We’re sure you know all about Felicia Day’s The Guild webseries (we’ve certainly written quite enthusiastically about it a few times). It started off quietly satirizing the avid fanbase of MMORPG’s via use of The Game before moving beyond to the world outside the bedroom, embodying the best aspects of sitcom — and all for free online! It’s a fun, quirky disassembling of geek/nerd culture through a comedic lens wonderfully helmed by the ever-hilarious Day via both the online episodes and comics.
Now, after a long wait, The Guild‘s hilarious fifth season has made it to Netflix (for those of us lame enough to wait for things like that) in the form of one hour and a half long epic. While every season of the Guild is pretty hilarious, the fifth season is particularly noteworthy due to the fact that it takes the Knights of Good completely out of their inherent comfort zone and straight into MegaGameORama-Con, which leads to all sorts of mayhem and parody. It features a full-on send-up of everything that makes cons hilarious and memorable, from it’s handle of celebrity (including some amazing cameos from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Zach Levi and Nathan Fillion among others), cosplay, videogame/comic nerds and culture, just exactly what steampunk is and the associated nightlife/partying that comes with hanging out with two many geeks.
Oh, and if you like Wil Wheaton and his previous appearance on the show, wait until you see what Fawkes gets up to this season. Certainly a defining role if I’ve ever seen one.
If there is a better lampoon of our world with a classier sense of wit out there, you’d be hard-pressed to find it over the Guild. So, to make a long story short: you should probably sit down and watch season 5 of the Guild.
With ECCC less than a week behind us, Penny Arcade Expo East this coming weekend, C2E2 after that and many more cons on the way this year, it’s definitely a season worth of hilarity for anyone who has ever attended a convention under any pretext – comics, games, cosplay or otherwise. The Guild is available in its entirety on Netflix now (with all episodes combined to form a movie), as well as Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, XBOX Live and DVD — whatever floats your boat.
