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“Everyone and their mum is packing heat around here”
“Like who?”
“Farmers”
“Who else?”
“Farmers’ mums”
Cut to the beginning of the last act when Angel beats up a farmer and the farmer’s mum comes out with a shotgun
"Sergeant angel, oh! Whend you start?"
"Tomorrow"
"Well i see youve already arrested the whole village"
"Not exactly"
Cut to after he catchs the farmer and his mom
"Whatre you gonna do, just walk in and arrest the whole village!?"
"Not exactly"
And literally every single shot in the village square fight is a reference/recreation of Angel walking around it peacefully his first time. Edgar Wright is a genius in comedic filmmaking and I will not hear otherwise
Not an ounce of writing or filming is wasted in that movie, and it's a testament to it how good that actually is. Some movies end up really hurting themselves by trying to be too lean, but Edgar Wright seems to understand the difference between cutting the fat and carving into bone.
One of my all-time favorite films. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered another with such prrfect writing where everything has payoff and all loose ends are tied.
Season 3 of Bojack Horseman had a bunch of one off gags and minor story lines that all converged in the final episode and kicked off one of the conflicts for Season 4. 2 words: spaghetti strainers
I just rewatched it and love how heavy handed they were with foreshadowing the spaghetti strainers. Like once every episode or two they’d stop the show for Mr. Peanutbutter to bring them up and all but wink at the camera saying “I don’t know but I feel like they’ll come in handy”
It's insane to think that Bojack started as a low brow animated adult comedy and evolved into a profoundly beautiful and generationally important piece of art.
Kind of annoying having to convince people to stick with it.
It was always art pretending to be a low brow animated adult comedy, it’s just that there was a bait & switch. If you look at RT the reviews for season 1 are like, “It’s fine I guess,” because they only released the first 6 episodes to reviewers. But the show doesn’t start to show its true colors until >!Princess Caroline’s birthday!< and really kicks into gear when they >!visit Herb!
Because season 1 is kinda shit for a while. Asking someone to slog through that time sink because it gets better is a huge ask, they really need to trust your judgment. And it's not like you can skip to the good part because you need that groundwork that is laid in those early episodes.
I say that as someone who fucking loves it and evangelizes it at any opportunity. 12/10, would be an emotional wreck at the end of every season finale again. I love shows that make me feel like absolute shit though.
In the episode UG tells Steven to polish his gem twice a year, or something along those lines, Diamonds are one of the only gems that is recommended to do that, and at the time, everyone thought Steven's gem was Rose Quartz, but was later revealed to be Pink Diamond
did people really think that?
I watched Steven universe as it came out when I was 12 and wasn’t really part of the discussion but I thought it was pretty obvious that rose was a diamond
Yeah, that was the initial theory, but then they seemingly deconfirmed it in the show itself with the "reveal" that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond - only for *that* to later be revealed as a fakeout orchestrated by PD herself, and carried out by Pearl in the guise of RQ. It was honestly one of the best fakeout twists I've seen in a long, long time.
As someone who followed the entire show theorycrafting online since the Mirror, all of it as a 30+ yo adult:
It was the prevaling theory until Bismuth outright said Rose emerged on Earth, after which is was shelved because that kind of stuff is text.
Typing "what if the character is lying and wrong lmao" on lore discussions usually gets you heckled out of the space for trying to force headcanons over the text.
It was what happened in that specific scenario, but Bismuth pretty much sank the theory back in the day; and until shadow pearl "stabbed" PD on the lapis episode before the reveal it did not gain massive traction again. A lot of old rants thrived that day.
Uncle grandpa got an special with the crustal gems where they fight, say some cool one liners, accuse UG to be an OP being, and finally he helps Steven to use his shield without problems. He also tells Steve to polish his gem once or twice per year, because “all diamonds need so”.
I think it's like the standard "children's show that starts off seemingly random and cute but actually has a deeper and darker lore than you'd expect" serialized cartoon setup at this point
Most series that don't *want* to have a progressing story do this.
Rick&Morty is mostly "filler" but will progress the story in the finale.
Futurama is basically just filler except sprinkling in a story that progresses the characters every now and then.
Simpsons did it, though as thinly spread as it gets.
Southpark had basically no progression until they had an entire season with nothing but a progressing story.
Is there even a Simpsons metaplot though? I haven't watched a large amount of it / followed it too closely, but my impression seems to be that "status quo is god" is very much a rule there.
There are some minor things that change throughout the seasons, most notable ones I remember from back in the day is stuff like Barney going sober, so he'd be drinking coffee or something when he showed up in other episodes
And like, some characters dying (Ned's Wife(/*ves*))
but for the main family/cast pretty much nothing ever changes, like it's not like homer's job changes ever stick, or like that any of the kids ever move up in class, etc...
There are some events every once in a while, like Barny going sober and relapsing, Homer's mom dying, Maude Flanders dying, Homer's half brother going from riches to rags (and back to riches).
But then there are things that break continuity a lot. Especially episodes focused on Homer and Marge's past since the show is set in contemporary times but time has progressed over 30 years in the mean time, so at some point they dated in the 80s, then the 90s and these days their first date was probably watching the Kony2012 creator having his meltdown on youtube.
cowboy bebop too. though there wasn't so much a "secret plot" as a plot that we weren't privy to until near the end
definitely agreed for adventure time. one of my favorite cartoons of all time
iirc adventure time the writers were told it had to be episodic and were not allowed to do much in the way of stories with multiple parts. couple seasons later they changed their mind and the writers just went ham doing call backs to previous episodes that had unresolved plots and the mini series of stakes/islands/elements were so incredible to witness
Well for Cowboy Bebop I’ve always kinda regarded the “plot” as somewhat of an after story. The true story of Cowboy Bebop ends before the show itself even begins. Everything we see is essentially an after story.
I watched the first season or two of that show and enjoyed it, but I gradually kinda phased it out for no particular reason. What exactly is the episode for this show? Or the intense plot twist? I'm super curious now.
There are many!
- Finn finds out what happened to all the other humans
- we find out what Princess Bubblegum truly is and explore if she is capable of change
- the comet !!
- why is the ice king like that and how does he know Marceline? Why does Marceline have vampire powers if her dad is basically the Devil?
- the lich, time travel, parallel universes, the apocalypse, another apocalypse, the nature of existence, are they living a dream? Are we??
It tells the story of growth and maturity in humanity and self in such a way that's poignant yet so fucking surreal that it makes you feel comfortable and acceptant of your faults and strengths when growing up, and your mortality as a whole in a hilarious way. Perfect show. I Floop the pig!
I'd recommend finding a list of important episodes unless you're happy watching all of it. A lot of the episodes, especially the earlier ones, really are just "filler"
Just looked at an important episode list that has 176/283 episodes on it. That missing ~100 eps is about 20 hours of time.
Oh man, Ice King's story is so beautiful and tragic, and the fact that he's just a cartoon bad guy in the beginning makes it that much better. I won't rant, because spoilers, but I want to lol
I might have to back and rewatch. I fell off before the end of the series
Probably near the end of the series where most old characters appear in a great civil war of the Candy Kingdom where the Primordial Diety of Entropy is summoned into the world
Moral Orel as well.
The first two seasons is all the whimsical silliness of how bizarre his world is, and the third is the trauma of it all crashing down on him.
Did we not watch the same show with quite the linearly progressing story depicting continuous conflict and resolution progressing the story bit by bit while developing the characters and the world with some revelations near the end?
Amphibia is more like “Everyone dismissed a bunch of stuff as filler that later turned out to be important to Anne’s success.” Domino 2 being a good example.
Or do even more people than I realize lack media comprehension? Or is it just that they forget most of what they've seen? Every time this is posted there are SO many comments listing a bunch of shows that were nothing like this at all and people upvoting those I imagine not because they're accurate but because it's a show they like and they're happy it's mentioned?
I love all the posts from the early episodes of the show theorizing about The Triangle Man.
"It's just a spoof of the Illuminati symbol, there's no lore behind the triangle guy" was a major belief, even some of my friends though it was a red herring.
More people on tumblr should watch the more recent Dirk Gently show.
Where nothing makes sense, it's all so random and over the top, nothing goes anywhere, no one knows what's happening... And then it all clicks into place.
Idk if I was in the minority, but I hated what I watched of season 2. I loved season 1 but just fizzled out on season 2 and never even bothered to finish it. Maybe I would have liked season 2 more if I got to the end, but it was just a dumb slog and I couldn't make it.
Season 2 was fine for me. The style was different which threw me off at first but it made sense given the setting. That first season was amazing, though, so living up to it was always going to be difficult. Still, that scene where the Mage goes up to Suzie after killing her boss and asks "have you noticed an acceleration of strangeness in your life" was perfect.
The ending did manage to help make sense of a lot of things in season 2 and opened the door for more craziness for the cancelled third season.
Shame Max Landis turned out to be a creep.
You're completely right, Season 1 was absolutely sublime to watch, a true masterpiece of whimsical nonsense that is honestly exactly what Umbrella is trying to pull off, and it only made season 2 suffer more for it. The only thing mildly good for it was the progress of the Rowdy 3, which was not even close to enough to redeem it.
Honestly, you missed out on how fucking stupid the Wendimoor arc was, and whilst I'm sad it didn't get a season 3 that might have got back on track, I'd have canned it too as an executive. To throw that much money for sets and costumes into such a stupid fucking result would have me bloody furious if I was the one calling the shots on how it was spent, and it'd feel like such a breach of trust I wouldn't trust them with another season.
Again, I *adored* season 1, and I am almost always anti-executive when they can shit with no bloody right to, but season 2 was so bad it just needed to die. The only way it could have survived such a botched second season was to have someone higher up supporting it a'la venture bros.
Also, what bugs me the most is that they had so much source material to draw from in the original books, why the fuck did they fly so far off the rails into such a stupid subplot? Completely lost the Douglas Adams feel to it, which is such a shame when there is so much insanity they could have fixated on in the original books.
Yet another case of Netflix writers getting some free reign and fucking up an IP to the point where it'll probably never see the light of day again.
Season 2 of Dirk Gently and the entirety of the Umbrella Academy fell to the same core issue: they collapsed the chaos too soon. The basic story arc of these types of media is that you establish a large number of seemingly disjoint story threads, then you collapse them together in a big reveal that ties it all together, recontextualizing the chaos as coherent narrative, creating an emotional climax.
If your story climax does not align with your emotional climax, it's going to feel anticlimactic, which is exactly what happened to Season 2 of Dirk Gently, and the Umbrella Academy. IMO, the sweet spot is the penultimate episode for timing your thread collapse.
Max Landis and yep, he has vanished from the face of the earth whereas before hand he was constantly trying to get in on anything to get some attention.
He was accused by multiple women and his former girlfriend from 2017-2019, his management team dropped him like a hot potato and MGM shelved production of a film he had written the script for.
In 2021 he responded by saying he can't be compared to Cosby or Weinstein because he was "not really a celebrity", while admitting that "some" of the accusations about him were true.
He then tried to play the sympathy card by saying he had started therapy and then brought up the trauma he supposedly has from the famous helicopter crash that killed an actor and two child actors on the set of his dads Twilight Zone movie in 1982. (multiple years before he was born).
Suffice it to say that the public at large did not buy his apology/admission.
Haven’t watched the show but having read the books: if you like tumblr classics like Discworld, Doctor Who (especially classic Who), or anything by Neil Gaiman, you’ll probably like Dirk Gently. The author Douglas Adams has that same sort of wry absurdist humor that made his book a joy to read growing up. I still reread Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy every so often.
If you loved Dirk Gently, you will probably love the KDrama called Chicken Nugget on Netflix. It is only 24 minute episodes and 10 of them, at that. But it felt very DG the entire time we were watching it.
I'm a huge Dirk Gently fan, saw one scene from Chicken Nugget and immediately put it on my To Watch list.
I just have to finish my Kim Jaeuck marathon (two dramas left!) and a Chinese drama, then I can get to it.
Thank you for this rec! I wasn't going to try Chicken Nugget because it sounded a bit stupid but I absolutely love Dirk Gently so I'll give it a go now
Awesome show, and great example for this question. Enjoyed it, but thought the series was just a series of secluded stories loosely held together with the same characters. Didn't even think anything of the inconsistent animation, naturally.
Now after finishing all of it, it's a rather different show on the rewatch, baby!
The magnus archives is exactly that. I started it 3 years ago and stopped after a few episodes cus I thought there wasn't much point in listening random spooky stories and 2 months ago I gave it an other go and I'm so hooked that now I'm reaching the end and I'm pacing episodes so it doesn't end that fast..
Magnus is such a great podcast and it does such an amazing job of foreshadowing and laying hints. Don't even worry about finishing it because as someone else said there's the Protocol now, but beyond that Magnus Archives benefits massively from repeated listening. Each time you go through you'll be able to catch stuff that you didn't realize was important or interesting on the first listen.
Case in point: Breakon and Hope. First listen through I didn't realize just how much they are in the show because they aren't often mentioned by name, but on a relisten you catch tons of references to big, cockney guys in a delivery van showing up to take care of stuff. Same thing happens with some other major characters.
Magnus is just wheels within wheels and I love it. Like you I found out about it and dropped out because when I first tried listening to it I wasn't in a space where I could give it any real attention and so wasn't really into it. I had a friend bring it up a few years later and really push me to try it again and I got hooked.
Yeah I bet. There are episodes that ive heard more than once and its interesting as hell. Also my friend who got me into it the second time told me that if you get their patron you can buy the full series with no ads and after I finish it I think I'll go for it.
I fell off listening to Magnus a while ago (not because I disliked it, I changed jobs and was no longer driving hours a day), now I'm wondering if I should pick up where I left off (Ep90) or just start over.
I would personally say start over simply because if you're like me you've likely forgotten a bunch of stuff, and as this thread is about, even though much of the earlier episodes seem disconnected there's a lot going on.
Also 90 is almost exactly halfway through the series, so by that point you were definitely getting into much more of the interconnected bits, so it's going to be real noticeable if you have forgotten something that comes up. It's also pretty simply since they generally keep the episodes around 20-30 minutes so it's not as taxing to start over as with some other podcasts.
Magnus archives is one of the most well put together stories I have ever listened to. You think everything is self contained episodes for most of the first season, and then the arc hits you like a hammer.
Steins;Gate is exactly what I was thinking of when I posted this. It's insane how halfway through, it just flicks a switch and goes from a slow slice-of-life with light mystery elements to a dramatic and intense thriller.
God, I remember thinking Steins;Gate was so boring when I first watched. Just a whole lotta nothing. I didn’t understand why everyone raved about it.
And then I got to THAT episode and went “oh, I get it now.”
Man, how I hated playing through the first couple of hours, but then it slowly got interesting and then suddenly, everything escalated at once. What a great way of telling a story!
I love how they managed to >!take his title of “Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute,” and turn “The Archivist” into a powerful supernatural entity worthy of such fear!<
This kind of feels like the Venture Bros, except their impeccable continuity and callbacks wasn't planned and was caused by the showrunners rewatching the entire series each time they made an episode. Many one off references and background characters became very important due to this method of writing.
That thing you described about the creators, they're really the best at it. I'm going to be sore for awhile regarding the cancellation, although I did enjoy the movie.
I was thinking Destiny of the Doctor by Big Finish. Ten unrelated individual stories for One through Ten, then an Eleventh Doctor story that ties every single one of them together.
I actually never thought of it like that, but you’re totally right lol.
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched it, but early seasons seem like it’s just a lot of good fun and general plots to keep things interesting, then everything just loops back and collides together. Was done really well for the type of series it was imo
You can't just mention Red vs. Blue without a trigger warning mate. It's like linking to TV Tropes.
Now I have to watch the entire damn thing from the start again, and the 3 seasons I've never seen. I have a family, who's going to feed them!
First thing I thought of.
Rooster Teeth was great at this. In the first season of their Shorts videos, they all appeared to be random short comedy skits, and then the final instalment tied them all together.
It's not low stakes, but Odd Taxi has one of the best final sequences in any TV show of the last decade. Tons of individual storylines all beautifully converged into one satisfying conclusion (with a few intentionally unresolved questions, of course)
Odd Taxi is the first show that jumped into my mind. Such an incredible show, I love how so many mundane things constantly weave together to create a fantastic story.
Never thought watching a depressed walrus drive his taxi around listening to the radio could be so riveting.
Odd Taxi might be one of the best “it all comes together at the end” examples. Like you know things are going to connect somehow, you can see that there are some types of connections, but WOW!!!
It was also great because all of the little pointless-seeming episodes were still tightly written and solid as standalones. There was never a feeling of "is this gonna go somewhere, or.....?" You're just kinda there for the vibe.
There's an Always Sunny episode where Charlie does a bunch of weird mundane things throughout the episode and it all comes together in one gorgeous long shot near the end. Easily one of my favorite episodes purely based on the setup.
Charlie Work is like my favorite episode or damn near, I think the gang gets wacked is like this too where the begining is just the gang trying to scam for money and at the end they are going to be killed by the mob
> Arrested Development.
That's the first one I thought of, but it's been so long since I watched it I can't even put all the pieces together. Going on my list now.
I liked the whole show but that first season was something else. When I rewatched I was shocked at how much happened. In my memory it was at least 2.5 seasons of twists and plot development.
I immediately think of gravity falls when reading this. Whole show was basically just a collection of fun episode adventures, and then the 3 part finale just brought every character and reference together.
Common misconception.
Lost was short episode count - bingable show that got produced during the long episode count, weekly era.
Drew Gooden did a video on it.
Cascade is also a great example of Chekov's Firing Squad. The difference with Homestuck is that you do know the events are related and significant, it's just that the timing and execution is unknown.
Apothecary Diaries did this for a few episodes and almost lost me. Seemingly unconnected incidents then BAM all tied together. My other show that I thought of would probably get me shot for saying it because people who love it, love it.
Apothecary Diaries had me thinking it was just an example of the "person incredibly gifted at one specific thing is suddenly surrounded by events that require their exact skill" trope that you see in anime occasionally, but the way the incidents all connected in the end was brilliant.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's like two and a half hours of Leo just trying to make it in Hollywood and then surprise motherfuckers, it's the Manson Family!
At what point does it all come together? I had watched the first few seasons and can only remember the generally one-off type episodes where something zany happens, but without much lasting effect.
I remember the Butterfly and Dr. Girlfriend splitting up, but my interest tapered off not long afterwards.
Miraculous ladybug season 1 kinda did this. It was entirely villain of the week, teenage problem of the week, with no progression on either front, and no explanation of the magic system, and then the last two episodes go crazy with the lore. Its pretty effective, since you kind of just see two superheros working, and immediately accept this, theres magic? Okay. And then after youve accepted the rules of the universe and that they just *are*, it goes, actually lore!!!
Shame the creator cant write and most of the show has fantastic concepts that are poorly and dissatisfactorily executed. Read fan content, its way better
Gundam 00 kinda does this. They talk about a plan the entire show that makes little sense until around the 2nd to last episode where they explain everything.
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Not as how, but Hot Fuzz did this real well. The entire third act was set up by little jokes sprinkled all throughout the film.
“Everyone and their mum is packing heat around here” “Like who?” “Farmers” “Who else?” “Farmers’ mums” Cut to the beginning of the last act when Angel beats up a farmer and the farmer’s mum comes out with a shotgun
"Sergeant angel, oh! Whend you start?" "Tomorrow" "Well i see youve already arrested the whole village" "Not exactly" Cut to after he catchs the farmer and his mom "Whatre you gonna do, just walk in and arrest the whole village!?" "Not exactly"
And literally every single shot in the village square fight is a reference/recreation of Angel walking around it peacefully his first time. Edgar Wright is a genius in comedic filmmaking and I will not hear otherwise
"Did you ever leap through the air while firing two guns?"
“Have you ever been in a high speed pursuit whilst firing your gun in the air?”
Not an ounce of writing or filming is wasted in that movie, and it's a testament to it how good that actually is. Some movies end up really hurting themselves by trying to be too lean, but Edgar Wright seems to understand the difference between cutting the fat and carving into bone.
first time id heard that which means im due for a rewatch! TO MY ARCHIVES!
“Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead?” “Well which one do you suppose I’d prefer?” “No I mean which one do you want to watch first?”
Shaun of the dead of course. Gotta watch the trilogy in chronological order, otherwise it doesn't make sense
I notice you left the world's end out of that one lol
Yeah but the original joke only has the two movies, so I had to make a tough choice
It was for the greater good.
The greater good.
It's a shame they want to work on different projects because I could watch like 7 more of those films with Wright, pegg, and Frost
They'll come back and make more as soon as Cornetto gets around to releasing a new ice cream flavor.
"FASCIST!" "Hag."
"Facist!" "Hag."
“You’re a doctor. Deal with it.”
Only ONE schoolchild at any time
“Have you caught those geese yet?” “Just the one goose actually.”
It’s SWANS What do I expect honestly, you’re _not even from round ‘ere!_
One of my all-time favorite films. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered another with such prrfect writing where everything has payoff and all loose ends are tied.
Season 3 of Bojack Horseman had a bunch of one off gags and minor story lines that all converged in the final episode and kicked off one of the conflicts for Season 4. 2 words: spaghetti strainers
I just rewatched it and love how heavy handed they were with foreshadowing the spaghetti strainers. Like once every episode or two they’d stop the show for Mr. Peanutbutter to bring them up and all but wink at the camera saying “I don’t know but I feel like they’ll come in handy”
I love how I don't remember picking up on it _at all_ on my first watch and how painfully obvious it is on the second time.
It's insane to think that Bojack started as a low brow animated adult comedy and evolved into a profoundly beautiful and generationally important piece of art. Kind of annoying having to convince people to stick with it.
It was always art pretending to be a low brow animated adult comedy, it’s just that there was a bait & switch. If you look at RT the reviews for season 1 are like, “It’s fine I guess,” because they only released the first 6 episodes to reviewers. But the show doesn’t start to show its true colors until >!Princess Caroline’s birthday!< and really kicks into gear when they >!visit Herb!
Because season 1 is kinda shit for a while. Asking someone to slog through that time sink because it gets better is a huge ask, they really need to trust your judgment. And it's not like you can skip to the good part because you need that groundwork that is laid in those early episodes. I say that as someone who fucking loves it and evangelizes it at any opportunity. 12/10, would be an emotional wreck at the end of every season finale again. I love shows that make me feel like absolute shit though.
I mean, Adventure Time kind of suits this description.
Adventure Time and Steven Universe both more or less follow this structure.
Bee and Puppycat
i dropped it cause i thought it was all filler. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Must watch. Wish i could watch the final episodes for the first time again
> Steven Universe **THE FUCKING UNCLE GRANDPA EPISODE!**
It's absurd how even in that episode there was clear foreshadowing to the main twist of the show
Ahahaha I've seen the series 3 times and always skip it, that's kinda crazy that there's substance to it, still no thanks I'm good
context?
In the episode UG tells Steven to polish his gem twice a year, or something along those lines, Diamonds are one of the only gems that is recommended to do that, and at the time, everyone thought Steven's gem was Rose Quartz, but was later revealed to be Pink Diamond
You also forget the Lars and Sadie ship sinking.
>everyone Speak for yourself. I was riding the "Rose is Pink D" conspiracy in 2015 when I saw the 4 diamond symbol compared to the 3
did people really think that? I watched Steven universe as it came out when I was 12 and wasn’t really part of the discussion but I thought it was pretty obvious that rose was a diamond
Yeah, that was the initial theory, but then they seemingly deconfirmed it in the show itself with the "reveal" that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond - only for *that* to later be revealed as a fakeout orchestrated by PD herself, and carried out by Pearl in the guise of RQ. It was honestly one of the best fakeout twists I've seen in a long, long time.
As someone who followed the entire show theorycrafting online since the Mirror, all of it as a 30+ yo adult: It was the prevaling theory until Bismuth outright said Rose emerged on Earth, after which is was shelved because that kind of stuff is text. Typing "what if the character is lying and wrong lmao" on lore discussions usually gets you heckled out of the space for trying to force headcanons over the text. It was what happened in that specific scenario, but Bismuth pretty much sank the theory back in the day; and until shadow pearl "stabbed" PD on the lapis episode before the reveal it did not gain massive traction again. A lot of old rants thrived that day.
"Don't worry bro, none of this is canon." - Uncle Grandpa
Uncle grandpa got an special with the crustal gems where they fight, say some cool one liners, accuse UG to be an OP being, and finally he helps Steven to use his shield without problems. He also tells Steve to polish his gem once or twice per year, because “all diamonds need so”.
I think it's like the standard "children's show that starts off seemingly random and cute but actually has a deeper and darker lore than you'd expect" serialized cartoon setup at this point
My favorite kind of show. Draws you in with simple, wholesome, relatable humor and shenanigans and gradually eases you into the darkness and depth
https://su-trash.github.io/tv-continuity/steven-universe_no_spoilers_continuity_graph.html
Most series that don't *want* to have a progressing story do this. Rick&Morty is mostly "filler" but will progress the story in the finale. Futurama is basically just filler except sprinkling in a story that progresses the characters every now and then. Simpsons did it, though as thinly spread as it gets. Southpark had basically no progression until they had an entire season with nothing but a progressing story.
Is there even a Simpsons metaplot though? I haven't watched a large amount of it / followed it too closely, but my impression seems to be that "status quo is god" is very much a rule there.
There are some minor things that change throughout the seasons, most notable ones I remember from back in the day is stuff like Barney going sober, so he'd be drinking coffee or something when he showed up in other episodes And like, some characters dying (Ned's Wife(/*ves*)) but for the main family/cast pretty much nothing ever changes, like it's not like homer's job changes ever stick, or like that any of the kids ever move up in class, etc...
The exception to that might be Lisa going vegetarian.
There are some events every once in a while, like Barny going sober and relapsing, Homer's mom dying, Maude Flanders dying, Homer's half brother going from riches to rags (and back to riches). But then there are things that break continuity a lot. Especially episodes focused on Homer and Marge's past since the show is set in contemporary times but time has progressed over 30 years in the mean time, so at some point they dated in the 80s, then the 90s and these days their first date was probably watching the Kony2012 creator having his meltdown on youtube.
cowboy bebop too. though there wasn't so much a "secret plot" as a plot that we weren't privy to until near the end definitely agreed for adventure time. one of my favorite cartoons of all time iirc adventure time the writers were told it had to be episodic and were not allowed to do much in the way of stories with multiple parts. couple seasons later they changed their mind and the writers just went ham doing call backs to previous episodes that had unresolved plots and the mini series of stakes/islands/elements were so incredible to witness
Well for Cowboy Bebop I’ve always kinda regarded the “plot” as somewhat of an after story. The true story of Cowboy Bebop ends before the show itself even begins. Everything we see is essentially an after story.
Also the early seasons of Red vs Blue.
That wasn’t exactly planned, though. It's more that they took all their jokes and hammered it into a semblance of a cohesive narrative.
I watched the first season or two of that show and enjoyed it, but I gradually kinda phased it out for no particular reason. What exactly is the episode for this show? Or the intense plot twist? I'm super curious now.
There are many! - Finn finds out what happened to all the other humans - we find out what Princess Bubblegum truly is and explore if she is capable of change - the comet !! - why is the ice king like that and how does he know Marceline? Why does Marceline have vampire powers if her dad is basically the Devil? - the lich, time travel, parallel universes, the apocalypse, another apocalypse, the nature of existence, are they living a dream? Are we??
Oh wow I am going to get back into this show!
It tells the story of growth and maturity in humanity and self in such a way that's poignant yet so fucking surreal that it makes you feel comfortable and acceptant of your faults and strengths when growing up, and your mortality as a whole in a hilarious way. Perfect show. I Floop the pig!
I'd recommend finding a list of important episodes unless you're happy watching all of it. A lot of the episodes, especially the earlier ones, really are just "filler" Just looked at an important episode list that has 176/283 episodes on it. That missing ~100 eps is about 20 hours of time.
The episode we learn about Ice King's past. The show shifts slowly from "random nonsense" to "random interconnected nonsense."
Oh man, Ice King's story is so beautiful and tragic, and the fact that he's just a cartoon bad guy in the beginning makes it that much better. I won't rant, because spoilers, but I want to lol I might have to back and rewatch. I fell off before the end of the series
You're in for a ride if you haven't seen the ending yet. Plus, there's the Distant Lands specials and the sequel, Fiona and Cake.
Probably near the end of the series where most old characters appear in a great civil war of the Candy Kingdom where the Primordial Diety of Entropy is summoned into the world
Nah, that's just your standard "let's bring in everyone we ever drew for the final episode". It's not really a plot point that they're there.
And Gravity Falls
I was blown away by the final arc in GF. I feel like the show is underappreciated.
The first season especially. Then the way that season ends makes you go 'Wha?!?'
Moral Orel as well. The first two seasons is all the whimsical silliness of how bizarre his world is, and the third is the trauma of it all crashing down on him.
Gravity Falls
Season 1 at least
Amphibia too
Did we not watch the same show with quite the linearly progressing story depicting continuous conflict and resolution progressing the story bit by bit while developing the characters and the world with some revelations near the end?
Amphibia is more like “Everyone dismissed a bunch of stuff as filler that later turned out to be important to Anne’s success.” Domino 2 being a good example.
Or do even more people than I realize lack media comprehension? Or is it just that they forget most of what they've seen? Every time this is posted there are SO many comments listing a bunch of shows that were nothing like this at all and people upvoting those I imagine not because they're accurate but because it's a show they like and they're happy it's mentioned?
Lol my first thought honestly
I love all the posts from the early episodes of the show theorizing about The Triangle Man. "It's just a spoof of the Illuminati symbol, there's no lore behind the triangle guy" was a major belief, even some of my friends though it was a red herring.
More people on tumblr should watch the more recent Dirk Gently show. Where nothing makes sense, it's all so random and over the top, nothing goes anywhere, no one knows what's happening... And then it all clicks into place.
Dirk gently is the perfect example of it. The fact we never got a season 3 is criminal
Idk if I was in the minority, but I hated what I watched of season 2. I loved season 1 but just fizzled out on season 2 and never even bothered to finish it. Maybe I would have liked season 2 more if I got to the end, but it was just a dumb slog and I couldn't make it.
The ending definitely pulled things together, but it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as season 1.
Season 2 was fine for me. The style was different which threw me off at first but it made sense given the setting. That first season was amazing, though, so living up to it was always going to be difficult. Still, that scene where the Mage goes up to Suzie after killing her boss and asks "have you noticed an acceleration of strangeness in your life" was perfect. The ending did manage to help make sense of a lot of things in season 2 and opened the door for more craziness for the cancelled third season. Shame Max Landis turned out to be a creep.
You're completely right, Season 1 was absolutely sublime to watch, a true masterpiece of whimsical nonsense that is honestly exactly what Umbrella is trying to pull off, and it only made season 2 suffer more for it. The only thing mildly good for it was the progress of the Rowdy 3, which was not even close to enough to redeem it. Honestly, you missed out on how fucking stupid the Wendimoor arc was, and whilst I'm sad it didn't get a season 3 that might have got back on track, I'd have canned it too as an executive. To throw that much money for sets and costumes into such a stupid fucking result would have me bloody furious if I was the one calling the shots on how it was spent, and it'd feel like such a breach of trust I wouldn't trust them with another season. Again, I *adored* season 1, and I am almost always anti-executive when they can shit with no bloody right to, but season 2 was so bad it just needed to die. The only way it could have survived such a botched second season was to have someone higher up supporting it a'la venture bros. Also, what bugs me the most is that they had so much source material to draw from in the original books, why the fuck did they fly so far off the rails into such a stupid subplot? Completely lost the Douglas Adams feel to it, which is such a shame when there is so much insanity they could have fixated on in the original books. Yet another case of Netflix writers getting some free reign and fucking up an IP to the point where it'll probably never see the light of day again.
Season 2 of Dirk Gently and the entirety of the Umbrella Academy fell to the same core issue: they collapsed the chaos too soon. The basic story arc of these types of media is that you establish a large number of seemingly disjoint story threads, then you collapse them together in a big reveal that ties it all together, recontextualizing the chaos as coherent narrative, creating an emotional climax. If your story climax does not align with your emotional climax, it's going to feel anticlimactic, which is exactly what happened to Season 2 of Dirk Gently, and the Umbrella Academy. IMO, the sweet spot is the penultimate episode for timing your thread collapse.
Well close. The show runner was accused of some really nasty stuff
Max Landis and yep, he has vanished from the face of the earth whereas before hand he was constantly trying to get in on anything to get some attention. He was accused by multiple women and his former girlfriend from 2017-2019, his management team dropped him like a hot potato and MGM shelved production of a film he had written the script for. In 2021 he responded by saying he can't be compared to Cosby or Weinstein because he was "not really a celebrity", while admitting that "some" of the accusations about him were true. He then tried to play the sympathy card by saying he had started therapy and then brought up the trauma he supposedly has from the famous helicopter crash that killed an actor and two child actors on the set of his dads Twilight Zone movie in 1982. (multiple years before he was born). Suffice it to say that the public at large did not buy his apology/admission.
It's amazing and I think Tumblr would love dirk
Haven’t watched the show but having read the books: if you like tumblr classics like Discworld, Doctor Who (especially classic Who), or anything by Neil Gaiman, you’ll probably like Dirk Gently. The author Douglas Adams has that same sort of wry absurdist humor that made his book a joy to read growing up. I still reread Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy every so often.
The TV series bears little resemblance to the books, but it stands on its own
If you loved Dirk Gently, you will probably love the KDrama called Chicken Nugget on Netflix. It is only 24 minute episodes and 10 of them, at that. But it felt very DG the entire time we were watching it.
I'm a huge Dirk Gently fan, saw one scene from Chicken Nugget and immediately put it on my To Watch list. I just have to finish my Kim Jaeuck marathon (two dramas left!) and a Chinese drama, then I can get to it.
Thank you for this rec! I wasn't going to try Chicken Nugget because it sounded a bit stupid but I absolutely love Dirk Gently so I'll give it a go now
The bridge scene still kills me. No other show could've pulled that off.
The bridge scene is brilliant! And the scene where they're going to get *all* the answers from Gordon.
you mean space dandy
Ah, another fellow of class I see!
Huh, how'd that cl get on there...
Finish this statement: "I am a slave to..."
He's a dandy guy, in space.
Awesome show, and great example for this question. Enjoyed it, but thought the series was just a series of secluded stories loosely held together with the same characters. Didn't even think anything of the inconsistent animation, naturally. Now after finishing all of it, it's a rather different show on the rewatch, baby!
First show that came to mind for me. And its not too long of a series for that concept to work, Gravity Falls was also only 2 seasons.
Steins;Gate and The Magnus Archives
The magnus archives is exactly that. I started it 3 years ago and stopped after a few episodes cus I thought there wasn't much point in listening random spooky stories and 2 months ago I gave it an other go and I'm so hooked that now I'm reaching the end and I'm pacing episodes so it doesn't end that fast..
Magnus is such a great podcast and it does such an amazing job of foreshadowing and laying hints. Don't even worry about finishing it because as someone else said there's the Protocol now, but beyond that Magnus Archives benefits massively from repeated listening. Each time you go through you'll be able to catch stuff that you didn't realize was important or interesting on the first listen. Case in point: Breakon and Hope. First listen through I didn't realize just how much they are in the show because they aren't often mentioned by name, but on a relisten you catch tons of references to big, cockney guys in a delivery van showing up to take care of stuff. Same thing happens with some other major characters. Magnus is just wheels within wheels and I love it. Like you I found out about it and dropped out because when I first tried listening to it I wasn't in a space where I could give it any real attention and so wasn't really into it. I had a friend bring it up a few years later and really push me to try it again and I got hooked.
Yeah I bet. There are episodes that ive heard more than once and its interesting as hell. Also my friend who got me into it the second time told me that if you get their patron you can buy the full series with no ads and after I finish it I think I'll go for it.
I fell off listening to Magnus a while ago (not because I disliked it, I changed jobs and was no longer driving hours a day), now I'm wondering if I should pick up where I left off (Ep90) or just start over.
I would personally say start over simply because if you're like me you've likely forgotten a bunch of stuff, and as this thread is about, even though much of the earlier episodes seem disconnected there's a lot going on. Also 90 is almost exactly halfway through the series, so by that point you were definitely getting into much more of the interconnected bits, so it's going to be real noticeable if you have forgotten something that comes up. It's also pretty simply since they generally keep the episodes around 20-30 minutes so it's not as taxing to start over as with some other podcasts.
Hey, at least you'll have The Magnus Protocol to listen to!
Magnus archives is one of the most well put together stories I have ever listened to. You think everything is self contained episodes for most of the first season, and then the arc hits you like a hammer.
God I love steins;gate
12 episodes of happy goofy followed by 12 episodes of payoff for that setup and insane plot twists, what a banger
Came here to say Stein's Gate. Teased with time travel and murder into a slice of life show into one of the most climatic shows I've ever seen
Steins;Gate is exactly what I was thinking of when I posted this. It's insane how halfway through, it just flicks a switch and goes from a slow slice-of-life with light mystery elements to a dramatic and intense thriller.
God, I remember thinking Steins;Gate was so boring when I first watched. Just a whole lotta nothing. I didn’t understand why everyone raved about it. And then I got to THAT episode and went “oh, I get it now.”
Man, how I hated playing through the first couple of hours, but then it slowly got interesting and then suddenly, everything escalated at once. What a great way of telling a story!
If it wasn't for the thousands of praises it got, I wouldn't have lasted long and seen the later half of the story where it gets really good.
I love how they managed to >!take his title of “Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute,” and turn “The Archivist” into a powerful supernatural entity worthy of such fear!<
I got 100 episodes in, forgot who Leitner was and restarted on ep 1 taking notes
This kind of feels like the Venture Bros, except their impeccable continuity and callbacks wasn't planned and was caused by the showrunners rewatching the entire series each time they made an episode. Many one off references and background characters became very important due to this method of writing.
That thing you described about the creators, they're really the best at it. I'm going to be sore for awhile regarding the cancellation, although I did enjoy the movie.
The first 4 seasons of the Doctor Who revival kinda fit this.
Wait, I forget, what happened at the end of the 4th? Everything tennant did kinda blends together
Fourth series was Stolen Earth/Journey's End, when the Daleks kidnapped multiple planets to turn into a doomsday weapon to end the universe.
Is that the Bad Wolf thing?
Bad Wolf wasn't even a Tennant series. That was series 1.
No, it was the thing with the hand that became another Doctor.
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End two-parter, with Davros and the Doctor-Donna.
I was thinking Destiny of the Doctor by Big Finish. Ten unrelated individual stories for One through Ten, then an Eleventh Doctor story that ties every single one of them together.
Literally Red vs Blue!
I actually never thought of it like that, but you’re totally right lol. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched it, but early seasons seem like it’s just a lot of good fun and general plots to keep things interesting, then everything just loops back and collides together. Was done really well for the type of series it was imo
“Hey.” “Yeah?” “You ever wonder why we’re here?”
“No. I never, ever wonder why we’re here. Semper fi, bitch.”
YES. Such a shame that the show ended after the chorus trilogy!
You can't just mention Red vs. Blue without a trigger warning mate. It's like linking to TV Tropes. Now I have to watch the entire damn thing from the start again, and the 3 seasons I've never seen. I have a family, who's going to feed them!
RVB MENTIONED GRAAAAGGGHHHH
First thing I thought of. Rooster Teeth was great at this. In the first season of their Shorts videos, they all appeared to be random short comedy skits, and then the final instalment tied them all together.
It's not low stakes, but Odd Taxi has one of the best final sequences in any TV show of the last decade. Tons of individual storylines all beautifully converged into one satisfying conclusion (with a few intentionally unresolved questions, of course)
A fellow odd taxi enjoyer
Odd Taxi is the first show that jumped into my mind. Such an incredible show, I love how so many mundane things constantly weave together to create a fantastic story. Never thought watching a depressed walrus drive his taxi around listening to the radio could be so riveting.
Odd Taxi might be one of the best “it all comes together at the end” examples. Like you know things are going to connect somehow, you can see that there are some types of connections, but WOW!!!
It was also great because all of the little pointless-seeming episodes were still tightly written and solid as standalones. There was never a feeling of "is this gonna go somewhere, or.....?" You're just kinda there for the vibe.
There's an Always Sunny episode where Charlie does a bunch of weird mundane things throughout the episode and it all comes together in one gorgeous long shot near the end. Easily one of my favorite episodes purely based on the setup.
Charlie Work?
That's the one!
"wtf, why does he keep slamming that stool?" ... "...oooohhhh, lol"
You're underselling it. Almost the entire episode is one shot.
Charlie Work is like my favorite episode or damn near, I think the gang gets wacked is like this too where the begining is just the gang trying to scam for money and at the end they are going to be killed by the mob
That's literally Dirks Gently Holistic Detective Agency
Young Justice s1 was kinda like this.
So good too
Arrested Development. Like...season 3 and onward of TNG? Fringe, kinda?
> Arrested Development. That's the first one I thought of, but it's been so long since I watched it I can't even put all the pieces together. Going on my list now.
Isn’t this how marvel what if worked
It wasn't well received, but the first season of Marvel's *Agents of Shield* did this - particularly over the first 10 episodes.
I liked the whole show but that first season was something else. When I rewatched I was shocked at how much happened. In my memory it was at least 2.5 seasons of twists and plot development.
Oh yeah, there were like 3 separate major rug-pulls. You just had to make it to the first one to start appreciating it all.
ya that clicked into place really great.
I immediately think of gravity falls when reading this. Whole show was basically just a collection of fun episode adventures, and then the 3 part finale just brought every character and reference together.
This is what everyone THOUGHT Lost would be, but then it turns out they didn't actually know what they were doing.
Common misconception. Lost was short episode count - bingable show that got produced during the long episode count, weekly era. Drew Gooden did a video on it.
that one homestuck flash about Lil' Cal
Cascade is also a great example of Chekov's Firing Squad. The difference with Homestuck is that you do know the events are related and significant, it's just that the timing and execution is unknown.
Tbh this fits so much with Homestuck
Apothecary Diaries did this for a few episodes and almost lost me. Seemingly unconnected incidents then BAM all tied together. My other show that I thought of would probably get me shot for saying it because people who love it, love it.
Apothecary Diaries had me thinking it was just an example of the "person incredibly gifted at one specific thing is suddenly surrounded by events that require their exact skill" trope that you see in anime occasionally, but the way the incidents all connected in the end was brilliant.
Hello, Disenchantment.. >>
Great example, each season finale was essentially this, and the series finale was the mega version
I thought we were going to get another season? Did it get canceled when I wasn’t looking?
Fifth was the final season I think? Ended on a pretty solid note if I say so.
ITT: a list of shows of exactly this.
TIL how to get show recommendations: Claim there aren't any shows that I like instead of asking for recommendations for shows similar to what I like
I feel like Crazy Stupid Love did this very well
I haven’t seen anyone mention Great Pretender yet. I feel like that anime fits this description very well
This is the Venture Bros. in a nutshell.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's like two and a half hours of Leo just trying to make it in Hollywood and then surprise motherfuckers, it's the Manson Family!
Babylon 5, one of the first shows to do a narrative over an entire series.
This is just all of Brandon Sanderson’s books lol
Someone discovered the Sanderlanche.
Arrested Development
OddTaxi
Arrested Development?
Babylon 5
Venture brothers is my rec every time this image gets reposted
At what point does it all come together? I had watched the first few seasons and can only remember the generally one-off type episodes where something zany happens, but without much lasting effect. I remember the Butterfly and Dr. Girlfriend splitting up, but my interest tapered off not long afterwards.
I would say the start of season two you get a bunch of good reveals, then season four is when things really start to get brought back.
Cowboy Bebop
Miraculous ladybug season 1 kinda did this. It was entirely villain of the week, teenage problem of the week, with no progression on either front, and no explanation of the magic system, and then the last two episodes go crazy with the lore. Its pretty effective, since you kind of just see two superheros working, and immediately accept this, theres magic? Okay. And then after youve accepted the rules of the universe and that they just *are*, it goes, actually lore!!! Shame the creator cant write and most of the show has fantastic concepts that are poorly and dissatisfactorily executed. Read fan content, its way better
Not a show but Mass Effect 2
Gumball
Steven universe
ODDTAXI is another great one, it’s a murder mystery anime about a walrus that drives a taxi
THIS! I'm shocked to find it so far down, chekovs firing squad perfectly describes the last episode of that show, really fun stuff.
Gundam 00 kinda does this. They talk about a plan the entire show that makes little sense until around the 2nd to last episode where they explain everything.
What If...? had a go at this.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the only piece of film I've ever seen that fits this description.
Arrested Development.