[Review] The Guild: Season 3 DVD

Felicia Day’s award-winning webseries, The Guild returns for a third season. The series tells the story of a local guild and their adventures both in and outside of the game. Following the troubling conclusion of season 2, tempers flare and a rival guild shows up. Things escalate when the rival guild starts terrorizing the Knights of Good in-game and out. Will the Knights of Good survive the trials and tribulations, or will anarchy reign supreme?

While I first heard of The Guild at SXSW 2008, I didn’t start watching it until after I saw Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which made me a fan of Felicia Day. I had been playing World of Warcraft for a while, so the subject matter was something I could relate to. However, the show is written so well that I became a fan almost immediately, not because I also play an MMO, but because it’s a good series. As Peter’s previously said, “watching a season all together is a lot more like watching a movie than a web series.”

Each episode in the series runs anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes in duration, the ending of each making you yearn for the next episode. Luckily you don’t have to wait a week for each episode, as all 12 episodes of season 3 are contained on the DVD. Each season of The Guild is filled with drama, humor and a plot twist here and there, much like any other series, on-air or online.

Season 3 marks the appearance of several new faces to The Guild, including Wil Wheaton as the leader of the rival Axis of Anarchy. This was my first time seeing him in a role other than Wesley Crusher, and I have to say he pulled off the antagonist role very nicely. In fact, the entire Axis of Anarchy cast pulled off their roles great. My favorite would have to be Venom, played by Teal Sherer. Venom is wheelchair-bound and tired of the sympathy everyone gives her (and frankly, so am I), and has no problem exploiting her wheelchair when it suits her.

The DVD also contains several hilarious gag reels; the “(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar” music video and a behind-the-scenes short; interviews with the Axis of Anarchy, which are a good look at the characters and their actors; a featurette on how to make Vork’s sword; the Guild Halloween video, which I hadn’t seen until I watched the DVD; video applications of people who wanted to become a part of the Knights of Good; advice for people who want to make a web video; and a PDF file of the script.

You can watch The Guild episodes, as well as order merchandise at the series website: http://www.watchtheguild.com/. The Season 3 DVD is out now from New Video. You can order it from The Guild‘s website. Felicia also warns you that the DVD is uncensored.

New Video is a leading independent Blu-ray, DVD and digital distributor specializing in multiple genres, including cutting-edge documentaries, independent films, cult hits (such as Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), and classic kids programming. They also provide over 11,000 hours of film and television programming from more than 120 trusted brands to download and streaming platforms including iTunes, Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, Xbox, Sony Playstation and Amazon. They gave me this DVD for review, and I would like to thank them for doing so.