Mentopolis, the final proper season of Dimension 20, is a heady (pun intended) noir full of tropes. The show’s 19th season invites us to explore an entire city housed in the mind of one man, Dr. Elias Hodge, a lonely pharmaceutical researcher who realizes the work he is doing is unethical. Long doubting the morality of his investigation, Hodge follows his conscience and impulsively steals an important file. The consequences of this act of rebellion set off a violent chain reaction from those in power, including in his own mind.
While Dimension 20 is known for its very genre-focused storytelling, Mentopolis takes this to a new level. This season combines the Art Deco aesthetic of Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian sci-fi film Metropolis with the device to characterize Pixar cognitive processes Inside out. Instead of Dungeons & Dragons, the game is played with a modified version of the rulebook light Children on bicycles system from Hunters Entertainment.
Image: Size 20/dropout
Hodge’s act of moral impulsiveness is initiated by wealthy heiress Imelda Pulse (Siobhan Thompson). She hires private investigator Hunch Curio (Mike Trapp) to track newscaster Conrad Schintz (Alex Song-Xia), who handed her a newspaper outside the speakeasy Sugah’s, run by Dan Fucks (Freddie Wong). Meanwhile, a bigger conspiracy is in the works. The town’s mayor has hired The Fix (Hank Green) to “eliminate” Conrad’s subliminal moral messages as a distraction, and reporter A. Tension (Danielle Radford) investigates the cover-up of a mysterious murder in the company’s Cerebell Pacific. that drives the city. The resulting story is a gripping metaphor that explores the ways systems of power force us to sacrifice our morals, happiness, and community to be better, more productive employees.
“I don’t exactly put the B subtly when it comes to my job and my own political affiliations,” game master Brennan Lee Mulligan said in a recent interview with Polygon.
In bringing these two seemingly divergent genres together, Mulligan explained that “on the personal psychological level and on the broader political-economic level, there is the idea of unexamined systems. There is a lot going on in a person’s mind beyond what he or she consciously chooses to think about or focus on. The social issues of Mentopolis are themselves the deeply personal and individual issues of Elias Hodge.”
And, most importantly, Hodge’s individual problems (loneliness, low self-esteem, worker exploitation) are also our societal problems. While many of these conflicts are systemic and can only be resolved through community, Mentopolis shows that many unconscious factors play a role in combating it.
“What does it take to get to that point where an individual chooses to organize? What does it mean to go against a system?” Mulligan said. “It’s not a neutral choice if gravity is already pushing you through the system’s channels (which are pre-selected for you.”)
Mentopolis shows that individual action can cause a collective domino effect. We see this most directly in Green’s character’s refusal to comply with the mayor’s immoral request, but also indirectly through subtle persistent acts of moral defiance on the part of Conrad. Although Conrad is the one trying to get people to notice the immorality of Hodge’s work, Mulligan said, “It was important to me that it’s not Conscience that makes the decision to seize the file, but Impulse. It’s the idea that: What has more power in the mind of Elias Hodge?? Conscience is a frightened little child. But (Impulse is) this wealthy heiress who comes from an important family; she has the key.’
Framing Mentopolis Also forces viewers to consider how we relate to these different internal parts of our own minds, and who benefits from our self-repression of those voices.
“There is a Puritan idea that impulses have a negative connotation and that virtue is always conscious and deliberate. I think that’s wrong and confusing. We have many beautiful, moral impulses. Impulse is an important part of the process of reminding you that things you’ve accepted are wrong. Once in a while it’s good to have that moment when your conscience, your moral self and your sense of impulse disappear, I must act. It will feel irrational. The system designed to keep me by the rules benefits from moral actions feeling irrational, but I have to do something.”
While we’ve only just got the party started at the end of the second episode (which airs Aug. 16), Mulligan says viewers should expect more of these good hits as the season progresses.
“There are choices made by the players in the last few episodes of this story that are so beautiful and meaningful,” he said. “The player’s contributions to this are why we make table games and why we collaborate on storytelling.”
The first episode of Mentopolis premiered on August 9 and is available at YouTube. The last episodes of the season can be viewed exclusively on Dropout.tv.