Walking in Circles

The Walking in Circles web series had two seasons, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014.  Though I watched many such web series at the time, I somehow missed this one.  Better late than never.

Season 1: The show opens with Krag (Eric Radic) sits down in a tavern and puts on a microphone for an off screen interviewer.  Ah, this is going to do The Office in a D&D setting.  Krag explains that he is a barbarian prince on a quest to avenge his father, who was eaten by a dragon.  He recruited the various party members, but now regrets virtually all of them.  Markus (Adam Rady) is a wizard school dropout whose debt has been sent to collections.  Though he can do magic, he never got the wizard hat (which is like the diploma in this world).  Angie (Katie Wilson) is a pacifist druid who mostly serves as healer.  Garrand (Jonah Priour) is a bard who is either terrified of the latest encounter or singing very badly while strumming his lute.  Lastly, Alex (multiple actresses) is a black-clad knife-wielding psychopath.  She is the most competent member of the party and almost completely mute.

Except for the first episode, each installment begins with Garrand recapping the last story in a song that always ends with "Walking in circles again and again and again and again."  Though brief, the episodes are often slow.  Pacing could use some work.  The fight choreography is unimpressive.  It was funny how Alex was repeatedly recast through the series (5 different actresses played the part) and was largely ignored beyond the first switch.  There were some really good gags.  Garrand's countersong against the sirens was hilarious.  Despite his bad singing and often being annoying, Garrand was the stand out character.  By the end of the season, the party has reached the dragon but discovered that the quest was not what it seemed.  A new quest is set for the next season.

Season 2: The episode begins with the party teleporting into a wooded area.  Sadly, Garrand has materialized inside a tree, only his arm sticking out with his lute.  Well, so much for that character.  Dang.  With the absence of Garrand, the opening song recap is no longer part of the show.  Also, the tavern interviews have been dumped.  Yes, it is a very different format.  It turns out that Markus teleported them to the wrong place and now the party has to go on a series of mini-quests to undo a curse.  Once that is done, Markus teleports them to the right place.  And that's the end of the series.  Really?  Sigh.

With Garrand gone, the character of Squire Quigley (Ben Burch) was added.  Quigley is every bit as annoying as Garrand but lacks the positive qualities.  The fight choreography is marginally better and mostly sees Alex outclassing multiple guys at a time with her tiny knife.  Markus has a wizard's duel that must have drained the special effects budget.

As with many of these web series, it had promise but didn't last long enough to tell its story.  Definitely worth watching for some of its gags and funny takes on gaming.