Dead Pixels
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Dead Pixels is a British comedy about friends who are obsessed with a video game. The show satirizes gaming and the impact that obsessive gaming can have on real life social interaction. Actual profanity is bleeped and blurred out, but a good amount of the dialogue is about sex, and characters can get pretty creative and graphic when describing sexual acts. Video game avatars are sometimes used to perform clothed sexual acts, like grinding on another avatar's lap. Video game violence is frequently shown and played for laughs. Avatars kill animals and other creatures, burn down castles, and even murder a friend with hammers. One of the gamers is a parent, and the neglect of his children is played for laughs.
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What's the Story?
DEAD PIXELS follows obsessive gamer Meg (Alexa Davies) as she and her friends Nicky (Will Merrick) and Usman (Sargon Yelda) grind their way through Kingdom Scrolls, a fictional online role-playing game. Meg's actions online inevitably carry over into her real life, especially her relationships with her friend Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and potential love interest Russell (David Mumeni).
Is It Any Good?
TV shows about gamers can be a tricky proposition, if for no other reason than because for most people video games require participation to be at all interesting. Dead Pixels, a bitingly funny satire of MMORPG life, works because gaming consistently has an impact on its characters' real lives and vice versa. The pixelated interludes with their avatars end up being just as compelling and funny as their attempts to fumble through their day jobs and relationships while their minds are off protecting their digital castle.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about video games. What game do the characters in Dead Pixels play? What do they like about it? How do they approach the game? How does it inform their friendship?
Does Dead Pixels remind you of any video games or gaming experiences? How? How is it different from your own experience with video games?
How does the characters' gaming affect their day-to-day lives? How does their interaction with people in the game compare to their interaction with people in real life? What are some things that happen in the game that carry over into their real life? What do you think of their gaming behavior?
TV Details
- Premiere date: August 18, 2020
- Cast: Alexa Davies, Will Merrick, David Mumeni
- Network: CW
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Friendship
- TV rating: TV-14
- Last updated: October 13, 2022
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