I will preface this review by saying I do not watch any of critical role's podcasts but still managed to finish and enjoy this series. However, there is no way this show deserves a 9 or 10, maybe if you are a long time cr fan and you've already watched this adventure in their podcast form, you were able to get more nuances as to the characters relationships and find little easter eggs in the show that made you go "YAY! There's the thing that i know from the podcast!" But, for everyone else, there are certain dialogues and scenes that are unnecessary and thrown in there purely for fan service.
However, all that being said the journey that the heroes take was very entertaining and kept me watching for all 12 episodes, but again gets ruined by the absolutely unsatisfying ending! I was really disappointed by how the villains were built up for like 9 episodes and then for them to have little or no impact at the end. Maybe season 2 will change all that, however, the way the villains died were so lame; and then immediately we were thrust into another conflict right at the end, it was so absurdly abrupt. This probably worked very well in the podcasts but it does not work here.
Now, the show wasn't all terrible, i really enjoyed the middle part of the story, especially episodes 6-10, there were some great and tense moments there. And going into the final 2 episodes i had the show at a 7 or 7.5 even! So even though the ending was unsatisfying, i still would recommend this show to anyone who enjoys fantasy.
My rating system is based on the scale where 5/10 is considered an average show, it's a show that's fine but doesn't do anything unique but is still enjoyable, so a 6/10 is above average for me, and that's what this show is to me, it is slightly above average.
However, all that being said the journey that the heroes take was very entertaining and kept me watching for all 12 episodes, but again gets ruined by the absolutely unsatisfying ending! I was really disappointed by how the villains were built up for like 9 episodes and then for them to have little or no impact at the end. Maybe season 2 will change all that, however, the way the villains died were so lame; and then immediately we were thrust into another conflict right at the end, it was so absurdly abrupt. This probably worked very well in the podcasts but it does not work here.
Now, the show wasn't all terrible, i really enjoyed the middle part of the story, especially episodes 6-10, there were some great and tense moments there. And going into the final 2 episodes i had the show at a 7 or 7.5 even! So even though the ending was unsatisfying, i still would recommend this show to anyone who enjoys fantasy.
My rating system is based on the scale where 5/10 is considered an average show, it's a show that's fine but doesn't do anything unique but is still enjoyable, so a 6/10 is above average for me, and that's what this show is to me, it is slightly above average.