"Gravity Falls" is the kind of cartoon that I would have adored when I was part of the audience it was made for. I was that kid who wasn't keen on the way most shows would always reset everything to a comfortable status quo by the beginning of the next episode, who would notice continuity errors, and who disapproved of characters getting into the same scrapes over and over with no character growth. I was also a fan of "Eerie, Indiana," an obscure children's show about two kids exploring the supernatural side of their small town. The creator of "Gravity Falls," Alex Hirsch, cites "Eerie" as a major influence on his work, along with "Twin Peaks" and "The X-Files," so you can probably guess what kind of show "Gravity Falls" is.
Let's get to the plot. Twelve year old twins, Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal), are sent off to the tiny, woodsy town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, to spend their summer with their Great Uncle Stanford Pines - their Grunkle Stan (Alex Hirsch). Stan runs the Mystery Shack, a dilapidated tourist trap full of weird artifacts and curiosities, most of them fake. He has two employees - super cool high schooler Wendy (Linda Cardellini) and genial dim bulb handyman Soos (Hirsch) - but the twins quickly get roped into helping out too. Happy-go-lucky Mabel seems fine with the situation, but her more serious brother definitely isn't - until Dipper discovers a secret journal that serves as his guide to all the strange and supernatural things going on in Gravity Falls.
The spooky stuff is a lot of fun, but "Gravity Falls" is an especially satisfying watch for nerdy puzzlers and continuity enthusiasts like me. The show is mostly episodic up until the last stretch of the final season, but there are several ongoing mystery storylines running throughout the whole show. There are secret messages everywhere - cryptograms in the credits, backwards audio in the opening sequence, and mysterious symbols all over the place. You can spot suspicious characters lurking in the backgrounds of scenes who don't become important until later. The characters remember what happens from episode to episode, and it absolutely informs their actions. Plus, there's a whole "The Simpsons" style community of interesting background players to keep track of.
From the very first episode, this doesn't feel at all like the kind of show that usually comes out of Disney. The humor is a little more warped and a little more adult, with Stan showing absolutely no remorse for being a con-man, and encouraging the kids to help in his schemes. The peril is more perilous than you might expect, with the twins getting themselves on the wrong side of some particularly nasty critters and villains. Interdimensional being Bill Cipher (Hirsch) is a favorite, who dips into outright horror territory a few times. The show is definitely made for kids, with Dipper and Mabel eventually finding a friend group, and dealing with age-appropriate personal issues alongside whatever crazy supernatural event of the week is taking place. There are many preteen crushes and much worrying over the future. However, the show is also not afraid of genuinely thorny emotional territory, big ambitious storylines, and the ending might just make you cry. I'm not at all surprised that the show has an avid following among adults.
What I really appreciate about "Gravity Falls" is that it ends after forty episodes. The door is left open for more adventures, of course, but all the big mysteries are solved, the answers to all the puzzles are revealed, and everything ties up nicely after an impressive grand finale. I never felt strung along, the way I often felt with "The X-files" and I never felt cheated out of a resolution, the way I felt after the quickly canceled "Eerie, Indiana." I want to caution that the show is of its time - there are recurring characters voiced by T.J. Miller and Justin Roiland, with Louis C.K. putting in a cameo too. However, the production quality is unusually high - all the work that went into all the little details is incredibly impressive.
Younger viewers may not be ready for this one, especially the intense final stretch of episodes, but for certain kids, this will be their favorite cartoon. It absolutely would have been mine if I'd found it at the right time in my life.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment