Season 5 of Adventure Time is... interesting. It has a lot of great episodes and takes a lot of risks, many of which I admire, but it's also bloated, frustrating, and a truly exhausting watch (and this is coming from someone who watched over a dozen 50-episode Precure seasons in close succession). It's easily the most uneven season to date.
Season 5 of Adventure Time has two major storylines, and neither of them are ones I particularly like. The first is about Princess Bubblegum dealing with the fallout of her creation... ugh... Lemongrab. This season does a lot to paint PB in a more unflattering light, between her utilitarian mindset, at times harmful dedication to science, and occassional abuse of power. I can see why many fans would call her a "bad person", but I wouldn't go that far. PB still means well, her likably dorky personality is still intact, and it's revealed that she's the way she is because she's hundreds of years old, which doesn't forgive her bad actions but does explain them in a way that makes her more interesting. So PB is great, but unfortunately, Lemongrab is not. I always hated Lemongrab from his first appearance, both for his often disgusting actions and ear-grating voice, so I was not happy to get so many episodes in Season 5 focused on him, nor was I happy for him to be the main antagonist of the season. There's honestly no deep analysis I can go into why I dislike Lemongrab, I just find him ear-grating, gross, and repulsive in pretty much every way. I can only hope that with this season's finale, Adventure Time will be done with the Lemons for good.
Meanwhile, there's Finn. At this point, it's pretty obvious Finn is going through a bit of a coming of age arc with his immaturity and attempts at being in a relationship. But in Season 5, Adventure Time doesn't hesitate to depict Finn as a weird awkward teenage boy who's going through puberty, is discovering his sexuality, and acts incredibly impulsively and immaturely. It all culminates in a pretty horrid breakup midway through the season between Finn and Flame Princess that I just know was controversial when it aired. It leaves me mixed because one hand, it all feels purposeful and well-executed even if I'll need to see how it's all resolved first, but on the other hand, all of Finn's focal episodes this season are uncomfortable at best and it makes me not like him, the main character of the show. Unlike with PB, I just don't think this season really balances Finn's immaturity and unstableness with many positive traits, which in turn makes me less invested in the frequent problems he starts.
That being said, even with all my criticisms, Season 5 was still a reasonably enjoyable watch. To give the season credit, Adventure Time seems to get more and more experimental as time goes on, tossing even more episodes focused around side characters and even bringing in some guest animators to lend their own interpretation of the series. I was surprised to learn a lot of fans don't like the guest episodes. Sure they're not "canon" or "lore accurate', but they're pretty visually-stunning pieces of animation that feel like a breath of fresh air in such a long season. And yeah, this season is long, twice the length of Seasons 1-4, and it feels that length. Season 5 is such a bloated season with so many weak episodes (note that I'm not saying filler) that I can't help but wonder if this season would've been better if it was a pared down to be like all the others. As a matter of fact, now that Adventure Time is becoming a bit more plot-heavy, I think that the show only having 11-minute episodes is (like with Steven Universe) starting to negatively impact it. There are so many episodes that feel rushed, under-cooked, or like they end super abruptly. I think Season 5 would've been better if we had around 26 more developed 20-minute episodes than what we have now.
As I got to the end of the season, I looked at the crushing 136 episodes I had left to go and wondered, was this even all worth it? I know everyone praises Seasons 7 and 8 and their mini-arcs, and Fionna And Cake is getting a ton of acclaim right now, but I'm five seasons into Adventure Time and I feel like I'm just not vibing with it. I was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt at first because the episodes were short and I'm used to series with a slow start, but I feel like nothing has really changed in my perception of it. I still don't find it super consistently funny, a lot of the characters I'm starting to find annoying (Lemongrab, Finn, even Ice King), the plot and lore still feels under-developed, and any good ideas it does have are undercut by the short episode lengths. I like some of the cast but Jake and the occasional Marceline appearance just isn't enough to keep me watching, so I think this is where my reviews of Adventure Time will end, at least for now. Maybe I'll come back and finish, the door is still open, but I just don't think this show is for me.
2/5 Stars
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