The Weird Place Review

If your friends went through a mysterious door and got lost in an alternate universe, would you come to their rescue? That is the setup of The Weird Place, a crazy miniseries from Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth. But how weird does The Weird Place really get?

This is a spoiler free review. 

For those that don’t know, Rooster Teeth is a “media and entertainment company responsible for some of the biggest online series in history, such as the award-winning and longest-running web series, Red vs. Blue.” as their website says. Achievement Hunter is one of the divisions of Rooster Teeth that focuses on video games. The members of Achievement Hunter are the stars of The Weird Place, and that is a semi-important point when it comes to my review.

The start of the series begins in the Achievement Hunter office and a mysterious door that turns out to lead to an alternate universe. After two of the members, Jack then Geoff, wander in blindly, a group of 4 (Trevor, Alfredo, Gavin, and Lindsay) go in after them.

This adventure then turns into a large and complex escape room, where the group of four need to solve puzzles in order to progress through the realm and save their boss. This involves interacting with creatures called Yoobis, and the Yoobis are instrumental in driving the psychedelic strangeness of this universe, and also punish the adventurers for failing their challenges.  They have until dawn to do so, and dawn is said to be in five hours from the start of their adventure.

So how weird does this show really get? Really, really weird.

I’ll start off by saying I really enjoyed the series, and much more than I expected to. It started off a bit strange for me, not because it is supposed to be weird, but with the very scripted start to set up the craziness. This part feels a little off and not what I wanted the show to be, but once they all get into the alternate universe, it relaxes and becomes easier and enjoyable to watch. The solving of puzzles and escaping the realm is not scripted nearly as much. The scripted portions are the moments of Geoff’s disembodied head explaining things, and little moments of a lost Jack wandering around. Obviously, if they scripted they escape room moments, it would feel incredibly disingenuous.

Remember how I said the cast of this show is the cast of Achievement Hunter being semi-important? I say that because, if you don’t know who they are, a lot of the setup and jokes will be lost on you. I don’t think it completely ruins it, but knowing who all of them are makes it a lot more enjoyable and you will understand everything better.

Watching this whole series I couldn’t help but say “This is so weird!” over and over but in an enjoyable way. Often mid-laugh when some shenanigans were happening. It’s a ridiculous show and that’s the point. I wish it was longer because I would have loved to see what they could do with more time. It does feel rushed in some moments, but with such a weird concept, you kind of have to test the waters.

Without spoiling it, they set up the end to create more episodes and continue this adventure in some version. And I hope they do because this series felt like a hidden gem and I want more of it.

As an additional fun fact, you too can visit The Weird Place. It is actually an art exhibit from Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico known as The House of Eternal Return. They definitely deserve a shout out for making the alternate universe that without it, there would be no The Weird Place.

The Weird Place can be watched on Rooster Teeth First, their paid service. You can get a 7-day free trial to watch this show and explore other Rooster Teeth shows.

Do you have a hidden gem show you love? Share it with me in a comment!