This is a spoiler-free review of The Mighty Nein season 1.
Critical Role was instrumental in making Dungeons and Dragons a much more well-known role-playing game in casual pop culture. The success of the live stream led to a Kickstarter to fund an animated adaptation of their first campaign. The Kickstarter was one of the most successful of all time. This led to Prime Video becoming the streaming home for the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina. The Legend of Vox Machina has been a critical and commercial success for the streaming platform. Three seasons have already aired, with a fourth and final already greenlit.
The Mighty Nein is being described as a spinoff of Vox Machina, but it might be better to refer to it by what it actually is. The Mighty Nein is the second campaign from the Critical Role team. The only connection to the Legend of Vox Machina is that it takes place in the same world.
A hurdle that The Mighty Nein might face is that audiences have become invested in Vox Machina. Unlike the previous show, this first season focuses on the introductions of each of the main characters and how they come together. The cast continues to demonstrate why they have become so beloved. Most of the main cast feel completely different from Vox Machina, and not in a way that feels forced.
Each episode is 45 minutes long as opposed to the 30 of The Legend of Vox Machina. This allows each episode initially to focus on each character’s introduction and provide much more insight into their backstory than the other show. The longer length of each episode, as a result, makes the pace of the season feel slightly slower.
With each episode spending more time introducing the characters, the overall narrative of the season is slowly established as well. This may not work for some who like the quicker pace of The Legend of Vox Machina, but it did for me.
This season, more than any of Vox Machina, really does feel like you are watching a Dungeons and Dragons campaign come to life. The episodes are built around small adventures that help steer the characters toward the overall story of the season.
Overall, The Mighty Nein is another success story from the Crew from Critical Role. They have successfully introduced viewers to another beloved group of colorful characters that were worth watching get in and out of high jinks. My highest praise would be that I did not want the season to end when it did. I will be eagerly awaiting the inevitable season 2.
The Mighty Nein premieres on November 19, on Prime Video.
The Mighty Nein follows a group of fugitives and outcasts, bound by secrets and scars. But when a powerful arcane relic known as “The Beacon” falls into dangerous hands, they must learn to work together to save the realm and stop reality itself from unraveling.