Alpha Betas Review

Alpha+Betas+Review

Mikayla Zarate, Writer

When it comes to YouTube creators, I think we can all agree that we each have our individual favorites. Some of us like the more down to earth stuff of commentary and reaction channels, some of us like to learn things with history or science, some of us might like diy and beauty channels, some of us like stupid memes and comedy skits, and the rest might like gaming commentaries. But no matter your preferences, I think we can all acknowledge that as awesome as our favorite youtubers are, they all really suck at making original professional shows and movies. Most of the time they come out as awkward projects that aren’t funny, interesting, and are so bad they aren’t even fun to laugh at. Think of Logan Paul’s movie Airplane Mode, the Fred Movies, or the Annoying Orange Movie. At this point in time, if a youtuber announces an original, professional movie or tv show, the audience’s first response is most likely… hesitation, or doubt that it will be any good. No one wants to be disappointed, after all. And that’s exactly how I felt when I heard that some of my favorite youtubers would be releasing a pilot episode of their new original animated show called Alpha Betas. I was extremely excited for the show because it looks really promising, but I was also nervous that it would be like other youtuber projects and just be… bad. But to my surprise, it managed to surpass all expectations. 

Alpha Betas is the brainchild of four popular gaming youtubers, VanossGaming, I AM WILDCAT, The Gaming Terroriser, and BasicallyIDoWrk. In addition, the show is also produced by the same studio that created Rick and Morty, and the show has the same art director as Rick and Morty. 

Alpha Betas is set in a world where everything is unknowingly powered through video games, from the tv in your home to the streetlights on the road. However due to hackers, bugs, rogue NPCs, or ‘rival country’s energy divisions’ electrical and power failures can happen due to the games not being played. So, in order to sort out these special bugs and things, the CIA has commissioned 4 gamers to enter the games and fix the anomaly’s. Who are these four gamers? Our protagonist, the Alpha Team: Eddie (Vanoss or Evan Fong), Buck (Terroriser or Brian Hanby), Tommy (Wildcat or Tyler Wine) and Mason (Basically or Marcel Cunningham), and they do not take their job seriously at all. But they get the job done at the end of the day. Now just imagine all shenanigans, stupid antics, and banter you can into this world premise and you have the concept for the entire show. 

As for the pilot episode. It’s obviously not a 10/10 great amazing anything, but it sets up the world and leaves you wanting more, which is what a good pilot does. And don’t worry if you have no idea who the four main actors are because you can go into this show completely blind and will still be able to follow the story and the characters. It is wonderful, clever and funny. I love the characters as well, my favorite is personally Tommy, and their dynamics are extremely charming. The animation is well done, the character designs are adorable, and everything is so detailed, it’s just so much fun! In addition, the voice acting, which I was most worried about, was surprisingly well done. 

 Overall, the world is interesting, the characters are fun, and the possibilities are endless. What a great pilot, and please, if this sounds even the slightest bit interesting, check it out. It is definitely worth a watch just to see if you like it.