Let's be honest...

...none of us expected this to actually come out. I've sat through long periods of what's known as "development hell" for other productions, cautiously yet optimistically awaiting their hopefully eventual release. And I recognize, unlike a lot of those, that series like this are akin to stop motion. They take a very very long time to create. But after all the industry bull that went on around it - from its original production company being outright shut down to the creators, and to their credit rightfully so, entirely changing the tone of the show from its initial pilot to what we got, to the Queen of England dying right before its release and thus postponing it further - I just sort of expected it to not happen. Becky continually released stills from time to time on Instagram, and would promise it was being worked on, but I think, after a while, a majority of us moved onto the "I'll believe it when I see it" phase.

But it DID eventually come out, and sort of out of nowhere too. For as long as the wait took, it felt like the sudden drop was a surprise. I'm not exactly happy with how they released it all in one fell swoop instead of petering it out week to week, I mean it's only 6 episodes as it is, but I also recognize that I'm very old school in how I digest media. Regardless, after watching it, and rewatching it a number of times, I'd say the show more than met its marks on what they were trying to do. Sort of.

The series is, above and beyond all else, absolutely stunning to look at. If you thought the initial webshorts were impressive, especially on the scale they managed to have budget wise, this is on a whole other level, and understandably so as it has an entire television production team behind it. But looking at this thing. Entire rooms built from nothing but felt and paper and cardboard, it's a real example of craftsmanship and the appreciation of their art, and I applaud that. But does it live up to its source material in other ways? Well, that's debateable. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite shows of all time, so I'm not being negative, I'm being unbiased. There is a difference, so please note them.

The series has admittedly a bit of weaker writing in its second half. Overall the writing isn't as tight and the songs are nowhere near as catchy, but tonally it certainly matches its predecessor, there's no argument there. The atmospheric dread and claustrophobic nightmare feel is still very much in effect, but there's just something about it that doesn't really align with the originals, and that's not that surprising given that web content and television are two entirely different mediums and thus what works well on one won't necessarily work well on another. This has been proven time and time again by various networks attempting to bring web content to television and failing rather gloriously. So for the most part, yeah, the show is a real triumph of perseverance and it's about on par with the original work.

The series opens with three absolutely fantastic episodes. And then...well...the series starts to get shaky. Whereas the webshorts were all great across the board, this one is only pretty great. Those first three are fantastic, with episode 3 "Family" being particularly terrifying, but the second half just doesn't really work as well. And while the series wraps with, yet again much like its source material, an extremely vague open ended example of closure or explanation, which is fine, what really hurts is knowing that there will likely be no more thanks to Channel 4's ever ongoing destruction, so unless it's picked up by someone else, this is likely all we'll ever get and frankly we're lucky we got that even. That isn't to say, also, that the second half is bad, because it isn't, but the themes are weaker, and the writing isn't as snappy. They're still great, they're just LESS great than everything else.

I'm thrilled this finally released, and I'm so proud of Becky & Joe and everyone involved for realizing their vision and seeing it through, especially in spite of all the hardships along the way. I just wish there was more coming down the road, but at the same time, I'm grateful for what we did get. It's still the same old "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" that we know and love, and at a total length of 6 episodes spanning about 25 minutes a piece, it's a very easy and enjoyable watch. You know, if you like unnerving and often violent puppet horror.

Which, let's be real, who doesn't?