The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep

I have reviewed each episode of "Love, Death + Robots" and am a big video games guy, so thought I'd do the same process for Amazon's "Secret Level".

This is another game that I've no experience of playing at all. Descriptions of the game make it sounds quite a bit like "Fallout" particularly the cypher character. Like the recent adaptation of "Fallout" they make the choice here to tell a story in the world, rather than the story of the game.

An orphan on a dead-end planet, Amos' (Brenock O'Connor) only happiness came from interactions with Felicity (Raffey Cassidy) a young Doctor who has subsequently managed to get off world. When he learns that she is working for the megacorporation Auntie Cleo, he volunteers to join them as a test subject. He willingly, nay cheerfully, allows them to conduct experiments on him on the hope that he will see Felicity again.

Again, visually this is amazing, I initially thought it was live action, so impressive and realistic was the movement, but you do come to see that it is animated and there are some exaggerations to appearances, particularly in older characters. I did though recognise actress Fenella Woolgar from here characters appearance, and not from her voice.

I thought the plot was OK. It's a fun little story of love and disappointment and one that ends on a kicker rather than a revelation. There are amusing moments as Auntie Cleo's crazy experiments fail and Amos loses more and more of himself to biomechanical replacements.

I'm not sure it particularly makes me want to try out the game, but I enjoyed this whilst it was on and feel that there's more scope for stories in this world.

Episode has no really interesting events or message to convey besides capitalism ruins everyone.

It's a nothing burger to the average viewer.

...and that "nothing burger" aspect is precisely where the frustration lies. It's not that a critique of capitalism is inherently bad, but the execution here feels utterly devoid of nuance. The episode presents a caricature, a cardboard cutout of corporate greed, rather than a thoughtful exploration of its complexities. We're given a surface-level "bad corporation does bad things" narrative, without any real depth or engaging characters to anchor it.

The lack of compelling events exacerbates this issue. There's no sense of rising tension, no genuine stakes, and no moments of surprising revelation. The plot meanders, relying on tired tropes and predictable outcomes. It's as if the writers were so focused on hammering home their message that they forgot to craft a compelling story.

Furthermore, the episode fails to offer any alternative perspectives or solutions. It simply wallows in the bleakness of its dystopian vision, leaving the viewer with a sense of hopelessness rather than any meaningful insight. A truly effective critique would offer a glimmer of hope, or at least acknowledge the existence of resistance or alternative models. Instead, we're left with a shallow, one-dimensional portrayal of a complex issue, ultimately rendering the episode forgettable and, as you would aptly put it, a "nothing burger."