They Rot Your Brain. You Know It's True.

I mentioned a while ago how I'd been watching some animated shows on Netflix, mostly Western-style animations but also some anime, about which I know next to nothing. Xyzzysqrl gave me some great suggestions on how to improve on my ignorance and I did follow some of them up but the sheer effort of having to go to a different platform to watch was enough to make me drop off the back of that particular wagon pretty darn fast. I am lazy and easily dissuaded by anything that feels like work.

A couple of days ago I was having a mini-discussion with Tyler F.M. Edwards in the comments at Superior Realities over the merits of the Star Trek spin-off cartoon Lower Decks (I think it has some, Tyler disagrees.) and it occured to me that over the last year or so I have at least tried to watch more animated TV shows than at any time since the mid-90s. I don't always stick with them but it gives me the flavor, at least.

As I may have mentioned about a hundred times, I like making lists. I also like writing capsule reviews or, if you prefer, making so-called smart remarks that I think are funny, even if no-one else does. Despite having my own blog, on which I ought to be able to write anything I want, I still don't seem to be able to come up with as many excuses to indulge myself along those lines as you'd think. This is one of them.

I thought about trying to do something serious and insightful with all of this but then I thought why bother? So here they are, all the cartoons (Do we still use that word? I don't seem to see it much any more.) that I've watched or tried to watch since the last time I did this. Not in any order, unless there's some shape or form to the Netflix algorithm that's passed me by, something that seems quite likely now I come to think of it.

Currently watching:

The Hollow - (Season One) - "Three teen strangers awaken in a dangerous world and try to make sense of what connection they have to each other as they attempt to make it out alive." - I had no idea this was Canadian until I looked it up on IMDB. Amazing how many things I like turn out to be from Canada. I've always quite fancied living there although not just so I could watch Canadian TV. I can do that from here. 

The Hollow has likeable characters. I took to them from the start. It also has a good, albeit well-worn, premise that made me want to keep watching, if only to find out what the hell was going on. Supposed to be "for kids" but seems equally suitable for immature adults. I get the feeling it might remind me of Lost if I'd ever seen it, which I have not. I also realize as I write this that I'm almost at the end of the first season and I still don't have the slightest idea why it's called "The Hollow"...

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - (Season One) - "A girl explores the possibilities in a post-apocalyptic world." Produced by Dreamworks and about as good as that would suggest. Excellent characterization, very good voice acting, smart dialog, funny lines, solid, well-constructed plot. The animation is good but the background art is even better. The story has a moral dimension that doesn't feel forced because it grows organically out of the characters and their developing relationships. Really enjoyable and highly recommended.

Disenchantment  (Season Four) - "Princess Tiabeanie, 'Bean', is annoyed at her imminent arranged marriage to Prince Merkimer. Then she meets Luci, a demon, and Elfo, an elf, and things get rather exciting, and dangerous." - That's the Season One blurb. It seems so long ago. I'd actually forgotten Bean was called Tiabeanie until I copy-pasted that from IMDB. I love this show so much I literally bought the tee-shirt. Tee shirts, plural. Three different designs, no less. We're on Season Four now and I'm not quite convinced it's as strong as the previous three. I can't quite see what the season arc is this time around but I still have several episodes to watch so I mustn't pre-judge. Still superior to anything else in its class, anyway.

Watched all the way to the end:

Lower Decks (Seasons One and Two) - "The support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, have to keep up with their duties, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies." - I'm no kind of Star Trek fan. I wasn't going to watch this at all even though Amazon seemed determined I should. It's the only Amazon Prime show on this list, Netflix having hoovered up every other animated series since the dawn of time, which is possibly why they were so insistent on me seeing it. 

I was resisting, staunchly, when I read a passing comment in a post at the (Now sadly dormant) Legion of Super Bloggers. One of the writers was bemoaning yet another ruinous version of the LSH, contrasting it with Lower Decks as an example of a spin-off that gave due respect to the original IP. Since I've found myself to be in general agreement with the opinions expressed there, I thought I'd give it a go after all. Nothing like a personal recommendation. Honestly, though, I have such a vague understanding of what Star Trek is supposed to be I doubt I'd be able to tell if any given iteration was "true to the spirit" of Gene Roddenberry's vision. With that noted, I can say that Lower Decks is a great animated show in its own right. 

It's smart, funny, intelligent, well-observed and has some thoroughly likeable characters, who grow and change visibly throughout the course of the two seasons. The stories manage to be both complete and satisfying in the individual episodes and also fit convincingly into larger arcs that feel organic and unforced. It's certainly the tightest, most focused, most satisfying Star Trek show I've seen, although as I said I'm anything but a fan of the IP, let alone an expert on it. I'd recommend Lower Decks to people who previously haven't thought all that much of Star Trek. Whether actual Trek fans would enjoy it or not is a different question.

Kid Cosmic (Season Three) - "A young boy who dreams of becoming a hero, stumbles across some cosmic stones of power. His dreams appear to have come true". - Sadly, this was the final season. I could have watched more. At least it all came to a very satisfying conclusion with no loose ends and everything wrapped up convincingly. The whole Season Three arc was very cleverly handled. To say more would be to give too much away. A really top-class show throughout; great characters, great animation, consistently funny and with some of the best music of any cartoon I've ever seen. There was a different, original song at the end of every show and I watched to the end of the credits every time just to hear it. I'd buy a soundtrack album.

Saturday Morning All Star Hits! - A live action/cartoon hybrid with some connection to Saturday Night Live that I was totally unaware of until I wrote this post. Paul Rudd and Emma Stone feature in the voice acting. Didn't know that either. It's a very specific, I want to say loving, parody of eighties and nineties Saturday Morning TV and when I say specific I mean actual shows (Care Bears, Thundercats...) not just the genre as a whole. 

Given how American the context is supposed to be, I found it extremely familiar. Not only did we get most of the same shows (Maybe not Denver the Last Dinosaur - never heard of that one and I can't say I'm sorry I missed it, based on this.) but we had presenters with much the same attitude and appearance as Skip and Treybor. When I started watching, I thought it was going to be too annoying to stick with but it's very skilfully paced. Everything changes just subtly enough and just soon enough to keep you invested in the story and the characters, both the live action and the animated segments.

The Polygon review makes a point of stressing just how age-critical SMASH is and I suspect they have a point. If you didn't watch this stuff growing up it probably won't have quite the intended effect. That said, I was a grown adult when I watched the Saturday Morning cartooms in the eighties, usually with a hangover from the Friday night and it worked for me. Recommended to anyone of a certain age and anyone who likes scabrous parodies.

Started but didn't finish:

Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese - "Following the adventures of two families as they come together under one roof." Is it? Is it really? Can't say I got that from the one episode I watched. It was the title that hooked me, obviously. I watched the first episode and enjoyed it but I haven't watched another. It's about as manic as you'd expect from that title. The characters seemed not just anarchic but quite unpleasant at times although you can't really judge from a single episode. Often they soften. It's some kind of international production and it was first aired on the BBC. Probably not going to watch any more.

Johnny Test - "The adventures of average suburban boy Johnny Test, who wittingly plays test subject for his genius twin sisters' various experiments, reluctantly fighting evil villains in the process." Nice use of "wittingly" there. Respect! This one's really old, like more than fifteen years old. Prehistoric, even. Once again, the title lured me in with its obvious reference to Johnny Quest, another even more ancient show I never really watched, so why that worked I have no clue... Once again, one episode was enough. Nothing wrong with it but you probably need to be about nine years old and stuck in the past.

Aggretsuko - "Frustrated with her thankless office job, the 25-year-old red panda copes with her daily struggles by belting out heavy metal karaoke after work." Come on, you'd watch that! It's anime, it's metal and I was really out of my comfort zone not to mention my depth. I did like it, kind of, but boy was it loud. And spiky. Can't say I wasn't warned. I managed three episodes: there are four seasons. I don't think I can cope with much more but I'll probably try anyway. It was pretty good.

Super Crooks - "Johnny Bolt recruits a group of ragtag supervillains for one last heist. Their target: A ruthless super-powered crime boss. What can go wrong?" Anime again, although this felt much more like a traditional American Saturday morning cartoon, if you ignore the death count. It was perfectly comfortable to watch. I just didn't think it was very interesting. Or good. I managed a couple of episodes and that was probably one too many.

And that's about it. I've looked at many, many more - Netflix is stuffed like a sausage with these kinds of shows - but so far nothing's sucked me in. Something will, though, you can bet on it. When it does, I'll be sure to come back and tell you about it.

On Ya Like Veronica

As well as driving down my engagement with every other game I was playing a month ago, Valheim has cut into the time I spend watching TV. shows. Watching television (whatever we mean by that, these days) is something that had been very much on an upward trend for me until then. From a low base of nothing at all just a few years ago, my hours spent staring passively at a screen have grown steadily, until this last pandemic year saw me goggle-eyed for as much as three hours a night, more often than not

Despite staying up later than normal these past few weeks so as to chop just one more tree or, more likely, recover just one more corpse, I've still been managing an hour or two most nights and what I've mostly been watching has been Riverdale. I was going to wait until I'd seen all five seasons to post about it but honestly, if I wait that long, I may well be too confused to say anything at all.

Last year, largely as a result of a passing comment by XzzySqrl, I think, although whether that comment was about the new show or the old I now have no idea, I started watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. That one started out a lot darker and, well, more genuinely chilling than I was expecting. After the first episode I put it away, maybe for later and maybe for not at all.

It wouldn't stop nagging at the back of my mind so I went back sooner than I imagined I would and ended up watching the entire run, all of which I loved, once the shock wore off. As the seasons progressed the initial darkness gave way to something closer to the hyperstylized camp I was expecting, although thematically the really-quite-disturbing overtones (can't call them undertones) never entirely went away. 

Maybe I just got used to the idea of ritual cannibalism as a normal part of small-town life. God knows after a while it seemed like the least of Greendale's problems. There is that about a long-running television show; the things that stand out at the start always recede into the background as the milieu deepens and settles. You acclimatize or, perhaps, are assimilated.

 

I was well aware that Greendale was connected to Riverdale. I am a comics fan, after all. Just not an Archie Comics fan. That probably goes without saying. As Sheldon derisively replies to Penny's ex-boyfriend Zack, when he asks where the Archie comics might be found, it's "In the bedrooms of ten year old girls, where they should be". 

Yes, I'm also watching the Big Bang Theory. I realize that's a controversial choice. I'm not planning on having a debate about it but I will if I have to. I can hardly pretend I don't care for it. I'm watching it on Netflix but I own the first seven seasons on DvD. 

Some of the seasons I own several times because I started buying it after the first. I was an early adopter at least in U.K. terms. It began to be packaged in seasonal bundles and some years it was cheaper to buy a bundle than to buy just the newest season alone so now I have several copies of some of them. Don't you hate marketing? 

I used to work in marketing, by the way. It was a long time ago. I didn't do anything bad. That I remember now. Or would admit to.

Even though I own seven seasons I stopped watching at the start of season six. The show went downhill around then. Or so I heard. Since I didn't watch it it's hard for me to say. I'll know soon, though, because a few weeks back I began again from the start. I'd just finished How I Met Your Mother and I needed another sitcom that would take a few months to get through. The choice is diminishing. I get though the things like candy. 

How I Met Your Mother: now that's a polarizing show. Or it should be. I can see why Big Bang Theory raises hackles but How I Met Your Mother frequently made me consider buying tar and feathers. Metaphorically. I probably didn't need to clarify that.

But I didn't come here to rant about HIMYM (Fed up of typing the whole long-ass name). I considered coming here and ranting about it many times while I was watching it but I didn't and it's a bit late now. Suffice it to say I did get to the end, somehow, and I thought the final episode was exactly what the show needed, which was something I wouldn't have said about some of the more heinous episodes. 

I only mentioned it because there's not a great deal that happens in HIMYM that rings true to life but Sheldon's comment on Archie Comics is so impeccably accurate it could very easily have been something I heard a friend say at a comic convention in 1985. I nearly got into a fist fight with someone once just because I said I didn't hate Disney and admitting to not seeing the point of Corto Maltese was tantamount to committing social suicide in my circle. Comics fans are tribal.

The irony is that Sheldon's comment, which was made maybe a decade ago, now has to stand in the shadow of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's re-invention of the Archieverse. And it's a dark, dark shadow.

I sorta-kinda knew about it before I started watching TCAOS (yes, I'm going to abbreviate all these multi-word titles). I'd picked up something about Riverdale being retooled as Twin Peaks for Teens a few years back. I'd even added the DVD of Season One to my Amazon wishlist (this was in my pre-Prime, pre-Netflix life).  

Mrs Bhagpuss bought it for me one Christmas and we watched the first episode together. It was pretty much what I was expecting. I liked it but not so much I wanted to watch the rest right away. It went on the shelf with all the other scores of unseen discs.

When I ran out of Sabrinas (they really should have kept making them - it was just hitting its stride) the obvious next step was backwards. I rewatched the first episode of Riverdale (nice short name, no need to accronymize that one) and it was as I remembered. The whole first season was what I thought I was getting: Teen Peaks

I'd seen Sabrina. I should have known where things would go. Off the rails, that's where.

The second season was almost in sync with the cartwheeling trajectory Twin Peaks itself carved out back in the super-early nineties, when David Lynch took his hands off the wheel and the show veered crazily from one side of the lost highway to the other until he came out of his daydream and took back control. I loved that ride. I know a lot of people didn't but I went with it all the way.

I went with Riverdale's sophomore season, too. It's basically one, long serial-killer arc. That apple's not falling far from the tree. 

It also starts to speed up, something I've noticed happening to most 21st century American drama series. The pace can feel almost glacial to begin with but once inertia's been overcome things get moving, fast. You have to hang on tight and hope.

Honestly, I feel sometimes like there are single episodes where enough happens to pad out a whole regular series of British TV. Our runs always used to be much shorter, so that would only be six or eight episodes, but even so... 

If it was just hyperactive pacing, that would be one thing, but it's the plots, the writing and, especially, the characterization. Characterization? What characterization? Superheroes, conceptualized and dialoged by a dozen different writers over a couple of decades, have more consistency than Archie, Veronica, Cheryl, Jughead and the rest. 

I kind of want to exempt Betty, who does actually stay moderately close to someone you could recognize as the same person episode to episode... always assuming you can parse the pony-tailed girl-next-door as Louise Brooks wannabe dominatrix and serial-killer's ammanuensis dichotomy in the first place. But any slack you might want to cut the show in terms of believabilty goes straight out the window in Season Three.

Season Three is batshit crazy. I'm sorry but there's no gentler way to put it. The Twin Peaks/serial killer motifs don't go away, they're just crushed by the avalanche of insanity that pours out of every script like flying monkeys in an acid flashback. It isn't even the extremity of the irreality that fractures the illusion; it's the conflicting conceits.

For one thing, someone decided back at the beginning it would be a good idea to have Jughead frame every episode as a kind of story he's writing. Someone calles him Riverdale's own J.D. Salinger at one point but Jug himself clearly takes Truman Capote circa Cold Blood as his model. He's documenting his own reality but how much he's heightening it, who can say?

That does add some kind of filter. It might even go some way to explaining the frequent lurches into pastiche, parody and homage. Of course we have the musical episodes that have been obligatory in all teen shows since Buffy pulled it off so utterly brilliantly back in the nineties but we also have point for point remakes of Chinatown or The Breakfast Club to contend with along with parts of Riverdale apparently existing in entirely different time periods for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Pop's Chock'lit Shop, where the gang all hang out, reflects the Archie Comics traditional obsession with the 1950s, a sock-hop and milkshake take that jars grindingly with an alternate 1950s also present, one that puts a Philip K Dick style fallout shelter in the woods for the gang to take turns hiding out from the authorities after the many and various murders they may or may not have committed, or just to enjoy increasingly exploitative, if always determinedly soft-core, sex. 

Meanwhile good-bad girl Veronica (no, wait, Cheryl's the good-bad girl. Or is it Betty?) runs a 1920s speakeasy, Jughead struggles to control a 1960s biker gang, the Manson family are moving in from The Farm and Cheryl's mother has a whole floor of the hotel set aside as a brothel. Why no-one even raises an eyebrow at a character called Alice Cooper defeats me. It suggests a level of self-restraint entirely absent from literally any other aspect of the show. I'm working on the theory that never mentioning it is in itself an act of supremely confident metafiction.

At times it's hard to remember with so much happening but there is some kind of season arc involving a roleplaying game called Griffons and Gargoyles that may or may not have actual supernatural effects. It may or may not (Again. Actually, always) be the instrument of a malevolent entity known as the Gargoyle King.  

You might be tempted to assume this would all have a Scooby Doo ending where the hood gets pulled off to reveal it was the janitor all along only by halfway through the season the hood's already been pulled off twice, revealing two different janitorial impersonators (oh, wait, that was the Black Hood in  Season Two. No, as you were, it's both of them!) and yet the Gargoyle King's still out there. And anyway, don't forget Riverdale is just one town over from Greendale, where the actual devil hangs out, along with more witches than you can shake a broomstick at.

Greendale, by the way, is the place Jughead drives Penny (not the one from the Big Bang Theory, although that's a crossover I'd pay good money to see) so he can take out a bowie knife and carve the biker gang tattoo out of her arm. Torture, mutilation and, particularly, branding with hot irons are recurring leitmotifs of this happy-go-lucky, teen-friendly show. 

We've come a long way from the kind of Archie comics Sheldon was deriding in the comic shop back in 2010. And I'm only halfway through Season Three. Where will it all end? I have no frickin' clue but I want to be there when it happens.

I can only manage one episode of Riverdale a night. Mostly because that's all Valheim allows time for. To decompress from the crazy I sometimes take in an episode of Kid Cosmic, an absolutely gorgeous work of line art set in motion, with a rockin' soundtrack and a blessedly U-certificate rating. 

The mesmerizing backgrounds remind me of any number of ligne claire classics but the true inspiration appears to be American also-ran comic-book imprints from the fifties and sixties like Harvey and Charlton. Contemporaries and competitors of Archie Comics, in fact.

Sheldon Cooper wouldn't have had any truck with those, either.

Your loss, Shelly.