The Gaslight District

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This article is about the Australian TV series. For other uses, see Gaslight district.

The Gaslight District
Genre	Adult animation Post-apocalyptic Action comedy Crime drama Supernatural Crime comedy Gothic
Created by	Nick Szopko
Written by	Nick Szopko
Directed by	Nick Szopko
Voices of	Allanah Fitzgerald Jason Marnocha Gianni Matragrano John Whinfield
Composer(s)	Oliver Buckland
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	1
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kevin Lerdwichagul Luke Lerdwichagul
Producer(s)	Tom Dolan
Editor(s)	David Fonti Abhignya Cavale
Running time	26 minutes
Production company(s)	Glitch Productions
Release
Original network	YouTube
Original release	18 April 2025 (2025-04-18) – present
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Search The Gaslight District on Amazon.

The Gaslight District is an Australian adult independent-animated web series created, written, and directed by Canadian animator Nick Szopko and produced by Glitch Productions. The series centres around a family of undead gangsters living in a post-apocalyptic world following the genocide of humans.

The pilot premiered on Glitch's YouTube channel on 18 April 2025, and received critical acclaim.

Premise

The Smiling Dead, a family of undead gangsters, try to find their place and fight for control in a post-apocalyptic world, while Mel tries to fight the prophecy that she will destroy the world, with humans (identified with black blood) twisted into immortal forms, while other characters have purple blood.

Cast and characters

Main

• Allanah Fitzgerald as Melancholy "Mel" Hill, the Smiling Dead's mafia princess and sole human member, who is prophesied to bring destruction to the Gaslight District. She is passionate about joining the gang's activities at the risk of exposing her identity, which leads to disagreements with Ken
• Jason Marnocha as Ken the Butcher, the homicidal leader of the Smiling Dead, proprietor of the Whale Belly Butcher Shop, and Mel's adoptive father, who conceals her human identity from the other Rotlings and shelters her from danger
• John Whinfield as Mud, Ken's greedy and opportunistic brother, and Mel's adoptive uncle
• Gianni Matragrano as Breadhead, Ken's loyal but dimwitted son and Mel's adoptive brother, who serves as the strongman of the Smiling Dead. He is a "yeast golem" whose head resembles a loaf of sliced bread

Supporting

• Taher Chy as the narrator
• John Whinfield as Jack the Rat, a Rotling who previously worked as a dishwasher at the Whale Belly Butcher Shop, but was cemented underwater after finding out Mel is a human
• Margaret Ashley as the Angel Mother, the mother of the bird-like angels and the overseer of the Human Egg Prophecy
• Michael Kovach as Diligence, the cold and merciless leader of the Virtue Corps
• Belsheber Rusape Jr. as Temperance, a Virtue Corps doctor who delivered Mel from her egg

Production

Series creator and showrunner Nick Szopko released a teaser of the pilot to his YouTube channel "PartTimeSeagull" on 29 November 2022. The trademark for the series was registered in July 2023.

On 9 November 2023, Szopko, along with Glitch Productions founders Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul, announced on Glitch's live streaming event "GLITCHX" that the series was picked up after Szopko developed the show solely for a year back in 2022, in which they released a new teaser.

The first official trailer was released on 21 March 2025, and the pilot premiered on 18 April. The trailer features music composed by The Amazing Digital Circus creator Gooseworx, while the soundtrack for the series was composed by Oliver Buckland. The pilot was released on 18 April on Glitch Productions YouTube channel.

Episodes

No.	Title	Storyboarded by	Original air date
1	"Pilot"	Robin French, AD Taeza, Neda Lay, and Nick Szopko	18 April 2025 (2025-04-18)
Ten thousand years after a world-ending calamity, humans have been corrupted into undead creatures called Rotlings, whose immortality is threatened by a prophesied black-blooded human born from an angel-laid egg. This human, Melancholy "Mel" Hill, lives in Earth's Gaslight District as the adopted daughter of the Smiling Dead crime family. Their patriarch, Ken the Butcher, hides Mel's identity from the others and disposes of anyone who discovers it. To divert suspicion from herself, Mel devises a scheme to steal an ordinary angel egg from Heaven, disguise it as the human egg, and destroy it in public. Ken begrudgingly agrees, but during their heist at the checkpoint into Heaven, Paradise Lost, Ken leaves Mel to dispose of one of Heaven's Virtue Corps, the doctor Temperance, who delivered Mel. Feeling betrayed, Mel enters Heaven alone and takes the egg from the Angel Mother, who forewarns that a legion of angels will eradicate the Gaslight District and return Mel to Heaven. Following their escape, Mel prepares to destroy the egg in a public ritual, which is interrupted when the egg suddenly hatches, exposing their deception.

Reception

The series pilot was received positively. Holly Nguyen-Barba, Staff Writer for The Stargazer said that it has an "aura of psychological horror mixed with comedic moments," and said that the episode's main plot drew her in, and said she was amused at how the protagonists are "the classic group of insanely violent killers with no regard for their action" but are also "chaotically funny to watch." She said that pilot's animation is reminiscent of stop motion animation and reminded her of Gravity Falls and Tim Burton. David Kaldor of Bubbleblabber said that the pilot is a "grimdark horror fantasy" with a mix of post-apocalyptic and "faux-religious aesthetics," and the usual animation of Glitch. However, he said the show's start could better, saying the show's future depends on how much merch can be sold and if they get "outside funding," calling on people to support the show "if you want to get gaslighted more."

Isabelle Morales, a reviewer at the Art Department at Marywood University, called it "a super fun and dramatic adventure" and and "extraordinarily amazing," and said she liked it better than Hazbin Hotel or The Amazing Digital Circus, saying it didn't speak to her "interests or humor," adding that the pilot is well-crafted and suspense-filled. Tito James of Comicon.com described the episode as part of an "adult animation revolution," praising the art style, mixture of animation styles, saying it blends the "best aspects of Tex Avery and Aardman animation" to create a unique CG look, while adding that although it is "another edgy cartoon with pseudo-Biblical mythology," like Hazbin Hotel, it makes these concepts feel new and different for the show, and concluded by saying that the series has "instantly become" his new favorite.

References

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

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