(Double post and you can't stop me.)
Because a youtuber claimed that he liked it, and I was bored.
Just Add Magic is better than I expected it to be. The first season is actually pretty well written “for a kids show” in that there’s plenty of reincorporation and serialized storytelling. (More so than most ‘adult entertainment’ I’ve seen recently.) The weak parts (like catchphrases) are ironed out quickly. (Episode 1 and done for that example.) Main characters are all flawed and likable. (And the trope “dumb male” characters aren’t used often.) There’s a handful of amusing lines throughout, and it’s ‘watchable’ in how each episode tends to leave on another mystery or cliffhanger. And even the “we need a happy ending” deus ex machina that it ends on, is done in a way that makes perfect sense for the story that it’s telling.
Season Two is twice as long, and is divided into two separate arcs/antagonists. Both attempting to do something different, and are equally creative in how much it attempts to build/expand on the simple concept that it has. However, that requires a lot of plot convenience and contrivances to make the story happen. Like the characters fucking time travel in episode two ‘because reasons’, only to realize in the end that they can never do it again. Womp womp. (So it tries to add depth to the characters instead. To its credit.) But each also concludes abruptly and less successfully each time. (In that the last minute solution/happy ending feels less earned.) The 2nd half of its season being a pretty obvious and drawn out whodunit plot.
Other shows that I attempted to watch an episode of:
The Peripheral: Just watch Cyberpunk Edgerunners, if you want obvious preachy sci-fi. This is insufferable. Can’t even get past the first fifteen minutes of every cliche you can think of, thrown into a show that you can already tell put no thought into its worldbuilding.
The Devil’s Hour: Incredibly tropey and dull first episode. And someone really needs to tell filmmakers that “weird kids” aren’t scary or compelling.
Gangs Of London: I wish it was as cheesy and implausible as its opening scene throughout. But it was a pretty unremarkable and sloppily written introduction to your “super gritty action show”.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: (I really wanted to like this. But I kind of stopped an hour into it.) This reminds me of those ‘Nostalgia Critic’ movies. Where the best parts are when it's mean spirited, and the majority of it is “references”.
Because a youtuber claimed that he liked it, and I was bored.
Just Add Magic is better than I expected it to be. The first season is actually pretty well written “for a kids show” in that there’s plenty of reincorporation and serialized storytelling. (More so than most ‘adult entertainment’ I’ve seen recently.) The weak parts (like catchphrases) are ironed out quickly. (Episode 1 and done for that example.) Main characters are all flawed and likable. (And the trope “dumb male” characters aren’t used often.) There’s a handful of amusing lines throughout, and it’s ‘watchable’ in how each episode tends to leave on another mystery or cliffhanger. And even the “we need a happy ending” deus ex machina that it ends on, is done in a way that makes perfect sense for the story that it’s telling.
Season Two is twice as long, and is divided into two separate arcs/antagonists. Both attempting to do something different, and are equally creative in how much it attempts to build/expand on the simple concept that it has. However, that requires a lot of plot convenience and contrivances to make the story happen. Like the characters fucking time travel in episode two ‘because reasons’, only to realize in the end that they can never do it again. Womp womp. (So it tries to add depth to the characters instead. To its credit.) But each also concludes abruptly and less successfully each time. (In that the last minute solution/happy ending feels less earned.) The 2nd half of its season being a pretty obvious and drawn out whodunit plot.
Other shows that I attempted to watch an episode of:
The Peripheral: Just watch Cyberpunk Edgerunners, if you want obvious preachy sci-fi. This is insufferable. Can’t even get past the first fifteen minutes of every cliche you can think of, thrown into a show that you can already tell put no thought into its worldbuilding.
The Devil’s Hour: Incredibly tropey and dull first episode. And someone really needs to tell filmmakers that “weird kids” aren’t scary or compelling.
Gangs Of London: I wish it was as cheesy and implausible as its opening scene throughout. But it was a pretty unremarkable and sloppily written introduction to your “super gritty action show”.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: (I really wanted to like this. But I kind of stopped an hour into it.) This reminds me of those ‘Nostalgia Critic’ movies. Where the best parts are when it's mean spirited, and the majority of it is “references”.