Every once in a while, I get the chance to promote something I really enjoy from my personal life. This time, I wanted to promote a show that I’m pretty sure only two other people in this school have watched. That show is “Cloudward Ho,” the newest show of the acclaimed anthology DND series, “Dimension 20.” This show was 20 episodes long, and featured many of the aspects I have grown to love from “Dimension 20.” However, despite having many strong aspects, I think some parts of this show really hold it back from being the best it could be.
“Cloudward Ho” follows a cast of characters called the Wind Riders, adventurers from a land called Gath, who travel to the mysterious land of Zood in search of their missing Captain, Comfrey Macleod. As they journey, they fight Roman dinosaurs, a Viking bank, very disturbing tentacles, and headbutting siblings, discovering more and more about what is really going on in both Zood and Gath.
The first thing I want to praise about the season is its cast. All of the intrepid Heroes, as they are called, bring amazing and funny performances. The standouts for me this season were definitely Brian Murphy as Maxwell Gotch and Emily Axford as Marya Junková. Maxwell is so funny, and his relationship with the rest of the crew, his family, and multiple non-playable characters are easily the highlight of the season in the comedy department. Marya, on the other hand, is very much the emotional core of the season, and her relationship with Comfrey and the evil bird Straka is fascinating and lovely to see evolve over the season. I also want to shout out Brennan Lee Mulligan, who does an amazing job at being a Dungeon Master this season. I don’t know how he toes the line so well from emotional beats and gutbusting comedy, but he does it quite well.
Another aspect that deserves praise, in my opinio,n is the show’s set design. Every battle feels so detailed and alive. I think the standouts to me were probably the final battle on the Straka and the underwater battle. They both felt like they were just another level when it came to details, especially in the lighting and the build of the Minis. Also, the Dungeon Masters screen in this show was ingenious, hiding clues in different parts of the screen, so that vital information was in front of the players the whole time is both villainous and so much fun.
The story of the season is something that I am really mixed on. The concept as a whole works pretty well. I love adventure serials, and the show overall plays into that pretty well. However, my favorite part of other “Dimension 20” shows has always been how the players really affect the plot and do things that really change dynamics. This aspect of the story feels very lacking in this show.
I attribute this to the fact that, as the show goes on, the plot becomes far too complicated, adding aspects of time travel and multiple world-hopping and alternate dimensions that take a long time to explain to the players. This lore takes away from moments we could be having with the players. Because of this, some characters feel very undeveloped and feel like they lack any major plot impact. The biggest casualty of this being Olethra Macleod, played by Ally Beardsley. It feels like Olethra should be doing more in this story, since she is so closely connected to Comfrey, the main driving force, but somehow she feels sidelined and lacks basically any arc. It just feels like the amount of lore in this season really messes with the players’ chances to create more interesting moments for their characters, which leads to the show really missing out on what has made the previous “Dimension 20” season so great. Because of this, the story of the season feels bloated, and honestly, I can’t imagine rewatching it anytime soon.
This is why I call it a mediocre masterpiece. I loved a lot of it; the players are amazing, it’s funny as always, the sets are the best they have ever been. I really hope they return to the world of Zood soon. It’s fascinating, and I feel like we missed so much. However, the plot feels just too ambitious for such a short season, and the need to cram so much lore into only 20 episodes really hurts some of the characters because we don’t get as much of an opportunity to see them interact with each other and react to major events.
Despite my minor complaints though, I do recommend watching this show. The first episode is free on YouTube, and the rest is on the subscription service Dropout, along with the other “Dimension 20” shows. “Cloudward Ho” is a great show that gets muddied up trying to tell a story that is far too big for its britches. I’ll see you in the stars, and hope you give “Cloudward Ho” a chance.
