Review: Dead Pixels “Bears”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Meg is in the middle of a tennis match date with a guy she’s desperate to take home when she receives an urgent call from her friend Nicky. Crazy kids from South Korea are in the midst of destroying their castle fortress in Kingdom Scrolls, an online fantasy RPG that they’re dedicated to defeating. Together with a guy named Usman, the three of them quest to conquer the game.

Then Russell shows up and complicates things. He’s a new co-worker of Meg’s and he’s super hot. She’s eager to get to know him better, and invites him to play with her group. He quickly wears out his welcome, and Nicky talks them into beating him up in-game for his loot. Meg goes along with it, but doesn’t feel good about it. At the office the next day, she tries to make peace.

Our Take:

Dead Pixels originally came out in the UK last year. It’s only now crossing overseas thanks to the CW snapping it up a year later. While this history made me a little wary about the quality of the show, I was mildly impressed with the premiere episode. Dead Pixels isn’t really bringing anything new to the table, but the cast has solid chemistry together and combining real life action interspersed with in-game scenes makes for some fun moments.

Meg is the main character so far, and she’s pretty funny. Right now, I would say she’s not exactly fully-fleshed out, since she’s only got one main motivation so far: trying to shag a moron. Russell’s first gameplay is pretty silly, and watching him try to build a tower of cows makes for solid television. Nicky is fun, but probably the least interesting character so far. The ending reveal that he lives in the same house as Meg makes for quite a revelation, and I’m sure their relationship will be the focus eventually.

Usman, the third member of the trifecta is hilarious in his own right, even if his child-neglecting is pretty dark all things considered. Hearing him verbally spar with his wife about the nature of the lidded playpen was definitely a highlight of the episode. His remark about always remembering Paddington while grinding through the lower level bear-like enemies was golden.

The storyline at the moment is sparse, but that’s not unexpected for a half hour comedy. Rather than going for an overarching plot across an entire season, the first episode seems to be setting up a story of the week type of deal, which could be cool depending on how everything plays out. The strength of Dead Pixels so far seems to be the dynamic of the characters, and that should only improve as the series goes on.