Is Prime Video’s latest fantasy offering The Mighty Nein worth your time? The short answer: Absolutely. Behold our review!
This review contains spoilers.
Back in 2015, when a group of professional voice actors gathered to play Dungeon & Dragons, no one could foresee the phenomenon Critical Role would become today. Despite my many attempts to get engaged in the world of Critical Role, I found campaigns to always be too complex and demanding for me. I never quite managed to figure out which corner to pick in order to get acquainted with the colourful array of characters my friends have been in love with for years. The new animated Mighty Nein series might just be the push I needed to finally understand.
The Mighty Nein is set 20 years after the events of the first Amazon MGM Studios, Critical Role, and Titmouse production The Legend of Vox Machina. Unlike its predecessor, the showrunner Tasha Huo describes the Mighty Nein as a home for broken things. I believe that to not only be an appropriate description, but one I fell in love with deeply.
The show follows a group of fugitives and outcasts, bound by secrets and scars, while a powerful arcane relic known as “The Beacon” falls into dangerous hands. In shows, I have often come to expect teams to get formed with ease, the characters capable of turning their backs on themselves in order to work towards a common goal. The Mighty Nein is different. The characters are selfish; their cooperation is based on a loose sense of a common goal, and they… kinda suck.
But that is the very essence of what makes the Mighty Nein special: despite its magical elements, these characters feel extremely human. Caleb’s mistakes actually carry consequences; Nott struggles with her existence; Fjord is a coward, who actually has to face himself; Beau’s rigid beliefs make her difficult to work with, and therefore she cannot complete anything she sets her mind to. After the cliffhanger in episode 3, the Mighty Nein must come together to rescue a young girl and clear their names — if they don’t kill each other first.
Episode 4 delivers a jaw-dropping action sequence that combines not only clean technical animation, but translates the magical feeling Critical Role carries within itself. It’s almost like you imagine how a really cool battle scene looks like, and it shows on screen with the intensity and stakes that fit such a complex story.
The different magical systems – Caleb’s fire, Mollymauk’s blood, Fjord’s mysterious water powers and Jester’s cute critters — are all distinct enough to allow the viewer’s eye to simply indulge in the characters without wondering who’s who, or what they do, or why they do it. The dynamics between the Nein are also forming, all without forcing the characters to get from point ‘A’ to ‘B’. It was also very refreshing to see that despite winning with their clumsy, but charming teamwork, they also lose Toya, the young singer, puppeteered by the devil toad, dies in Nott’s arms.
It struck me then that this is actually a show for adults that does not stray away from the complicated feelings people raise up in one another. Sure, the 16+ rating protects from the gore, language and sexual innuendos. However, to me, the series really lives up to Travis Willingham’s promise of emotional depth that pulls you in fast. Nott’s grief over a child she didn’t even know, as she threw herself into Caleb’s arms, totally won me over and kept me hooked until the very end.
Well, the cliffhanger for next week helps, too. Let’s see if Caleb’s past actually caught up to him.
The Mighty Nein episode 4 is available now on Amazon Prime Video. Stream it here.
