'Dragon's Dogma' Season 1 Review: Mostly stunning new animation let down by squandered story potential
Spoilers for 'Dragon's Dogma' Season 1
The first two episodes of 'Dragon's Dogma' - based on the popular 2012 video game - seem filled with potential for a dark, haunting story, especially if you've watched the trailer first. What is promised is the story of a kind man who slowly loses his humanity in his quest for revenge. It's a classic tale, but the predictability of a story doesn't matter when it's told well, and that's what 'Dragon's Dogma' feels like it's going to be, at first. Then you reach the season's third episode, and it becomes clear that the show is nothing but a poor take on what juvenile teenage gamers of the 90s and early 2000s thought was edgy and mature storytelling. In that respect, at least, it is a throwback to an earlier age of gaming - and not a good one.
'Dragon's Dogma' tells the story of Ethan (Greg Chun), whose village is destroyed by a powerful Dragon (David Lodge). Ethan does not die in this attack, but wakes up as an Arisen - a man whose heart is stolen by the Dragon, and who is destined to defeat him in his own lair. Accompanying him is a Pawn named Hannah (Erica Mendez) - a take on a game mechanic that gives a player a simple, computer controlled ally, and in the show appears to be a special kind of being solely devoted to protecting the Arisen. On his journey, Ethan slowly loses his humanity, as through the seven episodes he meets with people embodying the seven deadly sins.
First, the positives - the animation style of 'Dragon's Dogma' is something that has mixed success, but when it works, it's stunning. The 3D lift to 2D animation gives a liveliness to each of the characters. The battle scenes are especially well animated, and well thought out - you can clearly trace every moment of a monster's defeat. The action has great storytelling, and the animation steps up to support it - the battles with the Dragon, and the Lich that shows up later in the season mark this especially true. There are times when it doesn't work, however. Body language tends to be stiff, making more expressive characters look like puppets on a string. The fully 3D monsters don't always blend in well with their more 2D surroundings, especially at night - though the show does some amazing things with daylight.
The other highlight of the show are the ever-bantering subtextually gay couple Simon (Kaji Tang) and Balthazar (Xander Mobus), a pair of soldiers who are given more character development in their two appearances than anyone else on the show. Though the death count of the series is high, their deaths come as a truly tragic moment.
The rest of the series is filled with terrible tropes that ought to be a thing of the past. The women on the show are reduced to three archetypes - the Sevile, the Sensual, and the Sacrifice - all roles meant solely to further the stories of the male characters. As for Ethan himself, while it seems like his descent into darkness will be a gradual thing, it is instead a sudden snap he never comes back from.
Each of the seven stories told through the episode are almost compelling, but are soon ruined by a heavy handedness that confuses violence, sex and cynicism for maturity. 'Dragon's Dogma', ultimately, a story of squandered potential - you can see where it could have been a truly powerful fable, but it fails its execution.
All episodes of 'Dragon's Dogma' Season 1 are now available on Netflix.