~How the gentle wind, beckons through the leaves, as autumn colors fall~
Tag: over the garden wall
Top 10 TV Show List
Tagged by the awesome @rum-and-shattered-dreams (thank you!)
10. Over the Garden Wall
The shortest entry on this list, but damn if it wasn’t a memorable one from start to finish. This little miniseries has it all: mystery, comedy, drama, horror, insanely catchy songs (damn you, “Potatoes and Molasses”!), surreal imagery, and fantastic characters, and manages to be quite unlike anything I’ve seen before or since.
9. Voltron Legendary Defender
AKA how to do a reboot cartoon right. I never watched the original Voltron, but from all appearances, this show took all the elements people loved about the original, kept them, and changed basically everything else. It’s not afraid to branch out and do its own thing when it wants to, but it also pays homage to the series that came before it quite a lot, and you can tell the creators deeply respect the source material. The animation and cinematography are fantastic, the characters all lovable and well-written, and the plot gripping and able to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire season.
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (circa 2003, seasons 1-4)
THE definitive TMNT for me; if there was a series that combined this series’ sense of maturity and grit with the art style of the 2012 Nickelodeon series, then that would be the perfect TMNT TV show, imho. I am still utterly astonished by how dark this series was allowed to get at times while still never losing the franchise’s unique brand of slightly absurdist humor. Where else can you find a series
rated Y-7
where the lead villain is decapitated on screen, one of the lead characters spends an entire season with blatant PTSD, and a main character’s pet kitten drowns on screen (sure, the episode turned out to be all Just A Dream, but still!), while, in the same series, you have a main character distracting the bad guy with a pigeon puppet, the main characters defeat an entire coalition of armed guards with nothing but a toilet scrubber, a broom, two toilet plungers, and spoons, and this iconic scene? Not to mention the writing is absolutely top notch, and the characters feel so delightfully three dimensional and human (er, for lack of a better term.)
[Do keep in mind that my praise for this series only pertains to seasons 1-4; I’m really not a fan of the direction the writers decided to go in after that, and I prefer to pretend that the later seasons don’t exist, especially season 5.]
7. Goblin
This show is basically Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series with Korean mythology instead of Greek, and it is absolutely delightful. The character writing here is sublime, as are the performances turned in by every single member of the main cast. The main couple’s chemistry and relationship progression is incredibly satisfying, but honestly, the other relationships in the series are just as intriguing and well-written as the romance, especially the Goblin and Grim Reaper’s budding friendship that honestly is almost more compelling than the actual romantic subplot. The story admittedly does move a bit slowly, but this series is more about the characters and the journey they go on than it is about the plot anyway, so since I loved all the characters so much, I didn’t find myself overly minding that all that much. I also want to give a shout out to just how damn pretty this show is; the cinematography, the special effects, the costumes – both period and modern, they spared no expense on anything here, and it really shows. Oh, and the OST is one of the greatest soundtracks of all time for any show ever, and you can quote me on that.
6. Motorcity
“Sexy Cars, Absurdly Badass Action Sequences, and Heartwarming Bromance: The Series” and there are not enough words in the English language to convey how pumped this series makes me every single time I watch even a gifset from it. No, it’s not the deepest or most profound show I’ve ever seen, but one thing it is is pure, unadulterated fun, and we all need a little fun in our lives every now and then. Plus it has hilarious writing, great characters, incredible animation, and one of the most absurdly entertaining chaotic neutral villains in the entire history of fiction. It has only 20 episodes, due to Disney putting the kibosh on production only one season in, but luckily, the creators were able to account for this and give the show a satisfying ending, so you have no reason to not watch this and then treat yourself to a proper viewing.
5. Stranger Things
I’m not sure there’s much I can say about this particular series that hasn’t already been said by other better writers, so I’ll keep this brief. This is THE best live-action show to have come out in at least the last decade, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you have done yourself a disservice.
4. Star Trek: The Original Series
The nostalgia is strong with this entry, it’s true, but this show holds too much of a special place in my heart to put it any lower on the list. I have many fond memories of watching episodes on my dad’s old VHS tapes over and over again, just loving the old school sci-fi aesthetic and wonderful character interactions in every episode. Even today, the writing holds up remarkably well, even if the special effects have aged very obviously. Still, it just adds to the show’s charm, and I’d still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves science fiction.
3. Firefly
My experience with this series is probably a bit different than most, since I actually watched the theatrical movie (which was basically meant to be the series finale) first. I had no idea who these characters were or even that they came from a series, but the universe and characters were so engaging and different than anything I’d seen before that was incredibly drawn in all the same. When I figured out there was a series, over four years later, I knew I immediately had to watch it, and was hooked from the first episode. The character writing on this show is some of the best I’ve ever seen in my life, the worldbuilding absolutely top notch, and it’s a damn shame it didn’t get the chance to become the next big hit because of FOX’s meddling. There’s a reason this is still one of the biggest cult classic sci-fi shows in the west, that’s for sure.
2. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003/Brotherhood)
While I prefer the 2003 anime for personal reasons, I love both anime adaptations of Himoru Arakawa’s magnum opus too much to leave one or the other off this list, so into the number two slot they both go. Besides, I’ve always privately held that if you combined both series into one, they’d basically cancel out each other’s personal failings and you’d be left with the single most perfect anime in existence. And come on, how often do you get two adaptations of the same incredible story and characters that are so drastically different in tone and themes? It’s just more FMA to enjoy, imho, and spending more time in this fascinating world which such dynamic, well-written characters exploring such heavy, thought-provoking concepts and themes would never be something I’d say no to.
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender
I think this one speaks for itself.
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i made a comment about wirt’s reaction to beatrice’s betrayal last year but i never got around to actually posting about it, so here are (finally) some thoughts:
@allieinarden has a great post considering Wirt’s dad and his own insecurities that have led us all, instinctively, to conclude he’s been left (rather than his dad has died), and i’m just gonna quote a small part of it here rather than paraphrase bc she’s Too Smart to not read:
It fascinates me that with all the guesses I’ve run across, even in a series fraught with specters of all shapes, I’ve never seen anyone speculate that Wirt’s father might be dead. There’s nothing to contradict it–we only have mention of a remarriage, not of a separation–and Wirt’s attitude toward his mother’s new husband could just as easily be explained by a stubborn, Hamletesque devotion to his father’s memory. But no one’s gone there, because we instinctively feel that Wirt was not merely bereaved but abandoned. His particular line of insecurity–namely, an almost total lack of trust in his fellow human beings–is very telling, as is his refusal to make a stir in the world. That children of divorce commonly blame themselves and their own actions for the separation is proverbial to the point of cliché. Wirt has survived the years since his father’s departure by keeping his head down, beset by the fear that if he does anything noticeable–confess to his crush, play the clarinet in public–something bad will happen.
Going off that, Wirt doesn’t really seem to have friends. He keeps people at a distance, and it’s more than just being nervous to talk to his crush. He watches the football game (or, well, mostly Sarah) from the other side of the fence before Greg steals his tape and forces his hand to talk to the other girls; he won’t go into the party because he wasn’t invited even though everyone seems super cool about him being there and they all say hi to him. He won’t go to the graveyard bc Jason Funderburker will be accompanying Sarah.
As Allie points out his particular brand of insecurities, too–he’s constantly explaining why he does the things he does, like he’s trying to justify it. He’s proud of his costume until someone asks him what he’s supposed to be and he just stammers out some “I just thought”s and never even gives an actual answer. He’s terrified of being Known, of, as Allie says, even being Noticed.
But Wirt opens up to Beatrice. He tells her his Secrets that are Too Secret (and she validates them! He’s normal, not Too Weird for her!). He talks about things he knows–housing styles, clarinet. He even sings and dances around her when they’re on the Frog Ferry, happy enough about almost being home that he doesn’t seem to remember to be insecure–even better! She encourages him to play the Basoon after he protests he’ll be bad at it and “nobody wants to hear that” (albeit bc she thinks it WILL be bad and she’s trying to get them kicked off the ferry but he doesn’t know that)…and…he does!! he plays the basoon in front of someone!
Her betrayal, I think, is the start of his despair. It’s funny because he’s definitely mad at her, but what he says is “I thought we were friends” and then, later, “I shouldn’t have trusted anyone.” It’s self-recrimination–he’s mad because he knew, he knew, not to trust anyone, he knew (if anyone knew him) he’d be abandoned again. As Allie reminds us: His particular line of insecurity–namely, an almost total lack of trust in his fellow human beings–is very telling
The one time he does trust someone, she betrays him. He’s angry enough to leave, but he thinks she’s left them first. He doesn’t need her, he tells Greg. He tells Greg he, Greg, can do whatever he wants. It’s an implicit he doesn’t need Greg either. Wirt doesn’t need anyone (but, lol, if that were true he would’ve been lost to the Unknown a long time ago).
(The immediate next episode, he finds Lorna and as soon as he starts kinda liking her, she tries to eat him. He manages to save Lorna, which you’d think would be a positive! But it’s not his to stay with her, or Lorna’s to leave Auntie Whipsers, and so she never really Knows him. I’m inclined to think he wouldn’t let her even if they had more time together.)
And that’s when he starts despairing–he’s been betrayed by Beatrice, who he never should have trusted or let Know him in the first place. Beatrice was also their Only ticket home–she’d promised Adelaide would help them. Their other option was to follow the Woodsman, and Wirt thinks he’s the Beast. Without Beatrice, Wirt has no plan–he can’t trust anyone to get them out of the Unknown, but as much as he says he doesn’t need anyone, he can’t get them out himself either. What else is there to do but lay down and submit to fate?
But Beatrice comes back. Greg being taken is already a wake up call for Wirt, and he’s terrified and recognizes how much he’s failed his brother, but he also has to be rescued by Beatrice and she’s the one who helps him find Greg again.
Some fma inktobers from 2017
I’ll be selling these into a zine (and some prints) for doujima this may! (Im thinking of opening international orders too..)
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