‘Dragon’s Dogma’ is the latest animated series to hit Netflix and has been adapted from a video game. Needless to say, a lot is being said about it. I came to know of it through a very glowing review that called it ‘the video best game to series’ adaptation. After being blown away by the first two seasons of Netflix’s ‘Castlevania’, a lot of us have been dying to watch something that comes close to its awesomeness. ‘Dragon Dogma’ sounded like it. However, just one episode down and it felt like a forgettable mess.

Here are five reasons why episode one just didn’t work for me –

1. In the very first two minutes, a gigantic crimson dragon blazes through the screens and looks like a Godzilla-sized shiny plastic puppet out of a children’s show. The animation on the mythical creature is just second-rate. While the rest of the digital landscape is on point, the dragon is just a ridiculous eyesore. And when it speaks, it’s hilarious! Basically, the biggest villain in the series is not menacing at all.

2. The movements of all the animated characters are choppy. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but the gestures are game-like and slow. It’s as if you are watching someone play it and the characters take time with their movements because they are waiting for the player to decide which button to hit next on the gaming console. It’s that kind of slow. Which is just annoying and drags down the pace of the show.

3. The dialogues are flat and lack wit. It doesn’t get any chuckles or even a smidgen of a smirk out of the viewer. For a 18+ series, it’s surprisingly bland.

4. Forget the dialogues, even the story-line lacks maturity. The hero Ethan goes hunting in the woods with a boy and the two encounter a pack of menacing murderous wolves. Ethan asks the boy to run and get help from a group of soldiers stationed nearby, while he attempts to stall them as long as he can. When the boy rushes to the soldiers, they all take their sweet time to get ready, making small talk with the boy and lauding him for his bravery, showing no signs of haste whatever. They even hold a small round-table meet with their ‘captain’ before they can head out to fight the beasts.

5. Towards the end of the first episode, the ridiculous looking dragon is back, breathing fire all over Ethan’s village. The violent scenes are very generic and mindless, with not one moment that can strike any sort of terror or awe in the mind of the viewer.

I decided to ditch the show right after the first episode. Maybe it gets better, but I am not interested in finding out. Surviving just 26 minutes of the first one was hard enough.