Post by goldensandslash on Aug 2, 2017 8:04:33 GMT
The turbolift doors opened, and the four members of the away team stepped onto the bridge.
"The Captain?" Riker inquired.
"We were unable to retrieve him, sir." Data responded.
Riker looked down. Data continued.
"The Captain has been altered by The Borg."
"Altered?" Riker said, confused at the situation.
"He *is* a Borg," Worf replied.
Worf turned to face Riker, and Riker just looked away.
"We'll go back," Shelby told him, "I need more people. We need to re-tune the phasers again. We'll get him out of there."
From his station, Geordi gave a status report. "Commander, reading subspace field fluctuations from within the Borg ship. Looks like they're regenerating, restoring power. They could be capable of warp any minute."
Riker sighed and looked down, sadly. "Is the deflector ready?"
Geordi nodded. "It's ready."
Crusher spoke up. "Will, he's alive. If I could get him back to the ship, I might be able to restore-"
"This is our only chance to destroy them. If they get back into warp, our weapon is useless," Riker cut her off.
"We'll sabotage them again if we have to," Shelby told him.
"We can't maintain power! We don't have the time!" Riker yelled.
"Prepare to fire," he ordered.
"At least consult with Starfleet Command! Get Admiral Hanson on subspace," Shelby screamed.
"Belay that order, Lieutenant! There's no time."
Shelby looked dejected that her suggestion was ignored.
"Sir," Worf informed him, "We are being hailed by The Borg."
"On screen," Riker ordered.
Riker and Shelby turned to the view screen to see a ghastly image of Captain Picard, altered by Borg technology. He was surrounded by several other Borg as well. The figure on the view screen stepped forward and spoke.
"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."
At that point, Riker had made his decision.
"Mr. Worf... fire."
TO BE CONTINUED
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This is the final episode of Season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. When it first came across our television screens in 1990, it was terrifying. Would the crew somehow get Picard back? Would Picard be killed off and Riker assume command of the Enterprise? What about the Borg? How would that threat be dealt with?
For three months, we had our jaws to the floor, wondering how the hell the crew could possibly defeat an enemy that seemed invincible, until the cliffhanger was finally resolved when the show's next season began.
If you're watching the show today, though, you just hit the "Next" button on Netflix and move on to Season 4 immediately. In my personal opinion, this is the wrong way to watch TV.
Television is a form of art, and so we have to examine the author's intent. In this case, it was intended for you to see this cliffhanger, spend a long time freaking out over it, and then get the resolution. If you go on to the next episode without even a five-minute break, then you have changed the artist's artwork. Now, that's not to say that you have to wait three months while you want to binge watch Star Trek, because that's just too unrealistic, but you should have some gap of some kind. Wait a week. Wait a day. Wait an hour. Wait ten to fifteen minutes. Whatever works for you. But do take the time to let an episode "cool off" before you go on to the next one.
Full disclaimer before I go any further: The overwhelming majority of what I watch on TV these days is American animation. So it's possible that each of my points don't apply to live-action shows or shows in other countries, but from what I can tell, it seems to be pretty universal. Okay, back to my post.
As far as I can tell, cliffhangers like this are virtually dead in the modern era of television. Yeah, they come up occasionally, but for the most part, they really aren't that common anymore.
To give you an idea, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic airs mostly self-contained episodes, but each season usually begins with a two-parter and ends with a two-parter. Season 1's premiere was a two-parter with the two episodes airing a week and a half apart. Season 1's finale was a standalone. Season 2's premiere was a two-parter aired a week apart. After that, each premiere and finale was a two-parter, except for Season 3's finale and Season 7's premiere. But all the two-parters were aired with both parts airing back-to-back simultaneously. The reason? Because a cliffhanger won't work anymore, since people are impatient and don't wait.
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Another thing that has killed the art of cliffhangers is the Internet. If you're a competent television writer, you place hints and clues into the first part to foreshadow how the second part will go. But you have to be extremely subtle about it, or else you spoil the ending. Well, foreshadowing is just about as dead as a cliffhanger is. Because, let's say you are subtle with your foreshadowing. You make the clues so subtle that only one out of every 10,000 people who watch your episode will know how this ends.
Let's say that 200,000 people watch your show. That means 20 people figured it out. In a pre-Internet world, that's fine. But here's the thing. In a post-Internet world, as soon as one person figures it out, they'll go online to post their theories, and now all 200,000 of them have seen this theory that was posted and they've all figured it out.
To give an example, Gravity Falls has a plot twist that's revealed about halfway through Season 2. I don't want to spoil it in case you haven't seen the show, but the fan base did manage to figure it out about two years before the episode aired. And the clues for it were VERY subtle. But here's the other part about the Internet: You don't need to pick up every clue anymore. Let's say that there are six clues that you've placed throughout your show. I'll call them Clue A through Clue F. If one person figures out Clue A, and another figures out Clue B, and another figures out Clue C, and so on, then you're fine. It's only when you have four or five clues that this becomes problematic. And no one individual person has more than two or three. But collectively, the fan base has all six within minutes of your episodes airing, and they discuss them with each other, resulting in everyone knowing the outcome.
Can huge plot twists come? Oh, sure, absolutely, but you have to be an incredibly talented writer to pull it off.
An example of this done right was Steven Universe. HUGE SPOILERS FOR THAT SHOW COMING UP IN THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS. In the Season 1 finale, it is revealed that Garnet is secretly a fusion of two other characters, Ruby and Sapphire. Now, that part was obvious and figured out by the fan base well in advance. Like the Gravity Falls plot twist, there were clues placed throughout that the fan base found. But what we didn't figure out was WHY Garnet would stay a fusion all the time and never de-fuse the way that other fusions do. Some people theorized that one of the two components of the fusion was evil, and the "good" side was keeping it in check. Others thought that maybe the characters were somehow damaged in such a way that they can no longer physically exist separately. No one expected the true answer: Ruby and Sapphire are just really really gay for each other and can't bear to be apart.
And to give the Steven Universe writers even more credit, they also dropped ANOTHER huge twist that no one saw coming towards the start of Season 5. We learned of another plot twist previously: While she was alive, Rose Quartz killed Pink Diamond. When this episode hit, no one knew what to make of it. That Rose Quartz would do such a thing just goes so far against her character that there had to be something more to it than that. Was Rose a hypocrite? Was she forced into a situation where she had no other choice? Were there some circumstances that made this act justified? NOPE. Season 5 reveals the truth about why Rose Quartz killed Pink Diamond: She never really did, and was just framed for it. She's innocent. That took the entire fan base by surprise.
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Another area that has changed in television is airing times. When do you air new episodes? As far as I can tell, there are three options used today: Traditional, Break, and Bomb.
Traditional is the typical "air an entire season of a show, one episode per week, until you run out, then wait three months and repeat the process for the next season". This is the way shows were typically aired back in the day, and a few still cling to this method.
Break is a bit better than that. Rather than taking a three month break after each season, they divide up those three months into breaks that are around two weeks or so, and place them throughout the season as it airs. You get more frequent breaks than in traditional, but the breaks are shorter as a result.
And then there's Bomb. Oh dear god. I wish Bomb would go away because it is terrible. With Bomb, you just randomly on the drop of a hat air a ton of episodes all at once during a week (usually a multiple of five, so that you can air a certain number per day each weekday), and then you air absolutely nothing until the next random Bomb decides to drop. This is named after Steven Universe, by the way. Cartoon Network markets these as "Steven Bombs", and, as far as I can tell, that's the show that started this unfortunate trend, though it is far from the worst offender. (Star vs. the Forces of Evil holds that title, airing sixteen episodes in the span of one month, and having nothing for three months prior to that, and nothing again for another five months afterwards.)
By the way, that only applies to airing new episodes. You know why? Because airing re-runs has actually gotten WORSE. There are three ways of airing re-runs right now: Random, Block, and Marathon.
Random was what was used pre-1990s, and it seems to have entirely gone away. Essentially, you just air random stuff with no real plan. This went away when people realized Block is infinitely superior in every way.
Block was started in the 1990s, by the Disney Channel. They aired what was called "The Disney Afternoon". Every day, after kids got home from school, they could watch a whole bunch of shows marketed for children all in a row without it being randomly interrupted by something for grown-ups that they don't care about. This started the idea of airing shows that are for the same demographic together. This is the model that was widely used for a long time.
And then there's Marathon. So, this was touched on a bit in the old days. Occasionally, a channel will have a marathon of just one show being aired over and over and over for an entire day. Now, however, that seems to be considered "normal". This takes the idea of Block and pushes it well past the point of reason. Rather than airing a bunch of shows for the same demographic, they just air the same show constantly. At the time of this writing, Nickelodeon currently airs SpongeBob SquarePants 12 times a day Monday through Thursday, 17 times on Friday, 18 times on Saturday, and 14 times on Sunday. Each episode is 30 minutes long, so that is MORE THAN TWO DAYS WORTH OF TOTAL AIRTIME. Now, I'm not one to argue with results here. Obviously there must be some reason for them doing this or else they wouldn't do it, but... like... this makes no sense to me. Aren't you telling every single non-SpongeBob fan to go watch some other channel? Like, why is there so little variety here? Also, this isn't an isolated example. Just off of TOMORROW alone, Cartoon Network is airing 32 episodes of Teen Titans Go. Each is 15 minutes, but that's still 8 hours in a single day. And that's happening every day this week, so I don't think this is just an odd anomaly. This is how they air re-runs now. Now, I'll be blunt and say that I loathe both of these shows, but even if they were airing cartoons like Samurai Jack or Avatar: The Last Airbender, y'know, stuff that I actually like, I'd hate it if there was this much of it, because it means that whatever the NEXT big hit is won't ever come, because it can't compete with crap like this.
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Another big change in the way shows are watched is that they are frequently viewed one-at-a-time. How often does the following conversation happen?
Person A: You should watch <insert show here>.
Person B: Oh, yeah, I've heard good things about that, but I've got a long backlog to work through.
Person A: Oh?
Person B: Yeah, right now, I'm watching through <show>, and after that, I'm going to move on to <other show>, then <yet another show>, but then I'll get to your thing.
Person A: Yeah, that's cool, whenever you get to it.
I blame Marathon scheduling for this. Of course that's how people watch TV! That's how you air it! People have forgotten the enjoyability of watching multiple shows, and thus, being able to compare them as they go. It probably doesn't help that most people who watch TV these days do it online, either through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, or, if you're immoral, illegal pirated downloads. They have entire shows open to them, instead of just one new episode per week, where they'd have to fill in the time with other stuff in the meanwhile.
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Animated cartoons are, in terms of quality, at an all-time high. But there are some issues with them, as outlined above. First, let me explain why I feel cartoons are really good right now.
Before I get to that, though, a quick note on terminology. I will refer to animation by decade. For example, I will use the term "1980s cartoon", "1990s cartoon", "2000s cartoon", and "2010s cartoon". For the most part, this means what you think it means, with one important distinction. In the world of animation, as far as I'm concerned, the 1990s lasted until 2004. As such, a 1990s cartoon does include 2000-2003 as well, and a 2000s cartoon only includes things from 2004-2009. There's a reason for this, which I'll explain when we get there.
So, to start off with in our tour through animation history, let's go to the beginning. Where is that? Well, difficult to say. It depends on what you consider to be animation. Even today, we have yet to figure out how to show you a moving drawing. What your TV shows you instead is a bunch of static drawings that flash across your screen so fast that it gives the illusion of motion. And if we count "creating an illusion of moving pictures" as animation, then technically speaking, people have been trying to do that since cave paintings.
But if you want to actually start talking about real animation that just goes without any user input beyond hitting the "Play" button, that started in the 1900s, though, again, that definition is fuzzy depending on what you consider to be an animation. I'm a bit unclear on many parts of animation history (I know what aired, but I couldn't really tell you why), so let's skip ahead. Past the racist cartoons of the 1940s and into the 1960s, which is when animation was at its first of three peaks. This was when a lot of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons aired. After that, though, cartoons gained their "just for kids" reputation, which arguably sticks to this day (though it is getting better about going away). That led to the 1970s, when people made cartoons ridiculously bad, because "it's for kids, they'll watch anything". Just as an aside, why the hell does that matter? Kids also eat anything, but you don't let them eat lead paint chips. We monitor our kids in every other aspect of their lives - why is entertainment the exception?
Sorry, 1970s animation really bothers me. Okay, let's go to where my knowledge of animation history starts to become a bit better: The 1980s. Almost every 1980s cartoon was based on a toy. The studio executives realized that they could sell a bunch of merchandise if they made the cartoons into commercials for the toys. Each episode of Transformers or My Little Pony or whatever had a new item of some kind in it that they would make a toy of for kids to buy. Quick aside real quick: Yes, Transformers and My Little Pony still air today, and they still have toy lines that the show ties into. However, the difference is that a 1980s cartoon would be made to market the toys. Now, it's the other way around: the toys are made to market the show.
The problem with toys is that... they fade away. Eventually, you just lose interest and move on. So then we moved into the 1990s, which is animation's second peak. A 1990s cartoon, unlike a 1980s cartoon, could stand on its own, independent of any merchandise. Most of these shows were good, with a few such as Batman: The Animated Series or Gargoyles, even dipping their toes into "absolutely fantastic".
Then we come to the 2000s, which is my least favorite period in animation history. The 1970s may have produced worse shows (though even that is debatable), but they at least had the excuse of not really knowing any better. This is just... indefensible. So, in 2004, everything changed because of a computer program called Flash. Flash made animation quick and easy. Anyone could do it. You, the reader, could probably learn to use Flash and create your own decent animation in the span of a few months. And what happened? Well, people saw this as an excuse to be lazy. If animation is easy, then that means we don't have to do as much work! And so they put little to no effort into their cartoons, resulting in nothing but garbage on the air during this decade. Now, hold on. Didn't I mention that I liked Avatar: The Last Airbender? That aired from 2005-2008. So what's happening here? Well... Avatar is... an outlier. I can't explain it, but it definitely feels more like a 2010s cartoon than a 2000s cartoon. It was ahead of the curve. But it was literally the only show to do so. Name ANY other cartoon from 2004 to 2009 and I guarantee you, it was crappy.
But then came the 2010s. This is the third peak, and it is by far the biggest. All the children that grew up with 1980s cartoons and 1990s cartoons are now adults and are making their own cartoons inspired by the stuff that they watched as kids. The biggest difference between the 2010s cartoons and what came before is the ability to write for adults. While there are a lot of adult cartoons now that feature mature content, such as Archer, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, BoJack Horseman, and so on, there's something else happening that's even more important than that. For cartoons that are appropriate for children, they aren't dumbed down. An adult can watch a 2010s cartoon with their child and enjoy it without it feeling like a chore. Heck, the My Little Pony fan base is now made predominately of adult males, which is something that would be ludicrous to hear in the 2000s or earlier. Yeah, there were a couple of shows like that in the 1990s, but they were the exception, not the norm. Today, we have: Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, Gravity Falls, The Loud House, Milo Murphy's Law, Over the Garden Wall, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Steven Universe, Wander Over Yonder, and We Bare Bears. And that is STILL only a partial list. I could keep going.
Are there still crappy cartoons aired today? Of course. I could probably make a list of those too. But even those are better than the worst cartoons of the 2000s or earlier. But not only are these shows still better than what came before of that quality level, but there's also fewer of them and the better shows are not only more plentiful, but also better. However, I will give the caveat that this only applies to children's cartoons. Adult cartoons are, as far as I am concerned, on life support right now. They aren't dead yet, but they are getting there. Adult cartoons of the 2010s have higher ceilings and lower floors than those that came before. By a significant margin. And there are a lot more floors than there are ceilings.
There is some debate in the animation community about whether or not we are on a decline now. 2016 was the best year in the entirety of animation history. The second-best? 2015. The third-best? 2014. We've been on the uphill for a while now. However, 2017 doesn't look as good as 2016 did. It's only halfway over, so we can't be sure yet, but it appears that 2017 is going to turn out to be worse than 2016. That said, it's still really freaking good. It's on par with 2014, which isn't too bad.
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I thought about how to go about fixing these problems. Like I said, the 2010s are a great decade for animation, in terms of what gets produced. The biggest issue is how we consume it. We only watch one show at a time, and we don't let cliffhangers sink in. Luckily, those two problems tend to solve each other. If you're watching four different shows, then it will give time for a cliffhanger to sink in, because when Show A ends on a cliffhanger, then you watch episodes of Shows B, C, and D before returning to Show A to resolve the cliffhanger. Going to the Internet will also ruin a cliffhanger, but that's just a self-control thing. So, if only we had multiple shows to watch at once. Well, fortunately, 2010s animation has provided us with that, by giving us a plethora of options of really great shows to watch.
To that end, I have created the 2010s Animation Master Episode List. It lists off 27 different cartoons (and I might add more in the future) for you to watch, in the order that they originally aired, all overlapping with one another. This lets you experience the artist's intents with cliffhangers, because even if you watch all of these episodes straight through, one after another, you still get these lingering cliffhangers. Though, frankly, watching all 27 shows is a little extreme. If I were to do this, I'd pick, like, eight at the very most, and just watch through those. It's ultimately up to you.
Well, it's getting late, at the time of this writing, so I'm going to bed. In the morning, I'll probably make a follow-up post that gives spoiler-free plot synopses for each of the 27 shows, so that you can see which is your style and which you'd probably enjoy, if you choose to watch anything here. I assume that you have access to these shows by the way. Though, given the nature of the Internet, I suspect that you'll probably turn to illegal methods, but hey, that's your business, not mine.
But in case you happen to see this beforehand and question a couple of shows on there, let me explain those two real quick. You'll notice that one show that I listed was Samurai Jack, which seems to take up the first 52 slots of the chart. Why is that? Well, it originally aired from 2001 to 2004, and most shows here are from the 2010s or later. The reason why this is listed as a 2010s cartoon is because it was, in 2004, taken off the air. However, the ongoing storyline of the series had yet to be concluded. It just... stopped. It was later brought back in 2017 with new episodes for the first time in thirteen years, just to wrap up the story, even getting much of the original cast and crew back together. This makes it, technically, a 2010s cartoon. Though the styles of storytelling are noticeably different. The first four seasons feel like a 1990s cartoon and the fifth feels like a 2010s cartoon, because that's when each aired. (Remember, I consider pre-2004 to be 1990s.)
I also have Avatar: The Last Airbender listed. As I said above, this is an outlier in that it feels like a 2010s cartoon despite airing before 2010. So I have it listed for that reason. Additionally, I have its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, listed as a 2010s cartoon, which it clearly is. But for someone who wants to watch through all 26 of the shows on that list that aired in the 2010s, Korra would confuse them, because it doesn't explain much about why these characters have these seemingly-magical powers or what this world is or so on. It relies on familiarity with the original Avatar series. So I include Avatar as well in order to provide that to people.
As such, I am adding an in-universe exception rule. While I would prefer all of the cartoons to air in the decade that spans from 2010 to 2020, I will make the exception that if a series takes place in the same universe as another show on the list. I give it a decade in each direction, so something could be anywhere from 2000 to 2030 with this rule. I also recognize that what I consider to be a "decade" may change if new technology is invented, similarly to how Flash was the real divider between the 1990s and the 2000s. So I will say that both of those two deadlines (2020 and 2030) are subject to change if new technology makes me change it.
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EDIT:
All right, well, it's morning. So here's my spoiler-free plot synopsis of each of the 27 shows (note that I am listing them in the order that they premiered, so that new shows can just get added to the end):
Samurai Jack (2001-2017) = In ancient Japan, a demon wizard named Aku rises forth to inflict terror on the people of the land. There is only one weapon that can harm him, a magic sword wielded by a samurai who would later take the name Jack (his birth name is never given). Jack goes off to face Aku with the sword, and severely weakens Aku, but before he can land the finishing blow, Aku uses his powers to open a time portal and send Jack into the distant future. Without Jack being there to stop him, Aku is able to easily conquer the world. The series takes place in a cybernetic future ruled by Aku. Jack arrives in this future as a result of the time portal and now has to take down Aku and find a way to get back to the past. One thing to note is that this series originally ran from 2001 to 2004, and then stopped without concluding this story. But it was later revived in 2017 and the story was properly completed.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) = In this world, some people are born with the ability to manipulate an element: either water, earth, fire, or air. Once per generation, one person is born who is the Avatar. The Avatar is capable of manipulating all four elements, and is the only person in the world who can manipulate more than one. The current Avatar, a boy named Aang, was upset at being named the Avatar, so he ran away from home, getting frozen in a block of ice. He awakened from the ice a century later and found that the world he woke up to was very different than the one that he departed. A nation of fire elementals is aiming to conquer the entire world and commit genocide against the other three elements, having already done so for air. Aang must learn how to use the four elements in order to stop them.
Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015) = Two stepbrothers, named Phineas and Ferb, are now on summer vacation. Their mission? To do everything that can possibly be done by summer’s end. So they do all sorts of elaborate things, such as building a roller-coaster in their backyard, for instance. They have an older sister named Candace, who tries to get them caught for doing these dangerous things, but always fails. Meanwhile, there’s a B-Plot involving their pet platypus, Perry, who is actually a secret agent working for a government organization that wants to stop a supervillain from taking over the entire Tri-State Area. The series is notable for having ridiculously good songs, by the way.
Archer (2009-present, planned to finish in 2019) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. The plot of this episode is mostly a secret agent show, but there are enough twists and turns to make it unique. Can’t really say too much without giving the plot away.
Adventure Time (2010-present, planned to finish in 2018) = In Earth’s distant future, a nuke went off thus mutating everything so that the planet is now full of life. Cause, you know, in fiction, nuclear things can do literally anything the writers want them to do. So, for example, candy is now alive. Anyways, this series takes place in a bizarre world where I can write stuff like that, but it is Earth’s future. The series revolves around a pair of adoptive brothers: Finn the Human and Jake the Dog. They go on adventures for the various princesses around the world. As far as plot is concerned, it starts off feeling very episodic, but there are a ton of little details that you will miss that are relevant once the plot actually gets going. For example, there’s one episode when Finn is sent flying by an attack, and in the process, he drops his sword into a forest. He never uses that sword again. And unlike most shows that do stuff like this, that is not the focus of the shot. You just have to pay attention and notice it. Pay attention to every little detail in this show, because it is important. Finally, I also need to mention the snail. In every episode, there is a snail hidden in the background somewhere, often very difficult to find. It’s just a “Where’s Waldo” type of challenge, but it’s a lot of fun to see if you can spot it.
Regular Show (2010-2017) = A blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby work as groundskeepers at a park. But they are lazy and try to weasel their way out of work as much as possible, often getting caught up in whacky hijinks as a result, to the point of even spending an entire season in outer space. It can get pretty absurd.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010-present) = Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn pony who is completely anti-social and has no interest in making friends. The problem is that this is My Little Pony, so the power of friendship is always the most powerful thing in the universe. So she is forced to make friends in order to defeat an evil villain. After doing so, she wants to study how friendship works from a scientific standpoint, often resulting in really odd premises for episodes, because that act, by its very nature, is odd. Each episode for the first three seasons typically revolves around Twilight or one of her friends learning something new about friendship and writing about it. In the season three finale, a plot twist happens that fundamentally changes the nature of the show, but I won’t spoil it here. This show is notable for two things. One, it has a very diverse cast of characters. The ultimate message of the show is that there are many different types of ways to be a person, and it really shows through this series. Secondly, this show has a very large adult male fandom. To divorce the show from the fans is, I think, impossible. If you were to tell me that each of these shows on this list was written, in its entirety, before it even aired, I would probably believe you for a lot of them. There are some that it’s easier to swallow than others, but it could be done. With this show, though? Not a chance. Because the fandom seems to influence the show. As an example, the fans really seem to latch on to the characters in the background, giving each one a really deep and complex backstory. Well, we have now had multiple episodes that canonized these backstories, even at the cost of character growth. Princess Luna, for example, is the princess of the night, and she was stated to have hated the fact that ponies slept through her beautiful night while they relished in her sister’s daytime, growing resentful of that. Well, the fans included a little tidbit in her character that gave her the ability to enter dreams and watch over ponies as they slept, which would have completely undone that entire character arc if it were canon. A couple seasons later, it was now canon. I genuinely don’t think that you can watch this show without knowing all of the fan-based things that get added to it as you watch. I’m actually kind of curious, to tell you the truth. If someone picked up this show and had no idea about the existence of an adult male fandom, would they be able to enjoy it? My gut says no.
Dan Vs. (2011-2013) = MILD MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Dan is a very angry, very opinionated jerk. Each episode begins with a series of random events happening to him that are all tangentially connected, him getting angry at it, and then him swearing to get revenge on this connection. And then he does so in over-the-top ridiculous ways. But he’s an idiot and screws it up. The show has a lot of really funny jokes throughout the whole thing, and so it’s recommended if you’re looking for humor.
Bob’s Burgers (2011-present) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Bob runs a restaurant out of his home called Bob’s Burgers, along with his wife, Linda, and their children: Tina, Gene, and Louise. Running the restaurant is difficult, though, and they face a whole slew of problems from various sources.
The Amazing World of Gumball (2011-present) = This show is ridiculously meta. Like, they have an episode that starts out super fancy, but that uses up too much of the animation budget, causing the animation to degrade over time, and causing the characters to freak out until they are eventually reduced to just storyboards. There’s another episode when it’s just a re-run of a previous episode, which weirds out the characters because this already happened. There’s another episode where they explore an area known as The Void, where the discarded ideas go, including stuff from previous seasons that they haven’t used in a while. It’s so amazing. One notable thing about the show is that it still remains pretty good. Generally speaking, a show will “petter out” after about four or five seasons, as the writers run out of ideas. In fact, some of these shows on the list are, in my opinion, no good past a certain point. Gumball seems to be the exception to that, continuing to not only produce high quality content, but to also improve on itself, even this late into its run.
The Legend of Korra (2012-2014) = This is the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s about the next Avatar after Aang, a girl named Korra, having to deal with the ripple effects of what Aang did at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Gravity Falls (2012-2016) = A set of pre-teen twins named Dipper and Mabel have to spend the summer with their uncle Stan in the fictitious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. In this town, there are ghosts and monsters and other supernatural stuff like that. Dipper finds a mysterious journal that catalogs all of these mysterious things, but one pressing question remains: who wrote the journal? Dipper and Mabel’s journey leads them all over the place to find answers to this question, and they eventually find the answer. But by then, they may have inadvertently unleashed a powerful demon onto the planet that they have to stop before humanity is destroyed.
Littlest Pet Shop (2012-2016) = Blythe moves to a new town, where she lives above a small independently-run pet store named Littlest Pet Shop. Once there, she gains the ability to talk to animals, and helps the pets as they want Littlest Pet Shop to stay in business and not be taken over by the large corporation pet store that is across town, as that store is very corrupt and overly cruel to animals.
Mickey Mouse (2013-present) = I’m sure we all know the classic Mickey Mouse shorts from back in the day full of slapstick and such. This is essentially an update to that to bring it into a contemporary setting and to make the animation better. This show isn’t very great, and to be honest, with 20/20 hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been included on the list. There are some episodes that stand out as being just as good as the other 2010s cartoons, but they are few and far between.
Wander Over Yonder (2013-2016) = The first season deals with Wander and his horse Sylvia as they go around stopping the villainous acts of Lord Hater, the greatest evil in the galaxy. And it’s basically Looney Tunes, as Hater is completely incompetent, and Wander is essentially a god. At least, for the first season. The second season begins by introducing a new villain from another galaxy, Lord Dominator, who is actually vicious and lethally competent, able to destroy much of the galaxy and Wander can’t do a thing to stop... them. Okay, yeah, using pronouns here is weird. I’m just go ahead and spoil the ending for the first episode that we see Dominator: For most of the episode, Dominator is presented as a big tall guy with a bunch of armor, but the twist is that underneath all that armor, it’s actually a woman under there. Unlike Hater and the rest of the villains that Wander faced, Dominator cannot be befriended and will not stop until the entire galaxy is destroyed.
Uncle Grandpa (2013-2017) = The titular character of Uncle Grandpa is the uncle-grandpa of every person in the world. He helps children out using weird and surreal things. This is a very chaotic show with no sense of logic to it at all, and because of that, it can be very polarizing. I’ve heard lots of people say that they love it, and lots of people say that they hate it.
Steven Universe (2013-present) = An alien race known as the Gems came to conquer Earth. On the Gem Homeworld, every Gem is created with a specific purpose in mind. Jaspers are soldiers, Peridots are technicians, and so on. Anyone not fulfilling their purpose and serving the Gem Empire is killed. This is contrasted with Earth, where humans are able to do whatever they want to do. Seeing this planet, a lot of the lower-class Gems were inspired to revolt and help defend Earth instead of conquering it, eventually driving the invading Homeworld Gems off of Earth. Now, when the series begins, only a few of the Gem rebels remain on Earth. One Gem, named Rose Quartz, ends up giving birth to a Gem/Human hybrid named Steven, but dies in the process of giving birth to him. Rose’s friends, the rebels named Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, help to raise Steven and much of the first season revolves round them taking care of Steven. After the first season, though, Steven unintentionally ends up sending a communication to the Gem Homeworld informing them of Earth’s location and the invasion of the planet now begins once again. Two things that I need to mention about this show. First up, this show is the most LGBT-friendly show ever made. No, not just out of the ones on this list. Not just out of animated shows. Not just out of shows for children. Not just out of shows currently airing. No. This is the most LGBT-friendly show ever. Period. No exceptions. They really bend over backwards to showcase the LGBT+ community in a positive light. Whether that’s same-sex couples, people who change genders, people who identify as neither gender, people who identify as both genders, people who are polyamorous, or whatever: this show will accommodate you. Love is love. The second thing about this show is that it became pretty famous after the Keystone Incident. So, what happened was that there was an episode when Steven a couple of other characters go visit a motel called the Keystone Motel. It’s a complete dump and nothing works. Well, after that episode aired, the fans discovered a real-life motel called the Keystone Motel, and started spamming their customer review page with complaints based on the Keystone Motel depicted in the show, which, of course, were not real complaints that were applicable to the real Keystone Motel. A lot of people who work for the Keystone Motel had their lives ruined by this event and the motel never recovered from the negative reviews. It wasn’t until Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, stepped in and told the fan base to stop that they finally stopped, with some even apologizing for it as well. I really feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, but, um, if you watch this show, please don’t do that. Ruining other people’s livelihoods is seriously not cool.
Rick and Morty (2013-present) = EXTREMELY MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Rick Sanchez is a genius scientist and also a complete sociopath. He’s able to create just about everything, including portals that can lead him to alternate timelines, a flying spaceship car, and much more. He travels the multiverse with his family against all sorts of threats, mainly because he is an interdimensional terrorist. Despite his love for his family, he has no remorse for anyone else, and doesn’t hesitate to commit genocide on a regular basis. The show’s greatest strength is its humor. There’s a lot of good jokes throughout the whole thing. By the way, be sure to watch after the credits for every single episode. With the exception of the first one, there is always a post-credits scene and it's always canon.
Clarence (2014-present, planned to finish in 2018) = I cannot tell you anything about this. It stars a main character named Clarence, and that’s all I know about it. I refuse to do any further research and learn anything more. I know that it’s marketed for children, so it doesn’t have anything bad in it, and it is popular. However, the guy who created it was a misogynist (and that’s just putting it nicely, there’s a whole slew of various sexual assaults that I’d rather not discuss, go ahead and look it up if you really want to know), and I don’t want to ever watch anything made by him. So I don’t know what happens in this show. Of course, the show isn’t misogynistic itself. From what I’ve heard, it portrays men and women as equals, but, again, the creator disagrees with that message, and so I don’t want to ever look into this.
BoJack Horseman (2014-present) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. BoJack is a washed-up sitcom star from the 1990s, but he hasn’t done anything noteworthy since then. He’s trying to hold onto his glory days, and failing. The show is really freaking good, and it will change the way you look at life after you watch it. It doesn’t start off on the best foot, but it gets better from there.
Over the Garden Wall (2014) = Greg and Wirt get lost in the woods and have to find their way back home, but they find a lot of strange and bizarre things in the woods, and they get caught in the middle of a bunch of stuff. I can’t say too much without giving spoilers. I will say that if you are a virgin to 2010s cartoons and want to just give one of them a shot, this is probably the best one to “test the waters” with, because it is incredibly short. The entire show, from the beginning of the first episode to the end of the last, spans less than two hours. So you don’t even lose a whole day trying to watch it. I will also say that this show does things that may seem weird at first, but after you watch it, you’ll find that it all makes sense by the end. One area that I have to talk about is this show's soundtrack. It is superb. The background music is the best that I have ever heard in anything ever, to the point where the DVD includes an alternate version to watch that mutes all the dialogue, so that you can just enjoy the background music.
Penn-Zero: Part Time Hero (2014-2017) = You know how when your teacher gets sick or injured, or just doesn’t feel like coming in to work that day, you get a substitute teacher? Well, this is the same concept, more or less, except, applied to superheroes. Penn Zero is a substitute superhero that fills in for other superheroes when they can’t do their jobs. He travels to other dimensions to replace the superheroes that can’t currently do their jobs.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-present) = Star Butterfly is a magical princess that just turned 14 years old, and is now legally entitled to inherit her mother’s magic wand. Well, she has no sense of restraint and ends up accidentally setting fire to her kingdom because she doesn’t know what she is doing. So her parents send her to an alternate dimension that is free of magic in order for her to train safely. That dimension is Earth. While there, she befriends a boy named Marco Diaz. Star doesn’t know the first thing about Earth, which Marco knows a lot about. Marco, meanwhile, doesn’t know the first thing about magic, which Star knows a lot about, so they play off of each other really well. There’s also a villain named Ludo who tries to steal Star’s wand, but it’s about as effective as Team Rocket trying to steal Pikachu. It just doesn’t work. That’s the basic plot for the first seven episodes. But episode eight is where it starts to get interesting. This introduces a new character named Toffee, who is an actual lethally competent villain, and he is a puppet-master that pulls the strings and arranges this ludicrously complex scheme that continues through the show to this very day, several seasons later.
Harvey Beaks (2015-present) = A bird named Harvey goes on adventures in a magical forest. That’s about as good of a synopsis as you can get.
We Bare Bears (2015-present) = Three bears - specifically: one grizzly bear, one panda bear, and one ice bear - try to fit in to human society, with varying degrees of success. It’s much better than it sounds. The show features a lot of contemporary things, such as an episode where the bears try to become “Internet famous”.
The Loud House (2016-present) = Lincoln Loud (age 11) is the sixth child out of eleven in the Loud family. He is also the only boy there. He has five older sisters - Lori (age 17), Leni (age 16), Luna (age 15), Luan (age 14), and Lynn (age 13) - as well as five younger sisters - Lucy (age 8), Lana (age 6), Lola (also age 6), Lisa (age 4), and Lily (age 15 months). It deals with the chaos of growing up in a family with one boy and ten girls. Where this show really shines, though, is its characterization. You’d think that, with eleven different characters, each would behave somewhat similar, because you can’t create that many different personalities for all main characters. You’d run out of suitable ones fast enough. You’d be wrong, actually. This show manages to show off each Loud sibling in a unique way.
Milo Murphy’s Law (2016-present) = Murphy’s Law states that whenever something bad can happen, it does happen. Well, meet Milo Murphy, voiced by Weird Al Yankovic. Milo is a descendant of the guy who invented Murphy’s Law, and as such, Murphy’s Law is in full effect wherever he goes, essentially turning Milo into a walking disaster area. But the thing is: he got used to that, and now has a backpack full of safety gear for every conceivable situation, and also inconceivable ones. The B-Plot of the show is initially about a pair of idiot time travelers who the time travel police didn’t want to deal with and so just had them go back in time to prevent pistachios from going extinct, because the boss really enjoyed them when he was a kid. And so they do. Their paths often cross with Milo and his friends, causing disaster due to Murphy’s Law. Eventually, the two plots collide with one another, resulting in a surprisingly epic climax considering that the two plots were as odd as this. The writers really pulled it off quite well, but I won’t spoil it for you. One thing that I will say, though, is that if you watch this show, pay attention to every single little detail, because it is very important.
Duck Tales (????-????) = This is a remake of a show from the '80s. It's not out yet, but based on trailers, it looks like it will be good enough to be the next show on this chart. We don't know that for sure, though, so I won't add it until I know that it can get added.
"The Captain?" Riker inquired.
"We were unable to retrieve him, sir." Data responded.
Riker looked down. Data continued.
"The Captain has been altered by The Borg."
"Altered?" Riker said, confused at the situation.
"He *is* a Borg," Worf replied.
Worf turned to face Riker, and Riker just looked away.
"We'll go back," Shelby told him, "I need more people. We need to re-tune the phasers again. We'll get him out of there."
From his station, Geordi gave a status report. "Commander, reading subspace field fluctuations from within the Borg ship. Looks like they're regenerating, restoring power. They could be capable of warp any minute."
Riker sighed and looked down, sadly. "Is the deflector ready?"
Geordi nodded. "It's ready."
Crusher spoke up. "Will, he's alive. If I could get him back to the ship, I might be able to restore-"
"This is our only chance to destroy them. If they get back into warp, our weapon is useless," Riker cut her off.
"We'll sabotage them again if we have to," Shelby told him.
"We can't maintain power! We don't have the time!" Riker yelled.
"Prepare to fire," he ordered.
"At least consult with Starfleet Command! Get Admiral Hanson on subspace," Shelby screamed.
"Belay that order, Lieutenant! There's no time."
Shelby looked dejected that her suggestion was ignored.
"Sir," Worf informed him, "We are being hailed by The Borg."
"On screen," Riker ordered.
Riker and Shelby turned to the view screen to see a ghastly image of Captain Picard, altered by Borg technology. He was surrounded by several other Borg as well. The figure on the view screen stepped forward and spoke.
"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."
At that point, Riker had made his decision.
"Mr. Worf... fire."
TO BE CONTINUED
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This is the final episode of Season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. When it first came across our television screens in 1990, it was terrifying. Would the crew somehow get Picard back? Would Picard be killed off and Riker assume command of the Enterprise? What about the Borg? How would that threat be dealt with?
For three months, we had our jaws to the floor, wondering how the hell the crew could possibly defeat an enemy that seemed invincible, until the cliffhanger was finally resolved when the show's next season began.
If you're watching the show today, though, you just hit the "Next" button on Netflix and move on to Season 4 immediately. In my personal opinion, this is the wrong way to watch TV.
Television is a form of art, and so we have to examine the author's intent. In this case, it was intended for you to see this cliffhanger, spend a long time freaking out over it, and then get the resolution. If you go on to the next episode without even a five-minute break, then you have changed the artist's artwork. Now, that's not to say that you have to wait three months while you want to binge watch Star Trek, because that's just too unrealistic, but you should have some gap of some kind. Wait a week. Wait a day. Wait an hour. Wait ten to fifteen minutes. Whatever works for you. But do take the time to let an episode "cool off" before you go on to the next one.
Full disclaimer before I go any further: The overwhelming majority of what I watch on TV these days is American animation. So it's possible that each of my points don't apply to live-action shows or shows in other countries, but from what I can tell, it seems to be pretty universal. Okay, back to my post.
As far as I can tell, cliffhangers like this are virtually dead in the modern era of television. Yeah, they come up occasionally, but for the most part, they really aren't that common anymore.
To give you an idea, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic airs mostly self-contained episodes, but each season usually begins with a two-parter and ends with a two-parter. Season 1's premiere was a two-parter with the two episodes airing a week and a half apart. Season 1's finale was a standalone. Season 2's premiere was a two-parter aired a week apart. After that, each premiere and finale was a two-parter, except for Season 3's finale and Season 7's premiere. But all the two-parters were aired with both parts airing back-to-back simultaneously. The reason? Because a cliffhanger won't work anymore, since people are impatient and don't wait.
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Another thing that has killed the art of cliffhangers is the Internet. If you're a competent television writer, you place hints and clues into the first part to foreshadow how the second part will go. But you have to be extremely subtle about it, or else you spoil the ending. Well, foreshadowing is just about as dead as a cliffhanger is. Because, let's say you are subtle with your foreshadowing. You make the clues so subtle that only one out of every 10,000 people who watch your episode will know how this ends.
Let's say that 200,000 people watch your show. That means 20 people figured it out. In a pre-Internet world, that's fine. But here's the thing. In a post-Internet world, as soon as one person figures it out, they'll go online to post their theories, and now all 200,000 of them have seen this theory that was posted and they've all figured it out.
To give an example, Gravity Falls has a plot twist that's revealed about halfway through Season 2. I don't want to spoil it in case you haven't seen the show, but the fan base did manage to figure it out about two years before the episode aired. And the clues for it were VERY subtle. But here's the other part about the Internet: You don't need to pick up every clue anymore. Let's say that there are six clues that you've placed throughout your show. I'll call them Clue A through Clue F. If one person figures out Clue A, and another figures out Clue B, and another figures out Clue C, and so on, then you're fine. It's only when you have four or five clues that this becomes problematic. And no one individual person has more than two or three. But collectively, the fan base has all six within minutes of your episodes airing, and they discuss them with each other, resulting in everyone knowing the outcome.
Can huge plot twists come? Oh, sure, absolutely, but you have to be an incredibly talented writer to pull it off.
An example of this done right was Steven Universe. HUGE SPOILERS FOR THAT SHOW COMING UP IN THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS. In the Season 1 finale, it is revealed that Garnet is secretly a fusion of two other characters, Ruby and Sapphire. Now, that part was obvious and figured out by the fan base well in advance. Like the Gravity Falls plot twist, there were clues placed throughout that the fan base found. But what we didn't figure out was WHY Garnet would stay a fusion all the time and never de-fuse the way that other fusions do. Some people theorized that one of the two components of the fusion was evil, and the "good" side was keeping it in check. Others thought that maybe the characters were somehow damaged in such a way that they can no longer physically exist separately. No one expected the true answer: Ruby and Sapphire are just really really gay for each other and can't bear to be apart.
And to give the Steven Universe writers even more credit, they also dropped ANOTHER huge twist that no one saw coming towards the start of Season 5. We learned of another plot twist previously: While she was alive, Rose Quartz killed Pink Diamond. When this episode hit, no one knew what to make of it. That Rose Quartz would do such a thing just goes so far against her character that there had to be something more to it than that. Was Rose a hypocrite? Was she forced into a situation where she had no other choice? Were there some circumstances that made this act justified? NOPE. Season 5 reveals the truth about why Rose Quartz killed Pink Diamond: She never really did, and was just framed for it. She's innocent. That took the entire fan base by surprise.
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Another area that has changed in television is airing times. When do you air new episodes? As far as I can tell, there are three options used today: Traditional, Break, and Bomb.
Traditional is the typical "air an entire season of a show, one episode per week, until you run out, then wait three months and repeat the process for the next season". This is the way shows were typically aired back in the day, and a few still cling to this method.
Break is a bit better than that. Rather than taking a three month break after each season, they divide up those three months into breaks that are around two weeks or so, and place them throughout the season as it airs. You get more frequent breaks than in traditional, but the breaks are shorter as a result.
And then there's Bomb. Oh dear god. I wish Bomb would go away because it is terrible. With Bomb, you just randomly on the drop of a hat air a ton of episodes all at once during a week (usually a multiple of five, so that you can air a certain number per day each weekday), and then you air absolutely nothing until the next random Bomb decides to drop. This is named after Steven Universe, by the way. Cartoon Network markets these as "Steven Bombs", and, as far as I can tell, that's the show that started this unfortunate trend, though it is far from the worst offender. (Star vs. the Forces of Evil holds that title, airing sixteen episodes in the span of one month, and having nothing for three months prior to that, and nothing again for another five months afterwards.)
By the way, that only applies to airing new episodes. You know why? Because airing re-runs has actually gotten WORSE. There are three ways of airing re-runs right now: Random, Block, and Marathon.
Random was what was used pre-1990s, and it seems to have entirely gone away. Essentially, you just air random stuff with no real plan. This went away when people realized Block is infinitely superior in every way.
Block was started in the 1990s, by the Disney Channel. They aired what was called "The Disney Afternoon". Every day, after kids got home from school, they could watch a whole bunch of shows marketed for children all in a row without it being randomly interrupted by something for grown-ups that they don't care about. This started the idea of airing shows that are for the same demographic together. This is the model that was widely used for a long time.
And then there's Marathon. So, this was touched on a bit in the old days. Occasionally, a channel will have a marathon of just one show being aired over and over and over for an entire day. Now, however, that seems to be considered "normal". This takes the idea of Block and pushes it well past the point of reason. Rather than airing a bunch of shows for the same demographic, they just air the same show constantly. At the time of this writing, Nickelodeon currently airs SpongeBob SquarePants 12 times a day Monday through Thursday, 17 times on Friday, 18 times on Saturday, and 14 times on Sunday. Each episode is 30 minutes long, so that is MORE THAN TWO DAYS WORTH OF TOTAL AIRTIME. Now, I'm not one to argue with results here. Obviously there must be some reason for them doing this or else they wouldn't do it, but... like... this makes no sense to me. Aren't you telling every single non-SpongeBob fan to go watch some other channel? Like, why is there so little variety here? Also, this isn't an isolated example. Just off of TOMORROW alone, Cartoon Network is airing 32 episodes of Teen Titans Go. Each is 15 minutes, but that's still 8 hours in a single day. And that's happening every day this week, so I don't think this is just an odd anomaly. This is how they air re-runs now. Now, I'll be blunt and say that I loathe both of these shows, but even if they were airing cartoons like Samurai Jack or Avatar: The Last Airbender, y'know, stuff that I actually like, I'd hate it if there was this much of it, because it means that whatever the NEXT big hit is won't ever come, because it can't compete with crap like this.
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Another big change in the way shows are watched is that they are frequently viewed one-at-a-time. How often does the following conversation happen?
Person A: You should watch <insert show here>.
Person B: Oh, yeah, I've heard good things about that, but I've got a long backlog to work through.
Person A: Oh?
Person B: Yeah, right now, I'm watching through <show>, and after that, I'm going to move on to <other show>, then <yet another show>, but then I'll get to your thing.
Person A: Yeah, that's cool, whenever you get to it.
I blame Marathon scheduling for this. Of course that's how people watch TV! That's how you air it! People have forgotten the enjoyability of watching multiple shows, and thus, being able to compare them as they go. It probably doesn't help that most people who watch TV these days do it online, either through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, or, if you're immoral, illegal pirated downloads. They have entire shows open to them, instead of just one new episode per week, where they'd have to fill in the time with other stuff in the meanwhile.
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Animated cartoons are, in terms of quality, at an all-time high. But there are some issues with them, as outlined above. First, let me explain why I feel cartoons are really good right now.
Before I get to that, though, a quick note on terminology. I will refer to animation by decade. For example, I will use the term "1980s cartoon", "1990s cartoon", "2000s cartoon", and "2010s cartoon". For the most part, this means what you think it means, with one important distinction. In the world of animation, as far as I'm concerned, the 1990s lasted until 2004. As such, a 1990s cartoon does include 2000-2003 as well, and a 2000s cartoon only includes things from 2004-2009. There's a reason for this, which I'll explain when we get there.
So, to start off with in our tour through animation history, let's go to the beginning. Where is that? Well, difficult to say. It depends on what you consider to be animation. Even today, we have yet to figure out how to show you a moving drawing. What your TV shows you instead is a bunch of static drawings that flash across your screen so fast that it gives the illusion of motion. And if we count "creating an illusion of moving pictures" as animation, then technically speaking, people have been trying to do that since cave paintings.
But if you want to actually start talking about real animation that just goes without any user input beyond hitting the "Play" button, that started in the 1900s, though, again, that definition is fuzzy depending on what you consider to be an animation. I'm a bit unclear on many parts of animation history (I know what aired, but I couldn't really tell you why), so let's skip ahead. Past the racist cartoons of the 1940s and into the 1960s, which is when animation was at its first of three peaks. This was when a lot of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons aired. After that, though, cartoons gained their "just for kids" reputation, which arguably sticks to this day (though it is getting better about going away). That led to the 1970s, when people made cartoons ridiculously bad, because "it's for kids, they'll watch anything". Just as an aside, why the hell does that matter? Kids also eat anything, but you don't let them eat lead paint chips. We monitor our kids in every other aspect of their lives - why is entertainment the exception?
Sorry, 1970s animation really bothers me. Okay, let's go to where my knowledge of animation history starts to become a bit better: The 1980s. Almost every 1980s cartoon was based on a toy. The studio executives realized that they could sell a bunch of merchandise if they made the cartoons into commercials for the toys. Each episode of Transformers or My Little Pony or whatever had a new item of some kind in it that they would make a toy of for kids to buy. Quick aside real quick: Yes, Transformers and My Little Pony still air today, and they still have toy lines that the show ties into. However, the difference is that a 1980s cartoon would be made to market the toys. Now, it's the other way around: the toys are made to market the show.
The problem with toys is that... they fade away. Eventually, you just lose interest and move on. So then we moved into the 1990s, which is animation's second peak. A 1990s cartoon, unlike a 1980s cartoon, could stand on its own, independent of any merchandise. Most of these shows were good, with a few such as Batman: The Animated Series or Gargoyles, even dipping their toes into "absolutely fantastic".
Then we come to the 2000s, which is my least favorite period in animation history. The 1970s may have produced worse shows (though even that is debatable), but they at least had the excuse of not really knowing any better. This is just... indefensible. So, in 2004, everything changed because of a computer program called Flash. Flash made animation quick and easy. Anyone could do it. You, the reader, could probably learn to use Flash and create your own decent animation in the span of a few months. And what happened? Well, people saw this as an excuse to be lazy. If animation is easy, then that means we don't have to do as much work! And so they put little to no effort into their cartoons, resulting in nothing but garbage on the air during this decade. Now, hold on. Didn't I mention that I liked Avatar: The Last Airbender? That aired from 2005-2008. So what's happening here? Well... Avatar is... an outlier. I can't explain it, but it definitely feels more like a 2010s cartoon than a 2000s cartoon. It was ahead of the curve. But it was literally the only show to do so. Name ANY other cartoon from 2004 to 2009 and I guarantee you, it was crappy.
But then came the 2010s. This is the third peak, and it is by far the biggest. All the children that grew up with 1980s cartoons and 1990s cartoons are now adults and are making their own cartoons inspired by the stuff that they watched as kids. The biggest difference between the 2010s cartoons and what came before is the ability to write for adults. While there are a lot of adult cartoons now that feature mature content, such as Archer, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, BoJack Horseman, and so on, there's something else happening that's even more important than that. For cartoons that are appropriate for children, they aren't dumbed down. An adult can watch a 2010s cartoon with their child and enjoy it without it feeling like a chore. Heck, the My Little Pony fan base is now made predominately of adult males, which is something that would be ludicrous to hear in the 2000s or earlier. Yeah, there were a couple of shows like that in the 1990s, but they were the exception, not the norm. Today, we have: Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, Gravity Falls, The Loud House, Milo Murphy's Law, Over the Garden Wall, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Steven Universe, Wander Over Yonder, and We Bare Bears. And that is STILL only a partial list. I could keep going.
Are there still crappy cartoons aired today? Of course. I could probably make a list of those too. But even those are better than the worst cartoons of the 2000s or earlier. But not only are these shows still better than what came before of that quality level, but there's also fewer of them and the better shows are not only more plentiful, but also better. However, I will give the caveat that this only applies to children's cartoons. Adult cartoons are, as far as I am concerned, on life support right now. They aren't dead yet, but they are getting there. Adult cartoons of the 2010s have higher ceilings and lower floors than those that came before. By a significant margin. And there are a lot more floors than there are ceilings.
There is some debate in the animation community about whether or not we are on a decline now. 2016 was the best year in the entirety of animation history. The second-best? 2015. The third-best? 2014. We've been on the uphill for a while now. However, 2017 doesn't look as good as 2016 did. It's only halfway over, so we can't be sure yet, but it appears that 2017 is going to turn out to be worse than 2016. That said, it's still really freaking good. It's on par with 2014, which isn't too bad.
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I thought about how to go about fixing these problems. Like I said, the 2010s are a great decade for animation, in terms of what gets produced. The biggest issue is how we consume it. We only watch one show at a time, and we don't let cliffhangers sink in. Luckily, those two problems tend to solve each other. If you're watching four different shows, then it will give time for a cliffhanger to sink in, because when Show A ends on a cliffhanger, then you watch episodes of Shows B, C, and D before returning to Show A to resolve the cliffhanger. Going to the Internet will also ruin a cliffhanger, but that's just a self-control thing. So, if only we had multiple shows to watch at once. Well, fortunately, 2010s animation has provided us with that, by giving us a plethora of options of really great shows to watch.
To that end, I have created the 2010s Animation Master Episode List. It lists off 27 different cartoons (and I might add more in the future) for you to watch, in the order that they originally aired, all overlapping with one another. This lets you experience the artist's intents with cliffhangers, because even if you watch all of these episodes straight through, one after another, you still get these lingering cliffhangers. Though, frankly, watching all 27 shows is a little extreme. If I were to do this, I'd pick, like, eight at the very most, and just watch through those. It's ultimately up to you.
Well, it's getting late, at the time of this writing, so I'm going to bed. In the morning, I'll probably make a follow-up post that gives spoiler-free plot synopses for each of the 27 shows, so that you can see which is your style and which you'd probably enjoy, if you choose to watch anything here. I assume that you have access to these shows by the way. Though, given the nature of the Internet, I suspect that you'll probably turn to illegal methods, but hey, that's your business, not mine.
But in case you happen to see this beforehand and question a couple of shows on there, let me explain those two real quick. You'll notice that one show that I listed was Samurai Jack, which seems to take up the first 52 slots of the chart. Why is that? Well, it originally aired from 2001 to 2004, and most shows here are from the 2010s or later. The reason why this is listed as a 2010s cartoon is because it was, in 2004, taken off the air. However, the ongoing storyline of the series had yet to be concluded. It just... stopped. It was later brought back in 2017 with new episodes for the first time in thirteen years, just to wrap up the story, even getting much of the original cast and crew back together. This makes it, technically, a 2010s cartoon. Though the styles of storytelling are noticeably different. The first four seasons feel like a 1990s cartoon and the fifth feels like a 2010s cartoon, because that's when each aired. (Remember, I consider pre-2004 to be 1990s.)
I also have Avatar: The Last Airbender listed. As I said above, this is an outlier in that it feels like a 2010s cartoon despite airing before 2010. So I have it listed for that reason. Additionally, I have its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, listed as a 2010s cartoon, which it clearly is. But for someone who wants to watch through all 26 of the shows on that list that aired in the 2010s, Korra would confuse them, because it doesn't explain much about why these characters have these seemingly-magical powers or what this world is or so on. It relies on familiarity with the original Avatar series. So I include Avatar as well in order to provide that to people.
As such, I am adding an in-universe exception rule. While I would prefer all of the cartoons to air in the decade that spans from 2010 to 2020, I will make the exception that if a series takes place in the same universe as another show on the list. I give it a decade in each direction, so something could be anywhere from 2000 to 2030 with this rule. I also recognize that what I consider to be a "decade" may change if new technology is invented, similarly to how Flash was the real divider between the 1990s and the 2000s. So I will say that both of those two deadlines (2020 and 2030) are subject to change if new technology makes me change it.
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EDIT:
All right, well, it's morning. So here's my spoiler-free plot synopsis of each of the 27 shows (note that I am listing them in the order that they premiered, so that new shows can just get added to the end):
Samurai Jack (2001-2017) = In ancient Japan, a demon wizard named Aku rises forth to inflict terror on the people of the land. There is only one weapon that can harm him, a magic sword wielded by a samurai who would later take the name Jack (his birth name is never given). Jack goes off to face Aku with the sword, and severely weakens Aku, but before he can land the finishing blow, Aku uses his powers to open a time portal and send Jack into the distant future. Without Jack being there to stop him, Aku is able to easily conquer the world. The series takes place in a cybernetic future ruled by Aku. Jack arrives in this future as a result of the time portal and now has to take down Aku and find a way to get back to the past. One thing to note is that this series originally ran from 2001 to 2004, and then stopped without concluding this story. But it was later revived in 2017 and the story was properly completed.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) = In this world, some people are born with the ability to manipulate an element: either water, earth, fire, or air. Once per generation, one person is born who is the Avatar. The Avatar is capable of manipulating all four elements, and is the only person in the world who can manipulate more than one. The current Avatar, a boy named Aang, was upset at being named the Avatar, so he ran away from home, getting frozen in a block of ice. He awakened from the ice a century later and found that the world he woke up to was very different than the one that he departed. A nation of fire elementals is aiming to conquer the entire world and commit genocide against the other three elements, having already done so for air. Aang must learn how to use the four elements in order to stop them.
Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015) = Two stepbrothers, named Phineas and Ferb, are now on summer vacation. Their mission? To do everything that can possibly be done by summer’s end. So they do all sorts of elaborate things, such as building a roller-coaster in their backyard, for instance. They have an older sister named Candace, who tries to get them caught for doing these dangerous things, but always fails. Meanwhile, there’s a B-Plot involving their pet platypus, Perry, who is actually a secret agent working for a government organization that wants to stop a supervillain from taking over the entire Tri-State Area. The series is notable for having ridiculously good songs, by the way.
Archer (2009-present, planned to finish in 2019) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. The plot of this episode is mostly a secret agent show, but there are enough twists and turns to make it unique. Can’t really say too much without giving the plot away.
Adventure Time (2010-present, planned to finish in 2018) = In Earth’s distant future, a nuke went off thus mutating everything so that the planet is now full of life. Cause, you know, in fiction, nuclear things can do literally anything the writers want them to do. So, for example, candy is now alive. Anyways, this series takes place in a bizarre world where I can write stuff like that, but it is Earth’s future. The series revolves around a pair of adoptive brothers: Finn the Human and Jake the Dog. They go on adventures for the various princesses around the world. As far as plot is concerned, it starts off feeling very episodic, but there are a ton of little details that you will miss that are relevant once the plot actually gets going. For example, there’s one episode when Finn is sent flying by an attack, and in the process, he drops his sword into a forest. He never uses that sword again. And unlike most shows that do stuff like this, that is not the focus of the shot. You just have to pay attention and notice it. Pay attention to every little detail in this show, because it is important. Finally, I also need to mention the snail. In every episode, there is a snail hidden in the background somewhere, often very difficult to find. It’s just a “Where’s Waldo” type of challenge, but it’s a lot of fun to see if you can spot it.
Regular Show (2010-2017) = A blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby work as groundskeepers at a park. But they are lazy and try to weasel their way out of work as much as possible, often getting caught up in whacky hijinks as a result, to the point of even spending an entire season in outer space. It can get pretty absurd.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010-present) = Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn pony who is completely anti-social and has no interest in making friends. The problem is that this is My Little Pony, so the power of friendship is always the most powerful thing in the universe. So she is forced to make friends in order to defeat an evil villain. After doing so, she wants to study how friendship works from a scientific standpoint, often resulting in really odd premises for episodes, because that act, by its very nature, is odd. Each episode for the first three seasons typically revolves around Twilight or one of her friends learning something new about friendship and writing about it. In the season three finale, a plot twist happens that fundamentally changes the nature of the show, but I won’t spoil it here. This show is notable for two things. One, it has a very diverse cast of characters. The ultimate message of the show is that there are many different types of ways to be a person, and it really shows through this series. Secondly, this show has a very large adult male fandom. To divorce the show from the fans is, I think, impossible. If you were to tell me that each of these shows on this list was written, in its entirety, before it even aired, I would probably believe you for a lot of them. There are some that it’s easier to swallow than others, but it could be done. With this show, though? Not a chance. Because the fandom seems to influence the show. As an example, the fans really seem to latch on to the characters in the background, giving each one a really deep and complex backstory. Well, we have now had multiple episodes that canonized these backstories, even at the cost of character growth. Princess Luna, for example, is the princess of the night, and she was stated to have hated the fact that ponies slept through her beautiful night while they relished in her sister’s daytime, growing resentful of that. Well, the fans included a little tidbit in her character that gave her the ability to enter dreams and watch over ponies as they slept, which would have completely undone that entire character arc if it were canon. A couple seasons later, it was now canon. I genuinely don’t think that you can watch this show without knowing all of the fan-based things that get added to it as you watch. I’m actually kind of curious, to tell you the truth. If someone picked up this show and had no idea about the existence of an adult male fandom, would they be able to enjoy it? My gut says no.
Dan Vs. (2011-2013) = MILD MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Dan is a very angry, very opinionated jerk. Each episode begins with a series of random events happening to him that are all tangentially connected, him getting angry at it, and then him swearing to get revenge on this connection. And then he does so in over-the-top ridiculous ways. But he’s an idiot and screws it up. The show has a lot of really funny jokes throughout the whole thing, and so it’s recommended if you’re looking for humor.
Bob’s Burgers (2011-present) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Bob runs a restaurant out of his home called Bob’s Burgers, along with his wife, Linda, and their children: Tina, Gene, and Louise. Running the restaurant is difficult, though, and they face a whole slew of problems from various sources.
The Amazing World of Gumball (2011-present) = This show is ridiculously meta. Like, they have an episode that starts out super fancy, but that uses up too much of the animation budget, causing the animation to degrade over time, and causing the characters to freak out until they are eventually reduced to just storyboards. There’s another episode when it’s just a re-run of a previous episode, which weirds out the characters because this already happened. There’s another episode where they explore an area known as The Void, where the discarded ideas go, including stuff from previous seasons that they haven’t used in a while. It’s so amazing. One notable thing about the show is that it still remains pretty good. Generally speaking, a show will “petter out” after about four or five seasons, as the writers run out of ideas. In fact, some of these shows on the list are, in my opinion, no good past a certain point. Gumball seems to be the exception to that, continuing to not only produce high quality content, but to also improve on itself, even this late into its run.
The Legend of Korra (2012-2014) = This is the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s about the next Avatar after Aang, a girl named Korra, having to deal with the ripple effects of what Aang did at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Gravity Falls (2012-2016) = A set of pre-teen twins named Dipper and Mabel have to spend the summer with their uncle Stan in the fictitious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. In this town, there are ghosts and monsters and other supernatural stuff like that. Dipper finds a mysterious journal that catalogs all of these mysterious things, but one pressing question remains: who wrote the journal? Dipper and Mabel’s journey leads them all over the place to find answers to this question, and they eventually find the answer. But by then, they may have inadvertently unleashed a powerful demon onto the planet that they have to stop before humanity is destroyed.
Littlest Pet Shop (2012-2016) = Blythe moves to a new town, where she lives above a small independently-run pet store named Littlest Pet Shop. Once there, she gains the ability to talk to animals, and helps the pets as they want Littlest Pet Shop to stay in business and not be taken over by the large corporation pet store that is across town, as that store is very corrupt and overly cruel to animals.
Mickey Mouse (2013-present) = I’m sure we all know the classic Mickey Mouse shorts from back in the day full of slapstick and such. This is essentially an update to that to bring it into a contemporary setting and to make the animation better. This show isn’t very great, and to be honest, with 20/20 hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been included on the list. There are some episodes that stand out as being just as good as the other 2010s cartoons, but they are few and far between.
Wander Over Yonder (2013-2016) = The first season deals with Wander and his horse Sylvia as they go around stopping the villainous acts of Lord Hater, the greatest evil in the galaxy. And it’s basically Looney Tunes, as Hater is completely incompetent, and Wander is essentially a god. At least, for the first season. The second season begins by introducing a new villain from another galaxy, Lord Dominator, who is actually vicious and lethally competent, able to destroy much of the galaxy and Wander can’t do a thing to stop... them. Okay, yeah, using pronouns here is weird. I’m just go ahead and spoil the ending for the first episode that we see Dominator: For most of the episode, Dominator is presented as a big tall guy with a bunch of armor, but the twist is that underneath all that armor, it’s actually a woman under there. Unlike Hater and the rest of the villains that Wander faced, Dominator cannot be befriended and will not stop until the entire galaxy is destroyed.
Uncle Grandpa (2013-2017) = The titular character of Uncle Grandpa is the uncle-grandpa of every person in the world. He helps children out using weird and surreal things. This is a very chaotic show with no sense of logic to it at all, and because of that, it can be very polarizing. I’ve heard lots of people say that they love it, and lots of people say that they hate it.
Steven Universe (2013-present) = An alien race known as the Gems came to conquer Earth. On the Gem Homeworld, every Gem is created with a specific purpose in mind. Jaspers are soldiers, Peridots are technicians, and so on. Anyone not fulfilling their purpose and serving the Gem Empire is killed. This is contrasted with Earth, where humans are able to do whatever they want to do. Seeing this planet, a lot of the lower-class Gems were inspired to revolt and help defend Earth instead of conquering it, eventually driving the invading Homeworld Gems off of Earth. Now, when the series begins, only a few of the Gem rebels remain on Earth. One Gem, named Rose Quartz, ends up giving birth to a Gem/Human hybrid named Steven, but dies in the process of giving birth to him. Rose’s friends, the rebels named Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, help to raise Steven and much of the first season revolves round them taking care of Steven. After the first season, though, Steven unintentionally ends up sending a communication to the Gem Homeworld informing them of Earth’s location and the invasion of the planet now begins once again. Two things that I need to mention about this show. First up, this show is the most LGBT-friendly show ever made. No, not just out of the ones on this list. Not just out of animated shows. Not just out of shows for children. Not just out of shows currently airing. No. This is the most LGBT-friendly show ever. Period. No exceptions. They really bend over backwards to showcase the LGBT+ community in a positive light. Whether that’s same-sex couples, people who change genders, people who identify as neither gender, people who identify as both genders, people who are polyamorous, or whatever: this show will accommodate you. Love is love. The second thing about this show is that it became pretty famous after the Keystone Incident. So, what happened was that there was an episode when Steven a couple of other characters go visit a motel called the Keystone Motel. It’s a complete dump and nothing works. Well, after that episode aired, the fans discovered a real-life motel called the Keystone Motel, and started spamming their customer review page with complaints based on the Keystone Motel depicted in the show, which, of course, were not real complaints that were applicable to the real Keystone Motel. A lot of people who work for the Keystone Motel had their lives ruined by this event and the motel never recovered from the negative reviews. It wasn’t until Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, stepped in and told the fan base to stop that they finally stopped, with some even apologizing for it as well. I really feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, but, um, if you watch this show, please don’t do that. Ruining other people’s livelihoods is seriously not cool.
Rick and Morty (2013-present) = EXTREMELY MATURE CONTENT WARNING. Rick Sanchez is a genius scientist and also a complete sociopath. He’s able to create just about everything, including portals that can lead him to alternate timelines, a flying spaceship car, and much more. He travels the multiverse with his family against all sorts of threats, mainly because he is an interdimensional terrorist. Despite his love for his family, he has no remorse for anyone else, and doesn’t hesitate to commit genocide on a regular basis. The show’s greatest strength is its humor. There’s a lot of good jokes throughout the whole thing. By the way, be sure to watch after the credits for every single episode. With the exception of the first one, there is always a post-credits scene and it's always canon.
Clarence (2014-present, planned to finish in 2018) = I cannot tell you anything about this. It stars a main character named Clarence, and that’s all I know about it. I refuse to do any further research and learn anything more. I know that it’s marketed for children, so it doesn’t have anything bad in it, and it is popular. However, the guy who created it was a misogynist (and that’s just putting it nicely, there’s a whole slew of various sexual assaults that I’d rather not discuss, go ahead and look it up if you really want to know), and I don’t want to ever watch anything made by him. So I don’t know what happens in this show. Of course, the show isn’t misogynistic itself. From what I’ve heard, it portrays men and women as equals, but, again, the creator disagrees with that message, and so I don’t want to ever look into this.
BoJack Horseman (2014-present) = MATURE CONTENT WARNING. BoJack is a washed-up sitcom star from the 1990s, but he hasn’t done anything noteworthy since then. He’s trying to hold onto his glory days, and failing. The show is really freaking good, and it will change the way you look at life after you watch it. It doesn’t start off on the best foot, but it gets better from there.
Over the Garden Wall (2014) = Greg and Wirt get lost in the woods and have to find their way back home, but they find a lot of strange and bizarre things in the woods, and they get caught in the middle of a bunch of stuff. I can’t say too much without giving spoilers. I will say that if you are a virgin to 2010s cartoons and want to just give one of them a shot, this is probably the best one to “test the waters” with, because it is incredibly short. The entire show, from the beginning of the first episode to the end of the last, spans less than two hours. So you don’t even lose a whole day trying to watch it. I will also say that this show does things that may seem weird at first, but after you watch it, you’ll find that it all makes sense by the end. One area that I have to talk about is this show's soundtrack. It is superb. The background music is the best that I have ever heard in anything ever, to the point where the DVD includes an alternate version to watch that mutes all the dialogue, so that you can just enjoy the background music.
Penn-Zero: Part Time Hero (2014-2017) = You know how when your teacher gets sick or injured, or just doesn’t feel like coming in to work that day, you get a substitute teacher? Well, this is the same concept, more or less, except, applied to superheroes. Penn Zero is a substitute superhero that fills in for other superheroes when they can’t do their jobs. He travels to other dimensions to replace the superheroes that can’t currently do their jobs.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-present) = Star Butterfly is a magical princess that just turned 14 years old, and is now legally entitled to inherit her mother’s magic wand. Well, she has no sense of restraint and ends up accidentally setting fire to her kingdom because she doesn’t know what she is doing. So her parents send her to an alternate dimension that is free of magic in order for her to train safely. That dimension is Earth. While there, she befriends a boy named Marco Diaz. Star doesn’t know the first thing about Earth, which Marco knows a lot about. Marco, meanwhile, doesn’t know the first thing about magic, which Star knows a lot about, so they play off of each other really well. There’s also a villain named Ludo who tries to steal Star’s wand, but it’s about as effective as Team Rocket trying to steal Pikachu. It just doesn’t work. That’s the basic plot for the first seven episodes. But episode eight is where it starts to get interesting. This introduces a new character named Toffee, who is an actual lethally competent villain, and he is a puppet-master that pulls the strings and arranges this ludicrously complex scheme that continues through the show to this very day, several seasons later.
Harvey Beaks (2015-present) = A bird named Harvey goes on adventures in a magical forest. That’s about as good of a synopsis as you can get.
We Bare Bears (2015-present) = Three bears - specifically: one grizzly bear, one panda bear, and one ice bear - try to fit in to human society, with varying degrees of success. It’s much better than it sounds. The show features a lot of contemporary things, such as an episode where the bears try to become “Internet famous”.
The Loud House (2016-present) = Lincoln Loud (age 11) is the sixth child out of eleven in the Loud family. He is also the only boy there. He has five older sisters - Lori (age 17), Leni (age 16), Luna (age 15), Luan (age 14), and Lynn (age 13) - as well as five younger sisters - Lucy (age 8), Lana (age 6), Lola (also age 6), Lisa (age 4), and Lily (age 15 months). It deals with the chaos of growing up in a family with one boy and ten girls. Where this show really shines, though, is its characterization. You’d think that, with eleven different characters, each would behave somewhat similar, because you can’t create that many different personalities for all main characters. You’d run out of suitable ones fast enough. You’d be wrong, actually. This show manages to show off each Loud sibling in a unique way.
Milo Murphy’s Law (2016-present) = Murphy’s Law states that whenever something bad can happen, it does happen. Well, meet Milo Murphy, voiced by Weird Al Yankovic. Milo is a descendant of the guy who invented Murphy’s Law, and as such, Murphy’s Law is in full effect wherever he goes, essentially turning Milo into a walking disaster area. But the thing is: he got used to that, and now has a backpack full of safety gear for every conceivable situation, and also inconceivable ones. The B-Plot of the show is initially about a pair of idiot time travelers who the time travel police didn’t want to deal with and so just had them go back in time to prevent pistachios from going extinct, because the boss really enjoyed them when he was a kid. And so they do. Their paths often cross with Milo and his friends, causing disaster due to Murphy’s Law. Eventually, the two plots collide with one another, resulting in a surprisingly epic climax considering that the two plots were as odd as this. The writers really pulled it off quite well, but I won’t spoil it for you. One thing that I will say, though, is that if you watch this show, pay attention to every single little detail, because it is very important.
Duck Tales (????-????) = This is a remake of a show from the '80s. It's not out yet, but based on trailers, it looks like it will be good enough to be the next show on this chart. We don't know that for sure, though, so I won't add it until I know that it can get added.