‘The Mighty Nein’ review: A darker, slower ‘Critical Role’ adaptation

TV review

The live-action web series “Critical Role,” in which a group of talented voice actors and friends get together to play Dungeons & Dragons, has been riding high since it began streaming on Twitch and YouTube in 2015. Over the past decade, the series has amassed millions of social media followers and hundreds of millions of views — with each episode being three to four hours long, mind you — and spawned two animated series on Prime Video. 

The first series, the acclaimed “The Legend of Vox Machina,” adapted “Critical Role’s” first campaign, which involved vampires, dragons, a monstrous Big Bad Evil Guy and enough interpersonal drama to shake a magical artifact or two at. That series is still ongoing, with Season 4 set for 2026 and the fifth and final season in the works. But for those needing to scratch that role-playing itch a bit sooner, fret not: “The Mighty Nein,” which stealth-dropped its first episode on YouTube Friday for a three-day viewing window ahead of its Nov. 19 premiere on Prime and adapts “Critical Role’s” second campaign, is an enjoyable enough return to the world of Exandria, even if it doesn’t live up to its stellar predecessor. (And yes, I also find it weird that we’re getting a new series before the conclusion of the first one, but I digress.)

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Where “Vox Machina” is a fairly straightforward tale of good versus evil, “Mighty Nein” is more interested in the shades of gray in between. The Dwendalian Empire and Kryn Dynasty are on the verge of war, thanks to the theft of a powerful arcane relic known as the Beacon. Betrayal and lies are rampant; so are murder and torture. And our would-be heroes, all with their own complicated pasts and varied sense of morality, couldn’t be more unqualified to save the day.

(Fair warning: Thanks to the show’s striking and top-notch animation, the violence is particularly … vivid. This show is not meant for children.)

That delightful sense of underdog heroism makes “Mighty Nein” feel a lot like “Vox Machina.” The difference, though, is that “Vox Machina” had a more effective blend of D&D-style action and D&D-style storytelling in its first season. There were enough awesome battles to get you invested in the characters’ lives, which then got proper due. “Mighty Nein,” however, focuses heavily on backstory and long-term setup first, with very little forward momentum; everything is in service to a story that doesn’t get told here, and the lack of any real payoff feels like a missed opportunity. 

But if we’re going to be spending time with our heroes one-on-one rather than as a world-saving unit, at least they’re interesting characters to be around. The Sam Riegel-voiced goblin rogue Nott the Brave (“No comma,” she emphasizes) is the best kind of chaos, especially when paired with the devious tiefling cleric Jester (Laura Bailey). Human wizard Caleb’s (Liam O’Brien) sarcasm is snort-inducingly dry. Half-orc warlock Fjord (Travis Willingham) is the perfect amount of anxious given his past, while tiefling blood hunter Mollymauk (Talisein Jaffe) is refreshingly authentic as a lover of all. I’m still not a fan of too-blunt human monk Beau (Marisha Ray), and we sadly get far too little time with aasimar barbarian Yasha (Ashley Johnson). Even Matt Mercer, the dungeon master of both relevant “Critical Role” campaigns, gets in on the fun as drow wizard Essek. (These are the voice actors referred to at the beginning of this review, and they each reprise their role from the campaign with aplomb.)

But all that excellent voice work and phenomenally clever (and often vulgar) dialogue, particularly in the latter episodes, can’t completely make up for the disjointed pacing. You can watch “Vox Machina” without having watched the first campaign. “Mighty Nein” only makes sense if you’ve watched most of the 550-hour-long second campaign. The pieces all seem important, but they don’t feel like they belong here, at least not yet.

In the end, “The Mighty Nein” seems mighty sure it’s getting at least one more season. I hope it does because now that all this setup and world-building is out of the way, the real story — of a ragtag group of misfits coming together first by circumstance, then by choice, to save the world — can truly begin. And that’s the adventure I’m looking forward to seeing in all its animated glory.

“The Mighty Nein”
The series premieres its first three episodes Nov. 19 on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping Wednesdays through Dec. 24.

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