The first episode of The Amazing Digital Circus debuted on YouTube in October 2023 and has garnered 349 million views to date; the second episode came out in May has 124 million views. The third episode, which came out on YouTube on October 4, is already racking up millions of views, and will now see an additional huge audience on Netflix. What’s all the hubbub about? Well, for one, it’s a pretty damn good show that might appeal to more than just teens and preteens. Read on for more.
Opening Shot: As we see a scene of circus grounds go from crude early Sega-like graphics to more smooth CGI, a ringmaster named Caine (Alex Rochon) and his assistant Bubble (Gooseworx) introduce us to the Amazing Digital Circus. Caine is a set of chattering teeth with eyes in the middle.
The Gist: While a theme song plays, we’re introduced to Jax (Michael Kovach), a mischievous misanthrope who kind of looks like a bunny; Ragatha (Amanda Hufford), a people-pleasing rag doll; Gangle (Marissa Lenti), a stringy and emotional sort who wears both the classic comedy and tragedy masks, though comedy is broken; Zooble (Ashley Nichols), who’s made up of random toy parts and lots of attitude; and Kinger (Sean Chiplock), a chess piece with misaligned eyes who hides out in a pillow fort due to his paranoia. Kaufmo, a crudely-sketched clown, is nowhere to be found.
Dropped into this world is a woman dressed like a jester-like clown (Lizzie Freeman) with beach-ball pupils. She has no idea what’s going on, and when she sees an exit door, it dissolves as she’s about to open it.
When Caine introduces everyone, the jester finds out that they’re in the same boat as she is: They’re all human players stuck in this online RPG, with no way out. She doesn’t remember her human name, so Caine runs his name generator and comes up with “Ponmi”.
Given the fact that the rest of the group has been inside this game for years, Pomni ponders her future and starts to crack a little bit. Never fear, though; Caine has a way for the group to get into a routine and keep their minds off their fate. He sends them on adventures! To get Pomni’s feet wet, he concocts one that stays within the confines of the circus: Catch tiny creatures that steal anything and everything. Zooble decides not to participate, since she never participates in Caine’s adventures.
The group splits up; Jax, Gangle and Kinger end up facing a monster that consumes everything the tiny creatures steal. Ragatha and Pomni go to their “sleeping” quarters to find Kaufmo, only to see that Kaufmo has “abstracted”, meaning he’s lost his mind to the point where he’s just eyes and digital darkness.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created and written by Gooseworx (fka Cooper Smith Goodwin), The Amazing Digital Circus is from Glitch Productions, whose previous hit series, Murder Drones, has the same smart, offhanded sense of humor. It’s like Rick & Morty-level funny, only much, much darker.
Our Take: The immense popularity of The Amazing Digital Circus is well deserved, and not just because of the vivid animation created by the people at Glitch Productions. In the three episodes that have been released so far, Gooseworx, the show’s creator, has managed to squeeze more character development out of Ponmi and the other people trapped in this RPG than some showrunners manage to do in an entire season.
The pilot is absolutely a visual and auditory explosion, and if you’re the parent of a preteen or teen who has been obsessed over the show and the thousands of fan-created videos speculating on the next episode or recreating the characters as anime, you might dismiss the show as something “the kids” watch and nothing more. But get past the freaky character design and sometimes-rapid-fire, yelly dialogue and a real story emerges.
We see more of it in episodes 2 and 3, where the gang goes on adventures cooked up by Caine that are outside the Circus grounds: In one, they have to wrangle crocodile gummies who are maple syrup thieves, and in the other, they have to negotiate a haunted mansion that just might be a gateway to Hell. In both episodes, we get to know Pomni, Kinger, and Ragatha, as well as Zooble and Caine. Jax and Gangle still seem to be more one-dimensional. But we have to give Gooseworx a lot of credit for giving us a scene between Pomni and Kinger in episode 3 that was as emotionally effective as anything we’ve seen on streaming in the past year.
To be sure, The Amazing Digital Circus is a dark, dystopian series. More than one character says that the adventures the group goes on are simply distractions to keep them from losing their minds, given that there is seemingly no end in sight to their time inside the RPG. And when Pomni encounters a NPC (non-player character) who tries to become self-aware, Caine obliterates him without a second thought. But the show can also be wickedly funny, like when Bubble laps up Ponmi’s puke and Caine exasperatedly asks, “Why are you like this?”
Given the fact that we’re less than halfway through what we think is a planned eight episodes (the same number as Murder Drones took to tell its story), there may be some hope near the end — or at least an explanation of just how Pomni and the others got sucked into this game with no way out.
What Age Group Is This For?: Given the fact that our 9-year-old daughter has been obsessed with this show for months, we’ll set the minimum age there. Yes, there are some really dark themes and scary moments — especially in episode 3 — but if your tweener is OK with that, there’s no other content that would be inappropriate for kids that age.
Parting Shot: The characters sit down to a feast, even though they don’t eat or taste anything. Pomni’s existential panic bubbles up once again.
Sleeper Star: Despite still being a one-dimensional character, we liked Michael Kovach’s performance as the near-sociopathic Jax.
Most Pilot-y Line: Let’s just say this: The first episode is LOUD, especially when Caine is speaking. But don’t let that deter you from enjoying the show with your kids.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Amazing Digital Circus combines some surreal CGI animation with some sharply funny dialogue and characters that quickly become more than just the avatars they’re assigned in the digital RPG they’re stuck in.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.