[Locke]

Another absolute banger of an episode!

Sieg’s backstory was exactly the kind of leaning into this show’s various gimmicks that see this show at it’s absolute best for me. And I will eat up any unmorphed fight scene. I also thought the imagery of Zeztz infiltrating the dream world was really cool, as was Baku diving deeper and deeper into Sieg’s subconscious.

Then the actual Exdream debut, and how awesome that fight was. “Fade away, Sieg” and then the music swells dude???? Peak. Absolute cinema.

I know I have been heavily critical of other modern Rider shows going all CG overkill on us, and you could absolutely levy that criticism against Zeztz as well, but in a show where the strongest beings can literally manipulate the world around them, I’d rather they just lean into that and go crazy. If they have to use CG for that, then so be it.

I think the way Zeztz is using its CG “overkill” is certainly a lot more forgivable than a show that has two Riders flying around a carpark flinging CG bullshit at each other, that could absolutely be done practically if they were bothered.

A lot of more modern Rider shows feel like they put in fight scenes for the obligation of selling toys, which of course Zeztz is doing as well, but it is the first Rider show I’ve personally seen (as I have skipped plenty over the last decade) in a long long time, that feels like it also tells and advances its story through action as well.

I guess the real question moving forwards from here is whether the show can maintain this momentum in a world without Sieg in it, as he really was the supercharging turning point for me in this show personally, and even he couldn’t stop the show from feeling like it dragged and span its wheels a little in the middle of his arc.

I assume the final ramp up will be an all out battle with Code and whatever Code Somnia is. And they have absolutely bought my trust in seeing where exactly this all goes from here. But I won't ever forget the overwhelming blandness of how this show started, and won't just assume it'll be all rainbows just cause the show got significantly better over the last block of episodes. But I am hopeful the show remains like this, of course.