The Legend of Vox Machina is a love letter to fantasy. It began life as Critical Role, a web series where several voice actors unite for an extended Dungeons & Dragons campaign. This proved so popular that it eventually spawned an animated show on Amazon Prime. Now, fans can get their fantasy fix with the characters they've followed online. That's not the only avenue for such thrills, though.
Prime Video houses a few other fantasy shows. Many of these have aspects similar to Vox Machina, demonstrating reverence for the genre while occasionally poking fun. By checking them out, devotees can enjoy the same fantastical escapism.
7 Carnival Row
One trick to selling a fantasy setting is making it feel lived-in, and Carnival Row has that down. The grungy Victorian aesthetic paints a more aged land than the genre's usual medieval look. To complement this, the various mythical species are all well-established parts of society, with shorthand nicknames for each one. However, it's here that the series drifts into slur territory.
Carnival Row deals heavily with racial strife. Humans look down on fairies, satyrs, and other species, making it difficult for either side to trust the other. The trope is common in fantasy stories, so it should be familiar to anyone watching Vox Machina. Despite their clichéd nature, though, the themes are potent here. That's largely down to the two interspecies romances at the center, both having ample weight and lending personal stakes to the greater conflict.
6 Upstart Crow
Talk about a bizarre idea. This is a Blackadder-style sitcom about the daily tribulations of William Shakespeare. It uses a farcical recreation of 16th-century England to poke fun at many societal conventions of the time. More importantly, it takes the fantastical, convoluted plot points from the playwright's tales and plops them into his daily life. This inspires their creation while opening them up for a plethora of lighthearted digs. Such treatment might seem disrespectful.
Like Vox Machina, though, it comes from a place of love. Upstart Crow still appreciates its eponymous dramatist's contributions to literature and theater. It simply lampoons how he arrives at his ideas. It often comes from casual interactions, as much of the dialogue preserves his style. Shakespeare and other academics often convey their thoughts with sophisticated, long-winded prose. This earns the admiration of some and the chagrin of others. These moments make for a loving tribute, albeit an absurdist one.
5 The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power
If viewers are looking for fantasy, how about the setting that sired countless works in that genre? The Rings of Power is a sweeping adventure about combatting evils both seen and unseen in The Lord of the Rings. It boasts enough exotic settings and monster battles to satisfy any D&D devotee.
In delivering those spectacles, the show takes several liberties with J.R.R. Tolkien's material. What's worse is that few of those changes are for the better. That said, the strength of the source speaks for itself, as the series takes a deep dive into Middle-earth history. The world still captures the imagination, and it's sure to rekindle viewers' love of the genre gem.
4 Good Omens
This show comes from the demented mind of Neil Gaiman. That means it approaches biblical, catastrophic concepts with a self-assured wit, exemplified by an angel and demon acting as dysfunctional parents to the Antichrist. They casually converse about the end of the world and the plights of lowly humans, and these exchanges are morbidly punctuated by screwball comedy.
The same gallows humor permeates Vox Machina and, by extension, D&D. Players sometimes discuss epic campaigns like just another day at the office. They'd feel differently if they were in the fictional world, but they're not. They're simply overseers: deciding their fate from a distance. In essence, they're the angels and demons of the game.
3 Britannia
On the surface, Britannia appears to be a standard historical drama, yet it's anything but. It spices up the Roman invasion of Britain with mysticism, necromancy, and prophecies. Fantasy aficionados should be familiar with these conventions and should embrace them here. Granted, these tropes are far more psychedelic than usual, but that's not the strangest part.
Britannia also contains anachronistic dialogue and contemporary music straight out of an offbeat comedy. In the face of otherworldly ideas and cryptic speeches, the characters deliver the same punchlines and rebuttals that audiences might have. In that way, it mirrors a D&D campaign and, by extension, Vox Machina, which both approach medieval fantasy scenarios with modern sensibilities. The resulting self-awareness can be hilarious, as it usually is in Britannia.
2 Jackie Chan Adventures
Instead of battling earthly foes, the kung fu star now collects magical artifacts and creatures inspired by Chinese folklore. These threats usually call for spellcasting and similarly ancient methods to vanquish them. Mages operate on the same principle in Vox Machina and other fictional settings, slinging elemental attacks in an equally flashy way. That's not the only way to combat demons, though.
The show also incorporates Jackie Chan's physical humor from his films. It comes with countless kung fu fights peppered with slapstick and clownish mishaps. Vox Machina also dabbles in these goofball gags. They're much bloodier than Jackie Chan Adventures, but the style still stands. Viewers can likewise enjoy the lighthearted action from a fellow animated series.
1 Ash Vs. Evil Dead
As the name suggests, this is a sequel to Evil Dead, a movie franchise about a chainsaw-slinging hero battling an army of demons. This means it has copious amounts of blood, guts, and body horror. Although that horror is essential to Ash vs. Evil Dead, it also emphasizes humor. The show puts many of these messy aspects toward comic effect.
Vox Machina is reminiscent of that. It certainly has moments of outrageous gore, particularly during fight scenes, but these rarely result in straight horror. Instead, they serve to strengthen the setting's dark humor. Evil Dead specializes in such twisted gags, so Vox Machina fans should feel right at home with Ash.