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Post by Jeremy on Nov 17, 2019 16:56:43 GMT -8
So I just want to clarify that I don't really hate Bob's Burgers; in fact, I still think it's probably one of the 10 best animated shows of the decade.
In fact, here's my list (a warm-up to all the others you'll be seeing over the next month):
1. Bojack Horseman: Fantastic show, as I've detailed in many places.
2. Rick and Morty: Raucous and uneven, but often hilarious, with some of the most inspired storytelling on television.
3. The Legend of Korra: Following up on the best animated show of the 2000s is daunting, but Korra did a remarkable job.
4. Young Justice: Spectacular superhero show, as good as (and at times even better) than the DCAU.
5. Gravity Falls: Trippy mystery show with great characters; far more than a kiddie Twin Peaks.
6. Phineas and Ferb: Excellent use of formula storytelling, with great jokes and songs.
7. DuckTales: Possibly better than the 1980s version, and I did not expect to ever type that.
8. The Simpsons: Not as good as the 1990s, but better than the 2000s. Still good, with at least one brilliant episode per season.
9. Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated: Tonally uneven but eminently watchable twist on TV's longest-running animated franchise.
10. Bob's Burgers: See, it's here. Although that could've changed if I'd watched more Adventure Time.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Nov 17, 2019 18:54:31 GMT -8
So I just want to clarify that I don't really hate Bob's Burgers; in fact, I still think it's probably one of the 10 best animated shows of the decade. In fact, here's my list (a warm-up to all the others you'll be seeing over the next month): 1. Bojack Horseman: Fantastic show, as I've detailed in many places. 2. Rick and Morty: Raucous and uneven, but often hilarious, with some of the most inspired storytelling on television. 3. The Legend of Korra: Following up on the best animated show of the 2000s is daunting, but Korra did a remarkable job. 4. Young Justice: Spectacular superhero show, as good as (and at times even better) than the DCAU. 5. Gravity Falls: Trippy mystery show with great characters; far more than a kiddie Twin Peaks. 6. Phineas and Ferb: Excellent use of formula storytelling, with great jokes and songs. 7. DuckTales: Possibly better than the 1980s version, and I did not expect to ever type that. 8. The Simpsons: Not as good as the 1990s, but better than the 2000s. Still good, with at least one brilliant episode per season. 9. Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated: Tonally uneven but eminently watchable twist on TV's longest-running animated franchise. 10. Bob's Burgers: See, it's here. Although that could've changed if I'd watched more Adventure Time. That is a damn fine list. I haven't seen the bottom three, and I have Legend of Korra lower due to those first two seasons (but the last two were great). 1. BoJack Horseman-I've talked about this show plenty as well. It's just magical-perfect blend of comedy, tragedy, and hope. And the visual gags are priceless. 2. Steins;gate-This uses the 'story driven one season anime' format to its greatest extent. Yes, it uses a lot of cliches (and gets away with pretty much all of them to be honest), but what isn't a cliche is its thrilling, tightly plotted narrative that sets up its own rules and sticks to them. I had my heart in my throat for the last 13 episodes. 3. Over the Garden Wall-And, here's the best Western one season show of the decade. It's just a wonderful fairy tale that doesn't overstay its welcome. 4. Rick and Morty-Though it sometimes steps over the line, I love how creative and dark this show gets at times. Good sci-fi comedies are still pretty rare on tv these days, but Rick and Morty is proudly holding that banner now. 5. Young Justice-Best superhero show of the decade. 6. Gravity Falls-I wasn't that impressed with this show when it first came out, but I gave it another shot and quickly became addicted-it's a terrific series that, although isn't simply ' Twin Peaks for kids', wouldn't wilt if you compared it to Twin Peaks-and that's a damn fine accomplishment. 7. Adventure Time-The most ambitious show on this list, possibly, strives to be everything and anything at once. So, unsurprisingly, it stumbles in places. But it also hits some really spectacular highs. It can be thought-provoking, hilarious, dramatic, exciting-but most of all, fun. 8. Regular Show-This show definitely was always negatively compared to Adventure Time, but I've been re-watching it lately, and it's surprisingly great. It lacks the ambition and free-form nature of Adventure Time, and could be accused of being too formulaic, but it managed to avoid becoming stale by pushing its characters forward significantly in the later seasons. It's more consistent than Adventure Time as well, even if it doesn't hit the same dizzying highs. 9. The Legend of Korra-Were I to judge it by its final two seasons, I would have placed it higher. I can't leave those out, but that doesn't take away the fact that the creators found their footing and ended this series on a high. 10. Star Wars: The Clone Wars-It's also inconsistent as hell, but thankfully the first 2 seasons aired in the 2000s, so that's lessened slightly. There are still arcs which don't work in Seasons 3-6, but at its best, the tv show improved on the shortcomings of the prequels while expanding the depth and scope of the Star Wars universe. I'm quite interested by the fact you consider 2010s Simpsons to be superior to Comedy Central Futurama. The later seasons of Futurama are definitely mediocre to me as well. It's nice to see a great critic who has a deep respect for animation, I must say.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 17, 2019 19:57:29 GMT -8
And it's nice to see someone acknowledge that I'm a great critic! I have a really steep background in Western animation - both TV and film - and have watched far too many cartoons to count. Sadly, my diligence in animation has faltered somewhat in recent years, though I try to keep up with what I can. Your list is really good as well. I like the first season of Korra a lot (though less than 3 and 4), and I agree that the CC Futurama episodes - while pretty good - are less engaging than the original Fox run. I think a major the advantage The Simpsons has in recent years is the switch to HD, which has allowed for more elaborate and detailed jokes than ever. Still a funny show as it enters its fourth decade. Also, I've got to watch Over the Garden Wall by the end of this decade. Been postponing it long enough. Interestingly, there have been a lot of animated shows premiering this year that have impressed me. Undone, Green Eggs and Ham, Carmen Sandiego... heck, even that DC Super Hero Girls thing is kind of fun. Glad the genre is still alive and thriving.
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 21, 2019 17:03:52 GMT -8
So for it's worth, I've seen seven of these (I was on just two for a very long scroll), plus about five minutes of an episode of Black Mirror and one 'background noise' episode of Bake Off. Though I only watched two of these seven to completion, I am in fact considering submitting a Top 10 eps of the decade based on what I have seen.
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Post by ThirdMan on Nov 21, 2019 17:15:44 GMT -8
Wouldn't it be more fruitful for you to list your Top 5000 films of the decade?
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 22, 2019 6:00:41 GMT -8
Oh, I don't have the numbers for that, I'm afraid. I could of course rustle up a Top 5,000 ever in the (highly unlikely) event that it was requested of me.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 22, 2019 6:25:30 GMT -8
I think Guttersnipe should do a Top 5000 Films Ever. Of course, if I request it, he'll probably counter by asking me to do a Top 5000 TV Shows Ever, and... I might actually attempt to do that.
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 22, 2019 6:38:19 GMT -8
If you genuinely want to go for a quid pro quo, I'm up for it.
And whilst you're on, Jer, any opinions on the new Twilight Zone? I've barely heard a peep about it (it's absent from said list), so I assume most views are unfavourable.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 22, 2019 9:01:31 GMT -8
Thing is, I did a Top 100 TV Shows thing a few years ago, and it took a lot out of me. Doing that times fifty could potentially reduce me to a puddle.
On the new Twilight Zone, I haven't watched it - it's on CBS All-Access, a streaming service I'm not keen on subscribing to. Despite the immensely positive reactions to Jordan Peele's horror films, the reaction to his TV show seems mixed. Given that this is the third attempt to remake the original series (fourth if you count the movie), and none of the revivals have generated nearly the same buzz, I am more convinced than ever that Serling's vision is untouchable (many of the original episodes still hold up quite well), and people should stop trying to make lightning in a bottle again.
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 22, 2019 16:07:47 GMT -8
Ah, OK. I'm intrigued because of a natural attraction towards anthologies and the presence of Ana Lily Amirpour, but I'm curious as to why they opted for the near-hour approach when even my limited experience with The Twilight Zone suggests it typically worked best in the ~twenty-minute format. I could of course rustle up a Top 5,000 ever So I was updating my film log this evening when I discovered that I saw my 10,000th feature film only last Sunday! (It was Sunshine on Leith, for the curious.) With that in mind, a Top 5,000 is very doable - were I so inclined to collate that much text into one document, of course.
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Post by ThirdMan on Nov 22, 2019 21:23:14 GMT -8
What, were you keeping count of the films you watched when you were a liitle kid? How could you possibly know exactly how many films you've watched? Heh. That said, I was obviously kidding about a Top 5000 Films (that's absurd), but by all means, list off your Top 50 or 100 of the decade.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Nov 23, 2019 12:50:11 GMT -8
I have to admit that I did not expect this level of Bob’s Burgers hate in the thread. It could have gone many directions and this is not one I was thinking. I have no real opinion about Bobs Burgers. I’ve watched enough of it and think it’s a sweet but ultimately not that funny or consequential show. See, if Bob's Burgers had been in the "feel-good fluff" slot that Great British Bake-Off occupies on the AVC list in the mid-70s, I'd be fine with that. (Also, y'all are sleeping on Comedy Central-era Futurama - partially because I don't think Futurama ever had such dizzying heights as Simpsons did in the pre-boot seasons. But also because the show was sweet and clever and generally funny!) I wonder if there's a recency bias for the one-season shows?
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 23, 2019 14:26:25 GMT -8
What, were you keeping count of the films you watched when you were a liitle kid? How could you possibly know exactly how many films you've watched? Heh. That said, I was obviously kidding about a Top 5000 Films (that's absurd), but by all means, list off your Top 50 or 100 of the decade. No, I didn't start keeping a proper track of everything until maybe fifteen years ago - the log itself is nothing more techy than a Word document for every film year with all the relevant titles rated and ranked therein. The initial task involved pouring in all the titles from various sources - sheer memory, previous rentals, cinema stubs (I've kept them all for over twenty years), lists I've worked through*, my tapes and DVDs, and so forth. Thankfully I'm anal enough to have kept physical tallies of pretty much everything I've watched in at least some form or another long before the proper film log started (believe it or not, I didn't watch that many films in my youth - computer games were my real vice until Akira set me on a different path), so it was largely a matter of cramming all that detail into one place. Of course, there simply must be things I've overlooked or simply forgotten about (every now and then I devote a passing thought to a horror film about a haunted mirror in a witch's castle that I watched without my parents' knowledge which I've never been able to identify), but I can state that right now it's as accurate as dammit. I know of other people who also maintain their personal viewing logs via an IMDb vote tally (I've been on there for sixteen years myself), but I feel a lot safer having a material list which I can transfer to USB sticks and the like - potentially I can maintain this forever.
But yes, I probably will post a best of the decade before the end of the year. *TSDPT, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Horror!: 333 Films to Scare You to Death, Surreal Moviez' 250 Quintessential Noir Films, etc etc
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 23, 2019 17:03:43 GMT -8
I'd be interested in hearing your top films of the decade as well. Although I've only started to get into more obscure films in the last couple of years, I'm guessing there'll be some overlap. (And even if there isn't, it's still fun to reflect on the last ten years of cinema at large.) Ah, OK. I'm intrigued because of a natural attraction towards anthologies and the presence of Ana Lily Amirpour, but I'm curious as to why they opted for the near-hour approach when even my limited experience with The Twilight Zone suggests it typically worked best in the ~twenty-minute format. This is the big turn-off for me. The Twilight Zone absolutely works best in half-hour installments (which is why the movie was smart to play as an anthology instead of a long story). The original series tried unsuccessfully to extends to one-hour episodes in its fourth season, and had to revert to short episodes the following year. The 1985 series started out with hourlong episodes before wisely switching to half-hour. The 2002 series did shorter episodes from the get-go, though it wasn't very good for other reasons. (At least it gave us Katherine Heigl traveling back in time to kill baby Hitler.)
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 26, 2019 17:42:56 GMT -8
So I was updating my film log this evening when I discovered that I saw my 10,000th feature film only last Sunday! (It was Sunshine on Leith, for the curious.)
So this isn't of importance to anyone and I'm loathe to keep a thread off-topic, but I actually got that wrong thanks to an error in the line count - the 10,000th was in fact Allegro non Troppo, Italy's cheeky riposte to Fantasia, though the animation is more Bob Godfrey than Walt Disney.
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