"Doctor Who, Year One" (Again)

It doesn't feel like nineteen years since the 2005 revival of "Doctor Who," and then again "Doctor Who" hasn't really felt so much like "Doctor Who" in a long while.  I've somehow kept up with all fourteen series so far, and found myself right back where I started this season, with Russel T. Davies as showrunner, and a brand new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) unlike any that we've seen before.  

I don't think I've ever latched on to any Doctor so fast as the Fifteenth.  Gatwa is so full of energy and emotion and unbridled enthusiasm for the part.  In the face of his charisma, you instantly forget that he's the first non-Caucasian doctor (not counting Jo Martin), the first explicitly non-heterosexual doctor (not counting all the flirting with Captain Jack), and the first without a signature outfit - though that could change.   Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday is very charming, and I'm sad that we're going to lose her after only one series - though I'm sure we haven't seen the last of her.  Not many companions get a story arc as well-considered and neatly wrapped up as this one, and I have no complaints.

Thanks to the involvement of Disney+, which now has the international broadcast rights to new "Doctor Who" episodes, the program has never looked better.  However, the real difference is having Davies back, writing most of the scripts this season.  Former showrunner Steven Moffat, responsible for some of the best "Doctor Who" installments ever, also pitches in an episode, while Kate Herron and Briony Redman handle a "Bridgeron" parody/meta romance.  The quality has its ups and downs, which was always the case with the Davies-helmed episodes, but there are some very strong  hours once everyone's settled in.  Highlights include "Dot and Bubble," which is dark science-fiction in the vein of "Black Mirror," "73 Yards," which sends Ruby on an alternate timeline solo adventure, and "Rogue," which sees the Doctor romance another time traveler played by Jonathan Groff.  The big series-long arc didn't pay off very well, which is typical.

I found myself not quite able to embrace the show fully because I was never able to shake the feeling that so much of this season felt recycled from earlier ones, especially the David Tennat era.  I found myself comparing "Rogue" to "The Girl in the Fireplace," thriller "Boom" to "Silence in the Library," and "73 Yards" to "Turn Left."  The new episodes were all executed beautifully and the new characters never felt like they were shoehorned into the plots, but I was a little disappointed that the better episodes were often variations on concepts I'd seen before.  Having a deep bench of good guest stars like Jinx Monsoon, Aneurin Barnard, and Callie Cook helped a lot, and I'm very relieved that the series' sillier first two episodes didn't signal that "Doctor Who" was going for a younger audience now that Disney was involved.  Several of the new episodes are as intense and upsetting as anything that "Doctor Who" has ever dreamed up.  

As a longtime "Who" fan, I'm eager to see the new versions of The Master and the Daleks and all the usual "Doctor Who" standbys.  I understand why they weren't in the first season, and the big callback to Classic "Who" turned out to be something else.  I'll definitely stick around for next season, when Verada Sethu is set to become the next companion, maybe as soon as the Christmas special.     

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Independent Web Animation

So, I think my latest rabbit hole is going to be the independent animated series and pilots that have been popping up with increasing frequency on Youtube.  After Vivienne Medrano's pilot for "Hazbin Hotel" made waves in 2019, spawning two different series, other animated projects have started getting more traction.  Many of these are truly independent crowdfunded projects, but some are coming up through smaller animation outfits like Glitch Studios and (the possibly defunct?) Rooster Teeth that have been doing web animation for a while now.  

In general I'm delighted that this is happening.  While animation for adults has gained a foothold in mainstream American culture, the audience for it has definitely been underserved.  All of these new projects are aimed at young adult sensibilities, often with a lot of explicit violence and adult language.  I'm sure this isn't true of all the creators involved, but it often feels like I'm watching the collective backlash to decades of animation being gatekept by fussy network executives who either want super-safe pablum or shows to sell toys and other merchandise.  Sure, we have "South Park" and "Rick and Morty," but this new batch skews younger, more anarchic, and definitely more Internet savvy.   

I'm going to put down a few quick thoughts on the shows I've watched recently.  "Hazbin Hotel" and "Helluva Boss" have already been covered in prior posts.  

"Long Gone Gulch," by Zach Bellissimo and Tara Billinger - Most of the people involved with this pilot previously worked in the animation industry for shows on Disney or Cartoon Network.  You can definitely tell by the animation quality and the actors involved.  There's a lot of cartoon violence, but this is fairly family friendly, and I'm not surprised that this was almost picked up by a studio until COVID ruined everyone's plans.  As a short, it's a fun watch, and the creators do a good job of establishing the main characters and the nutty frontier town that they inhabit.            

"Murder Drones," created by Liam Vickers and Glitch Studios - There's two seasons of this, but I stopped after the pilot.  I don't find this visually appealing at all, and the dialogue is very shrieky and sarcastic.  I like the premise of a world where the humans all died out and a bunch of angry chibi robots remained to form their own society, but the overreliance on edgy humor and very thin characters is not doing it for me.  The CGI animation is also pretty rudimentary and just not interesting to look at.  I can barely even tell the robot characters apart.      

"The Amazing Digital Circus," created by Gooseworx and Glitch Studios.  I saw some of the press describe this as an adaptation of Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," which they wouldn't have gotten away with if Ellison were still alive.  The existential nightmare with circus graphics is more interesting than "Murder Drones," but again, this is a show that's focused on being edgy and dark instead of doing anything interesting with its characters or storytelling.  Will Ponmi ever escape the circus?  So far I don't know enough about Ponmi to care.    

"Lackadaisy," created by Tracy Butler and Fable Siegel - I remember stumbling across Butler's characters regularly on Deviant Art many years ago, and it's wonderful to see them in animated form.  This is the best looking pilot out of the ones I've seen, when it comes to the character designs and animation.  Anthropomorphized cats are nothing new, but the "Lackadaisy" gang are bursting with personality.  I don't know if the story's quite there yet, but the major characters and Prohibition-era setting are definitely making a good case for additional episodes.

"Ramshackle," created by Zeddyzi - Language is the most adult element here.  Otherwise, the characters and story are pretty mainstream friendly.  The short seems self-contained, but I could definitely go for more adventures with the street rat trio and the deeply troubled, socially bifurcated town that they inhabit.  The humor is absurd and silly, the socially conscious themes are compelling, and I really like the designs and animation.  There's an old-timey, "Little Rascals" vibe combined with a more modern sense of anarchy that really works.  

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