Steven Universe Review: "So Many Birthdays" (Season 1A, Episode 13)

Worth noting - not as much hilarity ensues in this episode as this screenshot would imply.

Airdate: March 3rd, 2014

Synopsis: Steven finds out that the Gems are many millennia old. Much to his dismay, he also finds out that they don't really celebrate birthdays. Steven attempts to make up for lost time by celebrating the trio's "birthdays". However, they don't necessarily enjoy the festivities, dismissing them as childish. Stunned, he begins questioning his own maturity, and begins aging. Really aging.

Review: So, you're an executive at a network dedicated to cartoons. You pick up this show about a pre-teen boy living with space aliens. Lighthearted, right? Costs you a mint, but the person sending it in has a good track record. (Just make up the dough by selling ad time on a cheap-o flash cartoon.)* The thirteenth script your network censor gets has the pre-teen boy aging rapidly and coming close to death, his own morality put into focus compared to the rest of the cast, and his parental substitutes breaking down as he inches to the abyss.

Lighthearted, right?

Yeah, this is probably the first episode to suggest that Steven Universe might be less 3rd Rock From The Sun and more Babylon 5. It's an episode with a rather jarring tonal shift, although even the lighter moments have something of a sober atmosphere, what with our pre-teen protagonist struggling with his humanity and age.

Gravity Falls: A Requiem

"Ah, summer break. A time for leisure, relaxation, and taking 'er easy... unless you're me."

It was the evening of July 13th, 2012 - Friday the 13th, as luck would have it. The time was approaching 9:30. Being the most boring man in existence, I was turning in for bed. (Yes, even during the summer, I go to bed relatively early. You know the quote from Ben Franklin.) However, my brother wanted to watch this new episode of this show on Disney Channel. I was convinced it would be moronic, but I let him have the benefit of the doubt.

At 9:30, "The Inconveniencing", the fifth episode of Gravity Falls, aired. Little did I know that my world had forever been changed.

...OK, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but the point still stands.

Not Another Top X List – Top 40 Gravity Falls Episodes (AKA – My Personal Ranking)

(I’ll explain that title in a second.)

Hello, and welcome to another edition of…

NOT ANOTHER TOP X LIST!

Gravity Falls, over the past three-and-a-half years, made its mark as one of the most beloved cartoons on TV. It’s mystical plot, it’s combination of highbrow and lowbrow comedy, it’s mixture of scathing comedy with deep drama, all of it combined to make one of the biggest cult hits on TV.

Now, it’s over, and it will be missed.

(Yes, I am aware that it’s been over for a flipping month. Schoolwork happened. Sorry about that.) 

I do intend to write one final requiem for the show before leaving it for (at least) a while, one where I lay out why I loved Gravity Falls so much. Before I do so, I have decided to do a personal ranking of every… single… episode. I did it for Season 1, and I did it for the first half of Season 2. 

Now, begins my largest-ever list. Note that this ranking represents my current thoughts on the episode – my reviews from before might be outdated. (Also, the name is to keep it within the “Top X” title.)

(Some of these images were from other posts, others, from the Gravity Falls Wiki.)

Ladies and Gentlemen:

THE TOP 40 GRAVITY FALLS EPISODES!

March 2016: Minor Hiatus

Haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, guys.

I mentioned this at the start of February, but I think I should confirm it - because of upcoming deadlines in terms of schoolwork, I don't think I'll be posting anything until at the end of next week, the earliest.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Gravity Falls Review: Season 2 Wrap Up

(Note - ranking of every episode will be out next post, but given that I did a wrap-up for Season 1, I may as well do one for Season 2. This is going to be brief, since I'm going to touch on more posts in a full requiem of Gravity Falls.)

Screenshot of this image, found on the Gravity Falls wiki.

Thirty long years, and it's led up to this! My greatest achievement... probably should have worn pants. - Grunkle Stan, in his boxers, "Scary-oke".

The first line of "Scary-oke" set the tone for Season 2 of Disney's Gravity Falls - it was going to be more ambitious, more plot-driven, than the act of brilliance that was Season 1. The question is, did it meet my expectations?

Well, how can I put this?

YEAH!

Gravity Falls Review: "Weirdmageddon III - Take Back The Falls" (Season 2, Episode 20)

Massive Inter-dimensional pyramid with bowtie used mega fist pound! It's not very effective.

Airdate: February 15th, 2016

Synopsis: After going through the sugar-coated hell that was Mabeland, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy team up with a group of refugees taking shelter in the Mystery Shack alongside Stan. There, they devise a plan to rescue Ford and bring down Bill. Thing is, Stan is remiss over rescuing somebody he feels screwed up purely on impulse. He begrudgingly goes along, but his feud with Ford almost brings the Pines family - and, on a larger scale, the entire town of Gravity Falls, Oregon - to the brink of death.

Review: First off, a personal note. I can't believe that this is the last one of these new-episode reviews that I'll do for this show. Sure, I'll re-review the show in the not-too distant future, maybe set up a "tribute" site, but it won't really feel the same. The waiting for every Gravity Falls episode will never be experienced again.

With that said...

"Ah, summer break. A time for leisure, recreation, and taking her easy... unless you're me. My name is Dipper - the girl about to puke is my sister, Mabel. You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror.

Rest assured - there's a perfectly logical explanation..."

On June 15th, 2012, with those words, we were introduced to the world of Gravity Falls, thanks to the Disney Channel. Initially coming off as merely a quirky Disney cartoon, within 22 minutes, the show unveiled itself as something more complex and brilliant. What was Grunkle Stan doing at the end of that last episode? Who did write that journal? As it turns out, we were about to go on a beautiful journey.

Forty-four months later (to the day, no less), the long, long, long summer ended. So, how did this last episode close it all out?

Warning before we go further... spoilers are legion. Watch the episode before you go any further. I am dead. Serious.

"Remember, Only The Good Die Young..." - The Gravity Falls Pre-Finale Post

Well, this is it.

Today marks the Series Finale of Gravity Falls. It airs at 7PM ET on DisneyXD. I anticipate that it will be an incredible end. Speculation is already running rampant that one of the characters will die, and chances are... that will happen. Not going to go further, but I could see Gravity Falls going out with a bit of a tragic aura.

Fun thing is, Hirsch has not ruled out the possibility of future specials or comics to continue the canon. However, I doubt we'll see anything for quite a while - Hirsch has already signed a deal with FOX to create a new animated show. I suspect it will be taking up his time for the next couple of years, at least.

And, hey, if this is the end, consider this quote, said by Rimmer at the end of the Red Dwarf episode "Only The Good".

"Remember, only the good die young."

Oh, speaking of which...

Scullyfied Simpsons: "Viva Ned Flanders" (Season 10, Episode 10)

"Couldn't we have gone to Branson instead? C'mon - you can't hate Andy Williams."

Airdate: January 10th, 1999

Synopsis: Dust from the demolition of Burns' casino sends the Simpsons to the car wash. There, Homer finds out that Ned uses the seniors card to get a discount. At church, Homer gets a confession out of Ned - he's actually 60 years old. His youth comes from a rather clean lifestyle. However, Ned comes to think about his point in life - that he just might be a bit too predictable.

Upon seeing Homer act like an idiot, he tries to get advice from the man. Homer's advice involves going to Burns' Casino... which was blown up. Therefore, the two take a road trip to Las Vegas. Homer's lifestyle eventually makes an impression on Ned, and the two wake up the next morning hungover, in a suite, and married to two cocktail waitresses.

Review: In the season 5 episode "$pringfield", the town decided to legalize gambling, with Mr. Burns as the main investor in the initiative. With Burns's Casino, "$pringfield" lampooned the entire casino establishment - the encouragement of gambling even towards addicts, the incompetence at trying to quell problem gamblers from their worst urges, and even the hidden vices that are found in the most unlikely of characters - in that case, it was Marge that turned out to be a gambling addict. It was a quirky episode, and a fun one at that.

In this episode, "Burns's Casino" is blown up. And while it's unintentional, I can't help but feel the irony, as this episode does a damn good job spitting on the classic era.

Scullyfied Simpsons: "Mayored To The Mob" (Season 10, Episode 9)

Airdate: December 20th, 1998

Those aren't Idaho Potatoes!

Synopsis: A trip to the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con goes horribly wrong when Mark Hamill doesn't talk about Star Wars at his panel. With a riot breaking out, and Mark and the Mayor's lives threatened, Homer barges through the nerds and rescues the duo. Quimby promptly fires his old bodyguards and replaces them with Homer. This, however, leads to trouble when Homer winds up discovering that a deal with the Mafia to send low-quality milk to schoolchildren went too well (read, the Mafia was using rat's milk.) With the ring busted, Fat Tony threatens Quimby's life.

Review: OK... Homer gets another job. Over the previous eight episodes, he's been a grease jockey, an inventor, a personal assistant, a hippie, and a coward on the Ship of Lost Souls (although that last one only lasted mere minutes before he got thrown out.) So, why did the writers give him another job? I think, in reality, Mark Hamill just walked by Ron Hauge at some restaurant in LA, Hauge thought of an episode where Homer and Mark met up, and before you know it, Homer's a bodyguard.

Anyway, this episode was better than "Kidney Trouble". Then again, a test pattern would've been better than "Kidney Trouble".

A Brief Note About February and March 2016

Just letting you know ahead of time, almost all of the posts on this blog this month will be dedicated to the Gravity Falls finale, which will air on the 15th. (Please watch it live and on DisneyXD/the app - let's have GF go out with a bang.)

I might be able to get out my review of "Mayored to the Mob" (and, less likely, either "So Many Birthdays" or "Viva Ned Flanders") before the 15th, but after that, the rest of the posts this month will be dedicated to the end of Gravity Falls.

On a side note, I foresee March being a rather busy month for me, so blog updates may or may not be relatively rare during March. Just an advance warning.