I feel like the thing about the d20 I watched is that the first half of a season (fantasy high, neverafter, unsleeping city, etc) is super rooted in reality, with good representation of real world problems. And then the latter half of the season has fantastical problem solving involved, because we have to get a positive conclusion out of this depressing reality story somehow, and how we do that is by turning to comedy.
(in the finale of fantasy high season 1, hopefully this isn't spoilers, riz eats his dad's murderer and it's a funny scene. it's supposed to be cathartic, but for those who have actually lost their parents to violence, it's too far removed from reality to feel "narratively satisfying".)
(similar context for adaine's abusive father, the unsleeping city protag struggles, etc. we don't really know how to fix the problems in reality so we pivot to comedy and slasher film vengeance, mostly.)
D20 has always done this with their storytelling. Your frustrations with where the story went to resolve itself is valid. Just wanted to say maybe they aren't doing this to exploit small towns.
the thing with both of those though is that there was significantly more storytelling. fantasy high and unsleeping city were significantly longer than ccod. ccod has fourteen episodes with runtimes that very rarely exceed two hours. fantasy high sophomore year was twenty episodes long, the finale lasting five hours. junior year was twenty and three hours! the unsleeping city was longer as well, and even though some eps were shorter (90ish minutes) more was done within that timeframe. yes, wally being santa clause was a silly bit, but it still fit within the confines of the story. cody was a fucking joke but his arc still fit extremely well within the confines of justice and liberation and ricky's path of self acceptance and discovery. my frustration with ccod is not entirely about the bits, it's about the lack of NPC development and the rug-pull "gotcha!" finale.
dimension 20 has a history of blending comedy with seriousness so fucking well and that went out the window this season. instead of using the setting as a tool, it was used as a prop. i've watched enough dimension 20 to know what brennan is capable of as a DM and the players are capable of as comedians, improvisers, and activists. i am disappointed in their actions and choices as PCs, disappointed in the decision-making behind the curtain, and disappointed that there continues to be this viewing of people that don't live in densely populated areas as too stupid to properly organize or self-advocate. we are not children. we are fully autonomous and we don't need anyone's fucking help to form an opinion or take actionable steps.
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