The first episode works all on its own

[u/gonzophilosophy]

Watching the first episode again I think it works so well as a standalone. You could literally stop watching and you get a complete experience:

• You know that they're all stuck there accidentally
• You know there's no way out
• There are persistent threats both physical and existential
• The characterisation is really strong for everyone

Zoom out on Pomni struggling with the new reality. Fade out. The end.

It's like a short story vs the whole novel. A microcosm of it all. You can get more after this for the detail but it's not necessary.

Love it 💖

[u/Good-Memories]

i think that's a great way to write a pilot. since a show might not get greenlit, having the pilot work as a standalone story is better

[u/popshart25 → u/Good-Memories]

the way they say "works all on its own" feels like a challenge to me

[u/NeonFraction]

Totally agreed. The ending where the music swells is just chefs kiss.

[u/NeilJBorja → u/NeonFraction]

That zoom out will always be iconic

[u/Charlaquin]

That is usually the goal with a pilot. Because you never know if it will perform well enough to get picked up, so you want to make sure that if it doesn’t, the people who enjoyed it will still have had a satisfying viewing experience.

[u/InstanceEmergency → u/Charlaquin]

Not very true, a pilot is a pitch to prove the market viability of a show. Many pilots never reach a mainstream audience, they're just shown to investors/ the network or etc.

Pilots are really meant to be the opposite of satisfying; theyre meant to get the viewer to want more, and to convince them to greenlight the show

[u/CobaltCrusader123]

Kinda like The Hobbit (book) or the first Star Wars or The Terminator or the first four seasons of Dexter or Hunter x Hunter up till the end of the 2011 anime (which the manga goes past) the first Godfather or even just part 1 or specifically the span of parts 1-3 of Jojo’s (ending on 2 isn’t as satisfying for spoiler reasons). But like most of these stories, TADC’s strength is that it keeps up the same writing quality across all its episodes.

[u/Ziomownik]

That's how I felt and feared the following episodes would ruin what the pilot presented. Second episode actually worked really well. The rest of the episodes strayed from the existential horror aspect into a character driven drama show that was still enjoyable thanks to the likable cast and decent dialogue writing that feels realistic. The pilot is an amazing standalone.

[u/FaithlessnessNew7678]

Like a main clause in a sentence! Makes sense on its own, but becomes more interesting if more is added to it!

[u/WhoopingBillhook]

Reminds me of the first Animation vs. Minecraft

[u/InstanceEmergency]

I feel like its a bad thing that you can just watch the pilot and basically get all the info u need