First Impressions on 'Secret Level': Does it deserve the negativity so far?

[namiks]

Netflix's Love, Death & Robots series managed to gain quite a good amount of attention upon its initial release, and it's clear that there's an interest in short stories with unique animation styles. While the more recent seasons of that show had decreased in quality a little, Amazon had decided to take upon itself releasing a similar styled show called Secret Level, but this is a show that takes existing franchises under its belt to pull stories from, rather pulling from books or the imagination. Over the past few weeks I have been seeing a lot of negative reception to the show from reviewers and the Internet, calling it a soulless excuse to serve what are effectively just advertisements masked as a show. I do think to some degree that this is inevitable, after all the show is using existing franchises and with that comes licensing as well as the spreading of brand awareness. Not to forget that some of the stories featured within the show are about brand new titles. Even ones that flopped within weeks of being released. Yes, that's Concord. But I was curious as to how bad things really were. And with the show releasing yesterday in a strange half season dump with future episodes to come weekly, I decided to sit down and watch through the ones that had been released. Expecting the total worst based on what I had seen from the Internet.

To no surprise with an anthology series, not every story is going to land with audiences. That's something that's a given, and it's even more so in the case of a show like Secret Level which is pulling stories from different video game titles and genres. It's unlikely you'll be all that engaged in a short story from some soulless military action story from a boring free-to-play Ubisoft title, but the depth of something as engaging and massive as a fantasy world rich in magical abilities and unique creature designs might catch your eye, as a generally hypothetical scenario that is. I think that instantly makes it harder to connect with many of the episodes for most, and with that comes either skipping entire episodes and focusing on the franchises people do know and enjoy, and overlooking the rest. I have already seen evidence of such behaviour as people discuss the show online: only watching the Warhammer 40K episode, or hate-watching the PacMan episode due to the strange reaction the Internet had to that episode specifically under a guise of misunderstanding. It seems strange to be saying, but I think I disagree with a lot of the general perception that people have of Secret Level so far. While I can admit it's not something that will truly wow you, it's no Love, Death & Robots, but it is trying to do something a little different while trying to find a way to connect the realm of animation to it.

I watched through all of the current episodes, and there is one thing that I feel I could say is a general negative, and it's the style of animation. Many of the episodes are clearly not animated in the more traditional sense, it's clear that they've been motion capping actors in most instances. It makes a lot of the episodes just feel like more realistic looking video game cutscenes rather than a show or episode. But I do think that this is intentional in attempt to push a lot of the stories as darker and more immersive, that 'hyper realistic' assumption of what developers think people want in every game. I think for the most part that's my main problem with the show and its episodes, but some genuinely do gain from this style where others don't. I won't be mentioning every single episode since that would take a lifetime, but I will say that the episodes are as you'd expect quite hit-or-miss. The PacMan episode genuinely was fun and unexpected with this story that placed a strange humanoid into a world where an orb tells him he has to eat, or be eaten. In the end it turns out the orb was manipulating him in attempt to take over his body and enter through a gateway that requires a humanoid body to open its doors. A pretty fun idea!

I also found that the Unreal Tournament episode was quite strong: a dystopian idea in which sentient robots are created to mine resources on dangerous planets where they're guaranteed to die in the process. The humans push and shove them around with no regard for their lives, to which one slowly learns through the observations of cruelty, and forms a rebellion. Imprisoned and politically used as a tool in a gladiator sort of tournament, the show focuses on their fight in various stages. This is where the more realistic animation style really works, and the sound design is great for the various sounds of robotics and futuristic weaponry. Though, the best episode for me was by far the Warhammer 40K one. Absolutely beautiful in the directing and pacing, constantly in motion with incredible action sequences. It was the one episode that felt like it was really going above what it needed to do. Watching Ultramarines just descending into more and more hellish environments and fighting against various factions in the process. It had motion to it that felt like there was actually some weight to the story, much like the Unreal Tournament episode. I think I might even need to review that single episode at some point given the depth of the lore it has.

In some ways this is definitely still a show that aims to advertise certain franchises, but in other cases some of these franchises have been pretty dead for years and there isn't much to really be advertising. I mean, nobody really cares for the PacMan games, right? And Unreal Tournament has been a dead franchise for as long as anyone can remember. Even Dungeons and Dragons hasn't exactly got its large library of titles under the name. But there is still that attempt from Amazon and other publishers to push something. Nobody cares about your live service game New World, Amazon. It's hardly a title of cultural importance and it never will be. The same regarding Sony's recent attempt to turn Concord into a billion dollar franchise only for it to come out dead on arrival, which is funny given Secret Level has an episode on the game ready to release. So in these ways I can see the advertising aspect. But there are still some gems here.