Dragon Age: Absolution Netflix Web Series Season 1 Review

Series Review 

Dragon Age has always been known for its engaging dialogue and world-building. But you'll be hard-pressed to find much of that here. Dragon Age: Absolution is essentially a cookie-cutter fantasy story grafted onto Dragon Age lore, with a diverse cast of misfits in search of a MacGuffin and rescuing a damsel in distress. It's a plot device we've seen countless times over the years, and Absolution doesn't really do anything to stand out from the rest in this area. And that's the problem.

  Arcane showed last year that video game adaptations can be great, managing to be both accessible to newcomers and welcoming to longtime fans of League of Legends. Dragon Age: Absolution, however, tends to pander to fans, and while that's fine in its own right, it can also be alienating to general audiences.

 

Frantic Paces

 With only 6 episodes to play, Absolution is faced with absolutely frantic paces, leaving little time to subtly develop its characters. Instead, each of the players here either have a very simple arc (like Miriam) or feel like one-dimensional players who are used as set pieces to move the story forward.

  Miriam is another point of contention and she doesn't make a good first impression. He is strong, fast, seemingly invincible, and willingly sacrifices 3 of his relatives to steal the lyrium. He is positively affirmed by those around him and is actually a bit of a hypocrite.

  He mellows out a bit as the episodes go on and you understand why he is, but of all the characters Absolution has introduced, he's the worst. And he is the main character. Venomous, unlikable female protagonists in fantasy are a sickening trope seeping into television this year – The Rings of Power and The Willow to name a few – and sadly, Absolution is following the same trend.

 

Animation 

 Thankfully, the show gets a few brownie points for the animation, which is all-around excellent, and the 6 episodes have some really cool sets and action. Episode 3 in particular sees each of the group show off their skills against hordes of undead, and it's a nice way to spread the exposition about their powers without overtly explaining them. 

 The soundtrack is also pretty good and the voice acting isn't half bad either, which is a bonus. Dragon Age fans will likely get more out of this, but those with a deeper understanding of complex world-building, layers of nuance, and racial issues in this fantasy world will likely be disappointed.

  Absolution isn't a bad show, but it's not exactly a good one either. It's total fantasy fare 101 with the added bonus of one-dimensional characters crying out for more development. New Arcane it certainly isn't.