Studio: Digital eMation
Completed viewing on 08/02/20
***SPOILERS***
Over the Garden Wall is comfortably the best bang-per-buck series I've ever watched.
10 episodes, 10 minutes each and tells a complete, well-thought-out, fully explained story with very interesting characters.
Similar to Evangelion, the main character is a total coward. Where OTGW goes beyond Evangelion is in the nature of its character's cowardice. Where it's Shinji's fear, depression and lack of action throughout Evangelion that ultimately lead to people being put in danger, in this story, Wirt actually actively pushes other characters (especially those he should be protecting) towards danger in order to protect himself, often blaming them for his own failures.
Greg is a brilliant example of how childish innocence can breed a combination of high self belief and obliviousness (which ultimately lead to acts of what others would call courage). This may have made him a bit of an easy character to write but with the story ultimately being about growing up, the juxtaposition of these him and Wirt highlights all the insecurities and hang-ups that come with growing up and all the ways they can affect you.
One criticism I do have is the ultimate unimportance of Beatrice. She's an important character and plot device in the first half, however ends up being very unimportant and her story very very poorly explored or explained. The fact that Wirt gives her the golden scissors also means that she isn't even the hero of her own story. Also has to be said, she's the only female main character, so it makes all the above doubly disappointing.
Pacing of the story was great. There were one or two "filler" episodes but honestly, these helped to pace and develop the story. I also thought placing the entire backstory into episode 9 really was a masterstroke. This could easily have been sprinkled in throught the series but that would have left very little curiosity running throughout. It just felt like the most effective and impactful way to introduce the backstory, and more importantly only introduce it when it was absolutely and totally necessary. This meant that Wirt and Greg waking up back home also felt very familiar and their adventures in the unknown were (literally) more of a distant memory.
I could also describe Episode 10 as a mastercless in plot-writing. The reasoning behind almost the entire show was explained in about 3 minutes. Just like that, all loose ends (other than Beatrice's) were tied up. Also, the Woodsman and Wirt overcoming the Beast was reasonably satisfying from just a fan perspective, but the realisation of the truth behind the lamp was well done enough for it to be a surprise and still have a strong impact on revelation. The Woodsman serves as another example of how imperfect we become as we get older and Wirt ultimately decides he doesn't want to be like the Woodsman - he would rather be more like Greg.
It was also a great decision to show the body of the Beast under a sliver of light for only a split second and no longer and never again. They used the best tool you can get for scary monster character design - the viewer's imagination!
Episode 7 (the one with the girl doing the sweeping) was great example of well-executed misdirection. I will say that the format of a 10-minute episode does help this, because it's only as soon as an idea is introduced that the reveal/switcheroo can be made (whereas having to keep the viewer convinced for 10 additional minutes in between is much more difficult). Still a good episode and this series clearly does a little bit of everything.
The tone and setting of the series are also great. The 1800s-y feeling is really nice and nostalgic to viewers of all ages as well as just having great appeal. This was executed really well with costume design and settings but I think it was most effective with the music. Instrumentation and literally the sound quality really helped send the viewer that extra step into the past (the best example of this is John Crops's songs in the pilot episode!)
The characters met along the way weren't all exactly memorable but are all definitely interesting enough to hold your attention and uphold the overall tone. The talking horse was definitely a highlight.
Overall, OTGW was a slightly touching, very interesting and well-constructed story with excellent characters, used perfectly to highlight its themes.
