Wonderful, highly amusing and easy to relate to, "The Guild" is one of the internet's finest series.
From creator and co-star Felicia Day comes "The Guild", a web-series that premiered in 2007, and recently wrapped up it's sixth (and presumably final) season online. Centered on the real-life lives of a group of online RPG gamers, the series boasts wonderful and quirky writing, a great sense of humor and characters and situations that are very easy to relate to.Day stars as Cyd (better known as "Codex", her in-game character), a female gamer, and a member of a "Guild" in a popular online MMO-RPG. Together with other guild-members including the awkward and lovestruck "Zaboo" (Sandeep Parikh), socially detached and bizarrely over-logic guild-leader "Vork" (Jeff Lewis), lewd High School student "Bladezz" (Vincent Caso), lazy stay-at-home mom and party girl "Clara" (Robin Thorsen), and the cold (and sometimes manipulative) social-butterfly "Tinkerballa" (Amy Okuda), Codex not only contends with in-game quests, but her own real-life issues, including her social anxieties, romance and her growing real-world friendship with the other members of the guild.
The cast is absolutely wonderful. Day (whose character is the main focus of the series) is a joy to watch, being able to elicit laughs and real emotion from viewers. The remaining guild-members are also fantastic in their own ways. Perikh is hilarious and is able to balance his character's cartoonishness and emotion well. Lewis is fascinating and highly amusing with the bizarre character of Vork, being possibly my favorite member of the cast. Thorsen is a ton of fun as the party-girl who is forced to contend with being a mother... something she often fails at. Amy Okuda runs a really interesting (and very well played) roll that is actually quite dangerous- her character is a lot of fun, but also highly selfish, putting her in danger of easily being hate-able for the audience. But Okuda does a good job keeping the character at such a place that you still root for her and want her to see the error of her ways.
The format of the series is also very interesting. Each episode alternates between a more traditional route of storytelling, combined with web-cam footage of the actors playing the game, giving gaming scenes an intimate, also documentary-like style. In a very bold move, despite the game being a big focus for the characters in the series, we never really see too much of the game. We simply see the characters playing it and how it alters and affects their lives. Which is actually far more powerful than if we actually saw the game being played. It's a really smart move on the part of the creative team, which I applaud.
The writing and direction is an absolute joy, and are aided by other delightful aspects of production. This includes some clever, subtle set- design, and an amusing opening credits sequence that sets the mood quite well. And finally, there's plenty of great guest-stars in the various seasons, including a memorable role by Wil Wheaton, whom add a lot to the series.
"The Guild" is absolutely fantastic. I'd go so far as to say it's better than most television series, despite its small budget and non- tradition style and focus. I absolutely would recommend this series not only to nerds and gamers, but to anyone who is looking for a great, fun (and even relateable) laugh.
"The Guild" gets a great 9 out of 10 from me.
score 9/10
TedStixonAKAMaximumMadness 17 February 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2962482/14971
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