‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ Full Series Review — Act 1 [SPOILER WARNING]

If you’ve been online for the last few years, chances are the name “Glitch Productions” has been mentioned a couple of times. For those unaware, Glitch Productions is a fully independent animation studio run by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul, that has put a heavy focus on helping independent animation grow and allowing creators to put their work out there without any restraints from certain companies. When the channel was first created in 2017, it was only known for a few shows, most notably ‘Meta Runner’ & ‘Murder Drones’ that respectively pulled in a lot of viewers during its run. However, there was one show that skyrocketed in popularity to the point where it pushed Glitch into the spotlight. On October 13th, 2023, Glitch Productions premiered the pilot for their latest show, ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’, and what came next was unlike anything anyone expected.

‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ is an indie animated series created by Gooseworx that follows a group of six humans trapped in a virtual simulation designed as a circus with seemingly no way to escape. The story follows the circus’s newest member, Pomni, as she struggles to adjust to her new life while engaging in some wild adventures created by the circus’s ringmaster and A.I host, Caine. At first, it gives off the impression of being a silly cartoon with a colorful cast of characters going on a wacky adventure every episode, but it doesn’t take long for ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ to reveal its true colors as a character-focused, dark comedy and psychological drama. The series is beautifully written with some of the best character writing from an indie series, gorgeous animation and a well-crafted mystery that grows with every episode. As ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ reaches its climax, it felt like the perfect opportunity to talk about it in depth and analyze discuss why it’s so widely praised by everyone. Starting with the first three episodes!

Episode 1: Pilot

When it comes to the pilot/first episode of any TV series, there are a few questions that the audience should ask while watching: Does the pilot introduce the characters, world, and premise in a way that’s cohesive and flows naturally? What’s the core conflict that pushes the series forward from this point? Is there a hook to get the audience invested for more? ‘Futurama’ and ‘Invincible’ are two perfect examples of what a first episode should look like. ‘Futurama’ flawlessly balances out the worldbuilding, premise and characters with the comedy in a way that hooks the viewer in without wasting a second. Meanwhile, ‘Invincible’ focuses on establishing Mark Grayson’s character & abilities, kicking off his journey to becoming a superhero, and ending on a masterful hook. Despite how different these two shows are, they use their time wisely to get the viewer invested in the story and characters. Similarly, episode 1 of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ masterfully checks all these boxes. The episode opens on a theme song featuring the characters already stuck in virtual world — Gangle, Zooble, Kinger, Ragatha, Jax and Kaufmo, who is missing from the crowd — before Pomni appears out of nowhere and stumbles into the cast, looking reasonably confused & terrified. From here, we get introduced to the cast & rules of the circus, Caine gives her a tour and a new name before setting up an adventure to get her acquainted to her new life.

This all sounds like pretty standard stuff; introducing the main story device, cast and setting within the first six minutes. Its premise was fairly interesting, but it felt like it hadn’t roped me in. However, the moment we get to meet Kaufmo was the moment where everything changed for me. While we don’t know anything about Kaufmo’s character, he introduces the concept of “Abstraction”, an irreversible process that occurs when the human mind is unstable, transforming them into a giant, black glitchy monster with yellow and purple eyes scattered around its body. Given the context that everyone who arrives in the circus is a human, this concept becomes a psychological nightmare. The idea of reaching your breaking point and being transformed into something you can never come back from is horrifying. Judging from how many characters have their portraits crossed out in the hallway, it’s safe to assume there’s been a large number of people who’ve unfortunately abstracted and are locked away in the cellar. There’s not too much revealed about abstraction in this episode, the most we know is that it’s the closest thing to real harm in this fabricated world. While we don’t know the whole extent to abstraction in this episode, it’s a great hook to get the audience invested in the story.

It’s around this point in the episode where things begin to get interesting. After Kaufmo throws Ragatha around and runs wild, Pomni rushes back to Ragatha who tells her to go get Caine since he can help. She goes running around the circus, opening various doors and calling out his name in the hopes to get his attention. Then, something catches her eye; a red exit door appears in front of her, the same one she saw during Caine’s tour, and without hesitation, she walks right inside with the door disappearing behind her. This is the part of Pomni’s character that makes her stand out compared to other protagonists. This would normally be the part of the story where our main character finally takes in the absurdity of their predicament and goes through some hero’s journey that helps form the connections between them, the cast and the environment. If we’re to go back to the ‘Futurama’ and ‘Invincible’ examples mentioned before, Fry and Mark’s respective journeys have them both come to terms with their circumstances and start their new lives for later episodes to explore; with Fry adjusting to his life in the year 3000, becoming friends with Bender and Leela, and working under Planet Express, and Mark beginning to find his purpose as a superhero, training under Omni-Man and gaining his powers. For Pomni, she rejects this path almost entirely. She wants nothing to do with this place and desperately wants to find an out, slowly going crazy as she runs through the halls and opens the same doors that lead her nowhere in a sequence that’s reminiscent of ‘The Stanley Parable’ and with the logo “C&A” plastered all over the place, possibly hinting at the company that created the Digital Circus and Caine. With so much happening at once, she’s barely had time to understand what’s going on and that fear controls her in a way that feels distinctly human. Even towards the end of the episode, the point where the protagonist should come to terms with everything, she doesn’t and looks visibly distraught in the final shot.

It’s honestly no surprise why this episode has over 400 million views on YouTube (as of writing this). There’s something so untraditional about this first episode that makes it so fascinating upon a first watch. It’s brilliantly deceptive in the first few minutes, making you believe this show is going to be something akin to ‘Adventure Time’ or ‘Regular Show’ before pulling the curtains back to reveal its darker themes and the existential dread behind it all. The show is also beautifully animated with some fantastic character designs and set locations that perfectly fit the circus aesthetic. The voice acting is top notch with excellent performances from everyone in this episode, most notably Alex Rochon as Caine and Lizzie Freeman as Pomni. Gooseworx managed to write a solid introduction that beautifully sets the tone of the series without revealing the most important details right away and allowing the viewer to absorb everything around them.

Episode 2: Candy Carrier Chaos!

With episode 1 focusing solely on introducing the world and characters to the audience in the most insane opening ever seen, episode 2 expands upon that by introducing us to Caine’s true capabilities as an AI and begins to explore the characters, but not before more trauma for Pomni! The opening scene has Pomni waking up in the circus with her arm all black and glitched out like Kaufmo before falling into a dark pit with Caine, Ragatha, and Jax all talking down to her before she wakes up from her nightmare. It’s such a dark opening for a seemingly tame episode that adds a lot to how Pomni’s feeling about her new life. She’s barely had time to breathe; the last 24 hours feeling like torment for her as she’s given a new name and body, gone crazy looking for an exit that nobody seems to care about and traumatized by Kaufmo’s abstraction. It’s generally chilling and plays deeply into Pomni’s attitude during the adventure.

Caine’s newest adventure sends the cast in a kingdom made of candy where they’re tasked with helping a princess find the bandits responsible for stealing their natural resource, maple syrup, and bringing them to justice. It sounds like a simple story, allowing this narrative Caine has created to take the wheel and drive these characters through a wacky situation filled with hijinks and great jokes. Surprisingly, the adventure isn’t the focus of this episode, in fact it’s not even that important in hindsight and almost serves as a day job for these characters. However, this does give us a bit of information on how advanced Caine is as a program. As soon as the gang sets off on their journey, we get introduced to Gummigoo and the other two bandits who all have a surprising amount of conscious thought before meeting the cast. Typically, the behavior of an NPC in video games is triggered by the player’s interaction with the said NPC, regardless of if they’re friendly or hostile. An obvious example of this is any of the Pokémon Trainers that challenge you to battle or any NPC in any RPG. The scripted sequences that only occur when we [the player] interact with them, allowing us to learn a bit about this NPC, even if it’s not important to the game’s narrative. While the cast interacts with Princess Loolilalu before their adventure, Gummigoo’s conversation is entirely independent, recalling certain memories and relationships without engagement from the cast. It makes him and his crew appear just as real as everyone in the circus, and it’s what makes his realization so devastating. After clipping under the map and being dropped in an out of bounds area, Gummigoo finds his character model and everyone else’s stuck in A-Pose, silently questioning what this means and why they’re all here before Pomni drops down to see for herself. While we and Pomni know this world and its people are fabrications, Gummigoo’s slow process to this is honestly haunting. He questions why the character models of the cast aren’t here, why his mother isn’t here, if his mom was actually real, if any of it was real. It gets to a point where he gives in to his real purpose, knowing that he’s just an obstacle for the gang to get passed before being erased and forgotten about as soon as they leave. What’s even better about this moment is what it does for Pomni’s character; this shared scene between the duo allows Pomni to understand his pain and sympathize in a way that relates to her problems in the circus. She doesn’t try to fix his problems by making it sound like everything will change in a heartbeat, but she offers him kindness and to bring him to the circus in hopes to give him a new purpose. It’s such a great scene that helps them literally out of their predicament, using the spare car model to break the physics and launch them back into the map to reunite with their friends.

Speaking of friends, this episode gives the cast a more active role and gives the audience a better understanding of who they are, apart from Zooble who opts out of the adventure early on. Despite being introduced in episode 1 and given their own moments, the focus was more on Pomni so we didn’t really get a chance to know them beyond their character traits. The highlights here are Ragatha and Jax, both of whom get the most exposure along with Pomni and actively make this adventure so engaging. In fact, their constant back and forth is what drives this part of the narrative here. Ragatha is constantly trying to look on the bright side, prioritizing making everyone feel comfortable in any situation and appearing as a people pleaser; both resulting in her own problems. We see this through her interactions with Pomni, brushing off what happened in the last episode like it was no big deal and doing everything she can to keep Pomni from thinking about it. Though Ragatha is trying to be kind and sympathetic, it can come off as a little overbearing. Again, the last 24 hours have given Pomni no room to breathe and these exchanges with Ragatha doesn’t really help her situation. To be clear, Ragatha is not a bad person for this, all she wants to do is be her friend and help her adjust, but her actions come off as a bit much to someone who’s struggling to take in everything. For Jax, he’s consistently looking to stir the pot as violently as possible. He thrives from causing problems and is comically cruel in every sense of the way, evident by his actions towards the characters, most notably Gangle in this case. He views this world as nothing but a game, knowing that there are no consequences to his actions and therefore giving him free reign to basically do whatever he desires. Jax is designed to be unlikeable in the same way that characters like Bender from ‘Futurama’ or Bloo from ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ are. His actions clearly aren’t meant to be endorsed, but he comes off as insanely entertaining because he’s a giant jackass. While later episodes would be able to show more of his character in action, don’t worry we’ll get there, this one shows his cruel nature at full force. That leaves Kinger & Gangle left, and there’s unfortunately not much to talk about regarding them. At most, Kinger has a handful of funny moments, and Gangle serves as a gateway to Jax’s cruelty. That’s not to say these two have no character or nothing to talk about, but we’re slowly learning who they are and will learn more about them in the coming episodes.

We end this episode on a surprisingly soft, somber note. With Gummigoo joining the cast in the circus, Caine immediately kills him. He doesn’t do this out of malice or with any ill intent, but to make sure he knows who’s real and who’s an NPC. This moment is so sudden that it comes off as a little funny, but it leaves us with something more nuanced. Zooble finally returns and reveals why they didn’t join the adventure, as they were setting up a little memorial service for Kaufmo. Everyone but Jax attends, each of them saying a few words that we don’t get to hear but shows how much Kaufmo meant to them. It also parallels Pomni’s struggle throughout the episode and her sincerity for Gummigoo, showing her that she’s not alone. This reality might be fabricated, but the people and their emotions are very real. They care for each other because they’re the closest thing they have to reality. The best part about this ending is Pomni’s silent realization, reflecting on her nightmare from the beginning of the episode with the hands of her newfound friends pulling her back from the edge. It’s very beautiful and emphasizes the importance of these characters as we approach the next few episodes.

Episode 3: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor

When watching this episode for the first time in 2024, my entire perspective on the show changed entirely. With the previous episode putting emphasis on the adventure, it felt like the next few episodes focus on the characters in a wacky scenario to overcome and grow closer as the show progresses. However, it became quickly apparent that the adventures were never the core of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’; it was the characters. At most, these fabricated quests served as a backdrop for the characters to grow as people. This is a no brainer nowadays, but episode 3 was game changing upon its initial release and would set the bar for what’s to come from the next few episodes. The episode focuses on two different stories; the first centering around the main adventure with Pomni & Kinger pairing up and the second focusing on Caine trying to figure out why Zooble doesn’t want to go on the adventures.

The adventure this time puts the gang in a haunted mansion where they’re tasked with solving the mysteries inside and capturing all the ghosts. At first, this episode feels like it would take a page from something like ‘Scooby Doo’ and have the cast work together to find out who done it to go back home, but it takes a left turn and throws Pomni & Kinger together while Ragatha, Gangle and Jax are absent for the real horrors at play. The vibe immediately shifts from a ‘Scooby Doo’ adjacent story to something akin to ‘The Evil Dead’ or ‘Resident Evil’. The presentation is superb; the animation plays around with the lighting and camera angles to really sell the horror aesthetic seen in most movies or video games of this genre. While it’s not insanely scary, there’s this feeling of unease and creepiness that elevates the mood of the setting. However, Pomni & Kinger’s dynamic is the real highlight of this story. This pairing might be the best we’ve seen from the show thus far, with Kinger’s spaced-out nonsense clashing perfectly with Pomni’s heavy anxiety to create some of the best moments in ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’. Throughout the episode, we see Kinger slowly becoming calmer and noticeably more attentive to everything around him. When the pairing is literally dragged into Hell, he begins opening up to Pomni with his sanity restored. We get to learn so much about Kinger, specifically how the darkness helps with his memories and how the only one he can hold onto being the last time he saw his wife after abstracting. It’s such a quiet, somber moment that emphasizes the tragedy of Kinger and changes your perspective on the character from erratic and absent-minded to incredibly empathetic and brilliant. It’s such a powerful scene that only gets better when he understands Pomni’s frustration and relates with her, reminding her to hold onto the memories she has of the people around her before it’s too late and that the worst thing that she can do is make someone think they’re not wanted or loved; it’s such a beautiful message. One of my favorite aspects of this moment is how it’s foreshadowed in the previous two episodes; episode 1 briefly showing a portrait of a queen chess piece, later known as Queenie, on one of the doors in the hallway and episode 2 having a scene where Kinger’s wearing a bucket on his head while talking to Ragatha and appears more attentive than before. This episode doesn’t just add depth to his character, but also hints at something bigger between him and C&A. Just before this scene happens, Kinger casually mentions how he’s worked in computer science for seven years all for this [the circus]. Though Pomni doesn’t seem to acknowledge this comment, it wasn’t swept under the rug by fans and immediately resulted in theories on how Kinger fits into this mystery. Even when they leave the adventure together and Kinger goes back to the way he was, their experience stays with Pomni and allows her to understand him more than arguably anyone else. It’s a beautifully written sequence of events that culminates into something more impactful than anything we’ve seen before and convinced many why this show was worth watching.

On the complete other side of the table, we get something equally as interesting with Zooble and Caine’s therapy session. Up until now, I’ve neglected talking about them because it’s been difficult to figure out what I can say about them. Zooble’s been completely absent from the adventures prior and Caine’s been such an enigma that the most one could say about him is “funny teeth man”. However, this episode makes up for that by giving them their own subplot and allowing the audience to understand who they are. Shortly after sending the cast off, Caine looks for Zooble and wants to get to the bottom of why they’ve been opting out on the adventures. He’s incredibly hyper focused on the quality of the adventures specifically for Zooble that he doesn’t seem to process the problem they’ve voiced to Caine personally. It’s soon revealed that Zooble hates the body they’ve been given here, constantly switching parts of their body out for new ones and struggling to find something that feels right. Zooble’s entire design is one giant hodgepodge of colors, shapes and pieces that all look out of place when smashed together, so having them struggle with their appearance and being a very literal allegory for body dysmorphia was an insane stroke of genius. Even when Caine provides them with pieces that should work with their appearance, Zooble can’t help but see something that isn’t there. Speaking of Caine, this moment really emphasizes how he operates as a program. Throughout the therapy session, his focus is solely on trying to figure out what he can do to make his adventures more appealing rather than helping Zooble with a problem they’ve voiced to him multiple times. He’s not doing this out of malicious intent, but because he has no concept of what Zooble’s going through and can only respond with what he’s programmed with. In his mind, there’s already a solution to this predicament, so the real issue has to do with finding a way to make the adventures more appealing. Even when Zooble voices how this solution isn’t working for them, Caine diverts back into talking about the adventures because it’s all he knows. He’s thinking like a machine, only interested in the reception of those around him and prioritizing his purpose to entertain. If he’s not good at the one thing that he’s good at, then what does mean for Caine? While we don’t know about the implications of this in this episode alone, that will become a lot clearer later down the road.

Episode 3 might just be the best written episode covered so far. With this episode’s strong character writing for Zooble, Caine and especially Kinger, it became very clear that the show wasn’t going to be about these cartoon characters going on some wacky adventure to eventually pursue the goal of leaving the circus, but rather something more character-driven and emotionally engaging. It paves the path for the next batch of episodes to focus on other characters and brings us closer to the big mystery of C&A, Caine, and now Kinger’s involvement in all this. This episode proved its worth for viewers that were skeptical about this series and showed why people praise it.

End of Act 1

What an insane start! The first three episodes of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ have done more than enough to justify why people universally praise this series for everything it has to offer. Episode 1 does a fantastic job subverting the protagonist’s path through Pomni’s rejection of the circus, episode 2 expands on the cast and rules of this series that hooks the audience in for more than what the pilot showed, and episode 3 puts its focus on being character-driven over anything else. If you’re thinking of watching the series for yourself but aren’t sure if it’s worth your time, I’d strongly recommend watching these three episodes and then deciding if you want to go through with it. If there’s one takeaway from ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ based purely on what’s been discussed so far, it’s that the show is masterfully written, beautifully animated, and very engaging. The crazy part? This is only just the beginning!