Review: Dayworld “Pilot”

Does the surprise pilot make us want more?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

In what seemed like, at first, a pretty typical day for friends Dole and Day, turns into a silly adventure in becoming social media icons after Day records a video of Dole happily pissing himself which then turns into a viral hit. As a result, they meet a talent manager that manages such social stars (maybe?) who decides to start a media production company designed to keep releasing social videos for the purpose of profit. But can we trust the contract? Day seems to think so, but others are a bit skeptical.

Our Take

In what could be the network’s closest play with machinima, Dayworld‘s mo-capped PS3-like visuals mixed with the bizarre character designs (especially in the case of Dole who looks this guy all grown up) give us a pilot that is definitely for Adult Swim. The pilot episode features a strong cast lead off by Jay Weingarten as “Day”, a clear incel who is a big lovable oaf curious about trying new things and still lives with his mom despite being in his mid-20’s. “Dole” (Cole Kush) is a bit more on the scary side. The shirtless baby-man is the star of the social scene for a reason, he’s unconventional in his ways and he clearly doesn’t give a shit what you think about it. He’s just as curious-minded as Day, which is probably why they are such good friends, but he’s more along for the ride than anything else. Tim Heidecker plays the “Business Man”, and he meets the boys about halfway through the episode and opts to help the boys in their quest for internet stardom.

As mentioned, the motion-captured performances make for a unique visual experience, an unpolished PS3 game comes to mind as a good comparison, but the visuals don’t detract from the underlying premise of the episode which isn’t as unique but it works and makes for wanting more episodes sooner rather than later. Dayworld does a great job of building out “Day’s World”, and now I want to play in it.

Score
8.5/10