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inbarfink · 10 months

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I’ve heard some DHMIS fans say the TV Show/Season 2 feels more optimistic and hopeful than the Web Show/Season 1. Like that the trio is more independent and offers a bit more resistance against the teachers. So it makes them more hopeful they can break out/fight against this Horrible Situation.

And I mean, I do see where this interpretation is coming from. The three do have a lot more agency in the TV Show, a lot more control over the narrative. While in the Webshow they spend nearly the whole duration episode just sort of going along and following a Teacher’s lead. Plus they are a lot more likely to talk back to a teacher -

Try and go against the teacher -

Just annoy the shit out of a Teacher -

AND THEY’RE EVEN CAPABLE OF CAUSING THE DEATH OF A TEACHER!

Plus, the Teachers themselves are often less explicitly sinister and/or antagonistic. Especially when you consider reappearances of Web-Show Teachers consistently show them as being on more amicable terms with the trio. Like Tony mostly just chilling there -

And Colin being extremely friendly with them.

And like, yeah, all of these things are true. But still, for me, the helplessness and hopelessness of the trio situation is a lot more palatable on the TV Show. Their whole situation feels a lot more dire.

Cause the thing is, yes, the teachers are less obviously sinister and the characters talk back to them more in the TV Episodes - but they are also more likely to totally buy into their bullshit and vehemently agree with them and even argue about it with the others. (See: Red Guy in "Jobs" and "Family", Yellow Guy and Duck in "Transport)

It’s especially notable when you compare Red Guy’s behavior between the two versions of DHMIS. Since in the Web Show he was the first one to ‘break away’ from their world (or at least try). While in the web-continuity, he was pretty consistently disinterested in the Teacher’s lessons - generally only reacting to express his annoyance or befuddlement at them -

The TV Show puts a lot more emphasis on his personal foibles, and how despite his detached and apathetic attitude - he is just as likely to fall into the bullshit of some ‘Teachers’ in the right situation.

And while the TV Show also emphasizes Duck’s ability to Defy the Narrative - it also emphasizes how much this independence is based less on his intelligence -

And more on his ego.

I want to be in a family, I want to be the dad!

So with every character’s ‘resistance’ to the Teacher really depending on their personal behavior and flaws, we don’t really get moments like that thing in ‘Time’ where they all together started questioning Tony’s lesson.

And that’s also a thing that is less prevalent about the TV Continuity in general, the trio are less in harmony with each other. Obviously, it is a requirement of the format. The show has more emphasis on the puppets’ personalities and therefore gives more focus to their interpersonal conflicts. While in the Webshow they were seen more-or-less as a single Unit, with each their own personal quirks, but generally being Together and having pretty much the same goals - in the TV Show they are a lot more separate and distinctive. But that can also mean they can turn on each other and hurt each other.

The fact they have more Agency in the story also means they can cause damage and hurt like the Teachers can.

With the bigger focus on character comes a much bigger focus on the long-term effects of their ‘Format’ over their lives and thoughts. They don’t just sort-of ‘go along’ with whatever bizarre object has bursted into their house, but they have actually internalized the core concept behind all of those lessons, they internalized all sorts of ideas of how they’re supposed to act and what they’re supposed to do and what they are capable of doing. And they will reinforce it amongst themselves, no Teacher needed.

We don't have the Transport Man, it's just us three! We can't just... do stuff, just us three, can we?

While the last episode of the Web Show has both surviving members of the trio apart and separated, they've both come to the conclusion that their life is Wrong from their own perspective.

(And Duck figured it out just before he died)

The TV Show’s final episode shows how the Trio themselves (and especially Red and Duck’s sense of superiority over Yellow) is much more effective at keeping them in line then just a Teacher. The Insurance Safe was easily discouraged by Yellow’s intelligence and knowledge, but Red’s unease and Duck’s hostility is what actually made him feel bad.

And before Yellow Guy, Red Guy was the one trying to get them all free the episode before that - the Teacher was pretty helpless to stop them - but his friends were the ones constantly urging him to go back home.

And at the end of episode 6, they all doom each other, and themselves.

And while the ending to the Web Show is ambiguous, and can be read in a very negative light, there is at least some element of change and disruption in it. Red at least tried to pull the plug. And even if it is all doomed to repeat again and again, some things, no matter how small, have been shifted.

The TV Show’s ending is a lot more direct, but also a lot more directly hopeless. Yellow Guy’s attempt to break free has failed. There has been no real change or shift, or disruption - the house is back to normal, this loop has probably happened thousands of times before. They are just as trapped as they were before, and they are all willfully oblivious to it.

One interpretation for the ending of the Web Series is that it demonstrates how the trauma of the ‘Lessons’ will remain with the characters forever, or that the indoctrination they suffered still lingers or that they might be doomed to repeat these patterns in themselves or with others. If this is true, then the TV Show’s greater focus on character really helps to demonstrate how this trauma and indoctrination affects them. Even if they were to break out of it, they will bring something of it with themselves wherever they go, they might even drag each other straight back into it - because it’s all they know.

The show also puts a much bigger emphasis on this fact, that this strange situation they are trapped in is all that they know. Just watching the Webshow on its own, you can’t really tell how long this has been going on - it could just be one very weird day. And you could kinda separate the Trio’s lives and the teachers intruding on them. Before the TV Show, it was easy to imagine a version of their lives where they are not constantly hounded by Singing Living Objects, and that it wasn't that different and it wasn't that long ago. Like, it wasn’t a surefire thing or the authorial intent - but it was at least a valid interpretation of the text.

The TV Show makes it clear that yes, the house and their entire living situation is part of that terrible surreal experience. It’s not just about their occasional edutainment misadventures, it is really everything about their world that is wrong and confining and nightmarish. Their rooms and their own house, and the world outside their window is all part of this Actual Nightmare. And it really is all they know. As far as they can tell, their life has always been defined by being trapped inside a nonsense house and being hounded by living objects. I mean, in retrospect that was probably also true for the Web Show but, again, the TV Show is a lot more explicit about that.

And the ‘outside’/‘real’ world is… okay, we have no way to be sure whatever either the Red Guy World seen in the end of “Health” and the beginning of “Dreams'', or the Junkyard seen in “Transport” is actually real or just like, another layer of illusions but still… The ‘world outside’ seen on the web show looks drab and soul-crushingly boring but it’s still fairly livable. If the only real problem is that it’s dull and too grown-up, then it’s easy to assume that if Red Guy could save Yellow Guy and Duck and get them out - then it wouldn’t be that bad. They could give color to that gray world themselves.

Meanwhile… The glimpses of the ‘Real World’ in ‘Transport’ just looked like a junkyard. But considering how the puppets were wandering from daytime to nighttime without finding any way out or any other signs of life, and considering Duck’s Visual Inventory included stuff like “one skull” and “one bag of meat” - I think this is less of an ordinary junkyard and more of a post apocalyptic wasteland.

So, even if the trio could ever break free of their surreal felt world - it’s unclear whether or not they could survive outside of it. Even if their world is a nightmare, that might be better than waking up.

And while the teachers are nicer, or at least less actively malevolent, their presence and influence is constantly felt. Like, even when there isn’t a Lesson ‘actively’ going on - there’s often some googly-eyed motherfucker just… watching them.

Yeah, maybe the fact Tony doesn’t do anything but tell the Time Child they’re absent shows that he’s a nicer guy in this continuity. But… even if the teachers are generally kinder, they’re still prone to overriding their ‘Students’ wills and opinions, often disrespectful and/or manipulative, and generally care more about being smarter than their students than actually being right. Even Electracey, probably the most straight-up benevolent and competent teacher we’ve ever seen on the show -

Seems to have issues understanding the mortality of organic beings.

So there’s still a lot to be weary of the fact these guys are constantly watching our main characters. Even if they’re not quite as sinister as they were before. Besides, even if the Teachers were just the nicest folks ever - it is still rather sad and concerning that the Trio are constantly watched like that in general. Like, they basically have no privacy. Even disregarding Lesley and maybe even us the audience. Someone is always watching.

And they can’t do anything about it.

And the thing that I’m thinking about most… it’s something specifically with Colin the Computer. Like, it seems like he’s the most unambiguous and straightforward example of how much nicer Teachers are on the TV Show. Compared to the data-harvesting control freak he was on the Webshow, he has become such a sweetie! So polite and complimentary and friendly to the trio! But the thing is… it’s very easy to be nice and sweet to people who are already doing what you want.

In the Webshow, the trio were at least somewhat in conflict with Colin because they wanted different things. The trio were having a quiet board game night at home and maybe wanted to learn about the World, and Colin was determined to pull them into his computer world. As Red Guy pointed out, they already had a computer. So they didn’t really need him or his ‘lesson’ about computers. They were totally independent of him. It was easy to see Colin’s pushy and over-controlling tendencies in that situation.

But that sort of conflict is simply not present in the TV version of Colin. It’s hard to tell if TV!Colin would have acted better if the trio were not as interested in using him because he is simply never put in that situation. That’s the part that always sticks to me; unlike in the Webshow - Colin is the only computer they have. He is actually their only connection to the digital world, the internet. They can’t wait to use him because he only comes around once a year. He joins in on the trio’s insults towards Warren because they would all just like to go back to focusing on Colin.

The things that do maybe make Colin come across as genuinely kinder on the TV Show are the facts he offers to help with Yellow Guy’s situation (and doesn’t interrupt or distract them after the solution extends beyond looking it up on Colin) and gives them that ‘Glass Spherical Computer’ In the end - ensuring that they won’t be that dependent on him after all. I mean, I think you can argue about whether the ‘replacement’ computer being made of very fragile glass is such an unlucky coincidence or not… but even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he legit wanted to make them less dependent on him…

The fact that was the situation in the first place, that they could only go online one day in a year, and had to be constantly monitored by Some Guy (who was also acting as their computer)- no matter how well-intentioned he is - is still deeply fucked up!

I think that at the end of the day, me and the folks who see TVDHMIS in a more optimistic light aren’t really in disagreement. At least not about the actual contents of the web and TV shows. It’s more that we have different priorities about what’s the most disturbing elements of the trio’s Actual Nightmare. Because yes, it is true they are put in the care of less Actively Malevolent Teachers this time around. And it is true they are less actively suffering, and they have a bit more agency now.

But for me, the bigger emphasis on the constant surveillance they live under, the focus on how much this situation affects their lives and relationships and psyche, and the trio’s tendency to hurt each other and doom themselves - makes the world of the show feel more hopeless and bleak to me.

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