This past weekend I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw that one of the content creators I follow, Slimesicle, had posted a picture of a whole bunch of streamers in costumes with the caption saying something about a thing called “Generation Lost”. This of course piqued my interest and I found myself being sucked deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

Now if you are like the majority of people and don’t know what Generation Lost is, let me sum it up. As of writing this, it is a series of 3 live streams that was streamed on Twitch by content creator, Ranboo. It follows a singular story with Ranboo as the protagonist and other streamers playing various other side characters, with each stream representing a different era of horror. I will get more in depth about the story and my thoughts surrounding it later on. 

One very unique thing about these streams is that the audience could vote on decisions that Ranboo would make. Choices such as what ingredients he uses to try and please the Slime Demon, or who will be left behind to die, were all decided by the audience.

History

It started as a semi-serious ARG (Alternate-Reality-Game) that was created by the streamer known as Ranboo, featuring an analog horror style. However, when Ranboo was offered to create a “choose your own adventure” style live stream, he took the opportunity to turn his passion project into a fully fledged series. 

According to Ranboo, originally the stream was planned to only contain a story similar to that of the first episode, with Ranboo in a cabin being tormented by a ghost, which the Twitch Chat would control. Though after talking about it to one of his colleagues, they asked if it would be a part of his ARG series, which then gave him the idea to expand the project to what it would later become. In a stream a few days after Generation Loss aired Ranboo recalled this and said “so, I went back and I wrote the Final scene.”

Ranboo adapted his original cabin idea so that instead of being haunted by a ghost, he would be tormented by a demon in a sitcom style set. Then alongside fellow streamer, Jerma, he wrote the second episode  which Ranboo describes as “a Saw movie with streamers”. To cap it off he connected the dots and wrote the dramatic finale with the gut wrenching final scene.

Finally after months of writing, scouting (They had found an abandoned mall which they would use as a place to film almost the entire series), and casting, they were all ready to stream the first episode on May 24th, the second on the 26th and the finale on the 28th.

The Story

“The main inspiration for sort of like the overall concept for it was Cabin In The Woods, it was the idea of this completely controlled horror show, that has like this underground facility… another one was The Truman Show… another one was Saw” Ranboo said in a stream a few days following the airing of the episodes.

The rest of the article will contain *minor spoilers* for the series. If you would like to experience this story yourself I do not recommend watching the full four hour collection of VODs, and instead watch what is called The Founder’s Cut which is a fully edited and produced version of the stream with new camera angles, new lines, and many of the awkward pauses and irrelevant improv cut out. Ranboo claims it should be released on his Youtube channel within a few weeks of writing this. 

In the first episode Ranboo wakes up with a strange metallic mask in the living room of a cabin. The set is reminiscent of a horror sit-com with a locked-off camera for each room of the cabin and with all the rooms horizontal to each other. This episode has the most video game references of the three, with several portions where the chat will decide where Ranboo will search, or what he’ll grab, etc. The first episode is also the most comedic and lighthearted with Slimecicle playing the Beetlejuice-like Slime Demon intent on tormenting Ranboo.

A little side note for the first episode. Partway through a wire on Ranboo’s back broke and proceeded to electrocute him for the rest of the hour and a half long stream. Many are praising him for being able to stay in character while getting second degree burns on his back, and that is commendable. However many of his fellow streamers, specifically Slimecicle, have said that Ranboo should’ve safeworded the moment it 

broke, as they say it happened during a brief intermission in the story. I just thought that was a little tidbit that I found interesting. 

The second episode is a prolonged Saw reference featuring many Twitch streamers. The camera is no longer locked off with multiple camera-people walking around in the 3 dimensional set. The diegetic explanation for the cameras is that the Puzzler (the character based upon Jigsaw) likes to record his games. This episode, while funny at times, is the longest and definitely the slowest of the 3.

The final episode is the shortest, yet definitely most impactful. After escaping the sets with the help of a strange hacker called Hetch, he explores the Showfall Media studio in the hopes of taking it down. This is by far the best episode of the 3, the horror, the use of the ginormous abandoned mall for the studio, the acting, everything is phenomenal.

Conclusion

However strange this series will be it is definitely one of the most unique things I’ve ever seen. While the acting and pacing may be inconsistent, the good jokes hit hard and the good moments hit harder. There are talks of a possible season 2, to see the future of Showfall Media, and I’m all here for it.