Game – TV/Web Series Review: Glitch – Season One

Hmmm…now it is admirable that this 6-episode web series was Kickstarter funded and was made on a very low budget. That is impressive by any standard and as a show it certainly isn’t bad but nor is it exactly great either.

The premise is that a young games-tester called Glitch is having a bit of an early life crisis and after making a wish finds that he is experiencing old school style glitches in his life. Or at least he does occasionally, mostly it’s just video game references thrown in that rarely disrupt his every day coming and going.

Instead it focuses more on Glitch’s relationships with his best friends Wyatt & Samus as well as his battles to overcome his boss & just make something of his life.

Glitch (the show, not the character) begins in the worst way possible. Episode one now called Pilot (Redux) opens with the creator of the show telling you that the Pilot was a bad episode, so bad that they’ve removed it & instead dropped in a 4 minute recap of the events so as to bring you up to speed for the rest of the episodes.

“If you want you can find the pilot elsewhere on the website, but don’t”

His words, not mine. Wow, how bad was it!?

The 5 following episodes, lasting around about 20 minutes are pretty good though, well except for Episode 5.

The three main leads, Glitch, Wyatt and Samus are all very likable so it helps endear you to them. Wyatt in particular was one I really wanted to see more of & I was disappointed his potential love story with Samus never got developed on.

As actors they do perfectly fine and by the end I was on board with them as characters. The supporting lot though don’t do as well. The boss in particular was so cliché that I found I was switching off mentally anytime he had a scene. (He’s a big bad mean boss, get it?)

Now the show is chock-full of references to games and movies. Our trio are self-proclaimed nerds so take pleasure in referencing everything possible. Add in the random ‘glitches’ and it can sometimes feels a bit jammed in. That being said there are plenty of hilarious moments that had me laughing out loud. It’s funny, not consistently funny but has plenty of good jokes.

Sometimes though you can tell the show makers thought it was funnier then it was. Take episode 5 where Glitch falls into a parallel world that is like a movie. Its 20 minute run feels like 40 minutes & it doesn’t have an original idea anywhere. Oh look, the parallel Samus has a goatee? Why? Is that funny?

Thankfully the show redeems itself with an excellent finale that had me cheering on the gang & hopeful that a second series could really improve on what is a decent idea. Unfortunately it’s already been 4 years so that isn’t looking likely.

A pilot that is so bad it’s been cut to a 4 minute recap & a horrible episode 5 turns this 6-epiosde long series into 4. That’s not enough to really get to know characters and the how Glitch’s glitches could really impact him. A nice idea with plenty of potential. Maybe next time.