The Replacements: Like a Lot of Other Shows

9:28 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "[agent k voice] you're cancelled"

A lot like Alice's Wonderland Bakery, I had a lot of trouble placing my thoughts on this show. I caught a lot of ads for this show as a kid, and even then, I never watched it because I was convinced it wasn't a real show. Just from theme alone, it felt like a joke, kind of similar to how I felt about The Ghost and Molly McGee's theme.

I think I ultimately landed on "the show is entertaining, but it's a little bit edgy or even passive aggressive with its humor," and retrospectively speaking it's somewhat forgettable.

7:05 PM · Mar 6, 2021 "shows that are kinda funny but also disrespect women"
3:05 PM · Mar 9, 2021 "I’m enjoying the replacements so far but at the same time there’s just some jokes that make me double take. Not enough to make me angry. But enough to annoy me. A tad"
8:22 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "i watched 9 episodes of this show and i still dunno how to feel about it..."
8:28 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "it's not as hateful as something like yin yang yo, but there's definitely a passive aggressive energy from it. especially emanating from todd and the motherfuncling car"
8:59 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "me: i dont know how to feel about this show
show: hits me with a transphobic joke
me: i know how to feel about this show"

The show feels like a better fit for early 2000s Disney, considering the show has a bit of a 1960s vibe, what with the colors and Peanuts dancing in the theme, and some of the cast included. Though it has a similar sense of humor to shows like Dave the Barbarian, the style is more like Teamo Supremo.

7:02 PM · Mar 6, 2021 "i really like the theme for replacements. it feels full of homage"
7:16 PM · Mar 6, 2021 "illya motherfuncle is in this show..."

And a lot like Gummi Bears, most of my enjoyment of the show came from overanalyzing the girl character. 

3:26 PM · Mar 9, 2021 "i think riley's my fave character in replacements in a really similar way to how sunni was my fave in gummi bears. i'm interested in what more can be done with them"

It's made pretty evident in the show that Riley is dealing with some trauma from her unhappy childhood. She'll often drop a comment or two about her trauma every so often, usually under strain, and I think about how she uses Fleemco as a means of regaining control over her life. Albeit it's not the best option, but I think I'm still proud of her for it.

2:23 PM · Mar 9, 2021 "i like that the show touches on riley's less than ideal childhood. riley i think counts as trauma rep.... todd too but riley in a relatable way i dont kin riley i dont"
9:20 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "every time i wanna say something about riley i feel like everyone is gonna point at me and say "kinnie" she's just kind of relatable is all"

Unfortunately, Riley's writing is... Not all that good. In Todd episodes especially she comes off as really annoying. Usually she'll be used to give a moral to whatever selfish thing Todd's doing, which, you know is fair, but it does strain her character a bit to be the moral compass. Also, sometimes Todd is in the right?

2:59 PM · Mar 9, 2021 "the problem inherent with riley especially in todd focused episodes is that she is a neoliberal."
3:07 PM · Mar 9, 2021 "I think Riley deserves better writing. There’s something about her character that could be really thought provoking if just written better"
8:00 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "i wish this show treated riley better"

Oh well at least they made her trans in season 2.

5:18 PM · Mar 10, 2021 "im gonna have to watch some season 2 for this"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, like American Dragon, Replacements also goes through a season 2 makeover, though not as intense. It's just a mild style and palette change, and the humor remains the same.

Oh and also...

7:27 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "so most season 2 eps are 22 minutes...."

Honestly, part of me thinks having full length episodes is not as great as having 11 minute ones, but again, in retrospect, I remember the shorter episodes as much as I do the longer ones. In fact, the episode I remember the most, "Late Night With Todd and Riley" is a 22 minute episode! 

I think the easiest comparison you can make for The Replacements might be The Fairly Oddparents. While the plots aren't ultimately identical, they both involve miserable kids wishing things are different and learning the consequences of those actions, while still having better lives than they did. Also Daran Norris is goofy in them.

8:27 AM · Mar 11, 2021 "daran norris can only play one character and it shows. i kinda want to watch a show Like replacements but like. with better writing...."

I think Fairly Oddparents does better in terms of memorable characters and story, but Replacements does make me think more. It makes me think about what kind of show could be made if those making it could push the envelope a little more. Maybe make some harder hitting points about the kids' trauma instead of just being slightly offensive. 

Overall Rating for The Replacements: C Tier

Yin Yang Yo: Finding Intrigue In Garbage TV

6:13 PM · Feb 28, 2021 "carl the evil cockroach wizard human boy"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yin Yang Yo! is a bad show and I don't like it.

9:49 AM · Feb 27, 2021 "this show makes me uncomfortable..."
10:24 AM · Feb 27, 2021 "this show has hurt gay people"
6:14 PM · Feb 28, 2021 "also im kinda uncomfortable with how much dating and shipping is in this show with 11 year olds"

I don't really think I need to get into why I hated Yin Yang Yo! past, you know, the tweets... I also don't really like to talk about things I hate about F-Tier shows. Like at this point you can assume it's either everything or one thing just upset me so so so much. (Yin Yang Yo! falls into the former category.) Instead I'll just talk about aspects of Yin Yang Yo! that intrigued me.

I think it is funny because I did enjoy the show as a kid. Kyle Massey sung the theme song, which I thought was cool because we all thought Kyle Massey was cool in 2006. It had a lot of the same humor as Fairly Oddparents, due to being created by Bob Boyle, and I hadn't gotten sick of that comedy style yet. I was also fascinated with it because it was the first kids' show I watched to use words like "crap" and "suck," which is super common now. (To the point where children no longer consider them cusses?!?)

Funnily enough, this show also had lore in the form of the Big Bad, The Night Master, who I was utterly uninvested in. Additionally, there was a recurring nonbinary character. Unfortunately, the nonbinary character was.... erm....

10:22 AM · Feb 27, 2021 "thank god i have vivid memories of yuck"
4:31 PM · Feb 27, 2021 "THE FIRST NONBINARY DISNEY CHARACTER? SHUT UP? SHUT THE FUCK UP?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4:34 PM · Feb 27, 2021 "WAIT I FORGOT ABOUT ZOIT. THANK YOU ZOIT.... YOU'VE DONE SO MUCH FOR ME PERSONALLY...."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah... if I recall correctly, Yuck is canonically part girl and part boy, as he is a weird sort of fusion of Yin and Yang. However, Yuck uses he/him pronouns exclusively, and isn't really made by anyone who thinks super hard about gender, so take this as you will.

Zoit is also kind of a weird example, as they chose a gender at the end of the episode they were featured it, but kept it a secret, but I digress. Let's talk more about Yin Yang Yo villains the only source of intrigue in this show.

There's Smoke and Mirrors, two very over the top anime characters in an already anime-esque show

 

There's Saranoia... who sucks shit. And Ultimoose, who is worse...

9:30 AM · Feb 27, 2021 "i dont care that the villain disrespects women and that's what makes him a villain.... i dont want to watch show with moose who hate woman"

Actually I only want to talk about Carl the Evil Cockroach Wizard, because he's kind of the best character.

9:58 AM · Feb 27, 2021 "i think carl the evil cockroach wizard did so much for gay people"
11:40 AM · Feb 28, 2021 "how do you do fellow teens"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't say he's the best in that he's a "good" character or anything like that, but I am fascinated by him. He's the main antagonist of the series, and a rather pathetic one at that, usually having to deal with his mother, who does not respect him, and his brother Herman, who is better than him in almost every way. When I was a kid, I kind of assumed Carl was like... a grown adult (maybe like a 30-to-40-something?) who lived with his mom (because a lot of shows with that Fairly OddParents creative crew made jokes like that), but as I got into the show as an adult I kind of realized... He's supposed to be a teenager, isn't he? But the thing is he doesn't really sell it except for when he's discussing the fact that he's going through puberty, and maybe also in his human form shown above.

6:12 PM · Feb 28, 2021 "is carl supposed to be like... a child? i guess it makes more sense if he is but idk he came off as like a pathetic adult to me............. there's like a joke about carl going thru puberty which implies he might be a kid or possibly he's trans"

According to the Yin Yang Yo! wiki, Carl is 16. My friend said it was probably because I was young, but I was 12-14 when this show came out, not much younger than Carl, and certainly old enough to differentiate a teen from an adult.

Herman was an even worse case. I still have no fucking idea how old he is.

7:42 PM · Feb 28, 2021 "carl is a teenager this is said in multiple yyy wikis one wiki says herman is 18 but he has a master's degree. i guess he's an adult either way but that's two very different adult times."

I googled the youngest person with a masters, and I found that Tiger Woods won the masters at age 21. I then shook my head to myself, thinking "No... Not that masters..." I scrolled down even further and saw that age was 16. He must have recently got that masters or something. In addition, my research found that Herman may be Carl's younger brother from some official website information I read. Anyway the moral of this story is cartoon canon is fucked up and made up look at this funny picture of Carl.

 

Overall Rating For Yin Yang Yo!: F Tier

Get Ed: Bit of a Mailfail...

2:32 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "me watching get ed"

 

 

Now we're onto the second of the three Jetix shows: Get Ed. Do you know what Get Ed is, because I didn't, and honestly, I'd just like to give you a moment. Think about what Get Ed could be about.

6:59 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "now we're onto get ed. i'm going into this completely blind."

It's a Jetix show, so that means it's boy-oriented, and likely more of an action comedy than a slice of life one that we're used to. Based on the looks it looks like it takes place in the future or is about robots, so maybe a sci-fi? Otherwise not much coming to you.

As for what the show is about...

7:03 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "villain who steals mail and that's all he does?"
7:04 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "THIS SHOW IS JUST ABOUT MAIL"
11:31 AM · Feb 26, 2021 "Why is there an evil mail company that steals mail"

Welcome to the dystopian future where no one gives a shit about mail reading laws and people are just here to steal everyone's mail! We have a wild cast which I only just realized is supposed to be color coded, despite them all wearing different colors.

First off, there's Ed. Some kind of robot or whatever. A lot of the intrigue comes from figuring out Ed's identity, but he's just a robot.

Then we have Fizz, who's just a normal kid who really shouldn't be working as a mailman. 

Burn is the leader of the crew, but no one really considers him such because the show is named after Ed.

2:48 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "inclusivity fail the team leader hates women"

Deets is a girl with a troubled past, having worked for the villain, which would give the show some intrigue if she weren't utterly sauceless.

2:35 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "deets is literally just giving her ENTIRE backstory monotone....."
2:36 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "if they put more thought into deets she'd be a bit of a she/they just my opinion"
2:43 PM · Feb 26, 2021 ""i know you"
god i fucking wish this show could do something with its fucking characters"

And of course, there's Loogie. He's everything you'd expect from a guy named Loogie. He's an annoying comic relief character who spends all his time talking to his sock puppet, Dr. Pinch.

7:09 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "muppet fan rep in get ed"
11:29 AM · Feb 26, 2021 "I hate Loogie so much."

Then we got the villains. There's Bedlam, who I mentioned prior, an evil head of a mail corporation that sets out to steal mail, Crouch, a little toaster, and finally this show's saving grace: Kora, by virtue of I probably would have wifed her if she wasn't in fucking Get Ed.

2:37 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "not to be like. typical, but i'd probably like kora if this was a better show......"
2:40 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "wow hot robot girl villain sidekick"
8:20 PM · Feb 26, 2021 "Wife Bait Get Ed Character"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's really not all that much to say about Get Ed. The show kind of surprised me with how uninteresting its main plot was, many characters who were meant to be intriguing lacked any enthusiasm, and also fucking Loogie was there, leading to a rather swift conclusion.

7:25 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "get ed fucking sucks"

Unfortunately, it only gets worse from here...

Overall Rating for Get Ed: E Tier 

Alice's Wonderland Bakery: Not Sure How To Feel About This One

I'm gonna be completely honest. I was excited for this one. I wanted to like it.

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is the newest in Disney's line of making shows about relatives of famous characters, and I usually have a lot of fun with this trope. While I haven't seen Descendants past some stuff I'll discuss much later down the line, I've enjoyed a lot of other shows with this trope such as The 7D and The Rocketeer (2019). I figured, oh boy, this one is about Alice in Wonderland too! I can't wait!

It's not bad??? Per se? But it's kind of confusing? And it made me kind of sad.

Honestly, I'm having issues determining where exactly to put this one on the tiermaker. I don't think I've been this confused about a show in some time. Granted I only watched 11 episodes so far and will likely get back to it, but still.

I'll start with the stuff I liked. I think probably one of the best qualities of the show is that it's usually pretty comfortable. Alice has a lot of positive regard toward her friends and tries to make sure they're comfortable and included. In "No Palace Like Home," she constantly asks Hattie if he's comfortable or needs to drop out of the royal sleepover, while in "Sour Grapes," she helps Rosa feel comfortable with a new food: green grapes. 

This isn't the first Disney baby show to do this necessarily; Vampirina and Muppet Babies also go this route, but as much as I watch Disney baby shows for some ungodly reason, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I think even non-baby shows lately have been going this route too. Harvey Beaks comes to mind as one of those feelgood shows that focuses on comfort (though it does admittedly have an edge to it as well, while this show does not).

I also really like the songs this show has to offer. I've mentioned the once an episode songs in other baby shows, and this one has two, which I didn't realize for a bit. There's "Let's Bake," the actual once an episode song that varies in length when the main trio gets to baking. And then there's "Food For Thought," which is less of a once an episode song and more of a recurring song. "Let's Bake" is very fun and I find myself singing it in my day to day life, so I have a feeling it'll be memorable in ten years. "Food For Thought" is a really lovely song, which made me think "Wow! This is really sweet." And then I heard it again and went. "Hold on. Is Alice going to sing this song anytime someone's upset?" And it sucks because it's a fantastic song, but if it's just going to be thrown in whenever someone's sad... I feel like that's going to wear it out, and it sort of gives the show a haphazard vibe.

With that same vibe is how the show does morals. A lot of the morals are different for different characters. For example, Alice stories are about cooking by the book lest there be consequences, while Hattie stories are about doing things in your own way. On one hand, I appreciate how the show sets up different sets of morals for these two vastly different characters who are still bound by baking, but on the other, every time I think about "Try Again Tart," involving Hattie throwing ingredients into a tart without regard, I also think about "Pie Pressure," the episode that was paired with it, where Fergie messes up Alice's recipes, ultimately leading to the Queen of Hearts having a grin on her face she can't get rid of it.

I think out of all the shows about descendants of some characters, this one is also the one with the most allusions to the source material. Sometimes, this is great, because you get episodes like "Potato Potahto," where Alice and Fergie make the same potato based recipes created by the original Alice and the White Rabbit, which they both gave different names.

On the other hand, you'll get songs from the original movie, such as "Painting the Roses Red" instead of something new. I do like Alice in Wonderland, but I think I was expecting this show to pull a little less from it. Like maybe they could have included more modern versions of the songs like The 7D did.

As for characters, my thoughts are kind of mixed on most of them. Sometimes I like them, other times I don't. My main exception for this is the royal family. The Queen of Hearts in particular is a very fun character. She has the energy of an over the top immature villain, though she's not malicious so much as she is greatly arrogant.

My other exceptions for this are Hattie's dad, The Dad Hatter (his actual name), and Harry the March Hare. While I do not necessarily feel positively about these two, any possible emotions I have about these two characters are clouded by my incessant wondering as to whether these guys are a couple or not. On one hand, characters having two moms or two dads is getting increasingly common in kid shows, and lesbian couples have been featured in Disney baby shows before (Doc McStuffins and T.O.T.S.). However, we haven't seen a gay couple to my knowledge, and I have not seen LGBT couples as the forefront of a show. In addition, Disney has a reputation of child characters being raised by a two men who are not romantically involved (Gosalyn had a dad and a Launchpad, Bunga was being raised by Timon and Pumbaa, who are seen as uncles, etc).

I think a lot of the sour feeling I feel about this show other than the various mixed emotions come from one episode: "Dodo Dilemma." In this episode we're introduced to Captain Dodo and his daughter Jojo, who suffers from an upside-down related ailment. The episode has Alice and the gang make a recipe that can fix it that requires certain peppers. They can't find the peppers at the bakery and then ask the Cheshire Cat where they can find them. The gang eventually finds out that the peppers, which Captain Dodo had as a child, no longer grow in Wonderland. They essentially shrug it off and find a suitable replacement which cures Jojo.

Now this isn't a bad episode or anything, but I don't like the implications. I don't like the implication that extinction exists in Wonderland. Like yes, extinction does happen in the real world, but it does happen more frequently these days, and I wonder if this episode reflects a real-world problem. In that case, we just shrug and get over it because we'll find a solution? Is the episode preparing children for an extinction event? Am I vastly overthinking a baby show? I don't know, but the episode made me feel pretty hopeless...

Also the episode was paired with one where the Queen of Hearts became a horsegirl it wasn't very good.

Rating for Alice's Wonderland Bakery: D Tier

Yay! Tier time!

 

Little Einsteins: How a Mozart Misconception Lead to Children Getting Bullied by Soviet Fighter Jets

5:59 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "i feel fucking aged"

 

 

 

 

In the last post, we talked about what likely lead to The Buzz on Maggie being created, and it essentially being a product of the times. Talking about what lead to Little Einsteins being created has a bit more solid grounding, and this time, I actually know what I'm talking about.

A long time ago, before you and I were born, unless you happen to be born in or before 1993, a psychologist named Frances Rauscher published a paper in Nature. In the paper, he described an experiment in which he tested the spatial ability of babies when listening to Mozart vs. when not listening to anything. The babies who listened to Mozart had improved spatial ability in a task.

The media had an absolute fucking field day with this. This new finding got deemed "The Mozart Effect" and mainstream media posited that classical music can increase your baby's intelligence. People were out trying to get classical music tape cassettes for their kids to make them smarter.

Here's the thing though: No. Rauscher only tested spatial ability in babies after listening to Mozart. None of this was long term. And Mozart was only compared to silence.

There were a lot of studies that tried to identify if "The Mozart Effect" was a real thing. I think one of my favorites was McKelvie & Low (2002), where they tried to determine if Mozart improved spatial ability compared to Aqua, and found no significant differences between the two conditions.

Unfortunately, we do not live in "The Aqua Effect Also Is A Thing" timeline, and studies like this one didn't get as much press as the Rasucher paper. Not to mention, by 2002, damage had been done.

(By the way, if you want to read either of these papers and can't access them, let me know! I should have pdfs for both these somewhere. I actually did a school project on this a few years ago.)

In 1998, at the time Georgia Governor Zell Miller (who some Georgians who had good grades in high school may know as "the reason you went to college in state") spent over $100,000 providing babies with classical music tape cassettes.

And of course, when people get in such a frenzy about science, there's someone who is gonna make money from it. In 1996, also in Georgia, Julie Aigner-Clark founded Baby Einstein, which was a series of videos and CDs featuring classical music for babies. And naturally, this idea was such a moneymaker, that in 2001, Disney purchased Baby Einstein. Disney ended up releasing more videos, with progress going as normal. At some point, Disney, alongside Curious Pictures developed Little Einsteins for Playhouse Disney.

9:19 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "this one is gonna be fun because it's a curious pictures series. which produced a few shows on cartoon network that were... you know they were fine........ shows i like a normal amount. totally never took over my life at any point"

Basically the moral of this story is that if you ever see a news article referencing scientific findings, do your part and make sure to read the article as well. And if someone else refuses to do this, you can kill them. I give you full permission. 

(Fun fact, you can also see some pushing of the Mozart Effect in The Incredibles DVD feature Jack Jack Attack, which came out the same year as Little Einsteins. Disney didn't own Pixar at that point but like. We still knew that was Disney and Pixar collaborating lol.)

Little Einsteins on its own is a pretty solid show. It's not going to make your baby a genius or anything, but it teaches kids about classical music and art, which I think is it's own reward.

9:39 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i think it's really clever though that like. the way they bring classical music and art into the series and cheer for it because it helped on their mission"

It's integrated into the show in a surreal but still really pretty way, and I actually really enjoyed how much the kids cheered for the composers and artists that helped them along the way at the end of the episode. Sadly, it wasn't always credited.

3:19 PM · Feb 23, 2021 ""aboriginal art" do we know who it is by?"

I'm no art historian so I genuinely don't know if this is art where we don't know the artists or art that wasn't credited, but that's still kind of sad either way I think.

And as I'm not really one for classical music or art, Little Einsteins didn't really stick out to me as much as it did others. Sorry pals I can't enjoy music unless there's screaming and clown horns in it.

9:30 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i feel the same way about little einsteins that i feel about fantasia so.... i guess i'm gonna be controversial this time."
9:34 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "like fantasia it's such a series to look at but also like fantasia i can't say i'm a fan of it."
6:05 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "i feel like i'd enjoy little einsteins a lot more if i was high"

It's still pretty though. Wonderful music and animation. Just not entirely my thing.

3:33 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "i love the way laughing is animated in this show like. they move the whole body it feels genuine."

 As for the characters, they're pretty easy to describe, since there's only a handful of them. 

5:56 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "are there only four characters in this show"
2:30 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "annie has been naughty this year"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quincy is a musician (Quincy Jones). Annie is a singer (Annie Rossi). June is a dancer (June Taylor). And Leo... Well...

5:43 PM · Feb 22, 2021 "leo is a fucking demon"

Okay, he's a composer (Leopold Stokowski), but man that kid unnerves me. Look at baby Leo.

There's also their rocket, aptly named Rocket. Rocket doesn't speak but does make noises and move in a way that suggests he has his own personality.

And of course, what's a cartoon without someone to bully these kids and their rocket?

1:00 PM · Feb 23, 2021 "you would think that the recurring antagonist in little einsteins is like. an older playground bully or something but no. it's a soviet airplane."

That's probably the funniest thing about the show honestly. Big Jet has Got to be my favorite character.

Also there's this thing

6:39 PM · Feb 25, 2021 "HELP HIM HELP HIM HELP HIM HELP HIM SOMEONE FUCKING HELP HIM"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course while the show is pretty, it's still a baby show, and has standard baby show fare.

9:43 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "i think the american equivalent of the overly long magical girl transformation sequence is the overly long Full Length Song when once an episode thing happens in baby show."

One of these is an interactive component, but I honestly think Little Einsteins does its interactive component the best of any Disney baby show. Maybe it's due to the small cast. Like this is you and your four best friends and your rocket. In addition it also teaches you things and asks more open ended questions than just how to solve a problem.

9:22 PM · Feb 21, 2021 june: i'm looking at the stars. do you like looking at the stars?
me: yeah but i don't think i really can because i live in the city...
june: WONDERFUL!"
9:23 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "my intellect has been bested by a seven year old."

 

Maybe it isn't the most effective when the person watching it is in their 20s, but I'm certain I'm something of an outlier. I was too old for this show when it came out, and I've only gotten older since!

Overall Rating for Little Einsteins: B Tier

The Buzz on Maggie: How We Got To This Point

3:59 PM · Feb 16, 2021 "your date to the dance looks gnc as fuck"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh hey! Now this is a family-school comedy! Unfortunately, it's not very good.

2:00 PM · Feb 14, 2021 "maybe mr enter was right about this show"
6:13 PM · Feb 16, 2021 "i am... 5 eps??? into buzz on maggie but it feels like i've been watching it forever. at least with monkey show that went by quick."

God, what even is there to talk about at this point? The Buzz on Maggie is probably the epitome of a mid-aughts cartoon. So how did we get here?

1:48 PM · Feb 14, 2021 "maggie is so lincoln loud it hurts"

In terms of the Disney Cartoons, it's pretty simple. Disney was still riding high off of their slice of life and school styled cartoons that started out with Doug. Though the shows were getting a little more boy-focused at this time, Disney was still a girl's channel, and needed cartoon show about girls.

Live action wise, this is more of the same for them. Lizzie McGuire was an absolute hit. That So Raven had the she's just like you, but a psychic thing going for it. They could do the same with Maggie. She's just like you, but a weird bug thing.

I was 11 when this show came out. I was listening to a lot more punk rock, and a bunch of my friends were too. American Idiot and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge came out the year before. Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi was also ushering in a new wave of kids who called themselves punk rock. So hey, here's a show about a nonconformist girl fly who loves to play punk music, but also wants to be cool and popular, just like you!

4:53 PM · Feb 16, 2021 "the thing about maggie is she has all the doug qualities but she is also decidedly nonconformist... if maggie shows interest in being popular, it is solely to spite someone. does that still allow her to be a doug?"

By this time, a lot of the animation episode tropes were starting to get noticeable too. You have your makeover episodes, your sneaking a pet into the house episodes, your dating someone to save their feelings episodes. All of these are episodes of The Buzz on Maggie, which makes the show feel kind of generic, but then again, it had episodes like these.

7:21 PM · Feb 18, 2021 "The buzz on Maggie racism metaphors featuring the Beatles."
7:36 PM · Feb 18, 2021 "maggie becomes a dealer"

Regardless, the show still feels like a product of the 2000s to me. It was an obvious stop on the road, even if it was only 21 episodes. Not to mention this also making it feel oh so aughts to me:

1:37 PM · Feb 14, 2021 "started buzz on maggie and the big brother is named aldrin and is voiced by danny kaufman which is. yeah"

I think the thing I hated most about this show other than it being generic is that no one likes anyone else. There's maybe a few episodes at the start where Maggie likes her little brother Pupert, such as "Funball," but a lot of it is underhanded, and toward the end of the series, she finds him annoying.

No one really stands out as that great of a character either. A lot of the characters are very tropey and it makes me not sympathize for any of them.

10:28 PM · Feb 21, 2021 "buzz on maggie is also probably the first show where i didnt have a favorite character. if i HAD TO PICK i'd probably pick the geeky butterfly girl..... she seems fun."

Like even in the lousy shows, there's always at least one character I enjoy the antics of, but this one just kind of absolutely lacked any charm. Not something I actively hate, but one of those shows so devoid of anything it depresses me.

Overall Rating for The Buzz on Maggie: E Tier

American Dragon Jake Long: A Cohesive Narrative I'm Not Willing To Sit Through

8:39 PM · Feb 18, 2021 "Me: spud is gnc as fuck
Izumi: [laugh] you’re insane. But you’re right."

I can totally justify cutting American Dragon off with a 5000 word post about Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor. I swear it actually makes sense. Much like Elena of Avalor does a better job with its themes than Sofia the First does, American Dragon Jake Long season 2 does a better job at being a cartoon worth watch than American Dragon season 1. But none of that will stand out to you if you don't watch the worse one first.

So as you will see from the intro jokes, I watched this show with my friend Izumi! Like with my other friends, we watched the shows over a discord call. However, unlike with other friends up to this point, we watched American Dragon Jake Long over a discord call with mics on. This resulted in me hearing every single time Izumi sighed when she heard a really corny line. Given how American Dragon season 1 is set up, this was approximately every 2-3 minutes. This vastly improved the quality of the show on my end.

The biggest problem of season 1 is that Jake uses a gratuitous amount of slang derived from AAVE. This was probably an excuse to make him seem "hip" and "cool," since he's a middle schooler trying to fit in and trying a bit too hard, but it comes off poorly and honestly, a show written predominantly by white people probably shouldn't have their nonblack character use AAVE solely to sound cool.

Season 2 is a lot better in that regard. In fact, the show got an entire upheaval and went from lousy to decent, with new animation, new designs, and a new take on the theme song.

8:41 PM · Mar 2, 2021 "on one hand the designs are so different from their original one... on the other they're so much better."

 The designs are great, though I do have a problem with one... Or rather... Two. The Oracle Twins.

These are twin sisters, folks!

The other issue I have with season 2 is kind of a weird one... It's not a bad show, but I hate that I have to sit through season 1 to understand what's going on in season 2. Despite season 1 being a lot goofier, the show has a considerable amount of plot beats in the first season. And honestly, how dare this show make me watch its dogshit first season if they knew it was dogshit?

Though that probably would have upset the fans. I remember kids my age being upset with the change in animation style. I didn't really... care all that much. Around the time I got into American Dragon I caught onto the sort of second season style change shows went through and found it kind of weird it was being advertised

I think American Dragon does have some memorable supporting character concepts at least. Out of a lot of the shows we've discussed recently, I remember the ones from this show the most. There was Sun Park, the Oracle Twins as mentioned before, that one teacher voiced by Paul Rugg, the two kids in the Huntsclan who always hang out with one another, and of course, the Bradster.

9:12 PM · Feb 18, 2021 "Beloved Boyboss The Bradster"

And I remember these characters existing at least. I think overall though, Haley was probably my favorite character after Spud. "Family Business" was actually one of my favorite episodes when I was a kid. It was fun to see Jake and Haley's rivalry as they did dragon training together.

8:35 PM · Feb 18, 2021 "Izumi and I hate a lot of the characters but we like the Long family"

I know I talk about family stories a lot, but I do wish this show could have been more focused on the Long family like that.

But this isn't a family and school sitcom like The Proud Family. American Dragon Jake Long is an action-adventure show about forbidden romance.

8:31 AM · Feb 26, 2021 "People act like zutara is about feminism or whatever y’all just watched American Dragon"

Jake's love interest is a girl named Rose. She starts out out of his league but he's determined to woo her, and she's interested. Unfortunately, Jake is the American Dragon and Rose is the number two to the Huntsman. So kind of like Miraculous Ladybug, but fucked up, earlier, and with better pacing. Though even then, Rose was up there with Suzie Crabgrass in terms of "characters my jaded middle school self knew were going to keep leaving and returning to the show for the ratings grabs." 

Honestly, watching through the show this time around, we skipped ahead to season two and missed out on a lot of plot information so I had to rely on what I knew about this show watching it as a kid. And it is one of those shows I liked and remembered a lot from. Unfortunately, it just did not hold up.

Overall Rating for American Dragon Jake Long: C Tier