[[2026 Cafe Posts]]  ## 2026-05-30 **The Amazing Digital Circus** is a solid reminder that I should never, ever, ever get my hopes up. I first avoided this show because it seemed to attract the exact kind of person that I also want to avoid[^1]. But eventually I watched an episode. Then another, and another. I started to enjoy it! I liked the characters for the most part, and it felt like it was trying to be an **I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream** series for a generation of people who don’t know what that is. But then the series finale leaked and I realized that one of this was the case. Can you believe I almost braved this fandom to watch this drivel in a *movie theater*? For ***money***!? I have many issues with the way this show ended, so I’m probably going to jump around, sorry. The first is that much of it is predicated on that fact that its creator seems to think that I should love Jax and consider his character arc “tragic” in some way. I don’t, and it isn’t. The show sets up Jax to be this misunderstood guy who pushes people away because of some trauma he experienced. That is kind of true, but the other 75% of him is just being an irredeemable shithead who gets two people to basically kill themselves, then shows no remorse for it. Jax is spiteful, vindictive, and just plain *mean* to everyone around him. And when he finally “dies,” the show tries to convince me that the cast is…sad, about this?? Jax has no rapport with a single character outside of Pomni, and even that comes in spurts. There is absolutely no reason these people should be crying about this abusive piece of shit, I was actually baffled it tried to convince me that this was the case. So if you don’t care about Jax, or if you’re like me and actively hate his ass, too bad, you’re getting 35 minutes dedicated to him anyways. The rest of the characters literally have less than ten lines compared to Jax. Even Pomni barely speaks relative to Jax! In the FINALE!!!!! And you know, you’d think they’d have some shit to say, given that they find out that they’re not actually humans trapped in a digital circus, but rather copies of the people who used a headset. They’re snapshots of their real life counterparts at their lowest points. I don’t know about y’all, but if I: 1. Found out that I was someone’s clone and 2. Learned that there was no escape for me as a result — I’m trapped in this circus forever and no one will ever know or care I’d be freaking the fuck out. Frankly, the entire group should have been close to breaking the same way Jax did. But they *barely acknowledge that this is even a thing!* They don’t discuss the ramifications or really talk about it at all! This is the entire crux of the psychological horror show you’ve spent years building! Why would you not flesh this out a little bit more! In fact, why would you not flesh out a lot of things?? I’m not the type of person that needs everything explained to him. We do a bit of media interpretation in this house. But I also consistent internal logic in a story as well. But that just doesn’t exist here. Why does Caine stop being sadistic? Magic, I guess, and access to wifi somehow, despite the fact that the show already says that they exist in a closed network. The show sets up so many foreshadowing moments that go nowhere. It frames Caine and Bubble to have some emotional backstory but none of that happens, really. Why is there a scene of Caine creating Scratch in the middle of the story? Why did Caine try to modify Scratch, and why did that cause him to abstract? Why did Gummigoo become sentient, and why is that never addressed again? Why the hell is Ragatha an admin? You’re telling me Klinger knew everything but he was just conveniently insane unless he was in the dark, and Pomni was the only person who figured it out? Not to mention that these people have been here for twenty years, and no one talked about their personal lives until episode 5? Hell, why does Caine even exist? And why does **TADC** exist? From what I can tell, it has one point: give up. If you can’t move on from yourself, give up. It’s deeply ugly to the point I have to assume it wasn’t intended. But it’s what’s *presented* to us. It’s a “character-focused show” that doesn’t do character well, with “tell not show” diatribes that lead to nothing interesting. Also, this is separate from the show itself, but Gooseworx needs to get off the internet. She spends way too much time arguing with fans instead of, I dunno, working to make sure her show is satisfying. Stop giving a fuck about what online nobodies like me think. Stop trying to address every fan theory or hype up a bunch of “spooky terrible shit” that Jax is allegedly going to do. Just make. The thing. I dunno man. I gotta stop here or I’m gonna get heated. But holy shit what a waste of my time. Never watch a show that isn’t already finished, that’s the real point of **TADC** lmfao. [^1]: Which, by the way, seems to be the right move — the fandom is abysmal