Adventure Time is one of those shows that I never saw as a kid. I knew of it, but I was always more of a Nick and Disney Channel kid (Phineas & Ferb my beloved). But with Fionna And Cake airing right now and everyone talking about the show again, I thought now would be a better time than ever to finally give Adventure Time a watch. So, how's its first season? Ehh, not great... but I can see the potential.
Adventure Time follows two brothers, Finn the human and Jake the shape-shfiting dog, as they go on adventures in the postapocalyptic Land of Ooo, all the whlie meeting other characters and exploring Ooo's secrets. This sounds cool, but the adventures are kind of the weakest part of the show for me? A large chunk of this season are just Jake and Finn doing random stuff, and the series' comedy just isn't really enough to carry that simplicity in the plot. Adventure Time's sense of humor is very surreal and unpredictable, and to give it credit, sometimes the show manages to catch me off guard. I particularly like how surprisingly dark and crass some of the humor can get, to the point where I wonder how this is even a kid's show. More often than not, though, I can go entire episodes without letting out a single chuckle, and there's an abundance of fart and grossout humor that I just never find all that funny. And with how many episodes in this season are purely comedic silly adventures with just Finn and Jake, yeah, there was a lot in this season I didn't enjoy all that.
Despite that, however, I kept watching. Part of that was because episodes are only 11 minutes which made it super easy to watch. But even more, I kept watching because I saw the potential in what this show could be. I'm always willing to give a slow first season the benefit of the doubt as the showrunners try to find the show's tone and this absolutely feels like it applies. For starters, I like the characters, especially the side characters. Finn and Jake are a solidly charming duo, Princess Bubblegum's interest in science is a fun twist, Ice King is a super entertaining antagonist, and of course, Marceline the Vampire Queen is a scene-stealer in all of her two episodes. Whenever the season does rarely focus more on its characters, it's pretty great. I like how Memories Of Boom Boom Mountain explores Finn's desire to save everyone, I like how existential What Is Life? gets, and I like the silly moral dilemma of What Have I Done? It also helps that the voice cast is stellar, genuinely perfect. John DiMaggio as Jake is one of those roles where Jake could read a phone book and it would be hilarious, Tom Kenny as the Ice King makes him so much more fun to watch, and Starfire (Teen Titans) as Princess Bubblegum and Vanessa (Phineas & Ferb) as Marceline are matches made in heaven.
Highlights: Umm... honestly, nothing really stood out to me. Sorry.
Overall, Season 1 of Adventure Time was not anything particularly amazing. Episodic storylines were often pretty aimless, the humor missed more than it hit, and even the best episodes really blew me away. That being said, the show still has a lot of great qualities that I'm willing to stick with it and see how it grows, from the strong characters, stellar voice cast, charming animation, and interesting world. And to give the season credit, the last few episodes were certainly a step up already.
1.5/5 Stars
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