Playground

Playground

By Adam Wright

Would you do it all again, from the beginning?

Playground is an adult-animated series about two childhood best friends (Rocha and Eko) that, in the near future, fail to stop their nemesis (Dr Aplom) from creating time travel for his nefarious needs. As time begins to unravel, they chase Aplom through his portal and awaken in a very nostalgic and jarring situation.

Rather than a typical time-travel story, where the host is transferred directly as themselves, instead, they re-inhabit the bodies of themselves as five and six year olds in the early 90's. They suffer the culture shock of living in pre-internet, pre-cell phone society, and have to come to grips with the idea that their mid to late 30's minds and now housed in the bodies of small children.

The first episode has the characters being thrown into their new status quo, as they return to primary school and have to live a delicate balance of maintaining their composure, and re-integrating with their peers, of whom they have nothing in common with. Their is a fun dynamic with the idea that they cannot comfortably communicate with Teachers who have an expectation of how children act, and there is the sweet reconnection with family members, of whom in their timeline, have passed away.

It is certainly a dark comedy with foul language, but it works in such a natural setting, due to its fish out of water concept, and the idea these seasoned veterans now have to deal with the enforced hierarchy of children to adults.