The Legend of Vox Machina is about to accomplish a pretty big first for the fantasy genre. Though certainly an achievement, this isn’t anything all that surprising, since this Prime Video series proved itself pretty unique from day one. The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated fantasy TV show based on the first campaign of the actual-play web series Critical Role, which was a massive hit in its own right. The announcement that this epic adventure would be adapted for TV with the entire original cast was extremely well received, and the show itself has been as well.

It’s extremely rare for a fantasy adaptation to avoid being divisive, and that seems especially true for anything in the Dungeons & Dragons landscape. Everyone has their own expectations of these kinds of projects, and it’s nearly impossible to check off all of those boxes. The Legend of Vox Machina has been a rare exception, however. The creatives behind the Prime Video series are the creatives responsible for the story to begin with, so this is about as faithful an adaptation as you can get. Any necessary changes were carefully handled.

This ultimately means that The Legend of Vox Machina has received almost unanimous praise. In its current four-season state, this series holds a perfect 100% critic score across the board. The overall audience score comes in just a bit lower, at 93%—still nothing to sneeze at. Of course, there’s still time for The Legend of Vox Machina to fumble the ball, since there is one final season on the way. However, it seems much more likely that this fantasy show will stick the landing.

The Legend Of Vox Machina Is One Season Away From A Perfect Record

It’s been officially confirmed that The Legend of Vox Machina will conclude with season 5, which makes sense considering the original ending of campaign one. Season 4 only hit Prime Video in 2026 after season 3 arrived in 2024, so we likely won’t get this final installment until sometime in 2028. When that time comes, and The Legend of Vox Machina officially reaches its grand finale, we will see whether this fantasy show can actually pull off a perfect record.

If The Legend of Vox Machina season 5 gets another 100% critic score, it would be one of the very few, if not the only, fantasy shows of this length with perfect critical reception across the board. Avatar: The Last Airbender has a perfect score across three seasons, but five seasons is an entirely different achievement. The longer a TV show goes, the more likely it is to wane in public approval. Considering all The Legend of Vox Machina has achieved so far, however, not to mention the 100% score earned by its first spinoff series, The Mighty Nein, it almost seems impossible to fail.

The Legend Of Vox Machina Will Have To Go VERY Wrong For Season 5 To Be Bad

Image via Amazon

The Legend of Vox Machina isn’t good by accident. In fact, it would have been a whole lot easier for this show to be bad. The successful chord struck here has everything to do with the fact that this is a show by fantasy fans for fantasy fans. Because The Legend of Vox Machina is based on a real Dungeons & Dragons campaign, this is about as close to an organic fantasy adventure as any TV show can get. What’s more, much of this show’s audience was part of the experience of campaign one, so they feel intimately involved in this adaptation as a whole.

All that being said, it seems like The Legend of Vox Machina would have to take a complete left turn to let critics or general audiences down. The show has found an excellent rhythm, and the setup in season 4 was precisely what it should have been. The Legend of Vox Machina season 5 will bring this saga to a close with the big showdown with the Whispered One (AKA, Vecna), and with the foundation of campaign one, that really can’t go wrong. Prime Video might as well consider its moment in fantasy history achieved.

Release Date

January 27, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Brandon Auman

Directors

Young Heller, Eugene Lee, Alicia Chan

Writers

Eugene Son, Travis Willingham, Chris Wyatt, Kevin Burke, Suzanne Keilly, Mae Catt, Todd Casey, Ashly Burch, May Chan, Marc Bernardin

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  Laura Bailey

  Vex’ahlia (voice)

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  Taliesin Jaffe

  Percy (voice)