Alex’s best adaptation of 2024: Arcane – Arcane (Netflix)

While I can understand the argument that Fallout is a better adaptation of video games because it tries to take what gamers can experience in video games and bring that to a new medium, that might convince The Game Awards, but it doesn’t convince me. In my opinion, despite Arcane having nothing to do with League of Legends except the characters and lore, it makes a better show a better representation of video games as a whole.

Yes, if you try to get a friend to go to Arcane, you have to tell them it’s nothing like League of Legends, but do you really sell someone on Fallout by saying it’s just like the games? One of the reasons I found HBO’s The Last of Us rather boring was that it simply retold a story we had already seen before, in addition to the excellent Bill and Frank episode. To really make something great, you can’t just retell with an adaptation; you have to, well, adapt. That’s what makes Fallout and Arcane so great, because they take what exists and form something new with it firmly in mind.

Before getting into Arcane season 2, I re-watched season 1, and it sits up there with some of the best TV I’ve seen. Brilliantly paced, well written, effective at balancing a large cast and giving everyone enough time to shine. Season 2 doesn’t always hit the same points, especially with the finale, but the same greatness exists for the vast majority of it.

What always shines the most in Arcane is the animators’ attention to detail. The love they have for these characters is more than even the most dedicated stan, as controversial as that may sound to some. Whoever thought Jinx’s tear stains would be a reverse “Vi,” or the dance scene between Ekko and Powder would be animated at four frames per second – the same amount of time Ekko can rewind time – deserves a pay raise. It’s those little things, those things you think you’re the only one seeing that make you feel so individually attached to a series, only to discover that there’s an entire fan base that appreciates it even more than you do. That’s what solidifies a series to go from one of the best of the year to one of the best in a decade.

Do I think Arcane could have ended better? Yes. If everything had gone perfectly, I think it could have easily been a top-five all-timer for many people, but I think that would have required a third season, something the writers didn’t think they needed. But looking at the animation quality of both seasons, it’s hard to imagine how much money it would have taken to pay for a third. Separating the Piltover vs. Zaun conflict from the Arcane storyline would have done a world of good, instead of separating them into separate parts of the season, never really feeling like either major plot was fully resolved.

On the other hand, I’ve watched a lot of bad TV this year, bad movies (thanks, Netflix) and even better shows, but nothing hit me as hard as Arcane when that credits rolled. It asks you to do more than watch, but enjoy the show as a whole, listen to the soundtrack long after you’re done with the episodes, read interviews to see what happens next, what the plan is for the next League of Legends., it may even make you want to play League of Legends, before the post-Arcane clarity hits and you realize you don’t want to waste 1,000 hours playing a game you know you hate from the first minute. What an accomplishment Arcane is. That it can make such a hellish game seem so inviting.