By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Last week a lot happened that reenergized me and my passion for weird, animated, and wonderfully chaotic shows. One of the biggest highlights is that, after nearly six months, GLITCH finally dropped Episode 5 of The Amazing Digital Circus.

Now, if you haven’t seen this series before, I definitely think you should check it out. Similar to shows like Vivziepop’s Hazbin Hotel (or Helleva Boss) and Becky Sloan, Joseph Pelling, and Terry Baker’s Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (not animated, but similar in tone to this new series), this an adult (animated) series is free to watch on YouTube for all of us to enjoy.

The aesthetic of the show looks like early‑CGI but with a modern polish and animation style, so imagine a ’90s video game with super vivid, hyper‑colored figures and backdrops but smoother animation.

The story mostly follows Pomni, a newly arrived human trying to survive in a surreal, circus-themed virtual world. She joins a cast of other trapped humans—Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble—who have been stuck in the simulation for an indeterminate (and likely horrifying) amount of time. The whole environment is managed by an unpredictable AI named Caine (or as I call him, Pain), with help from his unsettlingly assistant, Bubble.

What starts off with a chaotic, comedic tone quickly takes on darker layers. The endless years the others have seemed to spend in this virtual world gives the work an underlying psychological toll f being stuck in this world and existential horror to the show as each character wrestles with their own personal trauma, loss, and reality distortion. Moreover, the almost omnipotent AI taking care of them all appears to be malfunctioning—possibly breaking under the pressure of trying to keep the captives entertained and “happy” instead of stressed and cracking under the pressure.

I have theories. Lots of them. For example, I suspect Bubble was the first to break, as the assistant AI is tasked with endless, work like censorship, food generation, and maintaining the virtual world’s background functions. Meanwhile, Caine seems to be spiraling as well, trying to meet the impossible demands of sustaining human consciousness and its need for varying levels of stimulation. (Don’t even get me started on the Void scene from Episode 1—that deserves a whole separate post.)

My theories aside; if you’re at all into surreal psychological comedy or indie animation, now’s the perfect time to jump in to this show. Episode 5 feels like a strong refresher after the long break and sets up some big developments. Hopefully, GLITCH can keep up their momentum and the show can finish out Season 1—and maybe even the series—on a high note.

You can begin watching the show on this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHovnlOusNLgvAbnxluXCVB3KLj8e4QB-&si=SZdwo45R5bIeYMXd

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