The world of Exandria has come back to the small screen for anybody with an Amazon Prime Video subscription, but not in the form of the fourth season of The Legend of Vox Machina. The Mighty Nein premiered in the 2025 TV schedule as the second animated series from Critical Role, the company behind the original Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that inspired the series and was founded by the main cast members. They made it clear ahead of the premiere that The Mighty Nein wasn’t going to be Vox Machina 2.0, and I wasn’t sure how much I would like it.
After all, I’m a loyal fan of The Legend of Vox Machina, and I’m not overly familiar with Critical Role’s second campaign beyond my research to review Tusk Love, the spicy Exandrian romance novel. Still, I checked out the first three episodes of Mighty Nein, and I surprised myself with some takeaways about what I wish could be applied to Vox Machina. And don’t worry – I’ll stay out of any big spoilers in case you haven’t watched either series just yet.
Why I Wasn’t Sure About The Mighty Nein
I can admit that going in with doubts was a little unfair of me, since I also went into The Legend of Vox Machina with doubts. In fact, I technically only checked it out for the first time because I needed to take a break from my usual gloomy crime procedurals. (Fun fact: there is in fact a limit to how much Law & Order: SVU you can watch before needing a break.) The characters admittedly won me over sooner than the plot did, but I’m definitely glad I chose it as my non-procedural binge-watch that day.
But I enjoy fantasy tropes, I love what’s possible with animation that wouldn’t work in live action, and I got a kick out of recognizing the choices of actors like David Tennant, Stephanie Beatriz, and Khary Payton right off the bat. So, knowing that The Mighty Nein would be set in the world of Exandria that I enjoyed in Vox Machina (and seeing that there would be familiar voices like Ming-Na Wen, Alan Cumming, and Tim McGraw as well as the returning cast members), I had to tune in and at least give it a shot.
To my surprise, there were a couple of elements of The Mighty Nein that I actually prefer to The Legend of Vox Machina, and I’m curious to see how it’ll feel to go back to Vox Machina’s format for Season 4 in the 2026 TV schedule.
Longer Runtimes For The Mighty Nein
A major difference between the two shows was apparent on the Prime Video page before I even started streaming the premiere: viewers were going to be getting a lot more action per episode with The Mighty Nein. The first three episodes of The Mighty Nein run between 46-49 minutes, and the fourth is listed at 47 minutes. In contrast, the longest episode of The Legend of Vox Machina runs for 30 minutes and the shortest runs for just 24 minutes.
While that did mean a lot of lore to start The Mighty Nein for somebody with limited knowledge of the tabletop campaign, the longer run time did remind me that I’ve often felt that episodes of Vox Machina could use some more time to flesh out stories and relationships.
That’s not to say that the previous show hasn’t mastered the art of a cliffhanger after 20 minutes, and The Mighty Nein’s first season will run for just eight episodes compared to Vox Machina’s twelve per season. Still, episodes that run for as long as a network TV drama vs. as long as a network TV sitcom have me more invested in The Mighty Nein than expected, and I wish that a longer runtime was something TLOVM could adopt.
Only One Episode Per Week
Despite Prime Video releasing the first three episodes in one fell swoop, the rest of the eight-episode first season will release weekly. I’ve increasingly wished over the years that streamers would move away from the binge model, and one episode of 40+ minutes per week means plenty of time to mull it over.
We may be mostly past the days of water cooler conversation the day after new episodes of a TV show drop, but that doesn’t always have to be the case for every series. Doing some post-episode discussion might have been the only redeeming thing about the last few weeks of Game of Thrones! Stranger Things releasing on Netflix in three parts (not to mention in my own time zone for once) was a nice surprise for me, even if all of the holiday premieres will probably mean Demogorgons on Thanksgiving, Vecna on Christmas, and the end of an era on New Year’s Eve.
Admittedly, a weekly release might be tougher with the shorter episodes of Vox Machina, and I may be in the minority about missing the days before binge-watching, but I can think of a handful of episodes that would have been fun to discuss if three didn’t release at once for TLOVM.
How To Watch The Mighty Nein And The Legend Of Vox Machina
If you want to watch the latest episodes of The Mighty Nein and avoid any chance of spoilers, check out Prime Video on Wednesdays. You can also find all three seasons of The Legend of Vox Machina on the streamer. While there have already been a few nods to Vox Machina in The Mighty Nein that are as dandy as a de Rolo, I’m guessing that the new show won’t spoil the events of Season 4, and Vox Machina is set a couple decades before the events of Mighty Nein.
I’ll definitely keep watching Mighty Nein, and will recommend checking out The Legend of Vox Machina if you haven’t already. The original series is valid for a lot more than just cheering a person up after some gloomy episodes of Law & Order: SVU, and I’m excited for Season 4 even if there’s no shot of 40-minute episodes and weekly releases. No premiere date has yet been announced at the time of writing, but my fingers are crossed for closer to January than to December 2026.