Media Thread: Wastelandia Pilot (2025)

Just watched a Pilot called "Wastelandia". It's a six-minute short about three roommates sharing their individual bad days. It's super fun and short, so I recommend giving it a watch.

For such a short little pilot, there is a lot to love here. All three characters are super fun in their own individual ways. One is a terminally-online Redditor, one is a college dropout who feels they peaked in Elementary School (same dawg), and one is an art student who wants to feign positivity and optimism despite the fact their roommates can see through the facade. Each of their days went poorly in unique ways, but all of which can be relatable to different audience members (or in my case, all three of them). The humor can be really hit-or-miss, but I found it endearing. The only joke that didn't hit was the "Art Critique" in Alice's segment. Just lingered a bit too long for my taste, but that's just me.

The art style is my favorite part. Semi-thick outlines, stylish use of colors, striking designs that perfectly illustrate a character's whole "Thing" at a glance; it's just such a treat to look at. And that's not even getting into how every movement has a lively bounce to it. For a short about a really down-to-earth cast of characters, the art and animation really feels "Alive" here. Only weird thing is that Moth and Zoe have what I can only describe as "John Egbert Eyes", if that makes sense? Their eyes are drawn square so it looks like they're both wearing glasses, but there's no connector piece so it could very well be a stylistic choice. That's not a gripe, just something that confused me personally.

The music was fun all around as well. While I can understand some people being put-off by the Intro and Outro music, I found it to fit the rough and almost DIY vibes of the thing. Outside of that, though, the soundscape was lots of fun. The sound effects (while kinda loud thanks to poor audio mixing) are really snappy and add a really good oomph to different scenes (Particularly around Moth's segments).

Overall, while I'm not sure how this would pan out if it became a full series (or even mini-series), as a stand-alone short I found this incredibly amusing. That and its short length means that it's easily rewatchable (heck, I even watched the thing three times while writing this).

Easy 9/10.