Comedy
Emily in Paris
The self-centered hedonistic approach of every character in Emily in Paris only seems to increase, and the praises for it are doubled.
A female jester pops into existence inside the Amazing Digital Circus.
“Caine, is this one of your NPCs, or is this a new sucker?” Jax, a purple rabbit wearing overalls asks.
“My, my,” Caine, the AI ringleader exclaims. “It appears a new human has entered this realm!”
The first thing the jester does is claw at her face. She screams about not being able to take off her virtual reality headset.
“Just keep grabbing at it,” Jax mocks. “That worked for all of us.”
Soon, Caine reveals to the jester that she’s stuck in his digital circus for eternity. Since the jester can’t remember her name (just like all the other humans trapped in the 1990s-style 3D computer-generated landscape), the maniacal Caine spins her a new one: Pomni.
He shows her around her new home, and he tells her that he generates random adventures for her and her new digitized human pals to complete for fun. (Very few of them find them fun.)
Pomni’s desperate to escape. She convinces herself it’s all a dream.
The other humans here know what she’s going through. They all went through it too, once. They’ve long since given up hope of finding any exit.
It’s part of the course of things inside the Amazing Digital Circus, Ragatha, a fellow human made to resemble a Raggedy Ann-like doll, tells Pomni. The longer you stay there, the crazier you get.
You lose hope of escaping, and you endure Caine’s adventures just to keep yourself busy from going insane. But eventually, you start to forget why you’re even alive. You forget who you are. You break.
And then you abstract.
Pomni doesn’t have to wait long to figure out what abstracting means.
Because when Ragatha and Jax try to introduce her to another human, Kaufmo the clown, they open the door to his room to find their friend a massive, feral, glitching amalgamation of black polygons covered in multicolored eyeballs.
And then the abstracted Kaufmo lunges at them.
When The Amazing Digital Circus first appeared, it was on the YouTube channel GLITCH. In fact, viewers can still go there to watch the series.
But following the series’ popularity there (the pilot episode has, as of this posting, over 400 million views), the channel’s creators signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Netflix to host the show there, too.
Many have compared the series to the short horror sci-fi story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, which depicts a sentient computer called AM who tortures the world’s final five humans. Though we couldn’t find any official indication that the show is based on that story, the basic premise lines up; except, Caine seems genuinely oblivious that his antics torture Pomni and crew. Instead, his desperate desire for affirmation leads him to create crazier stories in the hopes that the humans will like them—only to cause more chaos.
I’ll give The Amazing Digital Circus this: it certainly captures the uncanny feel of early computer-generated landscapes. And some of the story beats of this dark humor tale are heartfelt (yet nevertheless undercut by a gag or two.)
But this is a story that’s more for teens or adults than kids; at the core, the story seems to be exploring questions about nihilism and hope.
Its content issues, too, peg it as more adult faire. The characters deal with some traumatic experiences—such as when Pomni reveals to an NPC that their world is fake and comforts him out of his existential crisis, only to watch as Caine pops the character out of existence before her eyes. The occasional reference to adult topics pops up, and in one episode, Pomni battles a horrifying angel. One character can’t remember her own gender, which causes her strife. And Caine certainly acts god-like throughout the series.
And despite the threat of abstraction, all of those content issues are in full focus.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Thrust into the Amazing Digital Circus, Pomni struggles to come to terms with her new reality.
When the moon itself begins to flirt with Caine, the AI ringmaster tells Pomni that they should leave quickly before the moon becomes frisky. When coming up with a new name for Pomni, Caine tells her that new names cannot include objectionable content, which includes both sexual references and crude language. Caine’s AI assistant, a bubble named Bubble, describes a virtual feast as “made with all the love I’m legally allowed to give.” Jax refers to Zooble—a character who appears to be a mix-and-match toy with a triangle for a head—with non-binary pronouns.
The abstracted Kaufmo attacks Ragatha, tossing her around the room; his touch also causes her to glitch, which she describes as painful. Trying to take off her VR headset, Pomni pulls out her eyeball, which she puts back in place. Creatures tear Zooble apart, though this doesn’t seem to hurt the character. Zooble chokes Jax.
A monster made of sentient polygons called “gloinks” exclaims that “I am gloinks; you will be gloinks; God will be gloinks.” Caine mentions that he has hundreds of “all-seeing eyes.”
Pomni vomits black liquid, and Bubble licks it up.
Characters attempt to use profanity, but Caine explains that, due to him wanting to keep the Amazing Digital Circus appropriate for all ages, they’re not allowed to swear. When they try, a censor bar appears over their mouths instead (it’s still clear what words they’re trying to use, like the f-word and “b–ch.”)
Nevertheless, Caine’s crudity restriction doesn’t apply to using God’s name in vain, so we hear roughly seven instances of that.
Caine sends the cast on an adventure into a spooky mansion—and Jax’s antics force Pomni and Kinger (a sentient chess piece with a purple, kingly robe) into a particularly scary section.
When describing how the circus causes each of them to do something different when they hold their breath, Jax says that “Zooble turns straight!” Zooble clarifies that her limbs straighten up. Later, Zooble reveals that she’s uncomfortable in the body Caine made for her, something Caine attempted to rectify by allowing her to switch out her limbs like a Mr. Potato Head.
Pomni and Kinger come across a variety of tape recorders, each of which reveal a man’s fight against an “unholy” and “evil” creature. Eventually, the man learns that the creature “was actually one of God’s angels. And anyone who brings harm to it will be dragged down into the cold, spiraling pits of hell, where my soul resides.” The man in the tape recordings (now a corpse) hopes someone will show up so that he can trade bodies with them, since it’s the only way to escape the “hall of the damned.” Pomni and Kinger come across a book with a cross on it as well as another labeled “Angels.” They’re also dragged down into hell by ghostly hands, a locale which looks like a waterlogged crypt. Down there, they encounter the floating souls of others, one of whom enters into Pomni’s mouth and briefly possesses her, causing her to contort in unnatural ways.
Pomni and Kinger find a shotgun, and they use it to shoot the angel’s still-moving headless body. They likewise shoot the angel’s floating head (before they know the consequences of doing so). When a ghost appears, Pomni’s eyes shoot out of her head, cartoon style, and she can’t get them to retract back inside her skull for some time. We see a corpse, long since decayed. The man in the tape recording admits that he accidentally killed his wife when attempting to shoot a creature. The angel head chases after Kinger and Pomni, attempting to eat them with its sharp teeth.
God’s name is used in vain three times. Despite Caine’s censorship of crudities, we nevertheless hear “crap” and “d–n” once each. Other crudities are censored but are easy to figure out.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
The self-centered hedonistic approach of every character in Emily in Paris only seems to increase, and the praises for it are doubled.
‘Little Disasters’ deals with child abuse and postpartum depression. But its other content concerns make it a bit of a disaster itself.
Man vs. Baby is a fun, heartwarming romp to enjoy with the whole family — preferably under a mountain of blankets with hot cocoa in hand.
After defeating Spartacus and the rebellion, Ashur rises to power in STARZ’s gory and sexually graphic series, Spartacus: House of Ashur.