Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law: Risk, Reward, Legacy, and Expectation

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. (Source: I lost the entire goddamn post for this one)

Also my friend joked that this post mysteriously vanished due to Doof and Perry's schemes so I guess it fits in with both fucking shows.

Honestly it's a bit difficult to talk about these show. Both series are very popular, to the point where they're heavily discussed. I've seen a lot of philosophical takes on Phineas and Ferb especially, so I guess I'll just talk about my history with these shows.

I watched both shows as they came out. Phineas and Ferb started out when I was in middle school and continued on through college. Fuck man, I watched Candace Against The Universe for the first time when I was at my fourth university. Milo Murphy's Law on the other hand did not exist too long. When it came out I had a bachelor's and ended around the time I got my master's. 

It's pretty clear that Phineas and Ferb is the cartoon with more staying power, if not from its legacy, from the fact that it's had an insane amount of endings. We got "Act Your Age," which fans assumed was going to be the last episode when it came out, which everyone was disappointed by. We got "Doof 101," the episode paired with "Act Your Age," in which Doofenshmirtz becomes a good guy by working as Vanessa's science teacher and also there's this weird b-plot with bugs. We got "The OWCA Files," which would have served as a spinoff where Doofenshmirtz goes to work for OWCA and is teamed up with Perry the Platypus, but it also wasn't that great, and again had those fucking bugs no one likes. We got "The Last Day Of Summer," the actual final episode of Phineas and Ferb, which served as a fun bookend having Phineas wave goodbye to the audience, and more importantly, show Candace and Doofenshmirtz trying to succeed for once in their lives. Then years later, we got the movie Candace Against The Universe, which was pretty fun, again exploring Candace's character, this time via her relationship to her brothers. Also we found out Jeremy Johnson was a LARPer.

And of course, in the middle of all that, there was also Milo Murphy's Law.

Milo Murphy's Law was going to take place in the same universe as Phineas and Ferb, but not really have much overlap between its characters. That was the plan anyway. Eventually, the Phineas and Ferb team showed up to help save the day in the cross season two-parter "Fungus Among Us" and "The Phineas and Ferb Effect." The idea being that Milo has a disproportionate amount of bad luck while Phineas and Ferb have a disproportionate amount of good luck, which they can use as a weapon. Also Dr. Doofenshmirtz invents time travel in the future and spends the entire second season living at Milo's house. He even has a breakup arc with Perry the Platypus at the same time Dakota and Cavendish have their breakup arc. Honestly season 2 is a lot of Dan Povenmire talking to himself.

All of this points to Phineas and Ferb being a better show, and well... it is... But Phineas and Ferb isn't without its faults, and there's still a lot I like about Milo Murphy's Law.

One of the differences between the two shows is the risk and reward put in. Phineas and Ferb goes for a strict story formula that it holds onto for at least the first half of season one (some people argue it may last longer), and then subverts the hell out of. It's super high risk-high reward. On one hand, watching the first half season of Phineas and Ferb is incredibly dull, but on the other, it makes the future seasons so much better. Stories get subverted, characters grow from one dimensional archetypes to funny little weirdos (this tumblr post is a good example), and the show gets so much funnier. I actually remember watching "Unfair Science Fair" for the first time and thinking "Wow, this is really good." And I kept thinking it.

Milo Murphy's Law on the other hand goes straight into story and character. Everyone is established very quickly, as is the act of subversion, which means you know what to expect. It's still funny, but it's a little more expected. Low risk-low reward. Not to mention again, having Milo Murphy's Law bank off Phineas and Ferb. Though I did have a lot of fun with that part of the show.

I've noticed that my friends' opinions on Milo Murphy's Law are actually pretty different from my own. While I enjoyed the show, many of my friends didn't, and I have a theory on that. I have no evidence, but it's still testable.

Anyway, I think part of why many people didn't enjoy Milo Murphy's Law was due to high expectations. The though process might have been "It was made by the guys who made Phineas and Ferb, of course it's going to be amazing!!!!" And then it didn't live up to expectations of some of the fans. Meanwhile, to me it just seemed like another gimmick show. Around the mid-2010's, it seemed like most of what Disney was putting out was various gimmicky shows that seemed more apt to be funny shorts. Future Worm was about a boy and his worm best friend who travelled through time. Billy Dilley's Super Duper Subterranean Summer was about a weird boy studying monsters in the center of the earth. Pickle and Peanut was... something. And Milo Murphy's Law was about a boy who suffers bad luck at every turn. I didn't have much hope for something like that as a full fledged series, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was good. Not quite up to par with Phineas and Ferb, but still an A Tier show.

Oh also I think Milo Murphy's Law is an American take on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and if MML got a season three it would have been about ESP. I have never seen more than one episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Overall Ranking for Phineas and Ferb: A Tier

Overall Ranking for Milo Murphy's Law: A Tier