Review: Pantheon:”Pantheon”;”Cycles”

Pantheon is a trip so far. I only heard about the show by name, thus far, so I hear Pantheon, I am expecting gods and all that type of shit. What did I get? A technology television show that starts as infused version of Mean Girls, at least for the first two episodes. There are some things that are awesome about Pantheon. Like the art design, Titmouse brought their A game with the art direction for the series and was phenomenal. This is as close to an American made anime that isn’t named Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

However, the best part about Pantheon is that it doesn’t go into overdrive with the plot right away. It sets up Maddie to be a sympathetic main character. You get insight into what she’s like in school, and how she’s the bullied child in this class straight out of Mean Girls. She’s heavy into technology and all things Japanese, especially if you notice the Neon Genesis Evangelion reference on her laptop.

Then everything changed when “Emo” started to contact Maddie making her school life suddenly turn around for the better. The direction for story telling is so great, because it feels kind of like a Pulp Fiction type of plot, where there are interweaving stories coming together.

Once Caspian is introduced, and you see beautiful set pieces of what I would guess is the California suburbs, the more solid plot of Pantheon starts to take shape. A lot of this is based on whether Logorhythms is the root of all evil in society. The flashbacks all seem to take place in specific spots, and always reaffirm what the characters are trying to convey. What makes Caspian’s story is the extra layers with him, and the dual “life” his parents are working on him.

“Cycles” delves deep into what Logorhythm is going into, including the brain scans, and what Chanda got himself with his abduction near the end of “Pantheon.” Chanda, who made a deal in the first episode, meets his fate in “Cycles,” when you see how the brain gets scanned to be uploaded and literally disappears. Speaking of references, “Cycles” gave us a really cool Back to the Future reference, when Maddie was given a place to meet “AngryAngel.”

And what was that place? Of course it was Lone Pine Mall. So, does that mean Pantheon and Back to the Future are in the same universe? Probably not, but one can hope, right? Maddie’s father’s reach is almost infinite, who can touch anything with a connection. The impressive feat here is that not only did he hack the mall audio to play Queen, but he also broke through to every phone within Maddie’s earshot.

The ideas and plot of Pantheon so far has had so many layers. Two 41 minute episodes dumped so much story and exposition, that I can sit here for weeks to try to theorize where plot threads are going to go, or how things came to be. The fact that we got so much within the 82 minutes released so far, and that’s with the bait and switch first 25 minutes of “Pantheon” and it’s Mean Girls-esque beginning, made things flow. It’s been a long god damn time since I have been this excited over watching a show, and waiting with baited breath.

Ultimately, there’s a shit-ton of information to extrapolate from Pantheon, so far. The unraveling stories with Maddie, Caspian, and the rest layers to literally everyone involved so far. The all-star cast, from William Hurt to Aaron Eckhart to Daniel Dae Kim and Lara Pulver, the actual performance of each actor is god damn amazing. They each give depth and brevity to their characters, and brevity. I expected a lot less from Pantheon, and I was pleasantly surprised with everything. Except one thing.

And that’s the audio. As an audiophile, you expect things to be clear and concise. The recording of the dialog for the first episode is absolutely awful. Maddie, her mother, the first teacher, and most of her class are all mixed in a different frequency. It’s like the dialogue is muddled, like I’m listening to them talk through a plastic bag.  It’s a deterrence to a high degree, and if you’re an audiophile, you may not like it enough to pass on Pantheon. I wouldn’t though. What was said does outweigh how it was brought to us.

That said, the second episode’s audio is magnificent. You can tell there was a clear line when the pilot was made, and when the second episode went into production, because the quality of the audio, as well as the animation in general, just made things look and sound even better. For that visuals, that says something, because “Pantheon” looked amazing. Bringing the audio quality to the level of where the visuals landed was exactly what “Cycles” needed to make Pantheon must watch TV.