Spongey444

https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/the-twelve-candles-club-beckys-brainstorm/

Marathon time already? Yep. Usually I'd hold off when doing shorter ones but I felt like giving these their own thing as I wanted to do a bigger show next. It just worked better with my schedule. Anyway, today we're diving into Babysitter's Club again.

I talked about Baby Sitters Club when I reviewed that Twelve Candles Club book but it's time to get into the weeds of it. I have gone over the Goosebumps and Animorphs shows a lot. Goosebumps was clearly a big hit that extended the brand. Animorphs…not so much.

And in the middle of all that is BSC. It has two shows and we're going over them as I find them fascinating. I've done research, y'all. BSC was huge for Scholastic so no duh it has been adapted. Let's get into them.

BABYSITTER'S CLUB 1990:

Their first attempt was this HBO show that only lasted a single 13 episode season.

Sounds like a flop, right? Odd for a big series at the height of its popularity? Well it's not so simple. Scholastic set out to make a BSC show and pitched it to broadcast networks…who said no. This was because they didn't think a female lead series would be “broad” enough and even wanted to add more boys to fix that.

Some things never change, eh? So they teamed up with some misc company to make some episodes for VHS exclusively, which began in September 1990. Then HBO picked them up for airing. They sold well enough for there to be an article in September 1991 saying Scholastic was happy about the success of the videos and will be ordering more. They overall came out between 1990 and 1993, with it switching to airing on HBO first and the videos were reprinted by Kidscreen after first being from Good Times. Yes, that one.

So yeah, it was actually popular with author Ann M Martin very much approving. She’s a creative consultant and she says she did work with the writers and helped cast the leads. It’s just funny how at first glance it seems like more of a flop than it was. Doesn’t help that Wikipedia had the wrong info for ages, saying it was all dumped in 1990. Granted, IMDB says this too. The BSC wiki had the truth at least, and evidence too like Tv listings and whatnot. Only recently was Wikipedia corrected.

(Also, the cast appeared at the 1992 Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Yes, really)

Nowadays, its legacy is the theme song, “Say Hello to Your Friends” which is a bop to be sure. The main cast mostly has this as their sole IMDB credit, although Mallory and Jessi’s actors did stuff. Thus they get the least to do. The actors you know are in side roles. We have Danny Tamberelli as one of their kids, and Young Zach Braff and baby Kimberly J Brown as one offs.

I imagine plenty have it as a nostalgic favorite but it’s not talked about too much these days. So I was interested to see how it is.

And well, the reason I went through all the history is cuz there’s not much to say. It’s…fine. The thing is, it’s an odd adaptation. It’s all mostly original stories, not adapting the books. However, it is basically an extension and not an adaptation. Everything is basically the same and we jump in the middle with bonus members already here. They keep referencing events from the books that we don’t see here, as they assume you’re a young fan who knows all this by now.

We get an info dump from Kristy but otherwise it feels like you just joined a friend group with tons of history and you’re lost, not getting all the in jokes. It’s weird, I’ve seen adaptations do their own stuff, I’ve seen faithful ones with few changes, and I’ve seen like side books that are seen as canon. But this is something else. Hell, Stacey becoming a model in one episode is referenced in the books, implying this is canon to them.

Yet in one this child star from one book is somewhat presented like a new thing to us when we as fans know this guy from that book. It mostly sticks to catering to fans with it being simple enough for others to jump in though. I think it’s a bit odd, I guess it clearly worked but I imagine fans wouldn’t like that it's all new mostly and non-fans would find it hard to go into blind. 

It’s not confusing or anything, but they do short change some characters who I imagine do more in the books. In general, the show is pleasant and cute. The actors have good chemistry and by the end, they all seem like decent friends and I bet they all had fun here. But man, it feels pretty simple. A lot of the show is just them hanging around and giggling, a lot. There’s not a ton of substance with the stories being very simple. 

Episode 1 is sadly the weakest, as it is just mostly fluff with the plot being fairly lax. Feels like not much happens beyond giving us an idea of the vibe. Of the cast: Kristy gets the most because she’s the leader, with a few nice bits. Claudia takes a while but gets substance involving her school problems and relationship with her sister. She’s my favorite since she gets some good lines. Stacey doesn’t have much personality for most of it but gets an episode about her choosing between Mom and dad basically, plus her diabetes comes into play once.

Dawn likes boys and trees, even though I know in the books it was Stacey who liked boys. Mary Anne is shy and gets exactly one episode, with this trait not being a thing mostly. Jessi gets just one episode which gives her some good stuff, even if she doesn’t have much for a personality.  Poor Mallory gets…nothing. No episode, and no true big moment.

The last episode is them going over their best memories and Mallory just gets to reference a few, she doesn’t get a spotlight. The show is mixed on the characters, with some working and others not feeling that fleshed out. Since they made more than one batch over time, it feels like two mini seasons rather than one big season. The show feels a bit different later on, indicated by the credits font changing a bit.

One of the writers, Jeanne Betancourt, went on to write for the series so clearly Scholastic felt they understood the series. It does feel like a more basic safe version though. I know the series can be like that, but I know it can have more bite than this. The show can get into that at times, and the stories do get stronger in the latter half with the story moving forward most of the time.

Dawn Saves the Trees even has a good nuanced moral about activism can go wrong despite being well meaning, basically. This one has aged well. Back to negatives, I'm not big on the first Claudia one as it pivots halfway through and gives Kristy the substance, shame.

The show can feel too sugary, even for me. It's nice it has a heart but man it can like having too many sugary snacks. I can see why Ann Martin praised it for being “wholesome” lol.

It does basically what it needs to, as it has stronger plots as it goes. My favorites were mostly the mysteries. Secret Passageway has the mystery nicely tying into stuff going on in their lives so it felt like a solid story with some mild spookyness.

Jessi and the Mystery of the Stolen Secrets has a reveal I didn't see coming and nicely ties into what Jessi was doing. This felt like things were more balanced. Outside of one jerk in ep 1, don't expect much for villains even in the mysteries.

The Christmas special was nice with a sweet ending, even if it gets into that corny-ness too. The final episode, The Babysitters Remember is an odd one. Before Summer starts, they talk about some favorite memories.

Most are from the books, such as the first one. It's a clip show…for a different medium. That's weird. I bet it's a bit boring for book fans, in the same way some clip shows can be dull. It does feel like a nice mix of substance and the usual lax giggling.

It could be more substantial in places (Mary Anne's memory is of a random thing she was just there for) but it's nice enough of a wrap-up. I think I just summed up the show lol.

It does what it sets out to do well enough but needs more meat to it. It’s perfectly fine for the target audience but others won’t get quite as much. Even the best stuff is nothing that great tbh. I feel like I’m a bit hard on it given what it is. It doesn’t do too much wrong and I see why it was as popular as it could be. But I also see why it’s more a nostalgia piece than anything. 

I wrote more than I expected, mostly cuz it was already short. So, it’s good for background noise and harmless fun, but that’s about it for the most part. We can move on now.

BABY SITTERS CLUB 2020:

A lot went down for BSC between 1993 and 2020. The series ended, another series started and then ended, they tried reprints and a prequel novel to regain interest which failed, and then the series truly came back with a graphic novel series. Well, after a quick try at least. 2015 is when the 2006 graphic novels got reprinted and this gave the series the jump it needed beyond wistful nostalgia snark blogs. 

Thus in 2018 they announced a new series that eventually came out on Netflix in 2020, that had 2 seasons and 18 episodes. We’ll get into the demise later. This time Scholastic entrusted Walden Media (that company that does mostly adaptations of classic children's books) with the rights after getting rather protective given the “not broad” stuff and rejecting a lot of offers. Apparently a fair few wanted to Riverdale it and we already have California Diaries for that.

Showrunning things is Racheal Shukert, mostly known for writing on Netflix's Glow. It got pretty acclaimed and yeah enough history let's get into why it's indeed pretty good.

. I may actually struggle to add a lot as there’s both plenty to say and not like a ton. The first thing to note is that it’s indeed a modern update and that’s done well.

It doesn’t dip into “How do you do fellow kids” too often and does a good job in reflecting 2020s life. I like how the BSC in this version is a throwback to how you’d set something like this up, as a contrast to online listings and overpriced services that Kristy’s mom deals with. BSC being a throwback in universe is a clever touch and there’s a fair bit of that. You have Claudia’s phone line being kept for nostalgia and that worked.

Of course the modern stuff shows in the themes which means yes, there are plenty of reasons for all of those people to whine about it being the W word. Dawn alone delivers most of that, with her lines and whole plot in one episode about a Union uprising. You have some of those “based” lines that can feel tryhard at times but mostly it works. Mary Anne saves the Day has a trans kid and there’s other LGBT bits as well as some raceswapping in the cast.

I appreciate how these were done, it feels authentic to how things are now. I was a bit worried about that going in but thankfully it’s one of the well done well meaning examples. It taps into how the books usually tried to reflect how things were at that time. It’s very much how the series would be in the current day. It has an oddly nostalgic feeling with some of the retro-ness so it succeeds in appealing to today's kid and the nostalgia crowd, or at least the ones not too stuck in the past.

The cast holds up well, the characters are strongly defined and the young actors are really good. Kristy could have cooled down a bit early on but her bossy-ness is used for good humor. And we see the deeper reasons for it, especially regarding her family situation. Claudia is still fun, Mary Anne gets well developed with her shy nature and other stuff. Stacey maybe isn’t as strong as the others she feels the most upbeat despite what she goes through and that’s enjoyable. Her stories could be like a touch better (Stacey’s Emergency hardly has an emergency lol) but they do setup for what could have been a strong story but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Dawn’s activism thing could have been annoying but is mostly used well and we get good drama with her. Mallory still has no episode but is a stronger presence being a bit of the kooky one. I wish she got a focus but Racheal did say that was a sad sacrifice they had to make with just 8 episodes in season 2 (for COVID reasons) to show off her deeper side but ah well. Jessi has a solid focus episode with her going a bit too far in being competitive, so that gives her more character in this version.

Despite certain lines/references, it remembers to be a kids show so you do have some standard/predictable stories. The only 2 weaker episodes I can mention are Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls, as despite a good main arc it does struggle to tackle a book they simply couldn’t quite do (Claudia doesn’t even really deal with the calls) and Boy Crazy Stacey, which works in being a fun break but was a story type I’m not hugely into. 

Not a big deal but worth noting. I will admit most episodes can fall into being a B+ that is just a few points shy for an A. Like, Claudia and Mean Janine could have used a stronger moment with the two alongside the Mimi stuff to bring things home. That’s a good example of a little thing that could be cleaned up a bit. Most fall under pretty good which is fine given who this is for and all that, and it’s hard to describe but there are those little things.

Season 2 plays things a bit looser with the books, and is about on par with Season 1. 1 had a few more “weaker” ones but 2 can feel just a tad a bit off but I get their approach with it. You still get strong stuff mostly in the back half. With the more lax approach, Stacey modeling in an episode and the use of the 1990 theme at the end…I think they had that show on the mind this time lol. I won’t compare them too much but man this is the stronger one.

Perhaps not tons of babysitting, which is a mild shame as we could at least have seen more of the recurring charges but word of god states this was for logistic reasons (child labor laws and all that) so it’s another sad sacrifice situation. I swear Racheal does a good job of justifying all the creative decisions, they clearly put a lot of thought into this show. 

For favorites: Hello Camp Moosehead is a solid two parter with a bunch of good storylines that lead to some fun and cool moments, from Stacey reconnecting with a former friend to Dawn’s union strike. Claudia and the Sad Goodbye is exactly what you’d expect and the emotions run high with Claudia trying to keep it down. Kristy and the Baby Parade deal with her deadbeat dad so of course I was all over it. Some fun fluff with the parade as well.

My favorite is Mary Anne Saves the Day, for being a strong character focus where every aspect works to build her up and show her feelings and arc. The show had a fair amount of good character moments and this felt like the strongest example to me. The show pulls off emotion well as even when it gets thick or on the nose, the actors pull it off so well. That’s shown here as well as the trans stuff, that’s in this one too. 

Special mention to Kristy’s Great Idea for being a solid pilot. The show is just nice, with well defined characters brought to life well. The modern streaming format is used well with storylines going on in the background and actually normal length episodes. Slightly longer ones are saved for when its needed.

It’s a solid B+ show, I think .Maybe not one I truly loved as maybe it could some more heavy hitters or tweaking of minor things. This is without even bringing adaptation into it. They left the door open for things to escalate in season 3 but sadly they won’t get that. It got canned and this article does a good job going into why and also why it’s a shame.

https://www.vulture.com/article/why-the-baby-sitters-club-was-canceled-at-netflix.html

I referenced this before regarding Andi Mack as they are similar in some ways. It got acclaimed, awards and all that but viewership was down since it wasn’t advertised as hard. Again, the article goes more into it. Maybe the looser approach turned off book fans as well but otherwise I don’t blame the quality. 

It’s a shame as it filled a niche and was also just good. Even as a more casual person with the books, I see how it’s a good take that updates things while also keeping what worked. It’s not perfect but it was a nice watch for me. It’s funny how the 1990 technically lasted longer as far as years ago

According an Ann M Martin Facebook post, Walden Media still has the rights so maybe there's hope for a fresh start someday. An animated series could be meat, would fit in well with things like As Told By Ginger.

At least we have the graphic novels. Anyway, BSC 2020 is a good example of how to update something as well as just a good family show on its own own. Hope the cast of kids all have strong careers at least.

I couldn't fit this in but I enjoy Karen, being this little weirdo. Good supporting cast in general, solid use of the adults here.

Alright that wraps those up. This BSC era was fun. I got a bigger appreciation for this series here. The 1990 show was mid and the 2020 clears it. But that 90's show had its charms and that theme was brought back for a reason.

I had a good time doing these and it was interesting seeing how the brand has been adapted. Yes, i know of the movie, maybe someday. 

And yeah; that's basically it. Hope I didn't miss anything important. Next time, I do another anthology show so stay tuned for that. See ya then.

Welcome back to my first post-backup marathon. This time I wanted to do 3 shorter shows from HBO Max that are modern. I have a modern cartoon backlog and them being short makes them tricky to use this as an excuse to do them. So doing about 3 is a good way to cover them. Look, doing side marathons on my own is harder these days with time, my situation and phone stuff so this works as a compromise.

That said, let's dig in.

JELLYSTONE:

We’ll start with the longest running of these so far, that is also the simplest. Created by CH Greenblat, this is somewhat of a Yogi Bear show but really it’s about the extended Hanna Babara cast living in the town of Jellystone. We get some wacky adventures with it having an ensemble nature.

I can make this short enough as it’s basically just pretty fun. It’s the kind of gag based cartoon I don’t see as much these days. It’s just about being weird and fun, while still having some decent writing and characters. You can tell this is CH Greenblat, as it the wacky comedy of Chowder and the ensemble stuff of Harvey Beaks.

It made me laugh a fair bit, and I enjoy the takes on these characters. Plus the deep cuts are pretty neat. Some major stuff like Scooby Doo gets used in clever ways, like in a couple mystery episodes. Of the main people we see, Doggie Daddy is my favorite. He’s devotion to his daughter is both funny and nice, and something about voice is just amusing to me.

There are some fun takes, like the Banana Splits being criminals. That movie took a toll on them. There are some gender swaps which i don't mind. Not big on Jabberjaw though, just don't find her that funny. She grew on me and got some good ones later on, at least.

Her first focus was a bit weak, as it took a bit too long go get to the plot, honestly. Otherwise, it's a pretty fun series.

The latest batch felt the strongest. The noir one is fun as well as the Jetsons special and Wacky Races one. For other stand puts, Doggie Daddy ones tend to work for me. The one where the kids pull a Vincent Adultman has funny escalation.

It's just a very fun and wacky romp. Manic to be sure but consistently funny and makes good use of these classic characters.

Given it's on HBO Max, I am glad it's still around. The first production season was split into two (typical) but season 2a is noted as half, even if they call it 3a. Looking forward to more, especially a certain special coming up.

If you want some wacky goodness, it's worth checking out for some solid laughs. Not the deepest review but there ya go.

FIRED ON MARS:

Next we got this 2023 adult sci fi series. Some people I follow were talking it up and trying to give it hype. Better late than never, given it hasn't been canned yet.

It's about a guy named Jeff working for a company on Mars. He gets fired and now stuck here, he has to find his purpose in some way. I don't have much to say here. At only 8 episodes, it's mostly pretty good.

There is some good humor but it mostly has a down to Earth vibe. Jeff is someone that is easy to relate and he gets some compelling stuff. It has that Bojack vibe going for it. Final Space as well. It's not on that level but it works.

It is story driven with cliffhangers, and that's done well. Not one where I highlighted select ones, although some have more emotional stuff. I will admit the last couple I wasn't quite as into. They step away from Jeff and that other stuff, while still kind of interesting, feels a bit dry.

So the finalel isn't the strongest but the final note is good. It could be an ending but clearly they want more. I hope they get it. It didn't blow my mind or anything but it was pretty engaging and relatable. …I thought I had more but I guess I left this unfinished and forgot. Whoops.

Well, you get the idea, good stuff we can move on.

SCAVENGERS REIGN:

We close out on a more serious one from the year. Wikipedia sums it up best: The series follows the survivors of the damaged interstellar cargo ship Demeter 227 who are stranded on Vesta, an alien planet bustling with flora and fauna but filled with dangers. The survivors start separated in three groups: Azi and her robot companion Levi, Sam and Ursula, and the isolated Kamen, who travels with a telepathic creature named Hollow. Over time all their paths converge towards the crashed landed Demeter.

It got a bunch of praise so I figured it deserved spotlight here. It’s pretty solid, but not always my thing. It’s very atmosphere driven and is able to be strong a lot of the time. This can lead to some dull parts if you have attention span issues like me. At 12 episodes it could be cut down in places, and episodes can blend together. But between some dull stretches and some characters not being as strong as others, a lot of it is quite good.

The flashbacks we got with one character prove to be the highlights for me, we get some heartbreaking stuff there. It’s good at letting visuals do the talking as well as the music. If you like that kind of thing, then this does the trick. It’s a good dramatic sci-fi series and it comes with some good horror moments for good measure.

I almost wanna call it great for all the good things it does. It just has some not my thing isms. My tastes are becoming more set in stone these days lol. But it’s good to have a more mature adult series like this. I’d say this series is worth it to get to those strong moments of storytelling. I don’t wanna give much away for details but yeah that’s basically it.

These 3 represent what I want more of from these current animated shows. Some fun comedy and use of IP, a solid comedy/drama mine and just strong visual storytelling. If we just let the creators do the thing, we get some good results. No idea about the future of these and since this is HBO Max…we’ll see, again lol.

Jellystone is my favorite with Mars being the most balanced. All are worth watching though, and man do I hope Warner wises up as well as the other channels and streamers lol. Some good stuff here with a little something for everyone, I’d say.

That’s a good Marathon post I think. I will do more rapid fire short shows in the future, just to get through my modern tv backlog at least lol. As for next time, I’d say for one of them I finally cap off the last of the Scholastic 90’s big 3 that has a show. Two in this case. I want a beefier-ish show after that so who knows when the next of these will be but we’ll see.

See ya then.

We love our hot takes don’t we? When it comes to the Goosebumps/Kids Horror stuff I talk about too much, there’s plenty of varying opinions on this stuff. Trust me, it can heated which you know all too well by now. I’ve been around the block and have had takes that differ from others.

I figured I’d do a little post about it. Now this won’t be too detailed, there’s not tons to say exactly. We’re talking about kids horror in general, with the main draw being a bunch of Goosebumps ones, of course. Now, I did a post about the fandom a while ago that has a few hot takes regarding how the series is judged and especially the new show. So a few that were covered there won’t be here, like how I feel these should be judged on quality and not how scary they are. (Not that a horror series shouldn't remember the genre more often bit still lol)

The link above will take you there. A big disclaimer is that this is based on what I’ve seen in my circles. I’ve seen various people claim takes are hot based on what they see. I’ve seen a lot so I have an idea what the “main” takes are. There’s a few you may think don’t fit here, or do, but I don’t see it that way given what I have seen. Plenty of these, I have others that agree with me but most I do feel are hot takes to at least some extent. Some are easy ones lol.

This is all low stakes so of course I have to say it’s all opinion don’t hate me blah blah, you’re all smart enough to get that. So let’s do it.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK:

We’ll hit a couple notable kids horror series before the big one.

The revival seasons are good

This is getting less hot these days. But generally, the last couple seasons with the new Midnight Society are looked down upon. The only real reason is they aren’t as nostalgic for those seasons and having a new crew gives them a good excuse to toss it aside. Now plenty have given them a chance and see they’re at least in the same ballpark as the previous seasons.

Now, they do have bad ones and in fact the only 3 I can fully kinda suck are in here. Because of those I’ve seen people call Season 6 bad but I don’t think it’s fair. Outside of those, the quality ratio is about the same. There’s some classics in here and heck my top 5 may be better than my top 5 of some prior seasons. Season 7 I do feel is the weakest, with not as many super strong ones. But that’s not too big a deal and it is still good.

It’s simple really, it wasn’t the exact same so some saw them as bad but now they’re coming around. They can push the drama or morals too hard but there’s still a lot of ambition to appreciate in them. They’re not perfect but hey, the show never was anyway. Speaking of the imperfections…

There are no truly terrible episodes

Oh this one’s spicy. Yes, there are the main 3 I see as kinda bad (Misfortune Cookie, Gruesome Gourmets) and plenty I can call weak, from Hungry Hounds to Laser Maze. But I frankly don’t think even those are terrible. Even the biggest fans have ones they hate, just see Up All Night with the first 2 I listed. And I can’t quite agree. Those ones are bad, I ‘m not saying they weren’t. I have big issues that I went into in my doc.

But I just see them as kinda blah. Misfortune has a passable-ish 2nd half with some substance to appreciate, Gruesome has some camp charm and Virtual Pets has some watchable sections as we see some of this play out. That one is honestly kind of overrated. Blah to be sure I honestly don’t see how it’s viewed as this horrible unwatchable thing. None would go in my worst kids horror media I’ve seen.

Again, they are clunkers but I didn't find them truly terrible either subjectively or objectively. It’s all taste, you all know how I can’t hate things as easily these days. But I do strongly think the work put into the show is clear even in clunkers, which I think is why even these don’t leave me thinking they’re awful. Just kind of blah. Hell, I’d argue Poof de fromage in Haunting Hour is overall worse than that, or at least it’s more consistently bad.

Speaking of…

HAUNTING HOUR:

The Dead Body isn’t that great

This is a big one. Over the years, I’ve seen which episodes were popular or became that way through nostalgia. A few I’m not as in love with due to a matter of taste. Then we have this one. From basically day 1, this was loved with plenty of people on the wiki really building it up and that remains the case to this day.

Yet even back then I wasn’t fully on board. It’s pretty good, perhaps quite good even? Not sure. I just know saw what was so hugely special about it, in the top 10 sense. It is good, with a solid shocking ending. It’s the first to have a more mature high school feel to it, and the first to have a dark ending.

It’s the one to let you know this series isn’t messing around and will offer more mature stories with unhappy endings that can kill off the protagnist you grew to like. I love that but I think it’s more loved for being the first to do it. So many others down the line would do that better, in various ways. This feels more basic in comparison. Although even at the time, I didn’t find it went to anyway hugely great places.

I think it has enough there to be a mild favorite at first if you’re first getting into the series but with everything behind us, it just feels like a trial run. It’s somewhat like Red Dress and yet that isn’t as built up as this is in some circles.

So yeah it's good but nothing great. Plus the short story is better.

Goodwill Toward Men is great

This may be the most clearly hot take on here. Season 4 being so late means there's less takes on it. But it seems this one has some mixed takes, with some disliking it. I am surprised to see that as I of course it great or at least quite good.

You may recall I always saw it that way, as it even made the honorable mentions on my remake list. I do think the ending could be tweaked as it is a bit odd but it works.

It's so unique for a Haunting Hour and Christmas episode. There isn't the usual horror here; it's this family trying to survival. There's good class stuff here and some of that Christmas feel to it. It just has a solid feel to it, with the ending capping it off nicely.

I don't get some of the dislike. Parts of the ending are a bit off but that's it. I guess it's too different for some which I kinda get but otherwise I appreciate this one. It's a strong way to end the series, in my opinion.

GOOSEBUMPS:

And now, our feature presentation.

Mr. Wood isn’t all that

Slappy fatigue is real and plenty see him as weak. Then plenty have gone back to Mr Wood and say he's better. You see, he strangled dog once. …And that's about it.

He's about on par with Slappy, as he has some threat level but is mostly just a Dummy. He works, just like Slappy does sometimes. But Wood gets built as better as a threat because he choked one dog.

Sure that was intense but that's the only thing giving him an edge. Otherwise he's not that much better. I guess only appearing once makes people miss him but I don't see him being that different if he were to come back in a major way.

He's just had cameos as far as books go. So yeah, he's fine but overhyped as a villain. Eh.

Dr. Maniac vs Robby Schwartz is overhated

(SPOILER WARNING)

The books I rate fully positively are already mostly liked so I was forced to defend a more middling one. I went with this case. I made it clear I dislike the sequel but this first one has arguably more hate.

The main bulk I get ironic enjoyment from with how wild Manic and Purple Rage are. Some just find them annoying and I get that.

But then there's the opening fake puts and the ending that has at all being a comic. Yes, that two punch is annoying, and I don't care for it.

However, there is some clever-ness to it. Robby comments on how he had to delete his brother and friend to save the day, basically commenting on the story having a bittersweet ending.

Then there's the implications of this lonely boy investing siblings for his story. It's not that deep and there's no real themeing as usual with Stine.

But it's still a shame that gets ignored. I've seen some see that sequel as better cuz “at least all that was real”. It just feels like they're using that as an excuse instead of properly engaging with it. I see that a lot with these.

Yeah it's still not good and not that deep. But there is some effort in the details which is unfair to ignore. And yeah, the sequel is still worse.

Attack of the Jack is fine, actually:

There's a fair ones I call Decent with hate but I picked this as the hate is truly overblown to me. It's on the more hated end of Slappyworld, I mean man is there hate for it.

The Slappyworld hate from adults is a but silly in general but I don't agree on this one. It is a “throw some random shit in there” one so it has that baggage. The ending fails to explain anything which does hold it back.

It is a comedic one so that's more points against it for people. It mostly works for me as some can be amusing. It is for kids so I can let most of that slide.

I enjoy the core adventure but mostly I like that the siblings get along. I noted it in the Slappyworld post and it still impresses me. They usually bicker in these so it's refreshing to have Violet note the difference and try to keep her brother calm. It's another adorable bit of effort that shouldn't be ignored.

It's not quite fully there but it doesn't warrant hate either.

Strained Peas is decent:

This fits into a similar vein as the last one. I reviewed Tales 1 where I explained this further. This story gets flack for the silly idea and that's about. I think that's unfair and kinda silly given it's a short story and in a kids franchise to begin with.

Even on an objective level, it flows well and doesn't waste much time which automatically makes it one of the better Tales stories. As a I said before, it feels like a parody with how it uses the typical formula in goofy ways.

It's fun in that way. The kid being hard to like does taint it and without that it'd be in Good. I like it in the more ironic way but it feels intentional.

Either way, it's too dismissive to knock it as one of the worst just for the idea. It may not all that given some of these people don't mind It Came From Beneath the Sink but that has gore so I think that's why lol.

This applies to the episode, it's seen as one of the worst but nah, it's fine. And speaking of the show…

(There are other Tales takes I could put here but they're from ones I haven't reviewed yet so we'll save that for later)

The 90’s TV show episodes are better than the books most of the time

We end on the big one. The rest may not be as strong as you’d want but I hope this makes up for it. The show can certainty be cheesy and isn't always good in the traditional sense and yet I'm going to bat for it in this way.

Even major fans tend to like the books and if they like an episode more than they say it's a rare case. Well I think that's the norm. Now, some of it is subjective. I'm a visual medium guy so naturally I tend to prefer it as far as enjoyment goes.

R.L. Stine's writing favors fun above all else and I think that lends itself better to a visual medium. The books can get padded so being 22 minutes episodes because forces them to be tighter by default.

There are some books I like better and times where the nature of the written wins out. But usually I find myself getting more enjoyment from the show. Some/most of that's ironic but hey that's something.

And in a more “objective” way, the writers often improve the flaws. You can tell they usually tried despite the budget and thw writing can show that. They often make choices that fix problems or add their own spin.

Haunted Mask 2 is the example, giving Steve a stronger arc while having the horror land better. Dan Angel and Billy Brown were smart showrunners that knew how to tap into the books while improving on them.

There's other big obvious examples to me: Monster Blood, My Best Friend is Invisble, You Can't Scare Me etc. As well as ones some can debate on. I think Say Cheese and Die's episode flows better and the characters feel a bit smarter. Yet some are attached to the book and prefer that. Mostly cuz Spidey dies there even though that was kinda cruel and the episode is better off doing him like they did, personally.

In a lot of these examples, you can see the effort that once again sometimes gets ignored. There's some certain examples that could have been their own slot, like me preferring the episode of One Day at HorrorLand. That's more subjective than anything it fixes per say.

Even taking some preferences into account, I do feel the TV writers on average are smart and often do better than Stine. Not to credit him too hard but you can see a difference at times lol.

Anyway, as goofy and middling as the show can be, I think it improves on the books more often than not.

BONUS/HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Some underrated Dark stories: Whispering Walls, Dark Dragon, Captured Souls.

Underrated Haunting Hour: Stage Fright, Spores, Seance.

Every Tales 6 story is at least decent: Despite the general popularity this one has, most see the 2nd half as weak with a few getting dislike, including Marshmallow Surprise and Monster on the Ice. I made it clear in my review but while the 2nd half collects a bunch of Decents, nothing goes below that as even those at the bottom have the charm and effort I know the book for. Troy knew what was up here lol.

Welcome to Dead House isn't that great: It is good, with some solid horror but it can be slow and it doesn't get too far above fairly good at best. I feel the love comes from it being dark, especially compared to most, more than the actual quality. But I didn't feel strongly enough on this to put it on the proper thing.

Chicken Chicken is okay: Now it's not as hated with there being distance from Troy (hence why it's on here proper) but it still gets thrown under the bus out of tradition. It's got enough good body horror to make it not the worst.

And that's what I got. Looking over these, I feel I can fall into the trap of taking these kids things too seriously. Look how much I pull the objective card lol. Guess that's another hot take.

Anyway, I'm a basic bitch sometimes so sorry these weren't the spiciest but a few made up for it. This was fun, hopefully you get something out of this lol.

See ya

Well, here we are. After a fair few years, it is time to end the backup marathons. In a formal way, at least. There are shows that count that will just be under main marathons instead. After today that main /backup divide is gone.

My backup choices were dwindling and I just wanted more room for other stuff in the slot I would watch these. We've on this thing of doing these big longer ones I had been putting off forever due to how beefy they were.

Today, we end it on a big one. Let's do it.

Rugrats:

This is the only way we could end things. Rugrats is not only hugely nostalgic for me but it was huge in general. 172 episodes, 3 movies, 2 spinoffs, and a couple direct to video specials. Not to mention all the merch, games and so on. Before SpongeBob, this was Nick’s big cash cow, and boy is there is a lot to say.

I was pretty into it as a kid, it aired plenty so I was able to watch it a lot. I saw Rugrats Go Wild in theaters and had some VHS tapes that I would watch a lot. A lot of episodes I remember so much from. It has big nostalgic value for me and here I got to see just how it all held up.

It was one of the first 3 Nicktoons, and while it wouldn’t get huge until later, the signs were there Nick was confident in it. Granted, Ren and Stimpy had a trouble production that made it hard to just crank it out despite it getting the most attention and sadly the world wasn't ready for 9 seasons of Doug.

Nicktoons back then had 13 episodes per season. Rugrats Seasons 2 and 3 were 26 episodes, way more than the standard. That just feels like they knew what they had. So in general, it holds up well and is still really good, for the most part. Let me take you on a journey to see how things evolved.

Season 1 was rough, mostly animation wise. It’s charming in how off putting and slow things are at first. It can be a bit too simple, with a few being just “Tommy does stuff in X location”. But there’s some solid characters that would only become further defined. Writing wise, there is a clever satire aspect.

We have the parents basically worshiping Doctor Lipshitz and taking his word as law, and thinking they know more than they do. We see later that he sucks, of course. At the Movies had them taking them to some mindless Dummie Bears movie since they think they want but instead they go for Reptar.

It’s not the deepest satire, but it’s there from the start. Even with the awkward-ness, you see the qualities it would refine. My favorite out of this season is Ruthless Tommy, where some guys kidnap Tommy thinking this is the home of some rich people. I love how he defeats these guys without even trying, he’s fully unaware of the danger. You also have At the Movies (introduces Reptar and has some good bits), Little Dude (where Tommy has swag), and Weaning Tommy, which is a big metaphor for withdrawal. There’s also some surreal elements that just make things weirder.

Going into the next couple seasons, they broaden the plots and things like imagination stories and have them interact with other babies. The humor is often strong in these. Honestly this can be among the funniest Nicktoons when it's at its best. Plenty bits have become iconic, and both the babies and adults can have their moments. You have jokes for the adults, be it dirty or just stuff like them dealing with their taxes.

Off the bat, it all feels more refined. And odd, given the premiere, Toy Place has canon time travel. Yes.

Nostalgia does boost these but even on their own, there’s a lot of fun to be had. It also has heart to, seen in plenty like Regarding Stuie. A goofy idea leads to a solid bowl of onions moment. You get some solid stories like The Slide and Chucky vs the Potty here. Rugrats was well reviewed from the jump (even Steven Spielberg praised it) and I think that’s because it has something for everyone.

You have more grounded slice of life stories, wacky cartoony madness through the imagination stories, and some surreal imagery in some. Doug and Stimpy have some mass appeal but feel more niche and yeah some aren’t into Rugrats hugely but there’s something for everyone here at some point.

Season 3 is the best season, as it has a lot of variety and iconic episodes. It’s hard to list them all but highlights include Sour Pickles (The Rocky and Bullwinkle parody is fun as well as seeing baby Stu and Drew.), Chuckie’s Wonderful Life (oddly depressing), In the Dreamtime (I’M NOT STU), Home Movies (pretty fun and even a bit sweet), and of course, Angelica Breaks a Leg. That’s a big favorite among the crew and even outside of the chocolate pudding scene, it’s really enjoyable. Oh and I Remember Melville, nicely tackling pet death. I also love Pickles vs Pickles as this funny farce, and we could go on.

Character wise, Chuckie tends to get the most focus outside of Tommy and he gets some of the best stories. Angelica is a baby alpha bitch so she’s fun. They do push her too much at times, as it feels like so many have to have her. There is a formula with the babies taking things literal and being mistaken, but only a few felt weighed down by that.

It’s funny how behind the scenes, they fought over angelica with Arlene Klasky hating her at first and pushing to have her be punished as often as possible. She grew to love her though. She can have her sympathetic moments over time. Paul Germain, the other creator besides Klasy Cuspo, said he sees Phill and Lilll as the peanut gallery and it shows with them getting less “deeper” spotlight than the rest.

They work, it’s just worth noting they only have a handful in the whole run to more deeply spotlight them. The parents can steal the show with their good bits, and it’s interesting to see them form. Chaz and Howard are barely a thing in season 1 and Charlotte doesn’t show up until The Santa Experience.

I wanna talk about Susie. I forgot she wasn’t there until Season 2. Susie works but she’s oddly absent a lot of time? It’s easy to forget she’s there sometimes. She gets used more as it goes, which is one big plus for the later seasons. There’s debate on her, especially as black rep and I’ll say she worked best as a foil for Angelica at least.

Anyway, this is the peak of the series where everything works together well. The series wrapped production in 1993, at the usual 65 episodes. The final regular ones aired in 1994, with there being a few specials that would air within the next couple years. Passover was a strong special as well as A Rugrats Chanukah. They’re important for Jewish rep but they’re also just great on their own, especially the latter.

In 1995, reruns were moved to weekdays…and then that’s where it really blew up. Reruns were beating premieres of other big shows. This made it get so big that they renewed the series for more seasons that started in 1997 and that’s where things get interesting. (They also greenlit the movie around this time). Paul Germain and a bunch of other writers had move onto the other things (Paul and his partner Joe made Recess while Craig Bartlett and some went on to Hey Arnold) so most were replaced.

Season 4 changes the visuals to be more bright and colorful. Also a bit more noisy but we’ll cover that more later. You can kinda feel the absence of some writers as it can feel a bit more generic at times. But those strong qualities are still felt with episodes like Angelica’s Last Stand and it’s sister, Clan of the Duck. One is a strike story that kicks the crap of Hey Arnold’s tbh. Duck has Chuckie and Phill wanting to wear dresses, arguing that boys should be able to do since it’s seen as fine for women to wear pants.

Yes, the show got that based.

Of course, here you get Mother’s Day. They wanted to explain where Chuckie’s mom went but the network didn’t want them to discuss death or any other reason. But now with Paul gone they just do it, ouch lol. Still, it’s a tear jerker. Word of the Day is a big favorite, a funny take on swearing. I also quite enjoy Radio Daze, a fun noir homage.

It’s a solid batch of episodes, if maybe weaker than before. It ends on Family Tree, which is good in general but it ends by revealing that Didi is pregnant. This leads into The Rugrats Movie. It’s flawed for sure but I’ll always love it. There’s some tear jerking moments and a solid arc for Tommy as we are introduced to Dill.

The movie of course ended up being the first non-disney animated movie to make 100 million in the US, proving that these babies weren’t slowing down for a while. This leads the next batch, the Dill era. Now, some, such as Paul Germain himself, feels adding a brother for Tommy is more of a last minute thing than a change that should stick for many episodes. I see that but I like the idea as it gives us a decent arc. We see them bonding more as we go on.

Dill is…there. He’s a newborn as there’s not much to do with him. He’s not annoying outside of a few moments, so there’s not much to dislike about him. He just feels…there, more than anything. Doing the “adding a baby” thing feels redundant here though. As for the era itself, it’s…fine. It feels basically in the same vein as the past couple seasons. It does start to get more generic, with most leaving me going “Eh, that was okay”. Not a lot to dislike but bad episodes do start to happen. Silent Angelica is the low point of the series and of course I’ve gone into it before. Also, Music shows that the babies shouldn't sing too often.

On the upside, Ghost Story is pretty fun and I’ll be going over it later this year, wink. I also thought stuff like I Do and Opposites attract were fun. We got more specials, and I do have enough fondness for stuff like Discover America to make them work. Runaway Reptar is a bit overlong but it has some funny stuff like the bad dubbing.

Also, All's Well that Pretends Well had a rather nice ending for Angelica that I didn’t expect. This era ends on Acorn Nuts and Diapey Butts, which nicely explores change. And it has Chaz dating which takes us to Rugrats In Paris. It’s an improved sequel, being lighter but still fun with gut punch moments. Reception for these first two movies can vary, and I see why Paris tends to be seen as better.

This brings us to Kimi. The way seasons are spread out varies a lot but it all more or less has the same feel. And this is the low point for me. Now, it’s still mostly fine enough. There’s some standouts like Shooting Stars (fun Star Wars thing) and Diapies and Dragons. There’s even still a heart, down to the very last one. Sister Act has Angelica being jealous over everyone having siblings and it was nice.

But man, it becomes more of a chore. I mentioned things getting noisier and that’s a big issue here. I love the sound of the show but here it seems like every second needs a sound effect or music cue. You will get sick of certain ones by the end if you binge it all. Most annoying is the use this “wah wah” sound that is attached to a lot of jokes. It’s basically a laugh track in a way and I got sick of it.

Season 7 or 8 introduces shorts and they’re super short. So much so that most feel like just time wasters, most notably The Great Unknown. They wonder why the stairs are a bit crooked or something. They’re like “Eh, we’ll never know”, the end. Riveting. The best make better use of the time, like War Room.

For full episodes, Dill Saver and Bad Shoes that they’re stretching for ideas although I do enjoy the outdated tech stuff in the former. Things get weaker as they go, with less notable stand outs in the 11 minute ones. The formula just got more noticeable, as it feels like it’s most of what we got. There’s that Rugrats Speak, which is usually charming to me but man they overdid it in this era. They’d even butcher some words they got right before.

As for Kimi herself, she’s just…there. At best, she’s a discount Tommy with a nice thing with Chuckie. I like having a good depiction of a blended family at least. But I often forgot Kimmy was even there, honestly. She’s fine but doesn’t add as much as she could have.

We get some solid specials like Babies in Toyland but they stretch for 22 minute ones, like in Club Fred. One big event was All Grown Up, which is a bit generic but novel enough to be enjoyable as a one off. It was the most highly viewed thing in Nick history so of course they made the spin off. We’ll tackle it someday. On the flip side, we have Preschool Daze. They wanted to do a spinoff with Angelica and Susie in Pre School, and made a backdoor pilot.

They green lit a full season..but when AGU blew up, they ditched that and just took the 4 eps already made and called them “specials' '. They wouldn’t see daylight until the Tales from the Crib DVDs and were later burned off on Nick at like 6 AM. Nice. That ep was meh on its own, not the worst honestly but I did want to see more. At least AGU earned the spin off through being a hit, this was just so forced.

They really milked things at this point. They took a TV special crossover with Wild Thornberrys and made it a movie, which was fairly average. Not bad but has more of a Tv quality to the writing. Then they add Taffy, a babysitter voiced by Amanda Bynes for some energy. Cuz they hadn’t added enough characters.

Yeah, this is where things get just desperate. Around here, SpongeBob got big and took Rugrats thunder but Nick just kept forcing it to do specials and things like this to keep it relevant. Eventually production ended in 2002 with AGU starting, and the last few eventually aired in 2004. AGU would later get screwed over, basically ending the Rugrats franchise on a whimper, until the reboot way later.

The last few episodes were actually a step from a fair that was there before, a few being fun or nice. I should stress this stuff is mostly tolerable outside of some notable duds, if I saw most of these on TV at random, I could sit through them fine even if I can tell it’s not top tier Tv. But binging it does show how the series fell.

It didn’t get bad, just …well “mid”. If anything can be called mid, it’s these later episodes. It feels they just stretched things too far and things had to end with the series being just fine. It didn’t get nearly as bad as SpongeBob or Fairly Odd parents could get, for sure. But there’s the same feeling of being milked too much, and being more middling compared to how it was before.

It’s a bit sad to see. But at the end of this, we can look back and see how good the show was before. Nostalgia plays a part, but a lot of it is often very funny, heartfelt and even clever at times. It feels like the later stuff just honed it on the more generic elements, which I think does add to why some just see the show as that. It can just be some standard baby antics but it could often be more than that, at least in how they go about these baby adventures.

I haven’t seen much from the reboot so I can’t speak too much on it. I don’t think the world needs more Rugrats but ah well. There’s a cautionary tale in here that Nick, as we have seen, doesn’t exactly learn from. Let’s just hope SpongeBob and Loud House can have proper endings, even with their own spinoffs going on.

Overall, the classic era of Rugrats is still a favorite of mine. It’s generally strong, even as things got more mixed later on. So there ya go, our long ride over. Check out my thread that is me live tweeting my journey, it was a lot of fun. https://twitter.com/Spongey445/status/1723493997283602678

And that, finally ends these backup marathons. I hope you enjoyed these, as I revisited some nostalgic faves of mine. Again, we’ll do more in the future but I need more time for myself. So yep, just one slot for watching stuff but I’ll use it for other stuff someday. After this. I’ll have a big break as I am finally free.

That said, see ya for whatever the future brings. I needed to post this now, okay? Next main one is Jellystone BTW, but it’ll be bunched up with something else so…see ya then!

(If you want more, this video goes even deeper into it all lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BanQ6etfpMw )

It's that time again. I usually pair up two main marathon shows together but I figured I'd start having just one if it's meaty enough. That and to tide you over until I finish Rugrats. We'll see how I do these after that but for now...here's your one.

THE OWL HOUSE:

Yep, this qualified for these. I can explain. When the show started, I watched the first few and just forgot to stick with it. I’ll explain that in a bit but yeah, I wasn’t hyped compelled to catch up and let it slip. I did want to do so around when I found out it was ending but it didn’t happen. I did that with Amphibia, but here there were no holiday episodes to force me to do that.

…Kind of, the season 3 premiere has some Halloween stuff but not enough for me to count it. Even if I did know and watched it back then, I’d be lost lol. It’s a shame they didn’t do any all out holiday ones during the 2 full seasons it had to do one.

Anyway, this was the first big cartoon of the 2020’s and was another in that style we all know by now. You know the one, the story driven stuff that still embraces being a cartoon in a way. This style is pretty common, even visually you can see what it’s going for. I will admit I was starting to get a bit sick of this, mostly for preference reasons. You know by now I prefer the shows that have at least some episodic elements

And I feel like certain people only care about the story ones and ignore anything outside of that. It seems like some don’t even really care about the important factors of a show, like connecting with the characters, and just want important lore to happen every second. This extends to complaints about “filler”, regardless of how good that episode may be on its own.

I will admit the first few, when I first saw them, seemed a bit similar to the formula for these, even down to the humor so while I liked it, I wasn’t ultra gripped. Seeing others already treat it like the greatest thing did sour me a tad so I didn’t ,and I forgot to keep up for a while. But I changed my mind and hey, better late than never.

After watching the whole thing, I did regret not keeping up. Not just because it got screwed over at the end and it needed at least a bit more support. Nah it’s because I ended up really liking it. That preference thing still applies a tad but man, it still works. The funny thing is, the same thing happened with Amphiba, where I was slow to catch up and was happy I did. Guess I just stop underestimating these.

It’s true that this does stick to the things you expect from these, with the lore, emotion and all that. It is a bit same-y in some regards and I do prefer more off-beat ones that can allow themselves to be experiential. Amphibia’s 11 minute format allowed for a bit of that, so I will say I personally prefer it.

But I can’t fault this too much for doing that, and it does it very well. Really, off the bat I can’t complain about much. I can pick at certain things I may have wanted more of here and there but personal preference is all I can muster for hangups. I can see others having bigger qualms but for me, it did basically the best it could in the time it had.

It starts well in introducing us to this world and does get its identity as it goes. I admit Luz is generally standard but still likable with strong moments, and everyone else is strong. King and Hooty have all the funniest moments, I thought I may get sick of them since this is typical humor you may see in something like Gravity Falls but they were always funny. King even gets a fair bit of emotional stuff as we find out his history. Hooty, less so but has his moments including an episode where he helps out.

That one is a solid favorite. Eda is my favorite which isn't a surprise as she'smy type lol. And yes she is “surprisingly foxy”. Everyone else, be it Gus (voiced by Booker from Raven's Home), Willow and later Hunter, is good as well.

Of course, there is also Amity. Yes, she and Luz become a thing and it's a big LGBT push. It's nice and their thing works. They fully get together in season 2 and they deal with that well. Love how they remind you of them being girlfriends just to show off lol

I admit I wish we spent a bit more time with her as an alpha bitch before she shifted but that's mostly my bias speaking lol.

The villain Belos can be seen as kind of generic but he works in a thematic sense and had his own good moments. A bit typical but ended up working well enough despite not being the deepest or most charismatic. I liked what went down with The Collector, generic name but more unique than you'd expect

Season 1 is pretty solid in establishing things. It mostly gets going by the end with some strong stand outs. Enchanting Grom Fight indeed gives us the gay but there's also Understanding Willow which has strong backstory stuff.

I also wanna say the body swap was pretty fun and solidly up there. The format made it stand out. It seems to not rank highly because it doesn't contribute much to the overall story which just proves my point, sigh.

Anyway, the season 1 finale is great. Builds on things well and was just so engaging. This is where things get really going as Season 2 is even better.

It does exactly what it needs: Builds on everything that worked and makes it better. Nothing feels wasted and even at just the midway point we get these revelations and turns.

The show just knows how to reel you in and have strong character moments and these emotional bits. When maybe I'm thinking about the mild same-y aspects, it gets back in with all the well done stuff in here.

It's hard to explain why it works without just recapping it. It has that vibe to it that they do well. After Season 2, they got screwed over and season 3 became 3 longer specials with a finale. I won't go into all that, but yeah they had to work around that.

You can tell they had to squeeze a season full of stuff but they did what they could. Dig a lot here including the finale. It's typical for a finale like but still works in having plenty of emotional weight.

The last portion is almost overwhelming, you gotta go frame by frame to soak in everything lol. I wish the show had been able to go on longer to make this hit harder/be less a bit rushed but hey that's how it went down.

Overall, Owl House is very good. It does a lot of the usual things and while my preference thing comes into play, it still works. I just really got into it and that's impressive. I can't complain too much when the crew simply did their jobs well. It's highly enjoyable and kept me hooked.

While I do prefer certain shows of this type more, there isn't much to complain about here. I don't have much to add, I've struggled to find more to say tbh.

It's a solid series and I am glad I got it. There ya go fans, I quite liked it. …That's it.

No idea what is next. See ya for…something. (Suggest ideas for the future plz)