AFK: The Webseries (2015–2018) User Reviews

Worth logging in for

[jacksonedarlow · 8/10 · 9 November 2018]

Kind of terrible, but pretty much awesome.

If you have been an MMORPG player, AFK has the pop-culture moments and jokes to enjoy while you fall I'm love with the characters. If you haven't, AFK has characters you will fall in love with, while you experience a pop-culture that millions of gamers love.

In the first series, the actors and crew are still finding their feet, but the small production is beautiful, when compared with similar-scale shows like Pure Pwnage and The Guild. And is filmed in the same setting as middle earth, and the four lands. Season 2 takes it to a whole new level.

The relatively unknown cast have a depth of character, and many talents that are put on full display. They become fierce, nuanced and beautiful leading women; complex, loveable villains; sympathetic, growing protagonists, and a diverse and self-aware set of players - all achieved within the confines of a mini series.

Each creative contributor to the show deserves acclaim.

A fun show, leaves you wanting more

[jakeakoster · 8/10 · 7 May 2019]

I came across this show while scrolling through Amazon Prime. I have to say it's a fun show in concept and execution. It's not any great piece of filmography by any means. However, I appreciated how the writing encapsulated the various types of gamer personalities while simultaneously highlighting some of the social anxieties some face in real life and poking fun at them at the same time. I found the acting sufficient to keep me engaged in the story and sometimes relating with the characters. I hope this series gets more seasons!

Whole lot of fun

[Grimsonia · 8/10 · 9 March 2019]

If you've ever played an mmo game you will really love this. It seems like it's mostly based off of Warcraft, but not. It follows a bunch of mismatched people who are suddenly their character in the game world.

The acting is good as is the story. It's not the best quality or special effects or anything like that, but it has everything else that matters. It's definitely got a lot of heart.

High-quality production fiction-web-series

[bejoscha · 10/10 · 2 January 2019]

Story-overview: What happens if real people find themselves 'alive' in their favorite MMORPG fantasy-game without a clue how they end up here or how they could leave? This is essentially the plot of AFK. It's a thought-provoking background story well worth exploring.

Genre: As a web-series production AFK is typically 'fast paced' with rather short episodes and frequent use of cliff-hangers. Luckily, at least season-one has a "season's cut" complete video released as well by now. Other than many other fantasy-web-series, AFK does not focus that hard on being "funny". While a certain amount of comedy is included, there is a more sinister and dramatic thread winding through the whole series.

Production: The series is very professional. Actors, costumes, CGI are all excellent and better than many TV productions.

Faszit: A web-series well worth watching and supporting! At least give it a try - it is free after all!

Great Way to Spend a Few Hours

[sflanagan-47676 · 9/10 · 8 April 2019]

AFK takes some time to breathe as the first couple of episodes were difficult to understand given there is very little background given, but if you have played any fantasy MMOs you'll find yourself quickly sucked in.

The acting and special effects aren't going to win any awards, but the costumes and production seem more professional than many of the B movies you see on the syfy channel.

I find myself enjoying most of the female characters and their arcs, particularly Q who leads the non-joining heroes and Amy the only character who seems to understand and able to use her characters traits/abilities from the get go.

Blows Similar Stories Out of the Water

[weekendlites · 9/10 · 15 July 2019]

I came across AFK on Amazon Prime over the weekend due to watching Journey Quest and having it pop up in the recommendations.

AFK takes the same basic Idea of telling a story that came from role playing games and although it is funny in places it is much darker without going full CW.

AFK Opens with Q (Mia Pistorius) An elf if the ears are any indication coming to groggy awareness on the ground with a couple other folks nearby. One of which immediately kills the other and turning there sites on Q Only to be killed in turn and suddenly everyone is running away.

Apparently gamers at their computers are suddenly in real life, inhabiting flesh and blood versions of their in game avatars in some version of World of Warcraft. And just as quickly these people with nothing to stop them start acting like people, being as shitty to each other as possible for the most part..

Q who is a pretty high ranked player immediately sizes up the situation and runs to the forest to avoid all the murderous other players. She gathers around her a band of supporting players including a Wizard (IRL a 15 YO gamer) Hot young Warrior woman in improbable bikini chain mail (IRL some bro who is a low level newb who became a woman for kicks), A self absorbed Rogue and a Gnome (Cosplaying 24 YO woman). They manage to survive the night in the forest and spend the rest of the series trying to figure out how to return to the real world.

I am trying to avoid spoilers here so I won't go too much more into story. Suffice it to say we have a clever antagonist who is building up his own army and the world itself appears to be in the process of the game rebooting as other aspects of online role playing fantasy games come back on line. magic, Non Player Characters and Quests for example.

What I found most compelling was the high production values, the quality of all the performances, and the writing.

My only negative is that these are produced as Web series and as such paced to run 10 minutes or so per episode. Which works to gain attention but I would think that something of this quality would garner enough attention to get the kind of funding from Amazon to create 30 minute episodes.

EDIT: Fixed some grammatical and spelling errors

Entertaining short series

[tenshi_ippikiookami · 7/10 · 19 December 2016]

"AFK" doesn't make much sense, but it is entertaining nonetheless, elevated by the characters' arcs and relationships, which give the show its heart.

The story is simple as follows: real people wake up in an online game, their minds in the bodies of their characters. We don't get much in way of explanation, characters' motives, world building or anything. Basically we are thrown with the characters into the world, and the first episodes suffer a little bit from this, because the viewer won't really understand much of what is going on (not that much is going on, but it makes no sense whatsoever).

Funnily enough, with the episodes going by, even if the story is flimsy as they come (non-existent), we get to know the characters and enjoy their company. And that is what makes "AFK" worth checking: the characters. The acting won't get them any awards soon, but the actors embody their roles in an engaging and caring manner.

That helps overcome all the shortcomings: plot, direction, action moments that barely cut the mustard... Put in some nice homages to role-playing games (NPC, the music that comes out of nowhere when you enter a tavern...) and you have a really fun show.

Really good TV series

[lukerox-26778 · 10/10 · 24 November 2018]

It's a great story line defenetly binge worthy but the episodes are verry short need to be longer

Fun with an MMORPG theme

[kurttag · 7/10 · 31 October 2020]

This movie appears as low-budget but comes off as a joy to watch. I saw a lot of actors loving what they're doing. Hilariously good fun. What film making should be about, not just making $ millions.

Overall meh.

[katehaileyr · 5/10 · 25 August 2019]

If you like video games and need a show so dumb it's funny. The concept had a lot of potential, if they had enough funding this could've been comparable to 'Ready Player One', or a TV version of Jason Segal's 'The Reality Series'. Like I said, it's funny and has potential, but it's not gonna reach that potential unfortunately.

Liked it a lot

[danix803 · 8/10 · 25 September 2018]

I really liked the episodes a lot. I think some of the acting is pretty good. I LOVE the plot. I really like the direction. I do wish that some of the characters had a bit more depth. I didnt like some of the language, especially Calum Gittins.

Decent genre piece

[asphyxion_ · 7/10 · 17 April 2019]

AFK is great for those who like "The Guild," ".// hack," or even the lamestream anime, "Sword Art Online."

The acting is kind of hokey and the cinematography looks more like the series was shot on a handheld DVR than an actual quality camera. However, the set pieces are actually quite good and evoke a sort of low-budget Game of Thrones charm, and the editing itself isn't horrible. Most of the characters are likable with some notable exceptions, like Brendon the Wizard who always sounds like a quivering, shivering nagging banshee. The plots are also interesting, with each episode revolving itself around the various slanguage MMO gamers use (ie. mob, phat lewtz, inc, ganker, etc.); I was pleasantly surprised at how decent the actual writing was, despite the spattering of cliche dialogue throughout. The show itself has heart and I think could have honestly been a series contender if only it had a bigger production/distribution company behind it. AFK on a Netflix-type budget would kick some serious booty (think Legend of the Seeker).

The show itself is pretty short, spanning 16 episodes in totality with each episode running at a mere 20ish minutes. Short and sweet would probably be the best way to describe AFK.

Anyway, like I said, if you enjoyed the webseries "The Guild," it's almost a given certainty that you'll enjoy "AFK" too.

God awful

[baldybouncer913 · 1/10 · 17 June 2019]

Awful acting, poor story, and crap special effects. Can't believe someone put money into it...

Awesome and very creative.

[csnwdave · 10/10 · 10 April 2019]

Awesome show. Very well done. Talent and effort over big budget and star power.

Fun story

[balzak75 · 10/10 · 22 March 2020]

Unique story that seems well thought out wish they would make more

Surprising well written and acted

[ejkbou · 10/10 · 25 September 2019]

It's really got great costumes and very well acted. A good actor can make you believe practicely anything and these guys are great, but that's just some of it. It is so well written and directed. There are few special effects, but the few are done really well and to great effect. On season 2 now and it gets better and better. Here's to a full on pickup and full hour show seasons

Great show!

[frozenilluzion · 10/10 · 4 June 2020]

I just found this show 2 days ago while browsing through Amazon. I think this is the best rpg style type show I've ever seen. The characters and actors/actresses are perfect and well played by talented people. One of the main characters (a female elf named Q) is incredible. It has all the aspects of an online rpg. It's about real people who got trapped in the online game they play. They are stuck in the bodies of the characters they play in the game. The fighting looks realistic. Everything about the show seems realistic, well put together, and overall just incredible. I would love to see many many more seasons of this show and I'd be glad to pay for them.

Low rent and stilted cheese.

[stevelomas-69401 · 3/10 · 16 June 2019]

Utter irredeemable rubbish, the production is so poor it makes 'The Lost World's look like GoT.

Small budget success

[constructionenterprisesdesign · 10/10 · 17 October 2020]

The show is wonderful, the whole cast is splendid and while the writing isn't perfect you can really get a sense that these people are doing this because they loved the story and concept. Im a huge fan in america ... Its clearly a low budget show and thats what really makes it so perfect. I cant see enough positive things about AFK, Take it for what it is and enjoy the preformence. Many of the actors and actresses have gone on to similar shows or and its enjoying to watch them all gain new skills .

One for the 10yr old online gamers

[roxmewild · 2/10 · 22 June 2019]

Having spent many years playing on an online pirate based game I did find some amusement and understanding of some of the antics! However that is all and it quickly was not enough there seemed to be no storyline and to be honest even given whatever online game this was suppose to represent I found it boring all I could envision was how the game I played would transcribe and to be honest it had a lot more to offer visually and action wise than this one did! They could have developed this concept so much better but opted for the cheap production with no depth. 10 year old new gamers may enjoy but other than that it's piss poor

Absolutely brilliant 👏🏿

[potatopirate-69039 · 10/10 · 14 March 2021]

I absolutely love this show. I love low budget stuff, it has a bigger sense of reality. Shows from the 90s like hercules, xena, or modern like legend of monkey and krod mandoon. Places and times like these wouldn't of had crafted swords and clothes like they would in high budget productions. I totally get the confuzzling start, to put you more in the mind set, you don't know what's happening because they don't know either, you have to learn. The whole point of RPGs ! 🤣

They seem to be having fun.

[McQualude · 5/10 · 6 July 2020]

It's a relatively low budget series with amateur acting so let's get that out of the way. This is no GOT. But aside from milquetoast males and hyper aggressive women the show is kinda fun and I feel is realistic in the sense that the characters are RPG gamers not hardcore rogues or wizards.

Cringy, like a train wreck you can't look away. It only gets worse.

[marvelstorage-95457 · 1/10 · 12 March 2021]

Horrid writing, unbelievable dialogue, and bad acting, though the production value seemed much higher than the writing or the acting warranted.

I endured I think 4-5 episodes because my girlfriend wanted to watch it, but one can only take so much. I was curious at first to see how it would progress, but after the 5th episode I was sure it had no redeeming value.

If you've never played an online game before avoid this 100%. If you have though, you might find some redeeming value in it at first, as the concept while not original is appealing. Unfortunately the writing, story, dialogue and acting will leave you disappointed and wondering what could have been accomplished with better writers, actors, and a script doctor.

Complete garbage

[danielastetson · 1/10 · 19 June 2020]

Every single one of the good reviewers are trolls or invalids. I couldn't even stomach watching the entire trailer.

Only rated by the cretins who sunk money into it

[RogerBorg · 3/10 · 10 April 2020]

Take the Guild, mash it up with Sword Art Online - and I don't mean the first series - remove all the clever references that gamers will get, and add a whole bunch of risibly cringe exposition to make it "accessible" for the for non-gamers who will never, ever watch it.

Cast some utterly forgettable casting-couch rejects wearing the cheapest stuff from the dusty bottom of a props chest, shoot in one (count it, one) indoor location and one (yes, one) forest glade, film it with a single camera-phone and with the most basic one-take direction and "that'll do" editing, score it with whatever royalty free trash you can find online.

Writing and plot? If there is any, you'll never spot it under the stock NPC dialog. Even the... uh... stars talk like bit part quest-givers. I'm not entirely sure that one of them doesn't take an arrow to the knee.

And that's AFK, a show that is an exemplar for the adage that just because you CAN doesn't mean that you SHOULD.