DVD Review: The Guild (Season 6)

DVD Reviews, Reviews

Perhaps it’s because I’m not a huge gamer and have never played on-line games like World of Warcraft, or perhaps, try as I might, I just can’t stay on top of every show that exists, especially ones that only air on the internet, but I had never heard of The Guild until it showed up on my front door for me to review. I mentioned this on Facebook only to be more shocked at how many friends of mine had heard of it. So keep in mind, this review is, for better or worse, from the point of view of someone who as not watched the whole series, only these 12 episodes.

My first thought as I began to quickly plow through these short internet episodes was, “Wow, nerds can be complete assholes too.” Such is the case with a majority of the characters on this show. They are self centered jerks. The only one that seems to be likable is Codex, played by creator and writer Felicia Day. So it makes sense that we should like her character, but all of her other gamer friends a jerks to the point where the viewer has to wonder, “I know she needs people to game with, but why is she friends with these people?”

In season 6, Codex has gotten a job working as the personal assistant to the creator of a World of Warcraft-like game they all play simply called “The Game.” This career change makes her life extra complicated for two reasons. One, her boss Floyd (Ted Michaels) is a complete paranoid narcissist; and two, her friends find out that a new expansion is on the horizon for the game and they all show up at her work to try and get their hands on it like the greedy little jerks that they are.

The Guild is an okay show. I can see how if you watched enough of it you might get to enjoy the annoying quirks of the characters, but this 90 minutes was not enough for me to find anything really enjoyable about this show to make want to go back and watch the first five seasons. There are some decent laughs but all-in-all it’s just an okay show.

Felicia Day is very funny and her presence on screen makes the show better than it otherwise would be. Maybe if I were a gamer I would get more of the humor in the show than I do.

The episodes are presented in a a widescreen format. The sound is in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo sound. For an internet show this show has a pretty high production value. So it’s got that going for it.

I found most of the bonus features pretty boring. You get a Production Diary (46 min.), a 12 part Behind The Scenes (37 min.), “I’m the one that’s Cool” music video (4 min.), this one is pretty good, a gag reel (6 min.), audio commentary on all episodes and access to a PDF file of the scripts.

I like Felicia Day, but I wasn’t a huge fan of this. Maybe I need to be a gamer and maybe I need to have seen the first five seasons, but standing alone, this season doesn’t really hold up. That said, it had it’s amusing moments and I didn’t feel like it was a complete waste of time.

Flatiron Film Company presents The Guild Season 6. Created and written by Felicia Day. Starring: Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, Amy Okuda, Vincent Caso and Ted Michaels. Running time: 90 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Released: October 8, 2013.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years