Couch Potato Chronicles: Glitch Productions
by Amy McVeigh
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Before we begin I’d like to apologize for the absence of my column in the previous issue. I would've loved to write something, but ended up forgetting to and because I had a lot going on my Mom decided it'd be better to not bring it up. I’ll try to remember to always put something out, but I’ll still occasionally forget to.
Now, onto the article.
Every Glitch Productions Pilot Ranked
Every Glitch Productions Pilot Ranked
As I’m writing this, a new pilot for the animated series Gameoverse has just dropped last night on the GLITCH YouTube channel. For those who don't know, Glitch Productions is an Australian independent production and distribution company founded by brothers Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul and is the main studio behind iconic animated series such as The Amazing Digital Circus and Murder Drones. Originally, the company was just meant as a place where Luke and Kevin could work on their own personal productions, but it has since become dedicated to lifting up-and-coming creators and allowing them to make animated series they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
Today, however, I’ll be looking at the pilot episode for each of their original productions and decide which ones most deserved to be greenlit and which ones failed to leave an impression. And to keep this as short as possible, I’ve chosen not to include any plot summaries that go on for longer than a sentence, but I'll make sure to include links to all of the pilots I'll be discussing in this article.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions
Before we get started, I’d like to quickly go over a few outliers I’ve decided not to include in the official ranking.
A little known fact about Glitch Productions is that their co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Luke Lerdwichagul is also known as the content creator SMG4, and started his career making low-quality machinimas within Super Mario 64 that would improve over time as his skills got better. The first of which being the iconic short, The Cake is a Lie where Toad reveals to Mario that Peach lied about baking a cake for him, and so Mario wants revenge. While it's crazy to think that what is likely the most famous independent animation studio of today started out from something so simple. But otherwise, there's not much to talk about. SMG4 does have a spin-off that we’ll be talking about later, once we get into the actual ranking, but until then, let's move on to the next honorable mention.
Now for what is easily the most obscure series Glitch has produced, a live-action comedy all about your favourite gaming franchises, and it started with Mario and the Spaghetti Ninjas, a thirteen minute skit about Mario and Luigi fighting ninjas who are trying to steal their spaghetti. I think it's pretty clear why this one is forgotten about by even some of the most hardcore Glitch fans.
Now for a show I genuinely considered putting in the official ranking. Meta Runner is what many would agree is the first true Glitch Productions series, as the rest
either predated the company's founding, or were Hitbox. Meta Runner is easily one of my favourite shows Glitch has ever produced, and it's a shame it seems to have been forgotten by the company and only a small portion of Glitch's fanbase even knows it exists, and even fewer have actually sat down to watch the full series. It pains me to feel the need to exclude it from the official ranking for one fatal reason: its first episode isn't really a full pilot for the series. The first episode, “Wrong Warp” spends most of its time on exposition and worldbuilding, and only introduces a handful of the major characters of the series and few feel all that fleshed out. Don't get me wrong, the worldbuilding and exposition is all great, but I just can't help but feel that if I included it in the ranking it would be severely handicapped by its limited scope. However, Glitch would later release a pilot for a spin-off series that I will be including in the official ranking, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Lackadaisy is a special case in terms of its relationship with Glitch, being the only series with the Glitch label to be produced entirely by a third party. Instead, Glitch is just the company responsible for the distribution and merchandise of the series, and even then that's only been going on as recently as October of 2025. Meaning, Glitch had no involvement with the pilot of Lackadaisy. So, because of that I see no reason to include it in the ranking. As for my thoughts on the pilot itself? Admittedly I haven't watched it in forever and don't remember anything about it, so that's another reason I won't be including it in the ranking. And, with that, I've covered everything I won't be covering, so now we can get started.
7th – Ultra Jump Mania
Remember earlier how I mentioned that Meta Runner had a spin-off I’d include in the ranking? This is it. Ultra Jump Mania takes place inside a cartridge of the titular fictional video game and centers around a different version of the character Theo. The pilot serves as a parody of N64/PS1-era 3D platformers, where instead of progressing through the game normally, Theo manages to do everything in the laziest way possible, opting not to solve puzzles, and getting the tutorial character to defeat the boss for him. Funny concept on paper, but they don't do
anything that interesting with it and so it didn't really leave anyone wanting more, which lead to this being the only pilot in Glitch's entire history to not get greenlit for a full series (excluding Gameoverse which literally just had its pilot released the day before I wrote this so it hasn't had a chance to be greenlit yet, luckily I have faith that it will). You really can't get much worse than a pilot that failed to really reach any sort of audience that wanted more out of the concept, and I personally don't feel like we missed out on anything.
And now we're already at the other spin-off series, this one being the SMG4 spin-off mentioned earlier. Spin-offs clearly aren't this company's strong suit. And though this one did end up receiving a full series, that's only because it was pre-greenlit. Does this mean it technically isn't a pilot at all? Probably. But, it's still labeled as one, and feels like one, so that's enough for me. It's a charming enough introduction to what is probably my least favorite show from Glitch (second only to Hitbox), but that's all I can really say. It's not bad, but it's not anything special either.
5th – Knights of Guinevere
From some of the same people behind the hit Disney Channel series The Owl House, Knights of Guinevere was a shock when it was revealed for sure and I found myself getting really excited to see what the pilot had to offer. I liked the pilot; I think it did a good job with all the exposition, worldbuilding, and character introductions. I also can't help but feel that the pilot feels a bit crowded. It almost feels like it should've been two episodes instead of one. Really I think it's main problem is just that it feels like too much of a good thing. With all that being said, I’m genuinely interested in seeing where Dana, Zach, John, and the rest of their team take the rest of the series.
4th – Murder Drones
Murder Drones is easily one of Glitch's most iconic shows, albeit one of the hardest to follow along with. Luckily the pilot doesn't have that problem. This pilot does a great job of setting the stakes, as well as, hooking you with its worldbuilding and charming characters. Its biggest issue for me is definitely that the way it ends is a little misleading as to what direction the full series would go in. But, otherwise, I have no complaints.
Here we go, the big one. TADC is easily the most popular show Glitch has ever made, and it's easy to see why when you watch the pilot. It’s such a good introduction to the story and characters and the conflicts they'll have to face, on top of also having lots of great comedy. It's no surprise that this was the pilot that helped Glitch get their name out there.
2nd – Gameoverse
For this ranking, I’ve decided to put my favorite pilot in second and choose the pilot I think might just be better from an objective standpoint in first place. I'm talking about the most recent pilot to come out of the studio's catalog. Maybe it's just a bit of recency bias talking, but I loved everything about the Gameoverse pilot. The worldbuilding here is absolutely tragic and I love the way it flips the concept of Heroes vs. Villains on its head. This show feels like it was made for me specifically and I really do hope it gets greenlit (which I’m sure it will given Glitch's track record, so I'm not entirely worried about that).
Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of Gaslight’s pilot when it first released. Something about it just really didn't fit the vibe I associated with Glitch, but then when I rewatched the pilot last night, it finally clicked for me. Gaslight is definitely a lot different than what Glitch normally makes. That just makes it all the more interesting. I’m a huge fan of the dark and gritty vibes of this pilot that are rarely found in other Glitch shows, and it did a good job of getting me invested in the characters and worldbuilding, which Glitch never seems to fail at. All that said, I really do think this is the best pilot to any of Glitch's shows and I can't wait to see the direction the rest of the series takes.
Conclusion
Conclusion
And with that, I've ranked every single pilot Glitch Productions has put out. I’m sorry I couldn't go into much detail and that a lot of my positive comments felt repetitive, but I think that's just a testament to how consistent Glitch is when it comes to delivering on certain aspects.
I hope you at least somewhat enjoyed hearing my thoughts but on that note, this is Amy McVeigh signing off for now.
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