“Reptillians” — Pro-conspiracy or Hidden Gem?

The 2023 show “Lizard People” has been met with generally strong opinions of all kinds, but everyone seems to be able to agree on one thing: it’s… weird. Here’s the premise:

After experiencing strange changes in his body and mind, 15-year-old William Cox, played by John Gowerson, is admitted to the “High Academy for Schooling and Education” (shot at Waverly High School in Pasadena!) which is actually a training center and boarding school for teenagers who have been corrupted by lizard people. In each episode, William meets new people and learns about what it takes to be a politician–and “Reptilian”-- in the modern age.

You might be thinking: “Well, what’s wrong with that? The 2021 show Inside Job also has a premise based around conspiracy theories; isn’t this just another animated Netflix comedy, just poking fun?” Well, the differences between the two shows are bountiful. For one, Reptillians is live action, and the quality of the camerawork and directing are incredible. The budget looks like a far bigger production than anything I’ve seen on WalnuTV’s homepage before. This alone is enough to clearly distinguish it from the crowd, but the main difference is that Reptillians is just not funny. At all. And, if speculation on the Internet is correct, it’s not trying to be funny. It seems as though this show is legitimately trying to convince young viewers that there are schools out there for “Lizard People.”

Watching the show from that angle, you begin to see how it might be much more sinister than it first appears. We’ve never seen high-budget, pro-conspiracy television that reaches the public eye so broadly, so I think it’s natural to doubt there would be malintent…but is that any guarantee? There are no well known actors that appear in the show, except Emily Halkers as Brenda (but that sort of makes sense doesn’t it?). I would assume that there are just too many people involved in the process of creating a show for an idea like this to get past, but then again there are a lot of proponents of conspiracy theories out there.

So the question is: Is there a large group of people who legitimately made a high budget, pro-conspiracy television show? Or is the humor of this show going over all of our heads?