Why The Amazing Digital Circus is so effective

Ok so I just finished rewatching Digital Circus with my roommate, for lack of a better word they've been kinda shut-in their whole life so ever since we moved in together I've been educating them on (cool) popular culture stuff. Like rewatching a bunch of movies and TV shows and video game play-throughs. Victim of lame ass parents, but at least they weren't getting traumatized by Cupcakes on old YouTube at age 7? Anyway I've already seen all the current episodes of Digital Circus a couple times, I was there since the pilot and was waiting for every subsequent episodes. I've been a huge fan and obviously it was on my mind a lot but I never exactly put my finger on what exactly made the show so effective within its genre. I was thinking about it tonight (my roommate went to bed after we finished watching, so I had brain room LOL) and now I want to write about it. Mostly because I can't put thoughts into verbal words so I can't talk about it with my roommate.

I've been a writer pretty much my entire life but I've always had trouble making my writing effective. That word sounds kinda vague but there's something about a script or piece of writing that really makes its message a loving punch to the face. Like my writing was good, yes, but not memorable, not thought-provoking. It might have been effective for one revisit but never again after that. I wanted to make something that could be revisited and packed a punch every single time. I am also just overly critical of myself, and the fact that no one aside from my high school English teachers cared enough to read my writing made me feel like I sucked ass. Most of my life I did, but that's because I was also a child.

Anyway I don't want to retell my entire life story. That's for another blog post. Coming soon? So whenever I watch something really good I tend to review it in a critical way and try to pinpoint why. Probably so that I can try to recreate it in my own writing or at least gain some inspiration or critical thinking from it. I love giving myself thought provoking exercises so my brain slows its decomposing process. 

The Amazing Digital Circus is one of the most effective and well-written psychological dark comedies I've ever seen. Have I seen many psychological dark comedies? No. Have I seen many psychological, dark, and/or comedic media? Yes. Have I thought about them as deeply as I have TADC? No. Have I tried to write my own psychological dark comedy and go through production wars with my own brain for five years? Yes and that's why TADC makes me so happy to see. 

One of the most striking things about TADC is its characters. Obviously. Each one has their own problems and stories and unique personalities. Like, you never see their real lives, they never give explicit details like names, dates, or locations, but you can imagine what kind of person they were so clearly--in addition to their well-known digital versions, of course. Not only are the characters fleshed-out, but they're also all very relatable. Not relatable in that basic tongue-and-cheek 2010s memey way that, like, they all eat pizza and lay in bed and throw their hair in a messy bun. Idk if anyone else associates the word "relatable" with that but it's not that trust me. Their individual stories are so personable and real and uniquely human that they feel relatable even if I might be nothing like them. At least, if I haven't personally experienced what the characters have, I know of someone or have heard a real story similar to theirs. That being their human stories and personalities, not the whole VR headset getting trapped in a digital simulation, FYI.

There are two things in particular that I want to talk about: Episode 4, and Jax in and of himself. I know I know everyone always talks about Jax but I actually legitimately want to discuss his character and not how attractive he is. Before you ask yes I find Jax attractive and yes I have his plush and his maid plush and also the cosplay hoodie but trust I don't gaf about any of that. I like all the characters pretty much equally and I have merch of all of them so don't come after me. 

Before I do that I want to mention something else the show does really well. Or maybe two things. As I write I keep wanting to talk about different things okay. TADC does a really good job of juggling its goofy tone, dark psychological elements and genuine sincere moments, in combination with the colorful animation and cartoony characters. It all flows together really nicely and in my experience I don't get any tonal whiplash even with the extreme difference in tones and scenes at times. I think it's because they use the tonal differences to comedic effect rather than try to play the entire thing off as serious. 

Okay onto Episode 4. It punches me directly in the head every time. I think the premise itself is the best and most effective use of psychological horror out of all the episodes aside from Episode 7. Like there are effective psychological horror moments in all the episodes don't get me wrong. But the entirety of Episode 4 is weirdly brain-bending. It sounds strange since it's just a fast food adventure where they all work at McDonalds. I mean Spudsy's. Sounds simple enough but the ending makes it all come together and work really well. 

To be honest, I didn't like Gangle that much at all for the first three episodes. I didn't care for her design that much and the gimmick with the comedy mask didn't entirely hit for me, though the running gag about her breaking it within minutes was still funny (I'm a sucker for running gags). Episode 4 made me LOVE her. And it's not just because her story is extremely similar to mine (as a studying artist with depression who has had their fair share of shitty jobs). It introduces an interesting prospect, with Gangle using the new happy mask in the adventure and being a pretty good manager with it. Though her friends start to resent her for bossing them around even if it's her job. She juggles that with her own resentment towards her job since it's a dead-end replacement for what she actually wants to do. And throughout that one day of earnest work she becomes sullen and broken. Not in the literal mask way but the edgy sad way. But it doesn't come off as edgy moping but rather genuinely disturbing, heart-wrenching depression. That shot of her facing the camera, looking off with exhausted eyes, never fails to make my stomach churn. There is so much emotion conveyed through what is really just a cartoon character, and I know exactly what she's going through even though she doesn't spell it out for us. It is one of the most effective and emotion-provoking portrayals of depression and burnout I've ever seen, and it's just one episode of TADC. It's a really unique and interesting use of psychological horror, that being living the life of a minimum wage fast food employee, not to mention how she literally runs into oncoming traffic at the end. Yeah girl me too tbh. 

Now Jax...so I don't wanna get into the theories on what his real life was because I don't actually care that much. Well it's not that I don't care but I'll elaborate on why I don't care for theorizing later. He's not a particularly unique character but the way he's portrayed is. Pretty much comes down to how well he's written. I've seen plenty of characters like him who are much less fleshed-out, or melodramatized, or over-sympathized, or not explored at all. That kind of Tumblr sexyman ass "bad boy" who are sarcastic but humorous and never take anything seriously and only exist to fuck with all their friends and be thirsted over by fans. I remember being skeptical about Jax when the pilot came out, because he was all anyone talked about, and paired with his stick-thin character design and sarcastic humor and devious personality and sexy voice by Michael Kovach, I thought he would just be a sexyman bait character. I still totally fell for it though. Maybe not "fell for it" in the traditional sense, like I was self aware about it. I guess during the pilot days I assumed that the only character that would get further explored was Pomni, since she was the main character. 

Now with future hindsight I realize that Pomni is not the main character, but kind of an audience self-insert character in which we experience the story of the characters and the circus through her. Not that she doesn't have character development of her own, but I find it sort of occurs through the other characters. Her existence is defined through other characters more and more throughout the series, and that's not a bad thing either, just that she, as Jax puts it, is figuring out her archetype and place in the circus. Obviously she defies this rule that Jax puts in place and I assume will make her place known in the coming episodes. 

But Jax is different from other characters like him that I've seen. He is never overly sympathized with, but also not overly antagonized. He's still human after all, and we're shown his humanness despite him trying to hide it. However, the show doesn't let him get off the hook scott-free, which I feel is the problem with a lot of other characters like him. They're given the benefit of the doubt, "that's just how [character] is," the other characters may get annoyed but mostly for the comedy it brings, and by the next episode they've completely forgotten about everything that character has done. Jax is held accountable for the things he's done. Everyone fucking hates him. It's extremely refreshing considering most similar characters are treated like God's gift to man by the other characters even if in real life they would be extremely unlikable. 

A moment I really like is in Episode 7, when Zooble pours water on him and he asks why they did it, she lists off a bunch of things he'd done before. The characters don't forget about all the horrible things he put them through, they remember specific instances, they don't treat each other like fake cartoon characters like Jax does, so the things he does aren't funny to them. A lot of his pranks/violent escapades are initially played off for comedy. Take him throwing Ragatha in the deep fryer for example. It's funny, sure, but when you get further in the show, the characters become more humanized, and you realize that was extremely fucked up. He treats the circus like a video game or slapstick cartoon where his actions don't have consequences. But it's not and he's treated like the human he is, and that's why the scene where Ragatha yells at him is so refreshing. Fuck him up queen. He literally deserves it. That's also why the people defending him pissed myself and a lot of other people off too. The reason he's so well-written is because he can't be defended in his actions. There's explanations, sure--he thinks it's not real, he doesn't consider the characters his friends, he lives through it in consequence-free mode. But the consequence-free mode only exists in his mind, if that makes sense.

And him trying to hide his guilt and upset about people getting mad at him is so effective too. I'm not trying to sympathize or excuse him when I say this, BTW. It's just really cool and interesting to explore his character as someone who seems like obvious fan bait, but actually has much more to see. Him being the one abstracting too is very cool. I kinda need to see his fate in order to accurately talk about what is so effective about him but mostly it's the whole bait-and-switch thing as of right now. Not to say that he isn't interesting and effective beyond him defying my expectations. 

About the theories, the reason idgaf is because it doesn't fucking matter. Yes it's cool and fun to theorize about pieces of media with mystery behind them. But I feel like it doesn't matter, in this instance, what is really happening with the circus. That's all anyone talks about, the deal with C&A, what actually happened and what was fabricated by Caine, how the headset thing works, etc. That's what I immediately started pondering after watching Episode 7 for the first time, and that's what me and my gf started talking about. Not only are we going to get more information with the coming episodes (and all it takes is some patience) but I think that whatever the truth is, it does not add or negate to anything that happened inside the circus. Partly because the damage had already been done, and the fact that the mystery is part of what makes it so scary. Not just the sketchy headset thing and the company, that's cool and all, but what really scares me is Caine's control over the character's minds. The fact that the character's actions could've been fabricated by him, and their abstractions could possibly be caused or influenced by him. The whole theme of forgetting--Pomni's name meaning "forget," the characters forgetting certain parts of their real lives, Kinger's dark/light mind thing--really adds to this. That Caine could be controlling their minds to do what he wants, when he wants, and we could never know. The not-knowing is the scariest thing about it, and not just in the classic ghost/darkness way, just in the way that makes you feel crazy--like gaslighting, not knowing what you experienced was actually real or not. 

Speaking of Caine, I wanted to add this: I'm obsessed with how he's portrayed as an AI character. A lot of AI characters are portrayed as malevolent, villainous, unstoppable forces that turn against their human creators. Think HAL and AM. But Caine is not portrayed this way at all, he deals with his own psychological horror as he tries to appeal to humans but has no way of knowing what makes them truly happy. I'm a sucker for AI characters, and Caine is really unique to me for this reason. He's not antagonized but not completely let go either, just like Jax. Though Caine is definitely less devious than Jax, LOL. His naivety and impulsivity don't negate or erase the things he'd done and the way he played with the human players like his toys. He feels more like a misguided and insecure child while Jax feels like a disgruntled young adult who peaked in high school. It makes a lot of sense to me, while I love the evil betrayal type of AI characters, Caine offers something new and refreshing in this genre. His character brings something to the table that I wouldn't have really thought about before, you would think all AI characters would turn out evil and hate their human creators, but Caine loves them and wants to be them. Obviously there are AI characters that also love humans, but they tend to be simple servants and helpers to humanity; like there are two extremes to AI characters, completely evil vs completely good, but Caine falls in the middle (veering towards good...they could never make me hate you Caine) and has his own nuances and struggles as an intelligent non-human entity. 

Ok. Jesus Christ. I think I got all my words out. Ragatha they could never make me hate you, Kinger they could never make me hate you, Zooble and Gangle are very yuriful, Jax I hate you (mostly affectionate but slightly serious) Caine they could never make me hate you, Pomni is very beer and also me for real. They all me tbh. Except Jax he is way too man-coded. To people who think Jax is trans-fem coded, I respect you and this is just my opinion but he is way more cis gay man coded. Internalized homophobia. But cis. If anything he'd be trans-masc. But prob not cuz he's too asshole. ANYWAY.......ttyl bestie me writed a lot, too much :(