WesternAnimation IT'S ABOUT FAMILY
I promise I'm not a contrarian. Looking back over my own reviews I find myself often either criticising popular shows, or defending ones being widely criticised. Again, I promise I'm not a contrarian. I thought I should make that clear before I talk about the new Netflix series Arcane, which the internet is currently treating as the Second Coming.
To summarise, Arcane is a animated, steampunk fantasy ensemble series about the brewing conflict between social classes, rulers, gangs, intellectuals, and siblings. It's based on a game I haven't played, and fortunately this isn't something you need to do before watching the show. To be clear, this isn't some cheap cash-in adaptation. It's immediately obvious that a lot of work and love has been put in to the craft, from the tightness of the writing, to the passionate voice acting, to the often imaginative framing, to the painterly art style (which feels heavily influenced by that of the beautiful Dishonored games). it's a very pretty show to look at and listen to.
But despite all that effort, I've not come away particularly impressed. All that creativity is in service of an overly familiar and uninspired story. You have all the clichés of a Victorian/Steampunk fantasy, from the physically stratified classes of the poor living in sewers below the ivory tower elites, to the thieving street urchins, to the magical airships and scientists playing god. There's an evil villain with an evil disfigured eye, and there's an evil super serum that turns ne'er-do-wells into into Hulk/Bane monsters. I don't think I saw a single new idea on show.
There is also something adolescent feeling about the approach of the show, as though they've deliberately made the melodrama accessible for the sake of children. Whereas that's acceptable in a show that's actually made for children, like Avatar the Last Airbender, Arcane is strictly a show for young adults and up, so the melodrama comes off as corny and excessive. This show would probably be great for 13-14 year olds with a limited exposure to this sort of YA fantasy. But for adults or fantasy fans, its going to feel a bit mediocre.
WesternAnimation Couldn't get me to care
I can see why everyone would think it's really well made but I thought that it was too busy trying to be a serious live-action drama full of politics, complicated relationships and ever-shifting characters. Which isn't really much of a criticism as much as a personal preference since I don't like to watch live-action dramas like that, but I'll explain why I have such a preference.
The ideas behind the various elements of Arcane were cliche and they were cliche in execution because they rushed all the development and never bothered to give me a reason to care for these characters by making me like their personalities. I mean sure, their psychology is given depth, but their personalities are one-dimensional—- for example Vi is just "tough street girl". It's the kind of show that's highly entertaining in motion, because its plot and characterization is complex and nuanced and all that, but not likable at a standstill. That is, I wouldn't want to watch any of these characters go on an episodic action adventure. Still, if the show had bothered to focus heavily on a character, a lack of personality would have been replaced by my sympathy for the character and sheer attachment due to the amount of time I spent with them, but no, Arcane opts to divide its attention between a large cast a characters. So despite being character driven, characters feel like they follow plot more than plot follows characters. Even after all this, some shows don't do either of these things; especially likable personalities or especially sympathetic characters, but they at least have a unique feel synthesized from the sum of its other qualities; music, tone, visuals, setting, etc. The feel of Arcane, or rather its tone primarily, was very reminiscent of crime dramas I've seen and I haven't even seen that many.
I also didn't like the whole focus on Jinx. Personal insecurity is not an excuse for becoming a psychotic murderer and neither is it a full reason. They're trying to make one of those sympathetic half good half bad characters but people don't become like her unless there was something very wrong about them in the first place, and the inciting incident was merely the spark that set off a ticking bomb. If this was true then every kid who's ever had low self esteem and faced bullying would be a school shooter but most do not; school shooters are people who are messed up in the head independent of what happens to them. Powder had always cared more for her own ego than anyone else and always had some type of murderous intent in her. But then again, I never understood the appeal of Harley Quinn either.
I give it a 6-7 out of 10. Obviously it's well made and all the characters and themes have been thought-out, but personal preference dictates that there's a ceiling for the kind of show that Arcane is.