D&D: New ‘Secret Level’ Trailer Features Uncanny Valley Gnomes And Deep Dive Lore
Gnomes in the new D&D Secret Level Trailer look like something out of a nightmare. The rest of it seems like it might be cool.
Prime Video’s new nerd anthology series, Secret Level, is a look at beloved nerd franchises and Concord, for some reason—probably something to do with marketing budgets. But it features D&D as well. Earlier this week, Prime Video put up a 45-second trailer of the D&D Secret Level episode.
It doesn’t look great. Maybe there will be some cool stuff, but boy, does it crash hard into the uncanny valley. This could all just be a personal taste thing, but what I saw in that trailer haunts my dreams.
Why Is The D&D Secret Level Gnome Like That
First of all, what the actual heck? This show was made with Amazon money and by the people who made Love Death + Robots. People presumably had to sign off on the approval of all the design docs. An editor saw this and thought, “Yeah, here’s a thing that people would love to see!”
I played the trailer, and all the milk in my house is curdled. I didn’t have milk in my house before this. The mirrors all now issue a haunting whisper. This is the kind of thing you don’t see until it’s too late. It’s the kind of thing that’s right behind you.
And here’s the thing, as you can see above, from far away, that doesn’t look bad. The character design is actually pretty cool. It’s only when you get close up – and really not even until the whole model starts moving that you really get a sense of that uncanny valley.
There’s something real unsettling about how this poor gnome’s head seems to remain perfectly in place and to float, untethered from the rest of its body the way old bad CGI animations used to feel – we’ve come so far since anything felt this way. And maybe that’s what makes it so… uncanny.
And, look, I know making anything creative is hard. Deadlines. Executive meddling. There’s a lot that can get in the way of something being good. But the visual disjointedness of this small little fraction of a small little slice of the trailer was so unsettling it’s all I can think about.
The rest of the details were lost on me; that’s how visceral a reaction it is. Maybe your mileage varies, but I’m going to bet you saw that gnome head disconnect thing and also were jolted out of being along for the epic fantasy ride.
And I say all of this as someone who likes D&D and who thinks that this could be kind of cool. The rest of the trailer has some fun set up stuff. There’s a big fight on a bridge. A lich riding a bat – which is extremely cool.
There’s even a lovingly rendered gold dragon. And a goliath. And a shadowy undead thing looking into a crystal ball. All the D&D bells and whistles you would want out of a D&D show. With cool animation – except for one very specific part.
It’s hard not to focus on it, though, because of how jarring that tiny slice of a tiny slice is. But, hopefully, the rest of the show bears out! The Warhammer 40K section looks decent.
Also what is up with the name? Secret Level sounds way too much like Secret Lair which is also a WotC thing.
