Uh, I saw it. The experience was just as uncomfortable and dread-inducing as it's always been.
I really hate standing in place for 45 minutes, slowly pushing through a sweaty crowd of hundreds for multiple minutes to finally sit on an uncomfortable ampitheatre bench inches away from everyone else in this humid, overly moist September air, listening to blaringly loud music I'm not that into. It might just be under-diagnosed sensory issues on my part, but queuing for this show is my personal nightmare.
The show's fine. It's the same as all the rest. Fire tricks, aerial stunts, sexy dancing. Less magic than ever. Loud trailer-core remixes of 2000s-era pop tunes. It was cool seeing the Nightmare Queen performer back in a different role, she's really talented.
I can never really tell if these show's have a plot. It's so jumbled within the same spectacle moments they've been doing for years, and the same performers will have like 5 different costume changes. I don't really care to learn who's who in the cast to figure out if identical circus guy #1 is the main character, or if that's #2 actually, and they just have the same costume for this dance. I just kinda tune it out. The big finale moment this year was kinda funny though. The really strange, overly bulky-looking saw machine only made me think of the
Squidward Killing Machine.
They did the Black Parade remix intro this year, again, but the OPs people and Tech crew weren't dancing. I get it, they aren't getting paid for that. But that's also kinda the only thing that sold that overly long cheesefest of an intro. That genuine excitement and hype that the Ops crews had for the show; it was infectious. The crowd was dead during the intro this year.
I am simply not the audience for HNF. Everything that the performers are doing is insanely impressive, they're all incredibly talented. I just don't really care, if I'm honest. I am very much not the kind of person to cheer when the preshow of my Universal Studios show says "sexy". I just don't really care. It just feels corny and kinda tasteless. Not even in a prudish way, I just think HNF is awkward. Like a nerd trying to emulate the cool edgy thing they saw on TV, and not really pulling it off.
I gave it a courtesy watch. I will leave Circus of Decay to it's fans. They seem to really like it, and that's totally cool. I'm happy for them. The contortionist was cool.