Television Show/Cartoon/etc. Thread

[Kriven]

Two shows this week:

A - I binged the fuck out of that new Voltron show on Netflix. I avoided it for so long because I thought "Eh, shows like this never really work out." But oh my god did it ever work out. The attention to characterization is a breath of fresh air--but that's no surprise considering that portions of the creative team are carried over from The Legend of Korra. The animation is beautiful, and even the silly color-coded Power Ranger costumes manage to look very cool. They did change a lot of things from the original series, but I think all of the changes are for the better. The characterization of Keith is more suitable as the rogue Red Paladin, Shiro is a believable and likable lead character, etc. Keeping Shiro around (when he wasn't in the original) has created some problems with Allura's character development unfortunately... but maybe they can fix that by making the White Lion an actual power-up for Voltron this time around. Anyway, good show. It feels a lot like Korra in space, shifting between a focus on character stories and political fantasy (in space) drama/war tactics. It's nice to see that they don't just pull out Voltron and rush into every situation to beat it doooowwwnn with their sword, but they take the time to formulate plans and think things through in a real way. Sometimes the plans span across multiple episodes with narrative payoff being delayed for greater satisfaction (even if they lose). Like with Korra, this feels like it was written by a team who plays a lot of Fire Emblem. Which is perfect for me, because I love Fire Emblem.

B - Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters is a new Netflix cartoon based on a radically different Hasbro property that immediately looks like "Low Budget Dreck That Won't Last." HOWEVER, I think if you give it a chance you'll recognize that it's good at what it does: being a fun teen superhero show. It's definitely stuck a little bit in that Hasbro mold of "Must sell Toys" and a creative team that says "Must make Good," and you can feel that. On the other hand, I think it's a pretty great throwback to the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the early 2000s. It definitely feels like this show could have run after an episode of Static Shock or Teen Titans. Very good things in my book... There hasn't been a series with this feeling since Generator Rex (and that went a little heavier a fair bit).