other half wanted to be a "character focused" show and just show the interactions and "develop" the characters.

I've put quotation marks on a couple of words above because to be honest even when the show did focus on the characters we barely got any development on them. Hell, most of them we don't know much about them except surface level stuff. Also the characters don't really change, they kinda stay the same as they were in the first episode. There wasn't really any kind of challenge to any of the characters journey.

Like I said, it seemed the first episode kinda hinted at Pomni, the main character, was gonna try and find a way out of the circus but then by, at least, episode 3 she seems like she adjusted real quick into the world. So then the rest of the show was just them going through the many adventures Caine puts them through until Episode 7 where the main conflict and story starts to finally pick up.

I also thought that the show was gonna have some underlying horror elements as the show is loosely based on a short horror story called I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. If you haven't heard of that story, go read it or listen to an old audio show on YouTube or even watch a playthrough of the 90's point and click game. It is a genuinely creepy and horrifying story.

I say loosely cause the show was more a lighthearted version of the story as Caine, the AI, was more craving the love of the humans instead of loathing the humans he's keeping like AIM was.

Another criticism I have for the show is that I really think either there should've been more episodes or the runtime on each episode was longer. I just feel we didn't get enough information about the world, the IRL world and the characters themselves, well besides one particular character. I mean the show constantly kept hinting at the IRL world what with Caine keeping Polaroids of the offices of C&A and just staring at them like he too is trying to figure it all out.

The whole "the characters are actually brain scans" kinda makes sense but also seems very undercooked cause I'm like well how the hell did that happen? How did the characters come across the VR set. Kinger, Pomni and Jax I get, well kinda, since Kinger is the co-creator of Caine and worked for C&A. Pomni mentioned on exploring abandoned buildings so her finding the VR does make alittle sense but I find it odd why she would put it on and have the set scan her brain. Same with Jax as he was homeless and probably found the VR. But I do have to ask, how did the VR set have power enabled to do that if it's in abandoned building?

The show kinda give some plot threads about what is going on but then never really brings it up or gives a kinda half-assed answer and never goes deeper than that. I know some people will probably say well the show was never a lore show, but it kinda advertised itself like that with the pilot episode. And you can't really say it's a character driven/study when, as I've said before, we barely know anything about them.

Although the finale did decide it wanted to focus on one character in particular. Everyone's favorite purple bunny, Jax. I have heard a lot of complaints on how Jax became the main focus on the finale and I'm gonna be honest I do kinda agree with this complaint.

Don't get me wrong I actually do like Jax, he's among my favorite characters in the show but I do feel getting his backstory in the finale was an odd choice. If we'd gotten this earlier in the show that would've been better and how he gets abstracted off screen was just odd and confusing to me.

Also to get this out of the way, it seems there is like a trend with people saying "if you like this character then that must mean you are just like them or something is wrong with you"! when no it's not that, some of us just like a character because we find them entertaining. Is Jax a terrible person? Yes. But is he interesting and entertaining? To me, yeah he is. Doesn't mean I share the same thoughts and views as him, although there are a few things I do find relatable about him.

Another thing people had problems with is that Gooseworks, for some reason, started to reveal a bunch of important plot points and especially revealing that Jax is a trans woman. I don't know if I'll get a lot of hate for having this opinion but Jax being trans is just...really odd to me? I think it's partially because it feels so forced and rushed cause I always thought of Jax as a guy that pushed this toxic masculinity vibrato because he was hiding that he had a much softer and more feminine side to him. Like he was someone more emotional than being masculine tough guy but because of what his dad said or taught him, he decided to make himself the bully. I think that would've made way more sense because...I don't know having him being a representation of a trans woman...wouldn't that be considered bad?

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong cause I will be honest I am totally ignorant when it comes to anything about Trans people since I'm not a part of that community and I'm trying to understand is all. But wouldn't Jax being trans be considered harmful because of all the stuff he did to the others, especially to all the female characters? Let me know what you guys think without being ugly about it! I want everyone to give their side on this without it turning into a huge fight!

As for giving answers to a lot of the plot points/holes on a q&a Tumblr page and on Twitter, I just think that's a bit lazy cause it's like well, it would've been nice to have known about this stuff in the show! That frustrates me a lot when creators do that.

And the whole thing with Caine's redemption arc, that could've been a whole episode on its own. That also felt a bit rushed.

I know I'm sounding harsh about this show but I promise I did like the show. I thought the animation was very good, some of the characters were enjoyable, the voice acting is great, there are some good moments and I thought there were some great jokes in it. I mean, I like the show enough I've bought some merch.

I just feel a bit disappointed cause this show had such great potential to be a fantastic show! But it's now just a decent show that had so many missed opportunities and potential. I honestly think Goose should've had another writer or two to help her cause it really felt like she had a good outline and some good moments and ideas but didn't know where or how to make it connect and make it make sense. And even help work and develop the characters.

Hell, I even thought of doing a rewrite of the show but idk.... Maybe that just might be a "keep to myself" situation.

But anyway, what do you guys think? Is there something else in the show I didn't bring up that bothered you? Or do you agree or disagree with what I said? And what are your thoughts on the show? Let me know!