Gravity Falls Review: "Weirdmaggedon" (Part 1) (Season 2, Episode 18)

(Before we begin, I sincerely apologize for this review coming out so late. This accompanies a quick announcement about my Star Trek film reviews.)

500 Miles North of Normal, 500 Miles West of Weird.

Airdate: October 26th, 2015

Synopsis: At the end of the last episode, well, to quote Vyvyan from The Young Ones...

"This is the end! Armageddon! No future!"

Yep - all hell broke loose. Bill is practically unstoppable - he turns Ford into a backscratcher, steals Deputy Durland away from Sheriff Blubs, unleashes his friends, and screws up Preston Northwest's face. (You don't want to see the end result of that.) Most damningly, he kidnaps Mabel, and locks her in a bubble. Alone, Dipper is left looking for any sort of help. Fortunately, it turns out Wendy is an excellent survivalist, and the two plan to go through the bubble to rescue Mabel. Unfortunately, old enemies come back to settle a score.

Review (STUFFED WITH SPOILERS): If I might borrow a philosophical statement from Pauly Fuemana, "how bizarre!" If madness in Gravity Falls was quantified, this would break the scale on a level that the Jockey Elves would be jealous over. Granted, this is a genuinely good episode we're talking about here.

This episode is sci-fi horror at it's finest, thriving on the macabre and the concept of a world gone mad. Bizarrely, though, the ending makes it one of Gravity Falls's more optimistic episodes, even in the face of the apocalyptic setting.. The question is, does that bit of optimism work?

Before we begin, another reminder - spoilers. They are legion.

Real Life Interferes With My Review Plans... Again.

So, yeah... my plans to get my "Weirdmageddon" out by the week after it aired seemed to go off the rails a little bit.

Yup, real life happened. I had to write a couple of papers for school. Thus, I had to push my review of "Weirdmageddon" back a bit more than I wanted. It will go out tomorrow, but still. And if that wasn't enough, I still have other papers to write for the rest of the semester.

It doesn't exactly give me joy to announce that this will also affect my plans for my Star Trek movie reviews. My intent was to review the four TNG movies over December. However, with the amount of stuff I have to do involving school, I no longer see this as feasible or realistic without compromising the quality of the reviews.

Going further, to try and keep my time straightened out, I have decided to push my review of The Undiscovered Country back to late November. The earliest. It might wind up pushed back to mid-December - the latest. Reviews of shorter-length shows (such as my reviews of Steven Universe/Gravity Falls/The Simpsons) will almost certainly go out in the meantime.

Scullyfied Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror IX" (Season 10, Episode 4)

Airdate: October 25th, 1998

Last October, I reviewed "Little Gift Shop of Horrors". The November before (which is close to October), I reviewed "Treehouse of Horror VIII". Three Octobers ago, this blog didn't exist. Since we are coming up on Halloween, I figure it's time we review the ninth Treehouse Of Horror trilogy. (SPOILERS BELOW.)

Steven Universe Review: "Frybo" (Season 1A, Episode 5)

This is one of the reasons why I don't trust fast food mascots. Except for Jack Box. He is awesome personified.

Airdate: November 18th, 2013

Synopsis: After rescuing his jeans from the negative effects of a Gem Shard - used to animate articles of clothing, amongst other inanimate objects. - Steven goes into town. There, he meets up with Peedee Fryman, a disillusioned fast food mascot man working for his father's fry business. Feeling sympathy for Fryman Jr, he takes the gem shard and animates the costume. Unfortunately, the effects don't include "sell more fries" as much as it does "attack the patrons."

Review: Over the past four episodes, Steven has established himself as one of the most idealistic characters to ever make his mark on TV. He's warm, affable, and does things such as make breakfast for his guardians/roommates/whatever-they-are-at-this-point. Satisfied with his lot in life, his largest desire (so far, at least) is that he wants to be more involved with the Crystal Gems and their various adventures. His largest flaws, thus far, are his naiveté and inexperience. His idealism would make him fit right in amongst, say, the Bartlet administration.

So, just to emphasize how optimistic he is, let's pair him up with Peedee Fryman, a character so nihilistic, he gives the Underwood administration a run for it's money. Oh, and also, have Steven's idealistic viewpoint deconstructed to the point where his actions help damage a small business.

Review "Schedule" Update

Just informing you that, due to some things I have to do for school (and some overall busyness in my life), my review of the newest Gravity Falls episode, "Weirdmmageddon Part I", might not be out until sometime early next week. I do intend to have the "Treehouse of Horror IX" review out by or on Halloween, though.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Movie Review: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

This movie's name was almost prophetic.

Premiere: June 9th, 1989

Synopsis: A Vulcan by the name of Sybok promises the desperate eternal knowledge, with just one requirement - they need a spaceship to get to the source. Thus, they decide to storm the capital city of "The Planet for Galactic Peace" and hijack the ship that responds. Hilariously enough, the ship is the still broken-down Enterprise A. Sybok lures the crew of the Enterprise in, and through the power of reading "hidden pain", directs it to Sha Ka Ree.

Review (SPOILERS): 

Wow. Two hundred posts. Not a major milestone, but still a bit cool. If I celebrated my 100th with the best Star Trek movie, I may as well "celebrate" by looking at what many fans consider to... not be the best movie.

But first, being that this is something of a minor landmark for this blog, I figured I'd start with a mention of the show that really started it all.

I've mentioned time and again that Red Dwarf is, if not my all-time favorite show, one of my top five favorites. If I might give a brief elaboration on my favorite episodes, some of them, in hindsight, are quite theological. "The Last Day" questions whether people should constrain themselves strictly to their religion's set of values, if they subscribe to said values. "Lemons" gave something of an analysis of Jesus - to many the great prophet, to many others the greatest teacher ever. Most importantly, "The Inquisitor" wonders whether or not we should actively strive to live life to the fullest, and whether we get another shot.

What made these all stand out is that they all did so while being downright hysterical. Whether the comedy connected to the theology, or divulged from it, I was rolling.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier also tried to mix theology with comedy. The results? Let's just say, it almost killed the franchise stone dead.

Scullyfied Simpsons: "Bart the Mother" (Season 10, Episode 3)

Now to figure out which one is Chirpy Boy and Bart Jr. The madness! THE MADNESS!

Airdate: September 27th, 1998

Synopsis: Bart kills a bird, raises it's babies, and it turns out it wasn't the bird's babies that he was raising.

More specifically, Bart defies his mother by hanging out with Nelson, who just acquired a BB gun at an arcade. One false move, and not only is a bird dead, but Marge finds out and decides to give up on trying to interact with him. Feeling utter guilt, Bart decides to raise the eggs as his own... and lizards wind up hatching.

Review: Ah, ZZZZZZ... oh, sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah, this episode. A pretty blasé, boring half hour... well, the first two acts, anyway. The third act, I don't know what happened.

The first part of the episode is so boring, that I don't think I'm gonna go in depth here. This might be my shortest review since I don't even know when.

Gravity Falls Review: "Dipper and Mabel Vs. The Future" (Season 2, Episode 17)

The truth is... surprisingly, not that far out there. (Small note, but building that bridge must've required some awesome engineering.)

Airdate: October 12th, 2015

Synopsis: Mabel is elated - the end of August marks her and Dipper's 13th birthday, and she's planning a celebration to mark both the occasion and put a massive cap on the summer. Excited for everything, her happiness is slowly quashed as the world she once knew begins to fall apart. Wendy pops her bubble about high school, there can't be a party at the shack itself, and her best friends can't come to a party.

Meanwhile, Dipper and Ford go looking for a super-adhesive glue to try and seal a crack in the globe that holds the rift between the universes. To do this, they wind up going under Gravity Falls... a town founded over a UFO. (Arnold Rimmer has been vindicated.) After a series of strange events, Ford offers Dipper a proposal - stay in Gravity Falls after the summer ends, and become his apprentice in mystery solving.

When the two plots intersect... the end results are not good, to say the very least.

Review (WARNING, LONG REVIEW. ALSO, SPOILERS FOR VARIOUS PIECES OF MEDIA): Shortly before the premiere of "Roadside Attraction", Alex Hirsch tweeted something to the effect that "RA" was a "breather episode" before the epic episode afterwards. Reading that, I thought that this episode would change the show's canon on a scale unseen since "Not What He Seems."

Well, it turns out, I was wrong.

For "Dipper and Mabel vs the Future" has less changed the status quo... and more curled the status quo in a ball, flung said ball out the window, and sent it barreling towards the sun at speeds so fast, the Millennium Falcon wouldn't be able to catch up.

I'm not even sure how else to put it, other than this episode is undeniably the most stunning in the history of the show.

Note on the Gravity Falls Reviews

Just letting you know, I don't think I'll be doing the rest of my re-reviews of the first season until the show is done. That way, I can review said episodes more thoroughly, take note of elements that have become more important, and all that jazz.

Don't worry, though - my reviews of new episodes won't stop. Just a reminder, "Dipper and Mabel vs The Future" will air on Monday, at 8PM Eastern. Watch it - the canon of the show will likely be affected on a scale unseen since... five episodes ago.

Steven Universe Review: "Together Breakfast" (Season 1A, Episode 4)

The Together Breakfast - so awesome, it defies physics! (Image screencapped from the Steven Universe wiki.)

Airdate: November 11th, 2013

Synopsis: The short story: Steven makes breakfast for himself and the trio. Hilarity ensues.

The long story: Steven makes breakfast since all the other Gems aren't around. He manages to construct what is, in his mind, the perfect breakfast - literally well balanced, in fact. However, nobody really wants to (or is able) eat it with him - Garnet has to torch a poster, Pearl wants to be alone to fix up her room, and Amethyst just wants to gulp it all down. Kinda strange, then, when said breakfast comes to life and threatens to destroy them.

Review: Show of hands - who wants iHop now? Second show of hands - who has a fear of iHop now?

OK, really... just to let you know, this review is going to be somewhat shorter than usual, partially because this isn't the most memorable of episodes. It seems inconsequential at first - Steven cooks breakfast, tries to talk to the other gems, and said breakfast tries to destroy them all. In fact, it almost seems like a Regular Show episode. (Worth noting, I don't really watch that show, so no, that isn't getting reviewed anytime soon.)

And let's be real here - this episode's plot is pretty "color by numbers", with not a whole lot of real twists. Steven wants to please the gems, and almost dies doing so. So, not a whole lot of points for originality.

However, within the plot, there's actually more than a few things in here that help build the overall show even further.