3 episodes in, I'm becoming increasingly impressed with how the writers on this show manage tone shifts so well--usually just silly and comedic in the first half of the episode, while pulling off a shift towards a more emotional and grounded when things get darker in the second half of the episode, somewhat reminding me of Pixar's best early movies. Sorry if this isn't the sort of "in-depth" review you were hoping for, but it seems like immediately after turning 30 I've come to realize that life is too short for me to complain about entertainment that I don't like, and especially that I shouldn't nit-pick entertainment i DO like unless I am at least paid for nit-picking something that overall did its job amusing me and the flaws are easy to overlook. I found it good in my opinion, I was entertained, end of story.

I'm kind of glad the series is also available on Netflix now, in addition to YouTube. Perhaps the only real reason I have been putting off watching this latest episode, even trying to convince myself the show is not as good as I thought it was, is because YouTube itself has become an absolute pain to even browse (even with an ad-blocker, I think it's become glaringly obvious Google is going to great lengths to slowly-but-surely make my ad-free experience of the site as much of a living Hell as the ad-riddled version of YouTube) and it is quite clear YouTube's increasingly-unhinged addiction to ad revenue isn't benefitting my favorite creators in any way, despite their best attempts at guilt-tripping me into paying for YouTube Premium in hopes that those insane subscription fees somehow trickle down to my favorite creators. Nothing like watching my favorite animators being forced to tone down their humor because YouTube's algorithm automatically assumes animation (and increasingly literally every other type of content) should be more ad-friendly and made for children--then as a reward their P.C. content is bombarded by mobile game ads where simulating domestic violence "for fun" and 20-minute political smear campaigns deliberately designed to be as triggering as possible (did I mention YouTube is particularly awful on US Election years?)

YouTube becoming as ad-riddled as the average piracy or porn site is even harmful to casual viewers--the FBI actually recommends average Internet users install an ad-blocker and VPN because many of these ads nowadays can install malware on your computer or phone simply by being displayed on the website--you don't even have to actually click on the ad anymore for the trouble to happen! Yet YouTube is literally showing messages saying that using ad-blocker is stealing from them (oh, and your favorite creators, I guess), knowingly defying the recommendations of wealthy democratic institutions across America and Europe (especially more regulation-heavy Europe) and putting their own loyal users' hardware in danger by convincing them that stuff that makes their YouTube experience more pleasurable AND more secure is somehow the worst thing in the world. Sadly, this isn't just a "YouTube" problem specifically, and I am SO happy that Newgrounds is "small" enough to survive solely on a few monthly supporters like myself, eliminating ads entirely outside of the ad for the website itself you get when logged off.

But yeah, I recognize the team behind The Amazing Digital Circus has mentioned on multiple occasions they are a "YouTube-first" production and still see YouTube as the lesser of evils compared to streaming services and cable TV run by greedy, creativity-killing Hollywood studios like Disney and Warner Bros, but it's nice to be able to watch their stuff on alternative services when YouTube itself is starting to drive me insane, just in case. I wish more indie productions would be like Zeurel's Monkey Wrench and at the very least upload on Newgrounds in addition to YouTube, it goes a long way in slowly weakening YouTube's monopoly on Internet video streaming services to at least have other places to watch your stuff besides YouTube.