Among Us

In the world of video game adaptations that we live in today, it seems a lot of the movies and TV shows we see based on our favourite games can be sorted into two groups. There's the genuinely good stuff, and then there's the stuff you have to add caveats to in order to defend it. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, A Minecraft Movie, Five Nights at Freddy's and its sequel. "Good for fans," you might hear some people say, which is essentially code for it's a bit of a waste of time but I don't want to tank on it too hard.

I fully expected Among Us, the animated series based on the pandemic hit social deduction game of the same name, to fall into the latter camp. It's got a stellar cast, sure, but I expected it to at best be a fine show that hits the key points of an Among Us game then bows out. It'll be popular, based on the IP, but not actually good. As it turns out, I was quite wrong in my assumptions about the Among Us series, and showrunner Owen Dennis alongside a team of talented animators and voice actors have put together a series that takes the barebones premise of the game and makes it into something worth watching for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.

Among Us didn't have tears streaming down my face when a crewmate was killed (spoiler alert: some people die in the murder show), nor did it have me rolling around on the floor laughing, but it isn't really meant to do either of those things. It's entertaining, and not in a way that sounds like a cope as I'm desperately trying to find something positive to say about it. The show is quick and snappy with its jokes, the characters feel as fleshed out and interesting as they can be considering they're based on nothing more than a colour and a uniform, and the animation is brilliantly stylised.

I'm not the target audience for Among Us, but I still found myself cracking a smile and laughing at some of the jokes. The series is incredibly charming, thanks to a mixture of the voice work and the vibrancy of the visuals. Yvette Nicole Brown, Randall Park, Ashley Johnson and everyone else aboard the Skeld give us characters rather than colours, and it seems like everyone had a great time performing. Because of the talent aboard, I had expected a bit of a gutted animation budget. A lot of scenes of just two characters bobbing up and down while they speak, and yet again I was pleasantly surprised by Among Us. Dennis and his team have done brilliant work in making each character feel uniquely expressive. Even without mouths, or eyes, or any mannerisms to latch onto, there is still plenty of life in the crewmates, and you find yourself drawn into every second of an episode waiting for the next visual gag.

The short runtime of Among Us helps it a lot, as it never feels like it overstays its welcome, and keeps you on the hook for more. It's a bit different from other cartoons I've seen that go for the ten to fifteen-minute episode mark, as there is quite a central and important narrative to follow, but these days everyone can watch cartoons in order, and don't have to worry about each episode being its own microcosm in the world. It might have been interesting to see the show go for an entirely new mystery with different impostors and crewmates each episode, but the format Dennis and co. settled on here works a treat.

There are loads of nods to the game, too, as well as more stylistic sequences which show you that the silly game about sussy impostors actually has potential for a fun cartoon series. If you're not familiar with the game (as I found out was the case for the majority of the cast), you don't really need to know it to step into this show. It's a murder mystery, at the end of the day. Someone dies on a space ship hurtling through the galaxy, and our surviving crewmates have to figure out who's a good egg and who needs shoving out of the airlock. The mystery itself is nicely written, and while it's not having you clinging to the edge of your seat, you are left scratching your head about who the villain could be the whole time. It helps that no one is really deemed the "safe" or POV character. Elijah Wood as Green is our everyman, but we shift perspectives often enough to never be sure of who we can trust, or who could've committed a murder while we're not watching.

Not every joke lands in Among Us. Not every visual gag will have you rewinding just to see it one more time, but the show takes from the best American comedies in that it throws so much at you you're bound to find something funny that sticks with you by the end of an episode. Most of these moments for me came from the incredible line reads of the cast, which make you feel like it was money well spent bringing in the major stars of the Among Us cast. It's not overstimulating in this aspect either, and it does feel like even in a short episode runtime, you're never left wondering what just happened and how to process everything you've been told. The only detriment of the show I'd say is I'm not always quite sure who it's for. It's not an edgy wannabe adult cartoon, but it isn't for really young kids either, which I'd say would be the target audience for the game. I would guess it sits somewhere in the middle, for kids who would've watched the likes of Regular Show, Adventure Time and such. That said, the show's charm feels like it'll infect audiences of all ages, so perhaps it's not worth worrying about.

Among Us is a short, snappy, and clever series that is the best version of what Among Us could be as an animated show. Its voice cast is superb and everyone's on their A-game, its comedy is effective and consistent. It's well paced and doesn't feel like it's drawing out the mystery to a point of boredom. A really good start to a series that has potential to return again and again. Already, the actors I spoke to said they'd be up for coming back, and Owen Dennis has a plan to basically just do what the game does, and reset the round with a new map and potentially new crewmates on the edge of death. A pleasant surprise and a cartoon I can easily recommend.