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edwinmuch · 5 years ago

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overachiever ✧ {zion}

summary: in which straight A student riley takes a break from her procrastinating to help pretty boy zion with more than just his homework

author’s note: @softhottie‘s submission for @temperaryheart‘s 700 follower challenge! literally posting on the last day but better late than never, right? (haven’t written for leisure in a while so fair warning)

prompt: prettymuch lyric (bolded)

warnings: mention of drugs, smut (oral, daddy kink, overstimulation, edging)

word count: 3.5k

No on-campus college experience is complete without the following things: sleepless coffee-driven nights, at least one blackout drunk party experience, and a casual hookup or two. Third year Sociology major Zion could definitely say he’s checked off all of the above (several times, he might add). He was especially well-versed in the collegiate sport of hooking up. In fact, he would probably be considered something of an MVP. He’s had his fair share of players in his game. But like with any sport, it takes strategy. There was a secret artform to finding the most opportune times for intimacy when in college. Shared rooms and thin walls don’t exactly allow for privacy, especially when the room in question is shared with a nosy Italian business major named Nick.

This is why Zion decided to make every second count when he discovered his best friend and roommate Nick would be out of their dorm room for a few hours. According to Nick, his abnormal psychology midterm was “going to be the death of him.” It was his last exam before finals week, and he knew he couldn’t afford to fail so he announced that he would be spending that entire Thursday evening in the library studying for it. Zion tried to hide his excitement at his friend’s departure.

“Damn bro, that sucks. Happy studying though,” he managed to utter on Nick’s way out, feigning concern.

When the door finally shut, it took him all of 30 seconds to dial up his favorite girl as of late: Riley Williams, this fiery Women’s and Gender Studies major who resided in his building on the floor above his. They had met in his 10AM sociology class about two and a half months ago. She was hard not to notice when her hand shot up for almost every question, portraying herself as someone who obviously reads over the required text after class. But unlike others, Zion actually paid more attention to her cute tendency to absentmindedly let her pen linger between her glossy lips when she found herself concentrating deeply and her seemingly never-ending collection of flattering outfits. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice the way her curves looked in one of her cropped cardigan and plaid mini skirt ensembles or the hypnotizing glint of her signature “B-A-B-Y” silver link necklace that adorned her collarbones so well. Despite her engagement in class and endearing mannerisms, she still came off as standoffish, working alone during paired in-class assignments and rolling her eyes at less than intelligent answers from other students in response to the professor’s questions. But, after the fourth lecture of her sitting in her unassigned assigned seat next to his, he decided to take a chance and strike up a conversation, relieved to be met with her dimpled, wide tooth smile; the rest was history.

He doesn’t really know how their current arrangement really came to be. It started off as occasional study sessions in Zion’s room since she obviously knew her material. Then, it had quickly become invitations to binge-watch Bojack Horseman, a show Riley prided herself on introducing to him, or to share a blunt with him and Nick at the end of a particularly stressful school week. But eventually, a few lines had blurred when an innocent smoke sesh (sans Nick) had a salacious end involving her on all fours and her clothes long discarded on his bedroom floor. With this new dynamic between them, he’s made a habit of calling or texting her when late night thoughts of her became too enticing to resist. He hadn’t been hitting her line lately though, the stress of studying for exams and completing assignments keeping them apart. But with midterm season coming to a close and Nick finally being out of his hair, the eager boy was aching to finally invite his favorite girl over once again.

“Hey Z. What’s up?” Riley answered on the second ring, the mellifluous sound of her voice already getting him worked up.

“Hey beautiful. So, Nick is out of the room for tonight,” Zion boasted, the smirk on his face apparent even through the phone.

She waited for him to continue, thinking there was more, but he never did.

“…Okay, and? What’s that gotta do with me? Why should I drop everything to help you get a nut? I’m in the middle of writing a paper, you know,” she replied as she flicked through Netflix titles. He didn’t need to know that her “paper writing” actually equated to television streaming. Her point still stands.

“Babyyy come on, stop playin’,” he whined, “You know, I’m never selfish. Besides, the post-nut clarity of an orgasm or two will help you focus on your paper. Just gimme an hour, please?”

“Ugh I don’t know.” Although the specificities of their current relationship (or situationship, rather) had never been fully discussed, Riley must admit his sweet delivery of “baby” really made her insides scramble. At this point, she was ready to be laid up in Zion’s bed (preferably under him), especially since she wasn’t actually doing anything productive anyway, but she was also ready to hear him beg for it.

“Please baby, it’s been weeks since I’ve had you to myself. I’ll make it worth your while. Nick’s probably gonna be gone most of the night too so when you show up, m’gonna put this time to use,” the insatiable boy persuaded, the seductive rasp of his voice prominent in his last few words.

“Welllll, when you put it like that,” she began, smiling to herself as she was almost able to hear Zion’s excitement through the phone, “I’ll be there in 20.”

~~~

Riley stepped off the elevator and trodded down the RA-decorated hallway in her pink fuzzy slides to Zion’s dorm room door where she placed a soft knock. She barely had time to collect herself before the door swung open revealing a shirtless Zion leaning against the doorframe, his platinum-dyed dreads braided back into two cornrows and his dark gray cotton sweatpants hanging low enough to reveal almost the entirety of his happy trail. He wasted no time pulling her into the room. She couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her face at her observation of the atmosphere Zion had created for her. His Himalayan salt lamp lit the room up in a sensuous coral hue while Next Town Down’s Lovers Theme (Interlude) played in the background.

“Next Town Down, huh?” she teased with a quirk of her lips, knowing she put him on to the musical group.

Zion smiled down at her with a set of dimples to match her own. “Yeah I know you like them. Thought it might help put you in the mood,” he shrugged smugly with his devilish smile still present on his face.

“Oh please! I know you bump them when I’m not around,” she giggled, poking him in his chest as she made her point.

“Yeah whatever,” he chuckled, his hands falling to her hips. He slowly backed them up towards his plush loveseat in the corner of the room. Once the back of his calves touched the suede material of the couch, he plopped onto the cushion. Riley followed suit, climbing onto his lap with her knees digging into the cushion on either side of him and her freshly manicured hands finding their way wrapped behind his head.

Zion made sure the dainty girl was comfortable in his lap before his large hands snaked up her luscious thighs, rubbing her up and down before finding their place on her derrière with a squeeze.

“Mmm I missed you baby.”

“Oh really? How much?” she whispered in his ear, sending chills up his spine.

“Don’t worry, imma show you.” And with that, he started his determined campaign on her neck, kissing up the area of exposed flesh even going as far as to flick his tongue out as he reached her jawline. She pulled away for a moment to slip her cropped sweatshirt over her head, fluffing out the resultant curls of her day old twist out once it passed over her head. She was left with nothing covering her upper half as she had made the deliberate decision not to wear bra to come over.

She couldn’t contain the soft moans and content sighs that escaped her lips. As he sponged wet kisses to the sensitive spot under her earlobe and his nimble fingers worked her hardening nipples, she instinctively ground her hips into his for some added friction between them.

“Need these off you too ma,” Zion whispered, snapping the waistband of her sweat shorts. And with no hesitation she complied, getting up briefly to slide them down her supple legs. She silently thanked herself for her lingerie selection; the pink and navy blue lace of her panties graciously highlighted the warm bronze undertones of her golden brown skin as well as the generous curve of her ass.

She sunk back down onto his lap, hands carefully placed on his shoulders as she returned to grinding against Zion’s ever hardening member with a little more fervor. Before the boy could utter another word, Riley pressed her lips against his in a feverish kiss.

Zion reciprocated with the same amount of enthusiasm, accepting every sloppy collision of their tongues and sensuous bite of his bottom lip with a gratified squeeze of her thigh with one hand and a rub of her lower back with the other. She quickly began her descent down his neck. Nipping, licking, sucking from his jawline to his collarbone.

A lazy smile crept upon Zion’s face as a chuckle passed his lips. “For someone who ain’t even wanna come over here, you sure are eager, huh?”

“Shut up,” she smiled against his skin, “Listen, you promised me ‘an orgasm or two’ and I intend on getting it.”

“And I’m a man of my word baby girl.” And with that challenge, Zion hooked his strong hands under Riley’s thick thighs and hoisted her from the couch, allowing her to lock her legs around his torso. Without pulling their lips away from each other, Zion walked them to his extra large twin sized bed.

He lowered her onto the bed so that her legs dangled off the end. He slinked between her legs before dropping to his knees in front of her. Riley rose off the bed slightly to lean back on her elbows; she watched as he ran his soft hands up her awaiting thighs, never losing eye contact as he did so. His nimble fingers stopped at the elastic waistband of her panties. He smirked as he mentally took note of the ever-growing wet spot in its crotch area before deftly slipping the cloth barrier down her legs and onto the carpeted floor.

“Mmm so wet for me baby,” he wasted no time hooking her legs onto his shoulders.

“Just for you,” she breathed out as a shuddered moan while Zion left lingering kisses up her inner thigh until he reached her throbbing center. He hovered there for a bit, blowing lightly against her folds. She hissed at the sudden cold air hitting her soaking cunt.

“God Zion, do something,” she whined, absentmindedly pushing his head further toward the area she needed him most.

Her wish was his command as he kissed and sucked on her folds before dipping his tongue in between them to lick a stripe at her opening. He took this time to admire her and take note of how cute she looked laying there with her bottom lip drawn between her teeth. That’s when his eager tongue found her sensitive bundle of nerves, flicking figure eights into it before sucking.

“Ahh feels so good,” Riley moaned in a whisper, grabbing at his blond locs as he lapped at her bud. Her hips began instinctively lifting slightly off the mattress as she was nearing her peak. Zion’s large hands took hold of them to anchor her and continue his gluttonous feast.

It wasn’t long before she was met with the all too familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach as she gushed into Zion’s awaiting mouth. Her eyes screwed shut and her mouth fell open allowing a loud stream of obscenities to flow from it.

Once her thighs stopped trembling, Zion released their hold from around his neck and rose from his place on his knees. Riley backed up toward the headboard so her entire body could spread across the bed and she could watch Zion’s every move. In two swift motions, Zion’s sweats were removed from his body to reveal that he was wearing nothing else underneath. He crawled on top of her and placed a wet, needy kiss to her lips. He licked into her mouth sloppily, allowing her to taste herself on his tongue.

“What next baby?” he uttered breathily between messy kisses. She placed her hand on his chest to signal for him to pull away for a moment. He complied looking down at her flushed face and swollen lips.

“Can I sit on it?” she said softly in the most innocent tone possible. The sight of her plump lips pulled into a pout and her doe eyes peering up at him through her cascading lashes were enough to make his dick twitch.

“Course baby,” he punctuated his confirmation with a kiss to her lips before climbing off of her and landing on his back. He laid comfortably against his pillow, waiting for her to make her next move.

Riley sat up and swung her leg over his body. She hovered over his length before Zion helped her sink down onto it. She winced at the initial stretch but released a satisfied sigh once she finally bottomed out.

After taking a moment to adjust to his size, she began to rock her hips back and forth. Once she found her rhythm, Zion got comfortable, hands clasped behind his head watching her titties bounce as she moved above him. She placed her palms on his chest to steady herself and give herself more leverage to bounce on him more quickly.

“Fuck Daddy, you feel so good,” she drawled out with each swivel of her hips. She praised herself internally at the coy slip of the pet name, knowing how much it riled him up during their last rendezvous. As she expected, the sweet phrase flicked a switch for the boy whose large hands found themselves grabbing at her sides hungrily. It was always a surprise to him when she was vulgar during sex as she was usually prim and proper in any other scenario, but his surprise was most certainly not a complaint.

“Say that shit again,” he growled, beginning to thrust up into her.

“You f-feel so good insi-ide me, Daddy,” she moaned, falling forward in response to a particularly forceful slap to her ass. Zion took this opportunity to capture one of her breasts in his mouth, sucking and swirling his tongue around her erect little bud.

Riley began to fall apart above him, the sinful sound of their skin slapping against each other and the full feeling of him thrusting into her so deeply were taking their toll on her. She could barely form a coherent sentence through her incessant whimpers.

“So cl- close,” she stuttered, digging her nails into his shoulders as she prepared herself for a second orgasm, the buildup much more intense than the last. She loudly cried out a chant of “Yes daddy”s, uncontrollably clenching around him while he continued to rail into her from below. She rode out her high, the longest she’d had in a while. Before long, she fell forward onto her lover’s chest in exhaustion with a drawn-out exaggerated sigh.

Just as she was ready to roll off of him and call it a night, Zion reached up and grabbed her by the throat, whispering in her ear, “You ready for number 3 baby?”

Her eyes widened as she weakly replied, catching her breath, “You said one or two. I already came twice.”

With a mischievous smirk, Zion eyed her naked body with the same hunger he had when she first walked through the door. “Yeah well I also said I’d make it worth your while. What can I say? I’m an overachiever,” he chuckled darkly, easing her off of his length. She winced at the newfound emptiness.

“All fours for me baby,” he rasped, sitting up and allowing her to spread out on her hands and knees in front of him.

“Yes daddy,” she did as she was told. Her glistening core and the remarkable roundedness of her rump on full display. He palmed a large handful of her ass, earning a sharp inhale from her.

“So good for me baby,” Zion whispered, palming more of her flesh into his hand before winding it back for another good slap across her right buttcheek. She moaned loudly in response, falling forward on her elbows from the impact.

He lined himself up, teasing her entrance. The tickle of his squishy head rubbing against her opening was becoming unbearable as she was aching to be filled up for a second time. At the sound of Riley whimpering with her bottom lip caught between her teeth, Zion pushed into her slowly, egged on by her surprised gasp. Just as he was about to fill her to her hilt, he took a moment to admire how he seemed to fit inside her so perfectly, almost as if he was the sword to her sheath.

He started off slow to allow Riley to adjust and to ensure that he didn’t bust immediately. He’d been holding off from his release to make sure his girl had gotten multiple. So, needless to say, he was at risk of busting very soon.

His slow thrusts eventually stilled to a complete halt. Before she could open her mouth to complain, his hand came down to spank her bottom once again. He kneaded the area he just slapped as he grumbled to her, “Throw that shit back for me, mama.” And without skipping a beat, Riley began to rock herself back and forth, allowing her ass to crash against him continuously. The sound of her cheeks clapping against his front and her strangled moans at the feeling of getting herself off on him was like music to his ears.

“Who’s making you feel this good baby?” Zion questioned with yet another smack to her rear.

“You daddy, only you,” she drawled on, speeding up slightly out of an eagerness to please him.

He was so blown away by her ability to take him so well. But he was not surprised when her movements eventually lost their rhythm, knowing she was probably close to her peak. So in an attempt to regain control, he roughly locked his hands at her hips before ramming into her at a relentless pace.

“Oh my god Zion!” she shouted, leaving her mouth hanging wide open. Her strained cries became louder with every snap of his hips.

If this assault on her insides wasn’t enough, not only did Zion dig his knees further into the sheets, allowing himself to lean back and pound into her at a deliciously pleasurable new angle, but he also skimmed his fingers down her front to ferociously rub circles into her pearl. The sensation was almost too much to bear, especially considering the two orgasms she already had under her belt. Her eyes flew shut as she hit her forearm against the bed repeatedly in a motion that most wrestlers would recognize as a “tap out.”

“Ah fuck, m’not gonna last daddy!” she screamed, legs beginning to quiver.

“Me either baby,” he grunted shortly before she pulsed around him so deliciously, milking him for every hot spurt he had in him.

They languidly rode out their climaxes together until Zion gently pulled out of Riley allowing them both to lay back against his satin pillowcases. She clung to his side nuzzling her face into his chest, appreciative of the post-orgasm high he provided her.

“Okay, ‘Mr. Overachiever’,” Riley sighed, still a bit out of breath as she looked up at him with her bright eyes and lazy smile.

“Mmm, I like the sound of that,” he hummed, smacking an obnoxious smooch to her cheek, “Where’s your phone? I’m changing my name in your contacts to that right now.”

He eyed her brightly colored, flower pressed phone case from across the room and attempted to climb off the bed to retrieve the girl’s smartphone from the couch where, until that moment, it had been forgotten.

“No, stoppp,” she giggled, slinging her leg across his torso and pushing his shoulders into the mattress before he could even make a move. He playfully grabbed at her waist, tickling her sides to try to overpower her. She squirmed under his grasp.

“Nah, I’m changing that shit. Maybe people will see it and think I’m tutoring you for once. Whatchu think?” he joked, his hearty laugh combining with her pleading giggles.

Their tickle fight continued until it devolved into a soft, comfortably silent cuddle between them, thoughts of paper deadlines or interfering roommates being long forgotten, and Zion wouldn’t have it any other way.

#i was gonna have nick walk in on them #i kinda wish i wrote that bc it would've been hilarious #chan's 700 challenge #zion kuwonu #zion kuwonu smut #zion kuwonu imagine #prettymuch smut #prettymuch imagine #prettymuch

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vivalatoons · 4 years ago

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My Talk: BoJack Horseman

Back in the 90s, there was a famous TV show about a horse raising three human kids. Yet, that’s only a part of the life of a washed out horse actor. This is the reflection of BoJack Horseman.

I heard about BoJack from animation fans. I decided to get involved once my friends told me about it. It was just great timing since the 6th season was announced. Let me tell you: I’m grateful this show exists.

Plot. This show takes place in Hollywood where humans and animals live among each other. BoJack Horseman hasn’t reach the same peak of fame since his famous role in Horsin’ Around. The show continues to follow BoJack Horseman and his messy, rocky, and life changing journey.

Characters. These are the true key elements that make the show wonderful. BoJack Horseman is a washed-up actor in Hollywood. He struggles to overcame his own demons yet tries to make himself become better. Todd Chavez is BoJack’s friend who stays with BoJack. He’s friendly and surprisingly gets himself into loosely-related wacky misadventures. Diane Nguyen starts as BoJack’s ghostwriter. She is a Vietnamese-American writer who has idealistic views and learns more about herself along the process. Princess Carolyn is BoJack’s agent and former girlfriend. She stays persistent in her work yet tries to balance her work and life. Mr. Peanutbutter is a yellow lab dog who was BoJack’s former sitcom rival. He has the personality of a dog by being happy and full of energy. Each of the characters benefit from each other as the story continues and builds for interesting & complex relationships.

Animation. The show is animated with the following studios: Tornante Television, Shadow Machine, and Boxer vs Raptor. Lisa Hanawalt, the production designer, created the style for the show. The animation is one of a kind for adult animation. It can be simple, then the animation would get experimental depending on the stories. The animals are anthropomorphic and still emulate their animalistic traits. I enjoy how the shots of the show gives fantastic outlooks with the landscape or the point of view of what a character sees.

Addressing topics in a mature way. It’s no secret that this is known as the show with the depressing horse. I would say the serious stuff comes along with season 1 episode 11. The continuity of the show is wonderful and great for character developments. Many hot topics like abortion, sexual harassments, and gun control. The themes of self-destruction, depression, alcoholism, finding your identity, and so many more are displayed. It’s such an important factor in the show. When you see how the show address these topics, they execute it in a way that most shows fail at doing. It’s even more impactful with animation.

BoJack Horseman is important to me. Sadly, Netflix decided to end BoJack after their 6th season. It sucks because Raphael Bob-Waksberg had more to tell with the stories. Thankfully, the show wrapped up nicely. I still wonder what was Raphael’s true ending he wanted to share. When I was younger, I began to watch adult animated shows. Years later, I saw that most of those shows were full of shock value, excessive violence & sexual moments, overrated, and just ran out of steam. Just because you can do or say things on an adult show doesn’t make it adult. I didn’t get into the show when it premiered since I was 14. I can see now that it was for the best when I did watched the show last October. BoJack Horseman finally make me realize and cope with my depression and anxiety. The show told me things that I wish I had here years ago. I had a traumatic moment in my life where my family relative stayed with us for a year. Him staying with us result in some mental breakdowns and a shift in how I look at things now. I also was not doing ok in high school. Everyone around me was crushing on someone and having partners. I would focus myself in situations to like a boy just to avoid people’s questions on who I like. Thanks to Todd Chavez, I discovered that I was asexual. It’s so easy to talk to people about it because I just say, “You know Todd from BoJack? Yeah, I’m ace just like him.” It’s funny how a show about a horse actor make me understand and not feel ashamed for my flaws & demons. Thanks to BoJack Horseman, I’m able to see things more clearer.

BoJack Horseman is an example on how to do an adult animated show. I appreciate the whole team of BoJack Horseman for making a remarkable show that has blown away misconceptions of animation and the ability to tell stories. No other adult animated & live-action show will ever reach the recognition BoJack has done. In fact, the show is somehow aware for the general audience yet not as popular to the current adult animated shows running. It’s weird, but I’m glad it gain some success. BoJack Horseman is a wonderful show full of pieces of tragedy & elegance.

#my talk #long post #bojack horseman

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supremecourt23 · 5 years ago

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What BoJack Horseman Says About Endings

Now that I’ve had some time to think about the end of BoJack Horseman, I wanted to write something of a follow-up to my essay about the first six and a half seasons and how I believed it was an excellent model for how to represent and respond to mental health. The last few episodes continued this trend, and I don’t want to retread already covered ground, so I decided to focus on something a little different and that is the end of BoJack Horseman.

BoJack Horseman is a show that I would argue has many endings looking back in retrospect. It was a show that was ultimately never about the end, and rather about BoJack’s journey through life. A constant theme throughout BoJack is the theme of death and what it means to the characters whether they want it, fear it, or have things they want to accomplish before it comes for them. As characters die on and off screen, we watch as our leads react to the deaths and how it affects them personally and adds to their respective views of death. But back to BoJack being a show that has multiple endings.

At the end of almost every season, BoJack has gone through a journey. He’s done something(s) terrible, admitted to it, and now is trying to become a better horse. Then the next season, the cycle starts again. This goes until the end of season 6a where it looks like he has ultimately learned his lesson and is reformed. In season 6b, his past catches up to him, he relapses, almost dies, and ends up in prison for fourteen months. The show ends on a rather odd note, not offering up any specific conclusion, and in some cases, leaving some questions unanswered, like BoJack’s unresolved relationship with his half-sister. While this could be frustrating for some viewers, and has been for some, I believe this the perfect ending for this show. One of the final lines of the show comes from BoJack while he’s talking to Diane at a wedding on a temporary leave from prison where he says, “Yeah well, life’s a bitch, and then you die right?” To which Diane responds, “Sometimes. Sometimes life’s a bitch, and then you keep living.” That just really rang true for this show.

It’s really easy to get hung up on death. Whether it is a reality you fear, crave, don’t understand, or are being personally affected by, it can easily loom around us. BoJack Horseman was a show that talked about death very openly whether it was because of BoJack’s depression and alcoholism, deaths of supporting characters, or the second to last episode where BoJack stares his mortality in the face. It is a constant in the show, whether in the forefront or the background. Many believe that the show would end with BoJack’s death and that’s why it was surprising to many when the final episode began and BoJack had survived his near-death experience. Life was a bitch for BoJack, and then he kept living.

We have a lot of endings in our own lives. To get a little meta, I could say we have season finales. Examples from my life would be saying goodbye to high school and years of doing theater. Each close of a school year at college felt like the end of one story, and a new one would begin in the fall with new hall mates/roommates and classes. When I took a medical withdrawal from Liberty, that season of my life came to a grinding halt and I moved into a period of life that was dramatically different from anything than before. I could continue with the metaphor, but I think you get the point. We can look back at our lives and see good chunks and bad chunks, but they were all apart of a greater story. You lived life, and then you kept living.

Watching shows and movies, reading books, and anything that has a story really, we are always reading with the ending in mind. Nobody watched LOST each week not wondering how all of the mysteries were going to wrap up. Game of Thrones fans have been building theories about how the books will wrap up for years now and following the end of the show are praying that they end better than the live-action adaptation. We do the same things with our own lives. I do the same thing with my own life.

I turn twenty-four in a little over a month and I am constantly trying to figure out my future. I’m not trying to forecast my life extending to my death, but I would love to have an understanding of the next few years or even the rest of my twenties. Things have not gone as I have expected. Somethings have been amazing. I’ve built relationships with friends and family that I never would have expected three years ago. Yet, things have also sucked in some areas and I’m still healing from those and I want to move forward from those times. It is easy to look forward and wonder what is next. The thing that I got from those final lines of BoJack Horseman is that it’s important to move forward. Sometimes, life sucks and you get stuck. Sometimes life sucks and you don’t get the opportunity to move forward the way you would like. It feels like death, whether literal or metaphorical, is looming. And yet other times, you keep living.

Right now, you could be in a spot where you’re cynical about the future. You’re devoid of hope. I am not here to chastise you for that. That is a very real spot to be in. I’ve been there and I could easily return to that spot. The important thing we have realize and accept is that we still get the opportunity to keep living unless you literally die. Life is hard. It sucks. But you get to keep moving forward.

I look forward to my inevitable re-watch of BoJack Horseman. It is a show that I have gotten more out of, and will continue to get more out of, than most of the other things I watch and have watched. It wasn’t afraid to handle weighty topics and even if I disagreed with what the show said about an issue, I still respected it for handling that topic at all and doing it in a way that challenged me. BoJack challenged me a lot. I respect and love it for that. It landed the plane well. It was a hard show watch sometimes, but it was incredibly rewarding. I’m not encouraging everyone to watch it because I don’t think it is for everyone, but I’m grateful for what I got from it. Those final words have really stuck with me, and whether you watch BoJack Horseman or not, I hope you at least think about them. We get to keep living. We get to forge ahead.

#BoJack Horseman #BoJack #Netflix

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aaronmaurer · 5 years ago

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TV I Liked In 2019

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

The era of “peak TV” has never been more apparent to me than the past year. I am very aware of the many shows I have not seen (don’t have Amazon Prime, for example), and yet I expanded my list from a top 10 to top 15 and still had to leave out A LOT of stuff I really liked! These picks include my legitimate favorites, ranging from truly important looks at the criminal justice system to ensemble comedies that I couldn’t wait to return to. In another year I may have been able to include the latest seasons of Barry, Stranger Things, Queer Eye, Bojack Horseman, Glow, or the finale seasons of Legion, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Veep, Silicon Valley and The Deuce, all of which I’d still recommend. But these stood out even more.

14 (tie). Chernobyl (HBO) / The Hot Zone (National Geographic)

Two limited series focusing on real-life disasters in the 1980s: the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and an Ebola outbreak outside of Washington DC. Chernobyl is an incredibly harrowing account of humanity’s inability to believe things that don’t mesh with their interpretations of reality and the destructive power of lies and cover-ups. The Hot Zone adapts the non-fiction Richard Preston book, a revealing look at pandemics, the power of fear and human resolve. Taken together, they raise interesting questions about governmental gatekeeping, professional competence and personal sacrifice.

13. Mindhunter: Season 2 (Netflix)

Joe Penhall and David Fincher’s look at the early days of the FBI’s criminal profiling department goes broader and deeper in its second season. There are still chilling interviews with incarcerated serial killers and criminal minds (including Charles Manson this time out), but the season really revolves around the Atlanta child murders. This focus provides a compelling look at who the justice system helps and who it ignores, and the investigative – and bureaucratic – work it takes to put together a case.

10 (tie). A.P. Bio: Season 2 (NBC) / The Last O.G.: Season 2 (TBS) / Schitt’s Creek: Season 5 (Pop)

Three great hangout comedies that really came into their own in their most recent seasons. A.P. Bio transcended its first-season preoccupation with revenge and leaned into its fantastic supporting cast – one of the best comedic ensembles around – to become a show I loved spending time with each week. (Thank goodness it’s coming back via NBC’s upcoming “Peacock” service.) The Last O.G. has had a lot on its mind since it began, but its second season covers privilege and the opportunity gap among other issues, ending with a note-perfect homage to Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, making it an unexpectedly resonant comedy. Schitt’s Creek is obviously having a moment right now, and Season 5 (the first season I watched as it aired) was perhaps its best yet. While the whole cast is great, as a big fan of Best In Show and A Mighty Wind, I love seeing Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara share the screen again.

9. Crashing: Season 3 (HBO)

The first two seasons of Pete Holmes’ show made my list in previous years so I’d be remiss not to include the final one, which may be its finest. Pete spends the season making a lot of mistakes – saying yes to things (gigs, relationships) that he probably shouldn’t – and although they provide growth, he doesn’t come across as the “good guy” in how he deals with all of them. This adds additional nuance to the show, questioning its straight white male protagonist’s actions rather than merely rewarding him for following his passions, while still leading to an uplifting and fitting finale.

8. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 4 (Netflix)

Netflix split the final season of Kimmy Schmidt into two parts, so technically only the final six episodes premiered in 2019. Those alone warrant a spot on the list, as the show concluded by following its idiosyncratic bliss to the end. The final group of episodes includes a (pre-movie) takedown of Cats, a Sliding Doors homage and an unexpectedly moving series finale. If this one fell off your radar a few years ago, it’s worth revisiting and seeing through.

7. What We Do In The Shadows: Season 1 (FX)

Based on the horror-comedy film of the same name, this series follows a different crew of vampires who live together on Staten Island. I was initially skeptical because I love the movie and couldn’t see how a television version could do anything but dilute its charms. On the contrary, the show broadens the universe in hilarious ways by introducing characters like “energy vampire” Colin Robinson and the incredible Vampiric Council (with so many incredible cameos!). The core actors are all wonderful, but the MVP has to be Matt Berry’s louche and libidinous Laszlo whose line readings are simply hysterical.

6. Les Misérables (BBC/PBS)

Although it aired in the UK in 2018, the BBC/PBS production of Victor Hugo’s epic didn’t grace American screens until early 2019 so I’m including it here. I am a big fan of the musical adaptation and find it quite successful at cramming so much story into a three-hour runtime, though it obviously has limits to how much of the source material it can explore. This (non-musical) adaptation’s six episodes allow for more of Hugo’s tale of forgiveness versus retribution to live and breathe. The terrific cast includes Dominic West as Jean Valjean and David Oyelowo as Inspector Javert, as well as Lily Collins as Fantine whose backstory is more fully realized here than the format of the stage show allows.

5. Our Planet (Netflix)

Essentially a sequel to the Planet Earth documentaries, with the same production team and David Attenborough narration, this Netflix series presents another stunning collection of nature footage that showcases the incredible diversity and beauty of animal life on Earth. Each episode includes a haunting reminder of man’s impact on the featured habitats and serves as a rallying cry in the fight against climate change.

4. The Good Place: Seasons 3-4 (NBC)

The Good Place has been high on my list since its first season and shows no signs of dropping in quality or esteem as it enters its final stretch of episodes. 2019 encompassed the end of Season 3 (including the hilariously imaginative visit to the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes) and the beginning of Season 4 (with its crew of new characters and just as many reversals and rug-pulls as you’d expect). The final episode before its winter break was “The Answer,” a touching spotlight on William Matthew Harper’s Chidi, which might have been enough to make this list all on its own. (And given the surprise cameo/quasi-crossover in its first episode of 2020, I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up here again next year too.)

3. Unbelievable (Netflix)

The true story of a serial rape case adapted from journalism by ProPublica, The Marshall Project and This American Life, Unbelievable is one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking and satisfying procedurals I have ever seen. As crushing as it is to watch the initial investigation completely mishandled and devolve to gaslighting, it is powerful and inspiring to watch compassionate public servants and actual good detective work be carried out as the series progresses. Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette are uniformly excellent here (as they also were in their respective film roles in Booksmart, Marriage Story and Knives Out this year).

2. Watchmen (HBO)

Showrunner Damon Lindelof (LOST, The Leftovers) takes some incredibly bold swings in his limited-run sequel to the groundbreaking 80s graphic novel that deconstructed the ideas of vigilantism and superheroics. Picking up in the same alternate reality as that story but in present day, the main action is shifted to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the central theme is race relations. It could have gone way off the rails in a million different ways, but I found it to be incredibly successful. Each episode is a captivating work of art and it somehow seems to top itself with each subsequent installment. While I appreciate the book, I don’t love it; this series takes that source material seriously and, to me, completely transcends it.

1. When They See Us (Netflix)

As compelling as it is devastating, this miniseries from Ava DuVernay (who directed and co-wrote all 4 parts) dramatizes the lives of the wrongly convicted children the media dubbed “the Central Park Five.” Even with some familiarity of the story from watching Ken Burns’ documentary years ago, I was utterly gutted by the depiction of the injustices and systemic racism that stole these childhoods. Everyone in the cast shines, but Jharrel Jerome’s portrayal of Korey Wise (the only one of the group played by the same actor as a child and adult – and so convincingly) is truly phenomenal. Not a comfortable watch but an essential one.

Bonus! Musical Comedy Specials:

The Unauthorized Bash Bros. Experience (Netflix) – This “visual poem” from the Lonely Island presents “an album of raps” recorded by Jose Canseco (Andy Samberg) and Mark McGwire (Akiva Schaffer) at their steroid-fueled 80s peak with the Oakland A’s. Your likely enjoyment is probably about equal to your reaction to that description. The songs are great, catchy and hysterical on their own, but the videos take it to another level, parodying everything from 80s infomercials to Enya to Beyonce’s Lemonade. There is no 30 minutes of TV I rewatched more in 2019.

John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix) – Debuting on Christmas Eve, this children’s television homage/parody snuck in just under the wire. The words of the day could be fear and mortality, as the group of kids Mulaney interacts with reveal their personal phobias and several skits revolve around existential angst. By the end of the first musical number I was sold, by the time David Byrne showed up I was committed, and by “Mr. Music’s” madcap finale I wished it could last forever.

#tv #television

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 6 years ago

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2016 Year in REVIEW Part 2:

Hello there, everybody! My name is JoyofCrimeArt and this is part two of my two part "2016 Year in REVIEW. If you haven't seen part one yet I recommend that you do so before reading this part. So here's the link 2016 Year in REVIEW: Part 1 and let's just jump right back into it.

So last we left off Nickelodeon created a new show that is both critically loved and is doing strong in the ratings. Things are looking good for them, there back in peoples good graces, so what does Nickelodeon do next? Admit that everything they've done for the last decade in a half has sucked and goes full 90's kid on us of course! Screw everything we've made since "Rocket Power" THE 90'S WHERE ALL THAT, SON! NICKELODEON WAS A MISTAKE! Yes, right as summer was starting to roll around Nickelodeon decided to go back to the days when people liked them with a plethora of reboots and revivals. Cause why move forward, when you can move backwards, am I right? All jokes aside, the idea of reboots and revivals, as I've stated before, are not bad. But only if it's with a property that has potential with a continuation. or if the series can be done differently, with a unique spin to it. It's just that Nickelodeon announced so many so fast, that it feels like an act of desperation. Cartoon Network announced a lot of reboots too, but 1.) They didn't announce as many and 2.) They had shows on there network that had critical success while Nickelodeon has not. So it feels like there just trying to get that old success back. But whatever, it might feel a bit desperate but that doesn't mean the reboots and revivals will be bad. So let's go through all the stuff Nickelodeon has announced and see how it looks. First Nickelodeon rebranded the "The 90's are all That." into "The Splat" which is a much catchier name, though not much other than that seemed to change. At first there were showing a lot of shows that weren't on "The 90's are all That." but now it just seems like it's the same stuff "The 90's are all That." use to show. Though now the block is much longer, so there's that. Not anything that really interest me, but I'm sure it interest some other people. A "Legend of the Hidden Temple" movie was announced. I watched it, and I didn't really like it very much, though my older brother who did grow up with Legend of the Hidden Temple seemed to like it. I've never seen the original game show except for once or twice, so maybe it wasn't "for me." but a revival should be made for anybody to enjoy, not just old fans. The whole movie was pretty much just "Hey look, a purple parrot! Look, the steps of knowledge. Remember the steps of knowledge. I 'member." In terms of story and acting it was about on par with your average Nickelodeon original movie. A two part "Hey Arnold! Jungle Movie." was announced, and while I've never seen Hey Arnold! I'm glad that they get to conclude the series, especially since the only reason it wasn't made was because of some weird legal reasons. Also a "Rocko's Modern Life" tv movie was announced and I'm just like, why? Is there more potential with this idea? Like I'm not saying the show is bad or anything, and I'm not saying that the tv movie will be bad. I'm just what can you really do with a modern day "Rocko's Modern Life?" I mean they could make fun of some modern things I guess, but I don't know. It just seems like there are better choices for shows to make specials out of. What I am interested in is a "Ren and Stimpy" theatrical short, set to play before the third Spongebob Squarepants movie. I'm shocked they got John K. back after what happened between him and Nickelodeon. I think John K's style would work better in a short, so he'd have more time and budget to make it the way he wants to, and wouldn't have to worry about deadlines. So yeah, it's kind a mixed bad with these revivals. Some of them sound cool. It just feels weird to me that Nickelodeon is just starting to be good again, but then they go through this midlife crisis and act like everything they did after 1999 was crap. Nickelodeon has made good shows after the nineties ended, and are even making some good shows now, so I don't see why they need to do this. I do wonder how successful these revivals will be though, as the "Hidden Temple" movie only did "okay" ratings wise. (Though they did post it on iTunes first, so maybe that was a factor.) Anyway, speaking of reboots that people were actually excited about animation fans where greeted to a reboot that they were actually pumped for with Netlix's "Votron: Legendary Defender"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXW1waqRCb0

This show is a bit hard for me to talk about. I can definitely say that I recommended it, but I'm not one hundred percent sure I can say I loved it. What do I mean by that? Well I can say that the show has a lot of amazing elements.One, it's an action show through and through, which is kinda rare these days. It has a really great voice cast, featuring Jeremy Shada (Finn from Adventure Time) Kimberly Brooks (Jasper from Steven Universe) Josh Keaton (Spider-Man from Spectacular Spider-Man and Hal Jordan from Green Lantern TAS) Along with several other talented actors. The animation was also really good! It was a bit choppy at parts but for the most part it looked really good. The show was created by two people who worked on "Legend of Korra" and it shows in the art style and even the storytelling. (Cause let's all be real here, Hunk is pretty much just Bolin in space.) The story was told pretty well and overall it's a great show but...for some reason I could never really get that into it. And I don't know why! I mean sure I have some problems with the show. The villains where kinda bland, (except for Cree Summer's character, oh by the way she's in this.) A lot of the action was kinda repetitive, and there's a subplot with Pidge that, while interesting, didn't really serve much purpose. Also I wish we could of seen more locations other than just the castle and a couple other planets (but season two seems to promise that if the finale was any indication.) But still these are mostly nitpicks. So why don't I love this show like I thought I was going to? I don't really have a answer for that. It's weird, cause I should love this show! But it never really connected much with me, and I don't know why. Maybe it was the generic villains making the threat not seem that dire, or maybe it was the somewhat repetitive nature of the show. I don't know, and it makes this show hard to talk about. Maybe It had something to do with the way I watched it, as I watched all eleven episodes over the course of three months. Maybe that's part of it, but I feel that if I enjoyed it more In would of wanted to watch the series much faster. Like how I binged Bojack Horseman over a couple of days. The Nostalgia Critic has a video about movies that are so good it's bad, [link] and that might be a bit of what's happening here, maybe? I don't know. I am going to check out season two. And I do suggest you watch it, as everyone else I hear talk about the show seems to love it, and it's probably just some problem that I have with it, that most likely won't effect what you guys. Check it out if it seems interesting to ya. Anyway as May began to come to a close online production company Rooster Teeth produced the web show that we didn't ask for, but turns out we secretly needed, with RWBY CHIBI!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu6D5jR1rSQ

I'm going to just quickly talk about this because I do want to do a full review of both RWBY and RWBY Chibi at some point, so let's breeze through this. RWBY Chibi is a comedic spin-off of the RWBY webseries. It focuses on the more comedic aspects of the RWBY characters when there not off fighting monsters and bad guys. If this description sounds familiar to you it's because IT'S TEEN TITANS GO BUT GOOD! The show is adorable, and really really charming. The show isn't perfect though. I first six or so episodes start off pretty meh, with some very repetitive jokes (specifically about Blake.) but as the season goes on they start adding more and more characters into the show, and they show begins to improve a lot. The more characters they add the more opportunity for jokes they create. And once they start adding the Chibi-fied versions on the villains, the show becomes God-tier. The animation on the show is also kinda bad. The models themselves look great but whenever a character isn't talking or doing something they just stand perfectly still, not blinking or moving any part of themselves for twenty to thirty seconds at a time. But this also improves a bit as the series goes on, and it's not like the main series where the animation is the big draw. Also sometimes the jokes can go on a bit long. This series is great if your a RWBY fan, but sadly I do say that you do kinda have to be a RWBY fan because the series does spoil some stuff. Episode six and eight are really the only ones that spoils anything huge, but a lot of the jokes are in jokes and is better to see if you've the original show. You'll still get em without seeing the original, but there better if you've had. So go watch RWBY and RWBY Chibi damn it! They even had an entire episode that was just adapting RWBY fan comics! This show is so cool! So after that amazingness happened more amazingness, Steven Universe came back with a Summer of Steven bringing us everything we wanted out of Steven Universe. More backstory on Gem Civilization! More Pearl being gay! More new Fusions! More Pearl being gay! More episodes focusing on the humans that everyone hated because it didn't give more backstory on the gems even though the episodes were still really fun and people should really just chill! More Lapis being salty as fu*k! And more Pearl being gay! We even got an new half hour episode where we meet an old Crystal Gem name Bismuth. An episode that got so divisive when debates broke out weather or not murdering all the homeworld gem is okay. And a smaller discussion on weather or not Avatar TLA finale was good or not. Okay, not really the last thing, but still. It got to the point when fans started attacking Lauren Zuke on twitter, even though SHE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EPISODE! But that's what they get for trying to gemsplain towards Bismuth about morality. (For the record gemsplaing is like Mansplaing but with Gems.) Dumb jokes that'll make people hate me aside, it was the Summer of Steven was a blast, and a highlight for the whole year in the animation world. But Roster Teeth animation wasn't done with just RWBY Chibi, as they made another new web series with there adult animated series, Camp Camp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv5JfMDLgCU

Like Powerpuff Girls, this is a show I've already talked about before, PLUG! Camp Camp REVIEW: So I'll try to be brief. Camp Camp is a great web seires that manages to do a great job mimicking the art style of a PBS show, which hilariously contrasts the raunchy adult humor that the series offers. It does adult humor really well, and never fells like it's being raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy. As I said in my original review the show feels one half Total Drama Island and one half South Park, and the combination works. The show has a stellar voice cast that includes Yuri Lowenthal, Travis Willingham, and even Dante Basco in one episode. It's really a rather impressive production for a web series, and the shows only main flaw stems from a rather unlikable lead character, which does hinder the show quite a bit. Still though, it was a fun show all things considered and the speech in the final episode was a fantastic moment for the series that gave a powerful lesson about nihilism vs idealism. I don't want to give to much away but it's interesting to compare it to a lot of the adults shows out there like "Rick and Morty" and "Bojack Horseman" as it offers a bit of a different perspective on the issue. (Not that the way Rick and Morty and Bojack talk about these themes are bad per say, it's just neat to see a slightly different perspective.) Camp Camp is a show I highly recommend. So Sanjay and Craig also ended this year. I never really watched the show, wasn't really my thing. Not much to say about it other than, it was event that happened this year. Meanwhile back on Netflix Bojack Horseman aired it's third seasons. (WARNING! SPOILERS FOR BOJACK! SKIP THIS PART IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN UNSPOILED!) So this season follows Bojack trying to get the fame and aspiration he always dreamed of by being seen as a serious actor. He gets a girlfriend who helps him, they end up breaking up by the end of the season. The season starts with Bojack holding on to the development that he had from the previous season, but after realizing that the thing he though he wanted wasn't what he really wanted he ends up relapsing and goes on a binger, possibly scars his ex-crushes daughter, and ends with him learning that he has to be a better person, and is inspired by a runner. Oh wait, that was the season two plot description. Here's the season three plot description. So this season follows Bojack trying to get the fame and aspiration he always dreamed of by being seen as a serious actor. He gets a girlfriend who helps him, they end up breaking up by the end of the season. The season starts with Bojack holding on to the development that he had from the previous season, but after realizing that the thing he though he wanted wasn't what he really wanted he ends up relapsing and goes on a binger, possibly scars his ex-crushes daughter, and ends with him learning that he has to be a better person, and is inspired by a runner. Again. (Oh my God! This is a joke! Please don't kill me internet! I still like the show!) SPOILERS ARE NOW OVER! Then, as yearly tradition, Cartoon Network played a new mini-series. Though I don't think people were as excited for this one as they were for some previous ones...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMC9jnFAG4

(Love this show or hate it, you got to admit that the this theme song is pretty great! When was the last time we even had a minute long theme song?) So Teen Titans Go! had a miniseries this year with a five part "Island Adventure." Though like "Long Live the Royal" it's not really a continuous story and more just a couple of episodes with a vague through line. The premise of the mini-series isn't a bad one. I like the "trapped on an island one." plot and there's lots of different stories you can tell with that plot, so Teen Titans Go! decided to simply do the plot five times, with each episode parodying a different island themed story. It was cool seeing a change of location for the Titans, as most episodes don't really have them leaving the Titan's Tower, so that was nice. But sadly the good idea was ruined by the fact that it's still Teen Titans Go! and it still had the Teen Titan Go! style of humor which, in my humble opinion, isn't really that good. It's definitely not the worse thing Teen Titan's Go! has done, but if you don't like TTG I don't think this miniseries will really sway you. Overall it was pretty meh. Though if you like TTG than you'll probably enjoy it fine. Also, (spoilers, I guess?) the twist turns out that the whole time...It was really a hater bashing episode the whole time. Ha ha, what a twist- (Next thing please.) Harvey Beaks was announced to end. I never really watched Harvey Beaks, though the couple of episodes I have seen kinda make me wish I did because the show seemed like it was pretty good. Nothing amazing, but the show looked good. So I'm kinda sad to see it go, because a lot of adult fans seemed to like it. It would of been a good show to pair with The Loud House I think, but sadly the numbers just didn't lead that way. Also in BIG animation news for Cartoon Network it was announced that Adventure Time and Regular Show would be ending. Adventure Time still has two seasons to air before it ends and Regular Show is going to be ending in January. It's kinda a bittersweet feeling seeing these shows go. It's not really surprising to see these shows go, considering how Cartoon Network barely reruns them, but still. Adventure Time has been a bit rocky lately though I do think it still has some great episodes. Though these great episodes are becoming rarer as time goes on, so I guess it is good, from an artistic standpoint to see it go. As for Regular Show I think the show was pretty solid throughout. The newest season's been a bit of a dip (I'll get to that in a minute.) so I think, from an artistic standpoint, It's the perfect time to stop. That way the show will be looked back on fondly in the future. And speaking of Regular Show the show went into SPPPAAAACCCCCEEEEE this year. Now for a little while my family was a cord cutting family, we have satellite now, but the last time I saw Regular Show before we cut the cord we where in an arc about Rigby going back to high school, and when we get satellite again there suddenly in space, and I'm just like "Yup! Okay, this is happening now!" While I do admire them changing up the formula by sending them to space, I honestly don't love the change. Something that I really liked about Regular Show was the contrast. The episodes would start mundane but end up being fantastical. But now that there in space all the time it gets rid of the contrast cause it's weirdness on top of weirdness. But maybe it could work in a Steven Universe kinda way, where it's like an awesome space opera or something. Well it doesn't work that way either, because they still treat outer space like it's mundane, but it's not, it's space! They try to do both, and I get why they tried that, but It doesn't really work. Also they've been to space before! And where is party horse, everyone's least favorite character? He's in space, why isn't he here? That being said, the show isn't awful or anything. There still are some good episodes, like "Terror Tales of the Park VI," "No Train No Gain," and especially "Christmas in Space." So let's hope Regular Show can go out with a bang. A BIG BANG! GET IT CAUSE SPACE! HAHA! (Kill me now!) Anyway, at least Cartoon Network has made some shows to fill in those time slots because CN's made not one, but two cartoons this year. Powerpuff Girls 2016 and our next entry, Mighty Magiswords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pArLEicSM

Mighty Magiswords was based on a series on online digital shorts on the Cartoon Network app. I haven't seen these shorts, and thus will only be talking about the eleven minute series here. The show...honestly I'm not crazy about. It's not awful on anything, but I think it's just a personal preference. The main problem I have with the show is the pacing! Every character talks so frickin' fast, and the show throws so many jokes at you in such rapid succession that there's no time to process it. Also beyond that the show just doesn't seem that interesting. I don't know, I just feel like everything this show is doing was done better in like "Dave the Barbarian." (I think. Was Dave the Barbarian good? I liked it when I was, like, seven or eight. But I was also pretty dumb when I was seven or eight, and I've never really gone back to it.) I mean the shows not awful or anything. I like the voice acting on the main two characters. Also Egoraptors in the show, and it's cool to see a guy like him make the jump from internet to television as an actual recurring character. That's pretty neat. But overall I wasn't really able to get that into this show. It just seemed very...average, y'know? But maybe if they slow the pace down a bit it could improve. I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. Also Archer was announced to end after season ten, due to the creators choice. Wha-What the heck is going on! Why is 2016 the year that all celebrities and cartoons die?! Well, at least this means the show will actually have a conclusion, so that's nice. Meanwhile, Disney XD aired there new show, "Milo's Murphy's Law" or as I call it "Phineas and Ferb: Weird Al Addition!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARTRJQfV90k

This show is pretty good, all things considered. It's basically what would happen if someone with Candace Flynn's luck and gave them Phineas Flynn's personality. The show is fairly entertaining and features Weird Al Yankovic in his first staring role in a cartoon, though the voice is a little jarring what with it being a 57 year old man voicing a thirteen year old. Did you know Weird Al was 57? Did he like, find the fountain of youth or something? the show's main problem though is the fact that the humor is very reminiscent of Phineas and Ferb, so it kinda has trouble getting it's own kinda feel. If you liked the early seasons of Phineas and Ferb you'll like this show, and if you don't like early Phineas and Ferb than you won't. Also Milo, like Phineas, is a very static character who pretty much only has "happy." as his only emotion. But the show is still funny, having the same quick wit that Phineas and Ferb had, while also not be quite as formulaic. Note I said quite, as the show is still pretty formulaic, but not as much as Phineas and Ferb. In other news there was a controversy going on where C.H Greenblatt called out Nickelodeon for how they treated there show, and was forced to issue a retraction against his own wished. I get why some people are so upset, but are people really surprised? Like C.H Greenblatt publicly insulted his bosses. What did he, or anyone else, think was going to happen. I'm sure if someone at Cartoon Network or Disney tried to call out the networks they would be told to make a retraction too. That's kinda what happens when your a notable figure and you publicly denounce your boss. And people are saying that this is proof that Nickelodeon is a terrible company to work at, to which I say "Um, yeah. Duh." The Loud House is the first Nickelodeon original series to be treated decently on the network in years, of course it's an awful place to work. The creator's behind "Legend of Korra" never made a formal address calling out Nickelodeon, but we don't need them to do that to know that they most likely weren't to thrilled with what the channel did to there show. I just don't get what the big deal is. I thought we all already knew this. And in other news Young Justice was announced to get a third season and...wait, third season? Ha ha! Very funny guys and...wait, it's real? This is for real,this isn't a joke? OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! THIS CALLS FOR A DANK LOUD HOUSE MEME!

(A Greg Weisman show got a third season and the very next day Donald Trump was announced our President. Ladies and Gentlemen Hell has officially frozen over!) I'm excited. Very excited. We don't know where the show will air, but the most likely theory is Netflix. I am very happy about this. So over Thanksgiving weekend Cartoon Network had a had a three day long Teen Titans Go! marathon. Seemed innocent enough, but then people started screaming how this was the DEATH OF CARTOON NETWORK! Apparently this marathon was proof that Cartoon Network only cares about Teen Titans Go! and the network is only going to continue to over saturate itself! People where furious about this marathon, and I really don't get it at all. I mean, I don't like Teen Titans Go!, but it's just a marathon for Thanksgiving. That's not really that strange. Remember when Cartoon Network use to marathon The Iron Giant twenty four hours on Thanksgiving? It's the same principle. Yes, Iron Giant is a lot better than Teen Titans Go! but it's not the end of the world. And while everybody was complaining about this marathon Disney XD did the exact same thing with Gravity Falls. They had another three day marathon in which they showed the series four times! Or FXX which did ANOTHER "Every Simpsons Ever" marathon for thirteen frickin days! How come those channels aren't being called out for over saturation? The only difference I see is that one is a show people online like, while the other is a show that people online hate. It was just a Thanksgiving marathon, not the end of the whole frickin world. If you don't like Cartoon Network's over saturation with Teen Titans Go! complain about the five hours of it that they show on days that aren't special occasions. In other news Disney XD bought the rights to the entire Pokemon anime library, and is expected to start showing it sometime next year. It's really weird for me, cause growing up Cartoon Network always had Pokemon. I know Kids WB premiered it, but Cartoon Network always had the rerun rights. It'll be weird seeing it on Disney XD, though this is probably for the best honestly. Cartoon Network did not treat Pokemon right the last few years. It aired early on Saturday mornings and still got really high ratings, sometimes beating Uncle Grandpa and Powerpuff Girls 2016. Imagine how much better it would of done if it was advertised and given a good time slot. But Cartoon Network never did this. I think Disney XD will realize the potential Pokemon has, given there treatment of Yo-Kai Watch. I can see them giving it a good time slot, and rerunning it, and it doing good there. Also between Yo-Kai, Pokemon, and the upcoming Beyblade show that they acquired Disney XD's really getting quite a collection of Saturday Morning Anime. All they need to do is get Yu-Gi-Oh rights from Nickelodeon and they'll be set! Then Cartoon Network unveiled there newest superhero cartoon, Justice League Action! Finally a DC show that isn't Teen Titans Go! and-Awwww Crap!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6anrDYEacg

(Well on the plus side, at least they advertised it.) I was hyped for this show before it came out. Now I want to preface part by saying I've only seen the first four episodes of this show. That's what happens when you review a show that premiered in December. But judging it by what I've seen, I really like this show. It's a fun superhero comedy action show featuring a ton of characters both iconic and obscure. The episodes may be eleven minutes long, but this is an action show, but a lighthearted one. Think Batman Brave and the Bold meets the Justice League show form the early 2000's. The action is good, even though there are parts where you can tell they most likely had a smaller budget than say Young Justice. My only problems with the show is the pacing, (which isn't as bad as I thought it would be but still seems a bit rushed) and there are several plot holes just in the one hour special alone. But other than that the show is pretty solid. It's great to see an action superhero show on Cartoon Network again. So....how long you think It'll be before it get's replaced with Teen Titans Go! reruns?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTkFgj4dA1w

Now when I first planned this review out, I was intending to end with Justice League Action but then, literally just a few days ago, I decided to check out one more show for this review. That show would be the Netflix original series Trollhunters created by Guillermo del Toro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2oNgZlbSKI I want to preface this review by saying that as of the time of me writing this, I have only seen four episode of this show. So everything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. If I wasn't on a deadline I wouldn't even be talking about this show yet, but since I am on a deadline let's talk about it. The show has a lot of good elements to it. It has great animation for a tv budget. (Well, not a tv budget, but still.) This show also has a great voice cast including the late Anton Yelchin, Kelsey Grammer, Ron Perlman, and Tom "I make all the fan girls wet" Hiddleston. The show has a nice sense of adventure and there is also a lot of creativity with the world building. Also Jim, our main protagonist, is a very likeable character. There's only one big problem, and this may go away as the show goes on, but the show uses a lot of cliches. It's another "kid is the chosen one, and he has to balance his secret life with high school, and he starts letting people down because of this. He has a fat comic relief best friend and all he want's to do is impress the pretty girl AND THE PROMS TOMORROW!" But again, they don't do these cliche's badly per say, they just don't add that much new to them. So far. Again, I've only seen four episodes so far, so please be spoiler free in the comments. I've heard good things about this show, so I'm assuming this improves as the series goes on. Or maybe it doesn't. I don't know. Check it out if your at all interested and find out for yourself. So that was 2016 year on animation reviewed. It was quite a year! There was some bad, I'd maybe say even more bad than the average year, but there was a lot of good too. It was a wild ride and I'm looking forward to what 2017 brings to the table. So to cap this year off, allow me to present the top 9 best shows of 2016 (out of the ones I reviewed here!) We're just going to breeze through em, and keep in mind this list is a little bias, as shows from the earlier part of the year have a higher chance of winning me over than shows at the end of the year, due to me having seen more episodes of them. Ready? Here we go! 9. Mighty Magiswords 8. Powerpuff Girls 2016 7. Voltron: Legendary Defenders 6. Troll Hunters 5. The Loud House 4. Milo Murphy's Law 3. Justice Leauge Action 2. Camp Camp 1. RWBY Chibi Though this is all subject to change. Also keep in mind that I'm not very good at ranking things. A lot of these things could be swapped around, as my opinion on things as specific as placement change very often, sometimes even day to day. So take this list with a grain of salt. Also keep in mid I haven't seen every show made in 2016, and missed out on a bunch of them. Like all of these ones! (Bordertown, Brad Neely's Harg Nallin' Sclopio Peepio (Da hecks with that title?), Camp WWE, Dream Corp LLC. (Not fully animated but still), Elena of Avalor, Future Worm, Get Blake!, Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh, Kong: King of the Apes, Kuu Kuu Harajuku (Saw half an episode once, though I was on drugs), Legend of Chamberlain Heights, Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures, My Knight and Me, Pacific Heat, Peanuts, Right Now Kapow, Son of Zorn (Also not fully animated, but still) But hopefully I got most of the big ones. So that's my review. If I had to grade this year for animation, I'd give B-. Good, but could improve. I hope this list was able to act as a brief distraction from all of the tragedy that happened this year. I know these reviews don't do much but if these reviews are able to bring somebody a brief moment of joy, and make someone forget about there problems for a little bit and just make them laugh or see things from a different point of view, than it's all worth it. At least that's my point of view. What did you think of 2016 as a whole for animation? Leave your thoughts in the comments down bellow. I'd love to start a discussion, even if you disagree with some of the stuff I said. I think it's important to start conversations like this, otherwise you end up in an echo chamber. If you have thoughts on any of these shows or events tell me what you think. Please fav, follow and comment if you liked the review, (Cause if you can't tell I put a lot of work into it, so I'd be very appreciative!) And have a great year! (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.) All credit for the "Lisa Ships Meme Blank" goes to https://www.deviantart.com/mixelfangirl100 It was a lot of fun to fill out, so here's the link to the original Lisa Ships Meme Blank

#Voltron #RWBY Chibi #Camp Camp #Review #Trollhunter

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irarelypostanything · 6 years ago

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Bojack Horseman - Some Thoughts before Watching Season 5

I wonder what it’s like to be a TV critic, who has to binge-watch an entire Netflix series the day it drops (for critics? How do they get it early?) and then rush a 2-page analysis to market before the other major publications write their own reviews? That job sounds kind of stressful and amazing at the same time.

When season one came out, it was interesting how divided people were between the first half and the second half. I was in the camp that liked the whole season, but the series definitely experienced a change in tone. In that absurdist world, with a talking horse and fabulously rich characters, we met this estranged friend who was dying of cancer and refused to forgive Bojack for turning his back on him. These sorts of dark moments, spread out in the absurd setting, are the thing that make Bojack Horseman work as a series.

*Spoilers*

I want to pay attention to Diane Nguyen, whose actions set most of the series in motion. Bojack wasn’t exactly a happy person, but reading Diane’s honest and unfiltered biography of him was almost more than he could take. He asked for the whole truth, warts and all, but when finally confronted with his life story he lashed out in juvenile insults before admitting that she was a better writer than him. So began the winding journey of Bojack’s path, maybe to redemption and sometimes almost to suicide but mostly just from one episode to the next. Things got dark. Things got really dark.

And then, in season four, Bojack experienced some meaningful change.

He’s not a fundamentally different person. I recall that he spent a fair portion of that season fixing a house he knocked down and stealing power from a gas station because he didn’t understand the concept of an electric car. But he also helped other characters in a meaningful and profoundly selfless way. He helped his half-sister find her real mother, and he didn’t have an ulterior motive. He helped Carolyn, the one he’s been dependent on for so long. Lastly, and most importantly, he forgave his mom and let one of her last few moments be peaceful. He tried to evoke the memory of ice cream. In all flashbacks of his mother she has never actually eaten ice cream because her own mother was obsessed with beauty, but Bojack’s imagery still seemed to work.

12 minutes. I need to wrap this up.

So Diane and Carolyn, the characters who have often acted as Bojack’s two voices of reason...how are they doing? Not great. The creator of the series said that he doesn’t really believe in happy endings. I think his words went something like, “You can get married and have the best day of your life, but then you have to get up again the next day. You can have the worst day of your life, and then the next day won’t be the worst day of your life.” People on forums have been pretty critical of Diane for being unhappy, even though she’s in a situation that doesn’t mean much to young viewers like myself but probably means a lot to people who know more about marriage: She’s married to someone who doesn’t seem to understand her on some fundamental level. Bojack does. I don’t ship them...this doesn’t seem like the happy kind of series for shipping...but staying with her husband and staying friends with Bojack may be her best option...maybe. And Carolyn, like Diane, has her work. That could keep her preoccupied for at least a season, I imagine.

This isn’t really a show you want to be a part of, unless you’re Todd. They’re really wealthy and sometimes extremely depressed, all of them, because it’s a series that manages to be about talking animals and roads to Hawaii and real life. So as a closing thought, here’s my favorite thing I’ve read in comments:

the good news: Hollyhock is back

the bad news: That’s probably not a good thing for hollyhock

#20-minute freewrite #bojack horseman #season 4 #thoughts

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theonegayteen · 3 years ago

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1. What made you start the show?

My story’s a little bit odd 😂 but here it is. A couple of years ago I was invited to a PowerPoint Party, and so I decided to do a PowerPoint about typical “Queerbaited” relationships in media, whether I believed there was actually queer-baiting involved in each of those shows, and just rant a bit about the TV industry and why queer-baiting is so rampant in the first place. During my research for this PowerPoint I was looking up on different websites couples that were considered to be “queer-baited” and I came across Buck and Eddie from 911. (I believe this was around when 911 Season 3 was airing). Some people believed the show to be queer-baiting them, but others believed that Buck and Eddie would get together later. I was intrigued, but I mostly forgot about them until 911 posts started popping up on my Tumblr dashboard once the Season 3 finale aired. I started looking more into the Buddie ship and then reading fanfics and watching videos about 911. And that’s when I decided to watch the show!

2. When did you start watching the show?

This is also kind of a complicated question 😂. At the time I wanted to begin watching 911, I was already binge-watching a lot of different shows with my roommate (Servant, Supernatural (we lasted about 6 episodes before giving up), Bojack Horseman, Succession, Cobra Kai etc.), so instead of watching Season 4 of 911 live, I would go on Tumblr while an episode was airing and scroll through people live blogging the episodes. That’s how I “watched” all of Season 4, (which means yes I was on Tumblr when 4x13 and 4x14 aired, which was just … insane.) I finally decided that I needed to find a way to ACTUALLY WATCH the show when Season 5 began. So I went around begging my friends for access to their HULU accounts, my best friend James let me use his and I could finally watch the series from the beginning! I didn’t fully catch up until 5x10 was airing (due to technical complications and me switching to several different HULU accounts) so then last minute I downloaded the Fox Now app and I was finally able to watch my first episode live! 🤩 And then I immediately started bawling my eyes out because Eddie was leaving.

#911 fox #911 ask game #buddie

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hallelujuh · 6 years ago

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shay’s favorite tv shows from 2017

this has been in my drafts for.... nine months.... fuck.

Written in December 2017, updates are from September 2018.

Considering how many new, innovative shows are around these days, I didn’t get too adventurous this year, but I’m satisfied with the ones I did watch. I discovered new shows, I was impressed by the shows I’ve been following for years, and I learned to appreciate the work that goes into television more. Here’s my top ten TV shows..

10. Thirteen Reasons Why - In all honestly, this is only here because I haven’t been able to watch Peaky Blinders yet, and it’s probably too late. (UPDATE: Watched it in Jan and it was amazing.) This show received a lot of backlash, and for good reason, although it had its moments. The characters were well-written, the relationships were given depth that is often lacking in other high school-set narratives, and the tone was great. I’ve always loved watching things that make me profoundly sad, and this show did just that. (UPDATE: Season 2 was fucking garbage lmao.)

Standout episode: Tape 1, Side B. It’s a cripplingly depressing show, but this episode stood out as a moment of light in Hannah’s dark reality. Her friendship with Jessica and Alex was nice in the beginning - their banter, them having a spot in the coffee shop. I remember assuming Alex was gay (I believe his actor is, so I wasn’t too off) and thinking that’d be good for Hannah, to have a guy friend who wasn’t interested in her and wouldn’t add relationship drama to her life. Boy, was I wrong. Still, having seen the show at the beginning of the year, this episode is the only one I remember as enjoying, so it gets this spot.

9. A Series of Unfortunate Events - I read the books in elementary school, and they’re one of my favorite series of all time. I’m also a huge fan of the film, though I know most aren’t. So I was very excited for this series, and it didn’t completely disappoint. While I found myself longing for the actors from the 2004 motion picture, and some of the directing decisions weren’t choice, it was cool to see The Miserable Mill finally come to life, and I loved the Baudelaires just as much here as anyone else. I’ll be tuning in to next season, since I’ve very, very excited to see how they handle the next three books. I can’t wait to meet the Quagmire triplets, and Esme, and Jacques! It’ll be awesome. I hope they portray it well, but there’s no film to compare it to from here on out, so maybe it’ll be different.

Standout episode: The Reptile Room: Part One/Two. Like I said, I wasn’t a huge fan of how most of the characters were portrayed in this adaption, but I did love Uncle Monty. He was just as wonderful as he was in the film and books. Watching his interactions with the kids was really nice, and as always, made me wish they could’ve remained with him. Stephano wasn’t as menacing here as he is in the film (that knife scene is the point in the film where you go, “woah, this dude’s for real. he’s scary”), which was a bummer because I still thought Olaf was a laughably bad and incompetent villain by the finale, but I did like Poe’s hysteria, and I really loved the movie theatre scene.

8. Riverdale - Oops I never wrote this dfdsbfjdbfjds.

7. South Park - While we all can agree the last season was a mess, and this one was only a slight improvement, it did have it’s moments. I’ve been a fan for five years now, so at this point, they’ll never disappoint me, tbfh.

Standout episode: Doubling Down. While Put it Down was wonderful, both satirically and because of Craig and Tweek’s adorable relationship, the eighth episode of the season was my personal favorite (UPDATE: Not sure why ‘cause I didn’t specify then and I’m not sure now.)

6. Dear White People - I didn’t do this one either damn.

Standout Episode: Chapter V. While the show is a comedic take on racial relations, this episode is an emotional, serious change. The Barry Jenkins-directed episode shows us that the subject is no laughing matter, and it very clearly deserves this spot.

5. Rick and Morty - Yet another show I discovered this year, during the summer. I’d been meaning to watch it for ages, and I finally got around to it. While the fanbase is pretty much poison, the show is pretty damn good. Maybe not what it’s hyped up to be, but great none-the-less. I’m a big fan of adult cartoons, and RaM isn’t entirely satirical like South Park, and it’s not self-aware like BoJack, but it holds up. It’s probably so popular because of how unique it is.

Standout episode: The Ricklantis Mixup. While my personal favorite of Season 3 was The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy, because I adore Jerry, I think we can all agree that the was the best episode of the season, if not the series. Like, really. Holy shit.

4. Gotham - I began watching this show last year, and caught up to season three around halfway through it. It began to drag a bit, admittedly, like it couldn’t carry it’s own weight - but now the show’s on season four, and it gets a little wild sometimes, but it’s holding quite a bit better, I’d say. I was pretty fucking impressed, especially with the Nygmobblepot stuff.

Standout episode: A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight. Although Mad City: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies from Season 3 is a close runner-up, for all the loose ends it ties up, and so cleanly, too - the winter finale gets this spot. It had me on the edge of my metaphorical seat (since I was actually curled up in bed) the entire time. While Sophia’s character and her motivations had remained muddy since her introduction, her badassery finally came to the forefront, and it was awesome. The way she tore down Penguin from his throne? Incredible. We know he’ll return, as he has so many times, but really, that was so incredible. Considering he’s my favorite character, I should feel worse. However, Sophia executed her plan so well, I was too awed to hate her. Also, Jerome’s back! I’m extremely excited to see Jerome’s role in the upcoming episodes. (Update: Oh, honey, you got a big storm coming...)

3. BoJack Horseman - I binged the hell out of this show just before season four came out, because it was so creative and thought-provoking and hilariously depressing. The fourth season was notably wonderful in a lot of ways, particularly because of Todd’s sexuality arc (the first out asexual character in a TV show!) and how well it was handled, but also because of the mature themes they took on. Princess Carolyn’s miscarriages, Diane and Mr. PB’s failing marriage, BoJack’s struggle to forgive his mother, Beatrice’s own troubled upbringing, Hollyhock’s eating disorder. I watched the whole season in three days when it was first released, four months ago, and I’m currently considering re-watching it after rereading the summaries of each episode to refresh my memory. I’d forgotten how phenomenal it was. It’s on another level - it really is.

Standout episode: Time’s Arrow. Though there wasn’t a single weak episode this season, this one definitely stood out. Following the tradition of uniquely depressing eleventh episodes, Time’s Arrow focuses on BoJack’s mother and how her turbulent childhood affected her. Gorgeously executed, it makes us pity the woman who made our favorite alcoholic horse the way he is, and it concludes with BoJack making peace with his mother, who he had spent so long resenting. It’s just a gorgeous episode. I think I’m going to rewatch it right now, haha.

2. Mr. Robot - I’ve wanted to watch this show since it came out, but I finally began and finished the first two seasons just weeks before Season 3 came out. Since I’m discussing my favorites of 2017, I won’t be talking about those first two seasons here. I’ll be focusing on Season 3, which has been, in my opinion, incredible. What began as a modern, nerdy take on Fight Club has become so much more; a masterfully dark and suspenseful fictionalized look at the looming political state of our world. We’ve gotten new characters (Irving, who’s a gem), we’ve learned more about older but mysterious characters (poor repressed Dom), we’ve had to say goodbye to old characters (I’m still mad about ******), and best of all, this season has been Tyrell heavy, and we even got to see Elliot make peace with Mr. Robot.

Standout episode: S3/EP8, eps3.7_dont-delete-me.ko - The previous episode had already established a gorgeously melancholy setting through the use of Mac Quayle's gorgeous production 2.0_6-madame3xecutioner.oga, which, as a huge fan of film scores, I instantly fell in love with. The song is featured during a scene I watched several times - the scene when Angela repeatedly rewinds the explosion, unable to cope with the reality of it. It left me feeling similar to the way I had after watching American Beauty for the first time - like the world was a different shade. I thought this would be the only moment the show could invoke that response from me, but then the next episode came out. Unlike Ep. 7, Ep. 8 didn’t have a single moment. The whole episode brimmed with pain and sadness. The show’s already sad, but the lonely, isolated feeling is often overwhelmed by the suspense, drama, and excitement. This episode let the characters hurt without interruption, and it was wonderfully emotional.

1. The Get Down - I was so thrilled when I discovered this show in April, literally a few days after Part 2 had aired. I downloaded all the episodes for a road trip, and literally could not put it down the entire tme. It blended all my favorite things - the art of rap, the origin and evolution of hip hop, how battle rapping/deejaying came to be. The music was stellar, the cinematography was breathtaking, the acting was (for the most part) wonderful, and the cast was fantastic. I’ve seen some criticizing it, because of its occasionally choppy narrative and the fact that Baz Luhrmann added his usual whimsical take on something that was historically fairly dark, but I thought it was flawless. It was definitely groundbreaking in its amount of representation, and it was fun and colorful and emotional and, overall, just absolutely wonderful. Like many others, I was pretty devastated when they cancelled it. I understand why, but I wish it could get the Sense 8 treatment and receive a movie. There’s too many loose ends - it’s a real bummer. Still, I’m grateful we were blessed with this gem of a show at all.

Standout episode: S1/EP11, Only from Exile Can We Come Home - The final episode gets this spot for a single scene; the one where it alternates between Mylene singing “I’m my #1″ in the hotel room with Jackie and all the drag queens, and the scene where an unreleased Miguel song is playing while Dizzy & Thor paint on each other, and then Shao calls Dizzy his “alien brother.” That scene was easily one of my favorites I’ve ever seen in any show, in my entire life. If that episode was a film, that scene alone would guarantee it a spot on my favorite films list. It was that good.

#mine #txt #2017

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Best TV Episodes of 2020

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Sometimes it feels like there’s not much of a distinction left between “television” and everything else. As major media conglomerates hold investor presentations in which they present their upcoming streaming wares as “multiple-hour movies,” how is a beleaguered television fanbase supposed to distinguish TV shows from the dreaded, amorphous concept of “content”?

By episodes, of course! Episodes are one of the last remaining hallmarks of what makes the entity known as television distinct. Though we largely watch all our entertainment on the same kinds of screens nowadays, it’s television that lays claim to distinct episodes and distinct seasons as part of their larger gestalt. The Best TV Shows of 2020 deserve our commendation (and they will receive it very soon), but so too these smaller stories and pieces within them. The Best TV Episodes of 2020 are just as important to our appreciation of the medium and its long-term health.

Gathered here are 25 of Den of Geek’s favorite episodes of television in 2020. Voted on by our contributors, and arranged in alphabetical order, these are the half-hours, hours, and more that inspired and thrilled us in this most challenging year.

Better Call Saul – “Bagman”

In a season packed with memorable moments and 5-star episodes, Better Call Saul’s “Bagman” takes the cake as season 5’s finest hour and one of the absolute best episodes of television of 2020. Directly recalling Breaking Bad’s season 2 highlight “Four Days Out,” returning director and Breaking Bad auteur Vince Gilligan pulls out his old playbook and pumps “Bagman” up with high-octane shootouts, tense face-to-face showdowns, and his penchant for dark comedy.

As notable as it is to restage and one-up “Four Days Out,” “Bagman” also finally bridges the gap between Jimmy McGill’s new “friend of the cartel” world and that of his straight and narrow girlfriend Kim’s, a moment Better Call Saul fans have been anticipating and dreading with equal measure. Seeing Kim interact with Lalo, perhaps the best villain yet in the Breaking Bad/BCS universe, is a trip. Between Lalo’s cackling over the news of the burnt down Los Pollos Hermanos, surprise at Kim being “Mrs. Goodman,” and his lack of concern for “la cucaracha,” Lalo is a pure delight, even when he’s being stomach-churningly awful.

A desert twist on The Sopranos’ “Pine Barrens,” “Bagman” is a thrilling, highly consequential installment that is as equally introspective as it is explosive. I tend to bristle at episodes that so clearly ape Breaking Bad’s style and rhythms, but with Vince Gilligan at the helm, “Bagman” is purely undeniable. This is the moment that the show’s separate storylines began collapsing in on each other and truly feels like the beginning of the end for Better Call Saul.

– Nick Harley

BoJack Horseman – “The View From Halfway Down”

BoJack Horseman was never going to actually kill off its titular horseman. Though the depressive former ‘90s sitcom actor had been courting death for much of the series with addictions to booze, pills, and self-loathing, the show was always destined to end with him giving things another shot – again and again and again. That’s the point. It never ends. You’re stuck with yourself, flaws and all, and you’ve just gotta keep trying. BoJack indeed gets his umpteenth chance to start over in the series elegiac series finale, “Nice While It Lasted.” Before that, however, the show’s penultimate episode gets to vividly imagine what the end would look like for BoJack Horseman, and it makes for one of the series’ best episodes ever.

“The View From Halfway Down” picks up with BoJack drunk and at the bottom of a pool, slowly drowning. Meanwhile his consciousness takes a trip to a gaudy mansion where he enjoys dinner and a show with all the dead people he knows. Sarah Lynn, Corduroy, Crackerjack, Herb Kazzaz, and Beatrice are all there to enjoy their last meals (a single lemon for Corduroy, hospital food for Beatrice, and a pile of pills for BoJack) and then have one final sendoff before entering the infinite. This is where BoJack’s father, Butterscotch (incognito as BoJack’s hero Secretariat) turns up and delivers one of the most startling, affecting poems in TV history: “The View From Halfway Down.”

Near-death experience episodes are not uncommon on television (none other than The Sopranos may have had the definitive version with season 6’s “Join the Club”) but “The View From Halfway Down” somehow injects life (or rather dripping sludge of black death) into the stale concept. This might not be the final episode of BoJack Horseman, but it’s likely to be the one most people remember. It’s a discomfiting exploration of ego death…and death-death.

– Alec Bojalad

The Boys – “What I Know”

The Boys season 2 had its ups and downs, and a couple of episodes early on felt very low on action, but in the end, Amazon’s ultraviolent hit series managed to build towards a sophomore season finale that was so goddamn satisfying it felt almost illegal.

In “What I Know”, Karl Urban’s Bill Butcher finally faces off against Homelander and escapes with his life, while paying a devastating price. Hughie finds a way to drag himself up from a pit of despair and start a real relationship with Starlight. Kimiko and Frenchie get closer by working through their trauma together. Mother’s Milk is reunited with his family. And Stormfront? Well, that Nazi bitch gets what she deserved.

In fact, “What I Know” wrapped up most of The Boys’ ongoing plotlines so tidily you’d be forgiven for thinking that the action-packed episode was a series finale, not a season finale. Of course, The Boys had one final twist in store, but even if “What I Know” had been the last we’d seen of the show, it would have been just about enough to keep any anguish at bay. TV writers should study “What I Know” for future reference, cuz that’s how you do a season finale.

– Kirsten Howard

Dark – “Life and Death”

Since Dark knew that it was ending in its third season, there were plenty of mind-blowing episodes leading to a very poignant finale, but one episode that stood out was episode 305, “Life and Death.” This was not an episode that directly explored the deeper time travel mythology of the show nor did it feature the characters that were normally center stage. Instead, it shocked us with two acts of brutality by minor characters.

One involved the discoveries of Katharina, the much maligned wife, daughter, and mother who conducted a solo journey through time in search of her husband, Ulrich. The violence between Katharina and her mother provides surprising insights despite its unexpectedness. Meanwhile, another brutal act in the apocalypse of 2020 sheds light on how young Elisabeth evolved into a hardened warrior of the future.

– Michael Ahr

Dave – “Hype Man”

FX’s Dave was a bit of an odd duck from the get-go. Developed by and starring real life rapper Dave “Lil Dicky” Burd, Dave sought to encapsulate the strange contradictions of its title character. Dave is a comedy rapper…but he’s also kind of sincere? Dave is probably kidding about his malformed penis and all the trauma it’s caused him…but he’s also not? Dave is Lil Dickey…but he’s really just Dave? It was a tall order for a novice storyteller to work through, even with the help of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Shaffer as showrunner.

But roughly halfway through its 10 episode-run, Dave…and Dave figure themselves out and start to string together a series of truly quality episodes. The turn starts with “Hype Man,” the show’s fifth installment and perhaps its best. “Hype Man” follows Lil Dicky’s real life (and also fictional) friend GaTa. After Dave makes the decision to install GaTa as his hype man, viewers are entreated to bits of GaTa’s past where his untreated bipolar disorder leads to public disruptions and even a heartbreaking moment with his mother while tied to a hospital bed. In the present, GaTa can’t quite figure his new dosage of meds out and it leads to a decidedly less-than-hyped hype man.

That’s when GaTa reveals his diagnosis to his new friends. As the tears stream down GaTa’s face and as his new crew gracefully accepts him, just as he is, it’s clear that it’s a cathartic moment for all involved that goes well beyond just the confines of television.

– Alec Bojalad

Devs – “Episode 8”

Perhaps no show in 2020 was as beguiling or intriguing as sci-fi maestro Alex Garland’s first TV effort Devs. From its first episode which featured a mysterious murder and the introduction of an awe-inspiring machine, Devs promised a truculent sci-fi television experience. Of course, as is often the case with these things, the impact of the show hinged on how it chose to wrap up the story of Amaya’s secretive Devs program.

That ending, in “Episode 8”, succeeds because it knows the precisely correct ratio of answers to non-answers it needs to provide. This finale deftly articulates the show’s vision of determinism and leaves open the question of just how much of our fate resides in our own hands. It’s also downright Biblical at times with striking imagery, allusions to Christ, and even something resembling an afterlife.

Above all else, it provides one of the most charming bits of title trickery on television this year. “I’ll tell you a secret, Lily,” Forest (Nick Offerman) says to his fated counterpart. “I’ve been wanting to tell someone for awhile. The name of the project is not Devs. The ‘v’ is Roman…so actually a ‘u’.” Deus. Lily can only laugh – another tech CEO who thinks he’s God. It’s just that…this one happens to be right.

– Alec Bojalad

Doctor Who – “The Haunting of Villa Diodati”

“The Haunting of Villa Diodati” isn’t the only example of Doctor Who taking on the haunted house genre, but it may be its best. In this season 12 episode, the science fiction series pays homage to the arguable birthplace of the sci-fi genre: the Swiss villa where Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein. There, the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her fam meet Mary, baby William, Lord Byron, John Polidori, Claire Clairmont, valet Fletcher, and a missing Percy Shelley. With such a large guest cast, you’d think it would be hard to get three Companions in on the action, but first-time Doctor Who scriptwriter Maxine Alderton manages to do so, making good use of Ryan (Tosin Cole), Graham (Bradley Walsh), and Yaz (Mandip Gillip) especially, as the group gets split up while investigating the very real ghosts that seem to be haunting the villa.

With its literary in-jokes and honest-to-goodness scares, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” would have easily been one of the highlights of season 12 if it was simply a standalone mystery. That it all ends with a third-act Cybermen twist that ties the episode to Doctor Who legacy and kickstarts the high-stakes, season-ending plot raises this installment from “good” to “great.”

– Kayti Burt

The Good Place – “Whenever You’re Ready”

Between BoJack Horseman’s “The View From Halfway Down” and The Good Place’s series finale, “Whenever You’re Ready,” it was a banner year for half-hour comedies addressing cosmic oblivion in 2020. While BoJack’s exploration of death is dark and spooky, The Good Place’s interpretation is one almost of celebration – a reward for a life, and many afterlives well-lived.

However one feels about The Good Place series finale, it’s hard to argue that the concept at its core isn’t ingenious. Our human protagonists Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani, alongside their otherworldly friends Michael and Janet, spend almost a literal eternity grappling with the inequity of the afterlife’s rewards system. Then, in the final stretch of the show’s last season, the gang fixes the system once and for all and arrives at the actual Good Place. There’s only one problem: the occupants of The Good Place are shambling emotionless zombies whose dopamine receptors have been reduced to mush from eons of wish fulfillment and immediate satisfaction. That’s when Eleanor and Michael realize the afterlife’s missing piece: death.

This is not only a fascinating philosophical concept but it sets up a finale filled with goodbyes that all these characters so richly deserve. One by one our heroes decide when they’re ready, and then step through a door to enter the unknown. And of course it all culminates in what might be the best sitcom sign-offs ever from Ted Danson’s Michael: “I’ll say this to you, my friend, with all the love in my heart and all the wisdom of the universe: Take it sleazy.”

– Alec Bojalad

The Haunting of Bly Manor – “The Altar of the Dead”

Perhaps the only thing harder than pulling off an honest-to-goodness serialized horror TV show is doing so twice. But that’s exactly what Mike Flanagan was able to pull off this year with his Netflix followup to The Haunting of Hill House. Like Hill House before it, Bly Manor is based on the works of a classic ghost story writer, in this case Henry James. Unlike Hill House, however, Bly Manor takes a few episodes to really find its rhythm.

Once it does, though, there’s virtually no stopping it. And it’s all thanks to midseason installment “The Altar of the Dead.” It’s clear from moment one that something is off with Bly Manor’s housekeeper Hannah Grose (T’Nia Miller). This is the episode that finally begins to fill in some of the blanks in her story, and subsequently the story of the rest of the house. Much like Billy Pilgrim before her, Miss Grose has become unstuck in time. As Hannah jumps back and forth between her history at Bly Manor, the sinister nature of the property becomes clear. Through Grose’s eyes, we’re treated to the courtship of Rebecca Jessel and Peter Quint. Then we’re taken through all the way to Peter Quint’s death, subsequent possession of Miles, and Hannah’s eventual murder.

It’s not just that “The Altar of the Dead” clarifies the plot of The Haunting of Bly Manor so much that it damn near reveals all of it. And the show is all the better for it. Every episode after “Altar” is able to move forward with a confidence and assuredness that can come only after a masterfully executed setup. It’s all perfectly splendid.

– Alec Bojalad

How To with John Wilson – “How To Cook the Perfect Risotto”

How To With John Wilson’s charms come from the ways that the titular socially awkward documentarian highlights the surreal, funny, perplexing little moments that so frequently occur in public spaces. However, that surreality is turned up to 11 in “How to Cook the Perfect Risotto” as we watch the coronavirus pandemic slowly transform New York City from a bustling, odd metropolis full of characters that are more than willing to invite a complete stranger into their home for a cooking lesson, into a quiet ghost town filmed from the safety of Wilson’s apartment.

Wilson attempts to make his elderly landlord the perfect risotto as a way of thanking her for her kindness, which includes doing Wilson’s laundry, watching Jeopardy with him and delivering him delicious meals. Simultaneously as he’s trying to quit smoking, Wilson is comically frustrated by the endless variables that cause his risotto to not quite live up to his lofty expectations. As he tries to improve his cooking and keep his sanity during nicotine withdrawal, COVID-19 hits the city and causes Wilson’s perspective to completely change. It’s relatable, poignant stuff that sneaks up on you and offers a look at what life has been like in this pandemic in a way that no other piece of art has yet to capture.

– Nick Harley

I May Destroy You – “Ego Death”

‘Ego Death’ was a transcendent half hour. The conclusion to Michaela Coel’s autobiographically inspired drama about surviving sexual assault, it was as probing and inventive as the rest of I May Destroy You.

In the episode, Coel offered viewers three alternative endings. Her character Bella played out fantasy confrontations with the man who, a year earlier, had drugged and attacked her. One is a kickass heist riffing on movie sisterhood and rape revenge. Another is an anti-climax that offers scant closure. Another is gentle, romantic and utterly disorienting. Allowing for multiple interpretations and perspectives, they all happened, and none of them happened.

The climax comes with Bella’s realization that her trauma wouldn’t leave her unless she made it leave. The finale ends with a growing garden, a book reading and an inhalation of breath. With dogged commitment to honesty and no easy answers, it achieved in 30 minutes what some dramas struggle to say in a whole season.

– Louisa Mellor

Killing Eve – “Are You From Pinner?”

Killing Eve has been celebrated for its depiction of the cat and mouse game between its star characters Eve, the former MI6 agent played by Sandra Oh, and Villanelle, the assassin played by Jodie Comer who shares with Eve a mutual obsession. Season 3 experimented with different points of view and delved deeper into the mystery of The Twelve, but it was the backstory of Villanelle (formerly Oksana) in episode 5, “Are You from Pinner?” which really showcased Comer’s depth and the character’s complexity.

The beauty of the episode was the way it lulled the audience into a sense of comfort. Here was Oksana’s long lost family, and they seemed to be happy, fun-loving people who might even welcome their damaged prodigal daughter home. However, even after a joyous carnival, it becomes clear that her mother’s abandonment hides a deeper secret, and the resulting violence and moments of mercy heighten sympathy for the assassin like no episode before or since.

– Michael Ahr

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts – “Real Cats Wear Plaid”

That title alone would earn this episode a spot on the list but its story is even better! “Real Cats Wear Plaid” is the perfect combination of everything that makes Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts so unique and wonderful. There are giant cats who not only wear plaid, they carry axes, have giant yarn balls in their trees, sing ramblin’ folk songs, and love eating pancakes. Kipo has to find their leader named Yumyan Hammerpaw, whose namesake song is easily one of the best in the series, to get the cats’ help.

Watching Kipo not only break her friends free from the cats but slowly win over their trust gives us a good look at how she’ll overcome a lot of obstacles throughout the series. She doesn’t go with the simple solution; she uses her brain and her desire to make friends to win the day. Throw in some absolutely gorgeous visuals and you’ve got a warm, comforting, and totally unique piece of television that only this show could pull off. It’ll make a die-hard Kipo fan out of you, guaranteed.

– Shamus Kelley

Legends of Tomorrow – “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV”

“The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” was the high point of a season full of them for Legends of Tomorrow, showcasing everything this series is capable of. We got three note-perfect parodies of shows – Star Trek, Friends, and the funniest one, Downton Abbey – with wildly divergent tones; A+ workplace comedy and lightning fast plot propulsion; and a cast (especially Caity Lotz and Dominic Purcell summarizing and savaging The Wrath of Khan in 35 seconds, and Matt Ryan beautifully jamming parodies of four different Downton characters into one bit) visibly having the time of their lives. All of that was mixed in with serious, genuine, character growth and emotion.

It’s amazing that Legends went from a forgettable side jaunt in the Arrowverse to a stoner workplace time travel sitcom that culminated one season with a Voltron Tickle Me Elmo. Even more amazing is that Season 5 actually topped it, and “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” was this season’s peak.

– Jim Dandy

Lovecraft Country – “Sundown”

Lovecraft Country was television’s most ambitious show in 2020. Playing with horror and science fiction tropes while mixing in history lessons and comparing the racism in 1950s American with the civil unrest of today, Lovecraft Country took bigger swings than Jackie Robinson clobbering an alien with his Louisville Slugger. Not every episode or moment of Lovecraft Country was successful, but premiere episode “Sundown” is one of the most self-assured, confident debuts of a series in recent memory, a mission statement that establishes characters and blazes through plot points that most shows would have spent a season laboring over.

Our hero Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) returns to Chicago to reunite with his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and old crush Leti Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) to go off in search of his missing father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams) in Ardham, Massachusetts, a location similar to Arkham, which is prevalent in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, the favorite author of both Tic and Montrose. In Ardham, the gang find horrors both fictional and painfully real. The hour-long episode feels like a miniature movie. Its best moment is a montage of the trio traveling through segregated America set to a James Baldwin monologue. It’s little touches like that that makes Lovecraft Country so unique, gripping, and grounded even with all of the supernatural elements on display.

– Nick Harley

The Mandalorian – “The Jedi”

Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian was an unexpected midseason payoff for everyone wondering if the story of Din Djarin and “Baby Yoda” would pootle along for a good while longer without answering many questions or tying their adventure into any past Star Wars mythology. This installment threw one game-changing piece of info after another at viewers.

We learned that the adorable green sprog had an actual name (Grogu), that he had been suffering from PTSD so severe that he mentally blocked out a lot of his past before being rescued by Mando, and that he would need to seek out a Jedi to train him to walk the path he might be destined for. Ah, and we also got to meet the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson in a very deliberate and self-assured way. After we spent a few minutes with Ahsoka, it was clear that Lucasfilm still had bigger plans for her character beyond The Mandalorian.

Putting aside the many other wonderful Western and samurai influences visually blessing “The Jedi”, the episode formed an important step toward a very different version of Grogu who may develop in future seasons, and as Tano infers, we might not like who he becomes if the darkness creeps in, which only strengthens the bond between Din and The Child, and our investment in the story itself.

– Kirsten Howard

Mythic Quest – “A Dark Quiet Death”

Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet was one of 2020’s most pleasant surprises. Apple TV+’s comedy about a videogame studio running a successful MMORPG, worked for all the reasons one might assume. The core showrunning team of Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz, and David Hornsby (all of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) had a solid handle on the show’s concept and characters, and they also clearly did their research on the videogame industry.

Still, in addition to all of that “expected” stuff, Mythic Quest excels in pulling off concepts that viewers might not anticipate from a nine-episode, half-hour sitcom. The ultimate example is “A Dark Quiet Death,” a fascinating installment of television that falls halfway through the show’s first season. “A Dark Quiet Death” completely abandons the show’s main plotline and takes viewers back to the ‘90s where two game developers, played by Jake Johnson and Christin Milioti, meet, fall in love, and decide to build something together.

Soon, however, the two designers are confronted with questions about commerce vs. art and must figure out how many compromises they’re willing to make. In the process they lose themselves, each other, and the art itself. Mythic Quest eventually brings things back tenuously to the present to reveal that Ian Grimm and the Mythic Quest team now occupy the warehouse studio space they once did. Refreshingly there isn’t much of a lesson to be learned from this adjournment other than: all of this is very hard and you’ll want someone by your side to help…but even that’s pretty hard too.

– Alec Bojalad

Outlander – “The Ballad of Roger Mac”

Outlander season 5’s long-awaited battle between the Regulators and Governor Tryon’s militia delivered the sudden and gut-punching loss of one of its fan-favorite characters, Duncan Lacroix’s Murtagh, and also did the impossible in the same episode – made viewers genuinely invested in whether the guitar-strumming Roger Mackenzie lived or died. Even if his past behavior hadn’t covered him in glory, no one wanted to see Bree’s beau go out at the noose-end of a redcoat’s rope.

But the real heart of the episode was the final scenes between Sam Heughan’s character, Jamie Fraser, who didn’t have much time to celebrate his 50th birthday, and his father figure Murtugh, a stubborn-but-loyal man that had saved him countless times since birth, as he unexpectedly passed the patriarchal torch on once and for all. As Jamie fell apart during “The Ballad of Roger Mac” so did we, and a standout episode in Outlander’s middling fifth season was forever etched on our memory.

– Kirsten Howard

Pen15 – “Opening Night”

At its core, Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s brilliant coming-of-age comedy Pen15 is all about capturing feelings. This show, featuring Erskine and Konkle deftly embodying their middle school selves (all the while surrounded by actual middle schoolers), understands the feeling of your crush smiling at you, or the best sleepover ever, or the summer of infinite possibilities. Its season two finale “Opening Night,” is perhaps the best example of what the show does so well yet.

Much of “Opening Night” takes place after opening night of the school play, where Maya was the star and Anna was the tech queen. The girls and their families retire to a perfectly acceptable local Italian restaurant where Maya and Anna live out the copacabana scene from Goodfellas and just generally feel on top of the world.

Of course, in adolescence, nothing gold can stay. While “Opening Night” captures the thrill of a “best night ever” it also subtly, devastatingly presents Anna having to deal with the reality of her parents’ incoming divorce and Maya being rejected by a boy once again. Pen15 draws much of its comedy from the novelty of its core duo experiencing every new life event as the Biggest Deal Ever (™). “Opening Night” proves that that’s where the show draws its pathos from as well.

– Alec Bojalad

The Queen’s Gambit – “End Game”

For being one of the best shows of 2020, not much happens in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit that could be considered surprising. True to Scott Frank’s limited series sports movie (or bildungsroman) format, chess prodigy Beth Harmon displays preternatural talent, suffers some setbacks, and then comes out on top again. What makes the show excellent, however, is in its execution of that formula.

Nowhere is the show’s execution more acute and satisfying than it is in the finale, “End Game.” This final hour finds Beth finally heading to Moscow to take on her only real rival one final time. The outcome is never really in doubt, but the journey is a supremely satisfying one. There are no shortage of fist-pumping moments, from Beth winning the admiration of her chess idol, to all her friends jumping on the phone to pre-game her final match. It’s the final coda that lingers most pleasantly though. Now on top of the chess world, Beth heads outside to find several Russian citizens playing some exhibition matches. The challenge is over, the day is won, and now all that’s left to do is to keep playing. Not for anyone else but herself.

– Alec Bojalad

Schitt’s Creek – “The Presidential Suite”

The sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek had a lot of loose ends to tie. The saga of the Rose family, who lost everything but the town Johnny Rose bought for a joke took us on a redemptive journey, not just for them but for town as a whole. It would be easy for the sake of this list, then, to select “Happy Ending” the glorious, hyperbolic finale which includes David and Patrick’s wedding and Moira’s greatest ensemble yet as the best ep. Instead though, it’s this lower key episode from season we choose to celebrate for it’s pitch perfect mix of hope, humor and humanity. This is Alexis and Ted’s episode. While David and Patrick’s romance and nuptials dominate the later series of the show, in “The Presidential Suite” we see Alexis and Ted’s relationship come to a close.

Ted has been offered his dream job in the Galapagos Islands. Alexis’s career as a publicist is starting to take off. He’s travelled back to spend a long weekend with her but his plans got derailed due to some dodgy airline milk. So now the two have just one evening together, and it turns out it’ll be spent saying goodbye. In possibly the most devastating scene in the whole show the two have a private dinner at the Cafe Tropical, where they reflect on how the relationship has helped them both grow. It’s understated, it’s grown up and it’s deeply moving, with gravitas given to characters who are generally speaking not taken very seriously. It’s perfect. Elsewhere in the ep, the second Rosebud motel is almost ready to open and the Roses and the Schitts are competing to christen the best room for the night, while Patrick’s spray tan results in photographic hilarity. There are plenty of great gags – Patrick’s face being one of them – but “Presidential Suite” belongs to Alexis and Ted.

– Rosie Fletcher

Solar Opposites – “Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear”

“Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear” deserves a spot on our best-of list due to title trickery alone. The synopsis of Solar Opposites season 1’s penultimate episode reads “Terry, Korvo, Yumyulack, and Jesse team up to steal a bear from the zoo” but of course: precisely none of this happens. In reality Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan’s excellent animated comedy for Hulu plays a truly wonderful sleight of hand.

The entirety of this episode takes place inside young alien Jesse’s bedroom terrarium where she has imprisoned dozens of shrunken human beings. The show picks up with the goings on “inside the wall” several times throughout the season, but this episode devotes the entirety of its running time to the stories of Tim, Cherie, and all the other people inside this shockingly complex political ecosystem.

Perhaps the best thing any installment of television can do is to make us care deeply about something that we weren’t even aware of to begin with. And that’s the real strength of “Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear.” Though all of this is happening on a truly small scale, it’s hard not to get swept up in the drama of Tim’s fight against The Duke or perhaps even shed some tears at the loss of a very sweet mouse named Molly.

– Alec Bojalad

Ted Lasso – “The Hope That Kills You”

Any sports fan can tell you that it is indeed “the hope that kills you”. Hope is one of the most dangerous things to have in any endeavor you truly care about. After all, how can expectations lead to anything other than disappointment? Defying expectations, however, is Apple TV+’s sports comedy, Ted Lasso, which builds up a lot of hope through its first nine episodes, and then delivers on that hope in a truly satisfying way for the finale.

The Jason Sudeikis and Bill Lawrence-produced Ted Lasso has the sports movie beats down pat. American football coach Ted Lasso gets an English football coaching job through some truly ridiculous circumstances. His team, AFC Richmond, naturally struggles on the pitch but begin to flourish off of it thanks to the relentless optimism of their new gaffer. This remarkable finale is where the rubber finally meets the road. Can AFC Richmond win one game to avoid relegation and fulfill their coach’s hope in them? The answer, somewhat surprisingly, is no.

But the real accomplishment of “The Hope That Kills You” is that it finds hope and victory in defeat all the same.

– Alec Bojalad

The Umbrella Academy – “743”

The penultimate episode of The Umbrella Academy’s second season provided a hefty amount of buildup for the finale, but it was also distinguished by several major reveals and sacrifices, some of which have yet to be fully realized. In the space of a single episode, the apocalypse is averted (again), Hargreeves reveals his true nature (sort of), and the time travel cops of the Commission prepare for a war that perfectly sets up the finale.

The most poignant sacrifice is made by Ben as he explores the depths of Vanya’s mind to keep her from using her powers to start a third world war, but he was technically already dead and has taken a new form of sorts by the end of the season. But other sacrifices put this episode over the top, including the inevitable death of Kennedy and the destruction of the briefcase that could have taken Five and his family home.

– Michael Ahr

What We Do in the Shadows – “On the Run”

Imagine getting none other than Mark Hamill to guest star as a white-haired vampire named Jim upset about a rental agreement on your show. And then imagine not pursuing that rich vein of comedy in favor of having one of your other vampire characters don a “human” disguise and then hit the road merely to avoid paying off some bed and breakfast debts. Well you don’t have to imagine such a scenario if you’re the folks behind FX’s hilarious and brilliant What We Do in the Shadows. This TV adaptation of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s classic mockumentary film remained as bold and experimental as ever in its second season. Nowhere was it bolder, however, than in the instantly iconic “On the Run.”

“On the Run” exploits one of the tried and true rules of comedic storytelling on television: give Matt Berry the ball and let him cook like LeBron James. Berry has the time of his life in this half hour as Laszlo flees his Staten Island home and heads into hiding in Pennsylvania as Jackie Daytona, normal human bartender. It’s just remarkable to watch Laszl…we mean Jackie Daytona have the time of his life as a pillar of the community and major booster of the local girls high school volleyball team. Of course, the piece de resistance, is everyone’s shocking inability to recognize him as an undead bloodsucker. Even Hamill’s Jim the Vampire doesn’t recognize his foe until Laszlo pulls the signature Jackie Daytona toothpick out of his mouth.

“On the Run” may be pound for pound the funniest episode of television to air this year and all we normal humans are better for having experienced it.

– Alec Bojalad

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BoJack Horseman season 5 spoiler-free review

“I tell you buddy, this is going to be an exceptional season of television…”

Over the span of five seasons, BoJack Horseman has proven itself to be many things. It is of course an animated series about a self-absorbed horse actor’s struggles through life’s many hurdles, but BoJack Horseman is also a friend. BoJack Horseman is an enemy. BoJack Horseman is a therapist, and it is escapism. It is a mirror. But BoJack Horseman is also just a television show, which is why it is so impressive when it so perfectly captures the human condition. It can also make its audience laugh and cry and want to be better. BoJack Horseman is art and its newest season continues to evolve the show and its characters in exciting and challenging ways.

BoJack Horseman season five begins with dialogue that feels like it could be said by BoJack at any point in the series. "Nothing's lonelier than a party,” he muses. “Good thing I don't need anyone, or I might feel lonesome." For a moment it looks like BoJack has made the ultimate emotional backslide after much of the progress that happened back in season four. But then it becomes abundantly clear that this isn’t BoJack, merely his latest role, who just happens to share disturbing parallels to the actor. BoJack is forced to re-live past traumas through episodes of his new show, “Philbert.” John Philbert’s house even inexplicably looks identical to BoJack’s, as if its purpose is to intentionally get BoJack lost between real life and fiction.

This reflexive, self-referential direction for the character isn't exactly new territory for the show. But the way in which BoJack's new alter ego, Philbert, cuts so deeply into who he is and what he's done—especially after all the soul searching and mistakes BoJack has made—feels particularly poignant this time. It’s a clever device for BoJack to confront his past. This is the ultimate way for BoJack to finally come to terms with who he is and it’s all too fitting for this series that BoJack requires a fictional character to reach this degree of honesty and intimacy with himself.

“Philbert,” BoJack’s new gig, is a gritty detective drama, but it’s a huge satire on “troubled men” shows as well. The series also broaches the important idea of how shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, or Ray Donovan can make audiences feel less guilty about their own poor actions and how dangerous this is. The icing on the cake is that this conversation also applies to BoJack Horseman itself as the show wades through continually shaky territory with its own flawed protagonist. No other show knows how to get meta and poke fun at Hollywood and the television and film industries like BoJack Horseman.

BoJack Horseman season five explores the intricacies and dangers of relationships, whether they’re romantic, professional, or just of a friendly, platonic nature. Furthermore, while this has very much been a series that wears its cynicism on its sleeve, this season reinforces the importance of following your dreams and not giving up. However make no mistake, this is still a show where an entire cold open can be dominated by someone sobbing or characters will use trusted secrets as emotional blackmail against each other.

This has never been a series that’s afraid to dig deep and show people at their worst or most raw, and this year is no different. However, with so many characters now in reactionary places, this season deals with much more vulnerable versions of these people. BoJack Horseman gets a lot of credit for how brilliantly it eschews the entertainment industry, but it also conveys and understands heartbreak, pain, and the dangers of addiction as genuinely as any of the all-time great dramas out there.

In what can often be a BoJack-heavy series, this season isn’t afraid to share the focus and take some of the spotlight off of its titular character. There are several episodes which dig into the problems of other characters, allowing the season to cover a broader perspective than purely what plagues BoJack. In fact, a lot of this season looks back to the painful childhoods of its characters to examine how their destructive trajectories began and perhaps how to break the cycle. This has been par for the course with BoJack, but this season extends this courtesy to the rest of its characters. It’s necessary for everyone to look back and examine their roots as they head into the next stages of their lives. Everyone is lost in some old version of who they are.

On that note, the majority of BoJack Horseman’s cast finds themselves in flux this season. BoJack really tries to think about others more than himself, but as altruistic as his actions are, they still seem to hurt people. BoJack is still selfish in many of the ways he’s always been, but this points to this older version of the character getting ready to settle down to some form of normalcy. BoJack did whole lot of living and five seasons in, it feels appropriate his character would be in this calmer, more reflective place.

Diane struggles with her existence as a divorcee and how her life functions without Mr. Peanut Butter and if can find a casual balance with him still in it. Diane has often been positioned as a mirror to BoJack’s character, even if they find themselves increasingly further away from each other. Diane’s story really rises to the forefront of this season and she feels more like BoJack Horseman’s second lead than she has in years.

Alternatively, much of Princess Carolyn’s material is consumed with her adoption efforts and fluctuating feelings on the matter. She still wants to further her life and spread her love, and the series doesn’t shy away from the complexities. This year really digs into the character’s constant workaholic tendencies and the difficulty of seeing if a family can fit into that lifestyle.

Some of the season’s best work comes from what it does with Todd. He continues to navigate life as an asexual, but begins to enter more areas of responsibility and growth, albeit in very Todd ways. It’s nice to see him get fleshed out into less of a caricature. In spite of Todd tackling more adult tasks this season, his storylines are in no danger of losing any of their absurd nature and they still fall together in a chaotic, happenstance way. One particularly ridiculous situation places Todd in a cartoonish sexual comedy of errors that wouldn’t be out of place in a Frasier episode, but it uses this absurd veneer to say something deeper on asexuality.

BoJack Horseman season five embraces important discussions on relevant social topics like sexual harassment and the male gaze. It’s not as if this hasn’t been previously critiqued by the show, but it really attempts to have a conversation about it now, and for good reason. There’s an entire episode on celebrity apology tours and their precarious reputation with the cyclical PR machine. It exposes the dangerous nature of overanalysing and creating stories where there are none. The show handles the topic as adeptly as anything else that it’s put in its crosshairs. It manages to say some very insightful things about responsibility while still operating with a precise, razor sharp wit. What makes this even more powerful is that it holds this paradigm up to BoJack himself and attempts to answer if he can probably atone for all of his mistakes.

BoJack Horseman also has a remarkable knack for presenting its season in a non-linear order that beautifully reframes events and characters in new and inventive ways. The series truly understands how to tell a story and the most powerful way to present its information to the audience. Another episode seamlessly splits its storyline into four variations on the same idea in order to show how much these characters have evolved and changed (or haven’t) over the course of twenty-five years. BoJack Horseman naturalises inventive story structures like this that would otherwise be daunting in a less seasoned series.

One remarkable episode is basically a darkly comic one-man show from Will Arnett where he delivers a staggering monologue about grief for the entire instalment. It’s an astonishing display of stream of consciousness and how humans process bad news. It’s one of the best performances of Arnett’s career and both his work and the script deserve Emmys. It’s perhaps the most moving, emotional thing the show has ever done and it’s episodes like this that are so purely, thoroughly BoJack Horseman. As good or intelligent as other shows may be, this is the only show that pulls off risks like this.

BoJack Horseman season five does not disappoint and moves its show and characters forward in a way that most shows aren’t willing to explore. Some of the best work from the entire series is in this season and there are episodes as powerful as last season’s dementia entry or the silent underwater installment. Furthermore, this season contains no lull or period that drags in the middle, which is honestly a rarity with Netflix shows. This remains one of the few series that has more than enough content to fill their entire season.

Even though BoJack Horseman is as fresh as ever, it feels like the character is finally taking the steps that are necessary to give him some peace. The end of the season perfectly crystalizes not only the themes of this year, but also the larger lessons of the series as a whole, with startling clarity. It’s one of the strongest conclusions the show has done and it really sets things up for a powerful sixth season, which could very well be the end for the show. Season 5 proves it has plenty of life left, but much like one of Mr. Peanut Butter’s wives, it’ll surely want to leave the party early before it’s worn out its welcome.

Oh, and Diane gets a boss new haircut this season. Seriously.

BoJack Horseman season five arrives on Netflix on Friday the 14th of September.

Source: http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/bojack-horseman/60298/bojack-horseman-season-5-spoiler-free-review

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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After more than eight years of shenanigans involving candy people, alternate universes, vampires, nearly 3,000 wiki pages’ worth of lore, some highly unusual exclamations (“Mathematical!”), and bacon pancakes, Cartoon Network’s beloved Adventure Time is coming to a close.

Since its debut in 2010, the series has evolved into one of the most popular and influential programs in the channel’s history. Despite being first and foremost a kids’ show, it built a sizable fan base among older audiences and gained mounting psychological and even philosophical weight over its 10-season run. The September 3 series finale marks the end of an era in imagining new storytelling possibilities, not just for cartoons but for TV in general.

Adventure Time spans nearly 300 11-minute episodes involving hundreds of distinct characters — so it’s no easy feat to describe. But in brief, it takes place 1,000 years after a nuclear apocalypse known as the “Mushroom War” warps the Earth into a fantasy landscape; its main setting, the Land of Ooo, is populated by offbeat creatures and people made of candy, fire, or “lumpy space,” among other things.

A young boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) is apparently the last human being on the planet, and he and his foster brother/best friend — a shape-shifting dog named Jake (John DiMaggio) — have taken it upon themselves to be as helpful around Ooo as possible. They lend their treasure-hunting, monster-fighting, errand-running prowess to their many friends and neighbors, and along the way, the complex backstory of Adventure Time’s characters and their world is unspooled.

That supremely odd summary belies the fact that Adventure Time has sneakily persisted as one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the 2010s. When considering the recent “Golden Age” of TV, few would rank it alongside the likes of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Game of Thrones. And yet it has received high praise from sources as wide-ranging as the A.V. Club, the New Yorker, NPR, and this very site.

In addition to being aimed at kids, Adventure Time lies at the intersection of multiple artistic categories that often struggle to attract serious critical consideration — namely, animation, fantasy, and short-form episodic TV (which for a long time was mainly the playground of experimental Adult Swim shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force). Still, it has won over many critics. And though its erratic airing schedule has led to a decline in viewership and prestige in its later years, it has maintained a consistent standard of quality nonetheless.

With its series finale now on the horizon, let’s take a look back at the brilliance of Adventure Time, both as a singular achievement and as a show that has left a lasting impact on the TV landscape.

Adventure Time began as a short film made for Nicktoons. After the short leaked online and subsequently went viral, creator Pendleton Ward was able to successfully pitch it to Cartoon Network as a series. Produced in 2006, it exemplifies the “random” style of internet humor of that time, pioneered by the likes of Homestar Runner, eBaum’s World, and Newgrounds.

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In just under seven minutes, a boy and his dog fight an ice-powered, princess-abducting king, with a brief dream excursion to Mars for a pep talk from Abraham Lincoln, before ultimately running off to confront some ninjas who have stolen an old man’s diamonds (ninjas were to internet comedy in the mid-2000s what bacon would be to it in the early 2010s). Millions of people loved it when it hit (the then-young) YouTube, and the short was eventually nominated for an Annie Award.

Once Adventure Time the show made its Cartoon Network debut, it found instant success and regularly drew millions of viewers per episode for many years. Examining the phenomenon, critics have often cited the show’s broad appeal for both kids and adults as a big reason for its popularity.

Cartoons have long embraced an anything-goes sensibility, but Adventure Time took the approach to a new level. Every single episode would pack its brief running time with strange new characters, places, and ideas: A vampire who drinks the color red. A pack of sentient balloons eager to die. An imaginative robot that “switches places” with its reflection. And to fit within the 11-minute runtime of each episode, it all came at the audience at a breathless pace.

Animated shorts are as old as television itself, but Adventure Time spurred a revival of the format, especially on Cartoon Network. The show also led the way in turning “random” humor and world-building from a niche interest into what is now practically an industry standard, not just for animated series aimed at kids but for adult-oriented ones as well. Shows like BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty demonstrate a common willingness to indulge the strange, an instinct that Adventure Time arguably introduced to the mainstream.

It didn’t stop there. Even as Adventure Time told bizarre tales of trickster gods from Mars and penguins that turned out to be world-threatening alien abominations, it worked hard to incorporate them into its complicated backstory and world, maintaining dense continuity through multiple long-running story arcs. In the grand tradition of prestige TV, it featured overarching plots about Finn’s search for his birth parents, or the recurring threat of the fearsome undead sorcerer the Lich. And yet it also made time for many standalone episodes, sometimes ultimately folding them into the larger picture, with major characters like Marceline the Vampire Queen being introduced in apparent one-off installments.

Adventure Time’s penchant for experimentation was both admirable and skillfully executed. The show didn’t hesitate to hand over multiple episodes to guest directors simply to riff on a different animation style. It occasionally adopted an idiosyncratic airing schedule, where several new episodes would drop over the course of a single week and then months would go by with nothing new. While the inconsistency sometimes hurt Adventure Time’s ratings, the show’s creative team used the “episode bomb” approach to produce several miniseries that featured some of its most ambitious ideas and set pieces.

Despite the show’s overall comedic tone, it handled its biggest ideas with gravitas and sincere emotion. And for all the manic energy it could indulge, Adventure Time never hesitated to slow down for a scene or two, or even a whole episode. American animation sometimes has trouble simply putting breathing space into shows and movies — superfluous gestures, brief pauses, and other moments that aren’t necessarily propelling the plot forward. Hayao Miyazaki once explained this to Roger Ebert as ma, the soundless beats between claps of the hand. Adventure Time had lots of ma.

Look at this scene from the “Stakes” miniseries, in the episode “Everything Stays.” In less than a minute, the episode creates an extraordinary evocation of intimacy between a parent and child. The animators inject dozens of little gestures to establish this feeling — note the brief shot in which young Marceline strokes her mother’s arm. And then the scene is over, and it’s on to the next beat.

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This kind of formal economy, doing a lot in precious little time, is rare in television. Today, many prestige shows are running longer with each installment yet still struggle to carve out time for characters to simply be. They could learn something from Adventure Time, a show that used its 11-minute episodes to explore myriad genre ideas and flights of fancy, and to demonstrate the endless potential of simply being artistically open and flexible.

Every single character on Adventure Time, from the regulars to the one-episode guests, had a distinct voice. And I don’t mean in terms of acting (though the show’s voice acting was excellent), but in how each person spoke. The writers gave everyone a unique slang, or attitude, or cadence to work with.

Finn and Jake had their own adolescence-inflected goofy rapport and strange swears (“Aw, dingle!” “Algebraic!”). Marceline was a laid-back slacker punk rocker. Princess Bubblegum was officious and scientifically minded. Finn and Jake’s parents, who only appeared in a few episodes, had ’30s-style trans-Atlantic accents (“Make like there’s egg in your shoe and beat it!”). One episode set in an alternate universe introduced an entirely different future lingo. No character was too minor to be considered as a distinct individual.

Adventure Time frequently devoted entire episodes to fleshing out secondary characters, sometimes shining a spotlight on someone who had only existed in the background for the entire show up to that point. It drew up complex inner lives for the likes of characters with names like “Root Beer Guy” — a sentient, walking mug of soda — and “Cinnamon Bun.”

And what it could do for its main characters was even more impressive. Some of them were hundreds of years old, with a few of them predating the Mushroom War, and as we got to know them better, we came to understand a long history of regrets, which stemmed first from the act of survival and then from trying to build a new society out of the ruins. Their arcs were contrasted with the subtle but definable trajectories of Finn and Jake, who slowly matured over the course of the show from goofballs to responsible figures.

Many episodes of Adventure Time took detours to toss out different philosophical challenges, aiming them at both the characters and the audience. In one, Finn got trapped in another world and lived an entire lifetime there before returning to his own as a child again. In another, Finn and Jake confronted a population of people willingly submitting to a Matrix-like virtual reality existence. In a sequence emblematic of the series’ simultaneous whimsical tone and intellectual seriousness, one character mused: “What’s real? Your eyes think the sky is blue, but that’s just sun rays farting apart in the barf of our atmosphere. The sky is black.”

Adventure Time dared to be anything and everything, often at the same time. It was a silly, plotless kids’ show. It was an epic fantasy adventure. It was a long-term coming-of-age story. It was an experimental exercise. It was a stoner’s dream. It was a relationship drama. It was a heartbreaker.

Episodic television offers a canvas unique among the arts: time. The best shows make use of this canvas to tell their stories as creatively and ambitiously as they can; Adventure Time used it to become one of the best television series of its day.

Adventure Time’s four-part finale, “Come Along With Me,” airs Monday, September 3, on Cartoon Network.

Original Source -> An ode to Adventure Time, one of TV’s most ambitious — and, yes, most adventurous — shows

via The Conservative Brief

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