Tag Archives: TV

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Animated Series (10) (New entry)

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(10) BLUE EYE SAMURAI (2023: SEASON 1)

 

Who doesn’t like a roaring rampage of revenge?

I liked it as film with Kill Bill. I liked it as (live action) TV series with My Name. And I like it here as animated TV series with Blue Eye Samurai.

So now I have a holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge. Well, those and John Wick, but John Wick is more my Hail Mary (or Ave Maria) of roaring rampages of revenge. (And yes – that’s a somewhat Catholic joke about squeezing in a fourth person when you already have three people in a trinity, particularly when that fourth person has their own complicated mythos going on).

Kill Bill even used the phrase – its protagonist Bride stating that she “went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a roaring rampage of revenge” (which Tarantino characteristically borrowed from the tagline to a 1972 film Bury Me an Angel).

Interestingly, all my holy trinity are either east Asian (My Name is Korean) or a fusion of east Asian and Western popular culture. Japanese and Korean film or TV are growing influences in Western popular culture – and they certainly do roaring rampages of revenge well.

This animated series is set in the seventeenth century Japanese shogunate that had isolated itself from the world, in what is called the Edo period, albeit a somewhat alternate historical version given some of the plot details or events.

That makes life even more difficult for our protagonist, the titular blue eye samurai – whose blue eyes immediately mark mixed-race ancestry. That’s on top of another problem for the protagonist in sixteenth century Japanese society, which is something of a spoiler, albeit one easy to guess by the voice (and voice actor) and soon revealed in any event.

Which makes for yet another interesting characteristic of my holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge – the sex of their protagonist. It’s also interesting to compare the different sources for the roaring rampage of revenge in each case – the Bride is seeking to avenge herself on her ex-lover, the protagonist in My Name is seeking to avenge her father, and the Blue Eye Samurai is seeking to avenge herself on her father.

Its standout feature – consistently noted by reviewers – is “its breathtaking animation quality” and never more so than for its exquisitely crafted fight scenes. Our Blue Eye Samurai is almost supernaturally skilled with a blade (consistent with just a hint of fantasy to the series) but does take a beating from time to time. It’s not just the fight scenes – it’s the visual attention to detail with character and background design.

It’s also not just the visual quality, as important as that is to animation. It has a compelling storyline, with twists and turns, as well as immersion into its setting. And it’s not just the Blue Eye Samurai whose story is engaging – almost every other character, major and minor, including the adversaries or antagonists, are also engaging or intriguing, boosted by the stellar voice cast.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

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Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series

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Sigh. My Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series may be the most fluid of all my top tens.

Many, perhaps most, simply miss the mark for me at the outset. Those that do hit the mark generally fall away quickly or don’t have an enduring quality – or they endure too long, waning until they limp into their final season, and in either case fail to stick the landing. The recent archetypal example, for me as it was for so many others, was Game of Thrones, in which the failure to stick the proverbial landing – or dare I say it, King’s Landing (heh)- in the final season left a bitter taste that filtered back throughout the series or at least its later seasons.

Hence, I tend have a high turnover for shuffling or ranking entries into my special mentions, with so few entries having the consistent or enduring quality to rank in the top ten itself – or remain there.

In fairness to myself, there’s also my separate Top 10 Animated TV Series, in which my entries are somewhat more enduring – and animation by its nature tends to be fantasy or SF. Indeed, all but the top entry in my present top ten are clearly fantasy or SF, and the top entry (Archer) has so many substantial SF elements as to be borderline SF. (One season was outright SF and there’s a reasonable argument for the other seasons as alternate history given their anachronistic timeline and divergence from our own world in which they are nominally set.)

It’s also interesting how much supernatural or SF horror features in my Top 10 Fantasy & SF TV Series – as well as how many superhero comics adaptations. Four of the entries, including the top entry, arguably fall within the horror genre (with significant or substantial horror elements in three or four of the others) – and four entries are adaptations from superhero comics.

 

 

 

(10) WEDNESDAY (2022)

Firstly, I try to reserve tenth place for my wildcard entry – ideally an entry from the last year or so – and Wednesday fits that bill, but it also illustrates the flash in the pan quality that plagues my selection of entries for this top ten.

Even when fantasy or SF TV series start off strong – something which seems increasingly rare – all too often that quality is not enduring (and often quickly so at that) or is somewhat mixed even at the outset.

Wednesday is only one season in so far (with another season incoming) but does have that mixed flash in the pan quality – and the flash is Jenna Ortega as the titular role.

Otherwise, there’s much about this series that shouldn’t have worked and to an extent doesn’t – it’s cheesy soap opera (with some incredibly dodgy CGI) and its Harry Potter-esque premise detracts from the whole premise of the Addams family being the odd ones out – but Ortega’s charismatic deadpan performance makes it work. Well, makes it work enough for me to give it my wildcard tenth place entry for now – fantasy and SF TV can be slim pickings, with nothing since catching my enduring interest.

If nothing else, there was her iconic dance scene that went viral (and I think may have been a part of the promotional teaser material), fitting her character’s personality perfectly while also even borrowing some moves from the child character on the 1960s TV series, showing that Ms Ortega did her research in her own choreography.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(9) THE SANDMAN (2022)

To be honest, The Sandman is also a wildcard entry, so I’ve extended my wildcard entries from the usual tenth place to also include ninth place. Again, that’s because Sandman is also an entry from the last year or so – amidst slim pickings for fantasy and SF TV series – but also has something of a mixed flash in the pan quality for me.

And that’s ironically because I rank The Sandman comic so highly, so any screen adaptation was bound to leave me with mixed feelings. That remains the case even though the TV series is reasonably faithful to the comic – or at least as reasonably faithful as might be expected in adapting the multi-layered narrative of the comic to the screen.

Therein perhaps lies the horns of the dilemma for this series, striking the balance of faithful adaptation and, well, unfaithful adapation – where the series necessarily had to be adapted differently, particularly because of the different pacing involved or to be accessible to viewers who weren’t familiar with the comics. It was not for nothing that the series was reputed to be unfilmable (although that was probably more a matter of production rather than adaptation previously).

On the whole it did well enough, although not as well as the comic itself within my Top 10 Comics – and I’m unable to judge how well it may have succeeded in being accessible to those who had not read the comic. Actor Tom Sturridge was certainly effective as the titular character, also known as Morpheus or Dream of the Endless, and it shone in its visual effects or design towards “a shimmering, magical, moving masterpiece that defies the odds”.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(8) BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR (2021)

“I want to set his life on fire”

Well this was weird and probably won’t be to everyone’s taste but sufficiently intriguing until another fantasy or SF series retains my enduring interest to replace it in my top ten. And how I could resist that title? It’s apparently based on a book – by Todd Grimson, although it reminded me of Thomas Ligotti’s My Work is Not Yet Done.

It’s also interesting to see the lead from Alita Battle Angel (Rosa Salazar) in an otherworldly role of an altogether different kind – supernatural horror. Well, she’s not so otherworldly herself, but finds herself in an increasingly otherworldly situation.

Any detailed plot synopsis would spoil too many of the twists, but the basic premise is that aspiring filmmaker Lisa Nova (played by Salazar) is screwed over by 1990s Hollywood producer Lou Burke, so strikes a deal with the friendly neighborhood witch Boro for vengeance. Of course, as events unfold – Boro is not so friendly, more creepy and horrific, as is the price paid by Burke AND Nova, although Nova is not so innocent herself, with her own skeleton in the closet (not least how she managed to film her standout scene).

“The series combines neon-soaked noir with copious doses of body horror and black comedy”. Not to mention zombies – and kittens…

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(7) LEGION (2017-2019: SEASONS 1-3)

I’ve always loved psychedelic head-trippy depictions of magic or mutant mind powers – where reality itself is slippery and not to be trusted.

Legion is something of the black sheep of the Marvel Comics adaptation family, a television series based on the little-known X-Men comics character of the same name, created by Noah Hawley – creator of Fargo, which shows in its similar quirky quality (as well as similarly hitting it out of the park with the acting of its cast, its gorgeous cinematography, its trippy visuals, its use of music and its writing). The obscurity of its titular protagonist works in its favor, as the series stands on its own despite references to outside continuity – and which also allows it to explore the underlying concepts or ramifications of mental powers, which by their very nature, are difficult to condense in cinematic adaptations.

The protagonist David Haller, is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who has struggled with mental illness since his late childhood. When hospitalized, he meets fellow patient and similarly-troubled Sydney Barrett, he’s confronted with an even more disturbing possibility – that the voices he hears and visions he sees are actually real and that there’s more to his schizophrenia than what he believes. Much more – and much worse, including a psychic parasite that’s been living in his head for a long time and wants his body for itself…

The primary battlefield is David’s mind, where memories and perceptions are not to be trusted, although the psychic battles are often fought in visually spectacular fashion. Throw in the battles in physical reality between the covert government Division 3, which seeks to pre-empt any mutant threat to humanity, and Summerland, an equally covert mutant resistance, and you have a series made of pure awesomeness.

After all, I haven’t seen any other series take a cute family dog into a truly ‘oh crap’ moment like this series…

And that’s just the first season. Things become an even more wild ride in the second and final third season

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(6) BLACK MIRROR
(2011 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-6)

Black Mirror – the cyberpunk Twilight Zone of the twenty-first century!

Okay, that cyberpunk label may be overstating it, but it certainly is a series of dark and satirical twists in the tale of the unanticipated or unintended consequences of technology and social media in modern society – or, in the words of series creator Charlie Brooker, “the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.”

It is an anthology series with no continuity between episodes – each episode has a different cast, a different setting or even a different reality, so you don’t have to watch them in order. Personally, I’d recommend starting with the later seasons and working your way backwards – particularly as the very first episode doesn’t extrapolate so much on technology or social media and can be a little confronting (although unforgettable – let’s just say you won’t feel about pork the same way again).

As for the premise and title of the series, it’s back to Charlie Brooker:

“If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The ‘black mirror’ of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.”

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(5) THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018)

Yes – I include horror in my definition of fantasy (or science fiction, depending on the source of the horror) and I can’t think of another horror series on TV as genuinely scary as The Haunting of Hill House. As the title indicates, it is an adaptation based loosely on the book of the same name by Shirley Jackson.

It is psychological and supernatural horror, working effectively as both. The supernatural horror – the ghosts of the titular haunting and house itself – are certainly chilling, particularly as the director placed ghostly figures in the margins or peripheral angles of scenes (notably involving the stairs). You often didn’t see them, at least directly, but they were still there, squirming in your subconscious mind to unnerve or disturb you. The ghosts that you do see are unnerving enough, from the titular ghost in the very first episode, “Steven Sees a Ghost” – and from there on in, it’s a white-knuckled ride of suspense and creeping fear. And then there’s the psychological horror of a broken family of broken people, not to mention the occasional existential horror of life itself (such as that speech – you know the one, thank you Theo).

The plot revolves around the Crain family – Hugh and Olivia with their five children – moving into Hill House twenty-six years previously, with the parents intending to renovate it for sale, but the House – and its, ah, family – have their own hungry plans. And to paraphrase my poetic musings elsewhere – the Crain family came back from the black abyss, but they did not come all the way back (or all come back), and worse, they brought it back with them (and left part of themselves or their family behind). The story flips between the past and the present, as the family struggles with the aftermath – and that the House is still hungry for those who escaped it.

And then there’s that red room…

The only flaw for me was the ending, which was somewhat divisive for audiences in its tonal shift – although some have speculated a much darker twist in it.

And yes – I’m only counting the first season. As at the date of revising this entry, it has had a second and third season, retooled into an anthology series with the second season as an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw (and other works by Henry James) and the third season as an adaptation of the Fall of the House of Usher (and other works by Edgar Allen Poe). However, they just haven’t had the same magic for me as this first season.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(4) THE STRAIN
(2014-2017: SEASONS 1-4)

It’s a vampire apocalypse in a box!

A vampire horror series that portrays vampires as the blood-sucking parasitic abominations they are. (Yes – I have fantastic racism against vampires. Stake them all in the sun, I say. Except hot vampire girls, of course. And there’s none of those in this series). In this case, vampirism is spread by the worm-like parasites that crawl from their bodies, one of which was depicted burrowing into an eye in an infamous promotional poster. (It’s reminiscent of the Lovecraftian vampire parasite things in the pulpy Necroscope book series by Brian Lumley).

It’s a welcome relief from the sexy (or worse, sparkly) vampires of True Blood (or worse, Twilight) and most vampires in popular culture these days – the vampires in The Strain are distinctly unsexy vile abominations of extreme body horror. It’s hard to be sexy when your (male) genitalia have atrophied and dropped off, while your excretory organs have fused together into a cloaca. Eww!

The series is the brainchild of Guillermo de Toro (yes, THAT Guillermo de Toro) and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name (albeit one originally conceived as a story line for a television series). The series opens with CDC medical staff called to an airliner in which everyone appears to have succumbed to a mysterious viral infection or disease. Or at least, so the authorities surmise – instead, it is worse. Much worse.

Soon, New York finds itself battling for its very existence against an ancient enemy with humanity itself at stake (heh).

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(3) PEACEMAKER (2022)

“I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women and children I have to kill to get it”

I mean, the opening credits sequence alone would earn a place in my top ten. And Eagly too of course.

Peacemaker was introduced – on screen at least – in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in 2019 (the good Suicide Squad film, not the bad one), along with his credo for “peace” quoted above.

I wouldn’t have guessed that out of all the characters in that film, Peacemaker would be the one to get his own spin-off TV series, also directed by James Gunn – but it totally works, as Gunn brings his blackly comic signature style from the film to the TV series, with added hair metal flair.

Of course, it helps that the titular anti-hero protagonist is having something of a crisis of faith, not least the whole-heartedness of his credo – notably including guilt and remorse over its casualties, one in particular. And we get to see his traumatic origin, particularly at the hands of his father – played with vile relish by Robert Patrick.

Once again, Peacemaker finds himself being used as a tool – or weapon – by Task Force X, against an invasion by mysterious entities known as Butterflies, prompting Peacemaker to compare it to Operation Starfish in The Suicide Squad.

And it’s not just Peacemaker’s show – the other characters, particularly the other members of Task Force X, bring their A-game as well. My personal favorite is the cheerfully sociopathic Vigilante, although I’m not sure how faithfully his screen incarnation is adapted from the comics

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(2) THE BOYS
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

“Diabolical”

Of course, any further quotes from anti-hero Billy Butcher would involve a very explicit language warning.

This series rocked my world with its debut in 2019 – my favorite comics adaptation on TV so far, as well as one of my favorite plays on comics and superhero tropes in general. So much so I was inspired to read the comic by Garth Ennis although the television series has increasingly diverted from the comic.

The series takes place in a world where superheroes exist, such that you prefer they didn’t. On the superhero side, you have the Seven, the world’s leading superhero team – sponsored by the powerful corporation Vought International – and mostly copies of the Justice League, led by its equivalent of Superman (with some Captain America thrown in), Homelander, who more than earns that description of diabolical and invokes the trope Beware the Superman. And on the other side, you have the titular Boys, vigilante cape-busters forced to use their smarts, skills and willingness to fight dirty against their superhero adversaries – led by Billy Butcher, perhaps the series’ most compelling character to rival his primary adversary, Homelander.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(1) STRANGER THINGS
(2016 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)

I assume this Netflix original series needs little introduction.

And what’s not to love for fantasy and SF fans?

Eleven! The Upside Down! The Demogorgon and Mind Flayer! Steve Harrington’s magnificent hair (and its secret)!

More broadly, 1980’s nostalgia and pop culture references aplenty! Psychokinetic girls (reminiscent of Charlie, not to mention her adversary, the Shop, in one of my favorite Stephen King novels, Firestarter). Extradimensional alien invasion – evoking Alien and Aliens in Seasons 1 and 2 respectively with more than a touch of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, particularly when it evokes The Thing in Season 3. Mysterious government agencies to rival the nastier versions of men in black (with their black helicopters) – so that’s what the Department of Energy does?

And of course there’s all those Dungeons and Dragons references for this fantasy fan – “I’m our Paladin, Will’s our Cleric, Dustin’s our Bard, Lucas is our Ranger, and El’s our Mage”.

To quote Wikipedia, series creators the Duffer brothers “developed the series as a mix of investigative drama alongside supernatural elements with childlike sensibilities, establishing its time frame in the 1980s and creating a homage to pop culture of that decade. Several themes and directorial aspects were inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King, among others”. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s, the first season focuses on the investigation into the disappearance of a young boy amid supernatural (or rather paranormal) events centered on the nearby Hawkins National Laboratory – and the second season is even, ah, more upside downier.

On the other hand, I can suspend disbelief in the Demogorgon and Upside Down – but no one ever made it that far in the Dragon’s Lair videogame…

RATING: 4 STARS****
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TV (FANTASY & SF): TOP 10 – TIER LIST

 

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(1) STRANGER THINGS (2016 – present). Arguably falling within the SF horror genre

(2) THE BOYS (2019 – present). Superhero comics adaptation

(3) PEACEMAKER (2022). Superhero comics adaptation – arguably significant or substantial SF horror elements

 

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(4) THE STRAIN (2014-2017). It’s a vampire apocalypse in a box! Albeit more Lovecraft (or Lumley) than Dracula. SF horror

(5) THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018). Yes – I’m only counting one season. Supernatural horror

(6) BLACK MIRROR (2011 – present). SF – arguably some horror elements

(7) LEGION (2017-2019). Yet another superhero comics adaptation (and one that fell somewhat from its glittering first season, although I enjoyed it through all its seasons). Also on the edge of horror, particularly with its first season

(8) BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR (2021). Another horror entry – weird and probably not to everyone’s taste, but intriguing enough for a place in my top 10

 

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(9) THE SANDMAN (2022). Fantasy comics adaptation (which I’ll loosely count towards the superhero comics adaptations) – some elements of horror

(10 WEDNESDAY (2022). Fantasy – technically a comics adaptation (albeit not superheroes as such) and also horror elements played for black comedy

 

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Animated Series

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I’ll be blunt. My favorite TV series are always animated TV series. It was that way when I was a child, watching animated series for children, and now it is that way as an adult, watching animated series for adults.

Hence, my top animated TV series would also tend to be my top TV series in general – as well as ones that I can (and do) watch repeatedly. I look forward to new series or seasons of my favorite series. And whatever the animated series, whether for children or adults, I’ll usually enjoy checking it out, for an episode or so – or at least a trailer, and failing that, at least check it out as a concept or review.

That said, like my Top 10 TV lists in general, my Top 10 Animated TV list is more fluid than most. The top one or two entries may be set in stone, at least for the next few years, but there tends to be a high turnover of entries below them as I tend to turn older entries into special mentions and replace them with new entries at a high rate.

Note also that while I dabble in anime on occasion, it’s nowhere near the extent to which I watch ‘western’ animation on TV – and I keep it to its own separate top ten.

 

 

(10) INSIDE JOB
(2021-2022: SEASON 1)

Inside Job joins the ranks of that sub-genre of fantasy or SF which is particularly fascinating for me – the conspiracy theory kitchen sink, in which all conspiracy theories are true. I loved it when I discovered it in literary form in the Illuminatus Trilogy – and I continued to love it in comics, in Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, and Nick Spencer’s Morning Glories. And I like it in this 2021 Netflix animated series, although in fairness, all conspiracy theories are true in it EXCEPT for the Flat Earth. That isn’t true (and was deliberately designed as a crank theory) – although the Earth IS hollow. It gets to the point that one of the characters is genuinely confused by the moon landing hoax, as they are so many conspiracy theories running simultaneously that he can’t keep them straight.

The premise of Inside Job is that it is set within the secret organization that effectively manages or runs all these conspiracies for or as part of the deep state or secret government in the United States – Cognito Inc. Although it’s not entirely clear to what extent it’s in charge, as it seems to compete with the Illuminati, rely on funding from the Reptilians, and answers to its questionably human Shadow Board. The Shadow Board seems to be the real power pulling the strings – but Cognito Inc seems to be only one of those strings. Cognito Inc also often confuses its employee protagonists as to whether they are working for evil or not, or rather, just how much they are working for evil. Those employee protagonists are essentially an ensemble cast, led by Lizzy Caplan’s socially awkward technological genius Reagan Ridley, but features such oddities as John DiMaggio’s Glen Dolphman, a US military officer who volunteered to become a dolphin-man, and Magic Myc, a snarky psychic mushroom from the Hollow Earth. And let’s face it – Christian Slater has a superb persona and voice for animation (as Reagan’s father).

It has one of my favorite opening credit sequences for an animated TV series, which itself shows fascinating glimpses into the layers of alternate history or conspiracy theory. My personal favorite is a blink-and-miss-it clip of one of those psychic mushroom people, possibly Magic Myc himself, interacting with our prehistoric ape ancestors, one of whom plucks off a piece of the mushroom and eats it – a nod of course to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but also the Stoned Ape hypothesis, attributing our sapience to psychedelic mushrooms.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(9) ARCANE
(2021 – PRESENT: SEASON 1)

Well – this was a revelation!

Firstly, I had known going in that this was set in the League of Legends universe, so I had those old video game adaptation blues – those (low) expectations that media adapted from video games are generally…disappointing at best. Even more so as I don’t play the game and had little knowledge of it apart from (ahem) looking up its female characters from their art and cosplay. But this series appealed, even to a casual viewer such as myself with little knowledge of the game.

Secondly, this is how you do diversity – not as a substitution for story or to deflect criticism (always something of a warning sign when something promotes itself for its diversity instead of, you know, a story) but as an organic part of the story (and which makes sense on that basis). Take note, Rings of Power – if you had wanted to do diversity right, perhaps you should have chosen a setting like this one, a multicultural urban fantasy setting.

But then my general rule of thumb is that animated series consistently outshine live action series in quality, particularly when it comes to fantasy or SF.

As for the premise – “Amidst the escalating unrest between the rich, utopian city of Piltover and its seedy, oppressed underbelly of Zaun, sisters Vi and Jinx find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing conflict over clashing convictions and arcane technologies”.

Its first season “was released to critical acclaim, with praise directed at its animation, story, worldbuilding, action sequences, characters, emotional weight, music, and voice acting”. ‘Nuff said, but the highlights for me, characteristically for an animated series, were the animation and action sequences.

A second season is on the way – which is just as well as the first season ended on a cliffhanger…

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(8) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

“Heavy Metal for millennials”

Love, Death, and Robots is an adult – very adult (or perhaps adolescent) – experimental animated SF and fantasy anthology series on Netflix produced by Tim Miller and David Fincher.

And it is very much an anthology series – consisting of stand-alone or self-contained episodes, usually 10-20 minutes (with the occasional shorter episodes) and produced by different casts and crews in different styles. It’s genre-bending (and blending) between science fiction, fantasy and horror, although leaning towards science fiction (particularly cyberpunk) – hence the robots of the title. Episodes tend toward the themes of – well – love, death and robots, albeit the former two are very broad (and often leaning more towards sex and violence). Most of them are adaptions of short stories from notable SF (or fantasy) writers – including Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Alastair Reynolds and Joe Lansdale.

And the tagline comes from its – ah – heavy influence or inspiration from the comic / magazine Heavy Metal, which highlighted original science fiction stories and art, mixed in with erotica, and the “raunchy, absurd 1981 film of the same name which took viewers a step beyond science fiction.”

As an anthology, it’s something of a mixed bag, but there’s bound to be something you like by way of “a striking or exciting style of animation” or “a genuinely shocking twist”.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(7) PRIMAL
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2)

Spear and Fang – a Neanderthal and his tyrannosaur. Or is that a tyrannosaur and her Neanderthal?

Those names – Spear and Fang – are never given in the episodes themselves, which are a marvel of mute mood, only in the titles or credits. Mute in that Spear, our Neanderthal protagonist, does not speak any language as such – although he can be very vocal in grunts or bellows and is otherwise extremely expressive in face and body language. Fang, the tyrannosaur is no slouch in expression either. Primal’s creator, Genndy Tartakovksy, is famous for being light on dialog in his work, but in Primal he has achieved an animated masterpiece with no dialog.

The unlikely but powerful bond between Spear and Fang is the beating heart of the series – unlikely in that it arises in very particular circumstances and endures beyond them, but of course in the context of our world where they are tens of million years apart. It soon becomes apparent that, while the creatures of Primal seem drawn (heh) from models in our own, that this is not our world as we knew it – as the waning age of dinosaurs seemingly overlaps much more with the rising age of mammals. And oh boy – how they are drawn, with lush beautiful animation particularly for its creatures and their landscapes, as well as evocative music or sound.

The world of Primal diverges even more from our own as it becomes an increasingly fantastic setting, dramatically so from episode 4 Terror Under the Blood Red Moon or episode 5 Rage of the Ape Men (with its heartbreaking cliffhanger climax).

In my opinion, this leads to the three episodes that are my personal highlights of the first season – with Spear and Fang facing off against, and typically having little choice but to flee from, their most dangerous and fantastic opponents in sequences of genuine horror or terror. A plague zombie dinosaur in episode 7 Plague of Madness, dark magic in episode 8 Coven of the Damned, and a mysterious invisible creature that seemingly kills for sport in episode 9 The Night Feeder.

However, the most dramatic change of all occurs in its final episode of the first season, when the world of Primal changes radically again to something very different from all preceding episodes – as we see in the second season.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(6) THE DRAGON PRINCE
(2018 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-5)

If this series seems similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender, that’s because it was created for Netflix by Aaron Eshaz, head writer and director of that series (with Giancarlo Volpe as executive producer, who also worked with Eshaz on Avatar).

The series is similarly set in a fantasy world, albeit more medieval than Avatar’s steampunk (and whatever punk Korra was), with similar elemental magic – not Avatar’s four classical elements (air, earth, fire and water) but the ‘primal’ elements of Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Sky and Ocean (with cool names such as the Moonshadow Elves, Sunfire Elves and Startouch Elves as the elves for some of those elements).

Humans…don’t fare quite so well with magic – having been driven by the elves and dragons to the other end of the continent of Xadia for the use of the only magic available to humans, life-draining dark magic. Humanity established the five human kingdoms on the other side of so-called Breach between the magical races and non-magical humans – a border formerly guarded by the dragon king. However, war looms after humans killed the dragon king – and apparently his egg, or the titular dragon prince. Elven assassins attack one of the human kingdoms, but one of the assassins allies herself with the human princes when the egg is revealed to have been stolen rather than destroyed – and similarly to Avatar, she and the human princes are the focus of a quest to restore the dragon prince to the dragons for peace rather than war.

The animation was a little uneven in the first season, but the showrunners improved it in the second season – and the narrative beats became more compelling in the latter (although that slows down somewhat in subsequent seasons). The Dragon Prince is influenced by Avatar in all the best ways – and you just might find it scratching the itch left by the finale of Avatar.

 

Also – take note, Rings of Power once again, this is how you do diversity in a fantasy setting, African elves and all.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(5) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2)

“We’re Vox Machina – we f**k sh*t up!”

Yes – it’s Dungeons & Dragons, the animated adaptation of the first campaign of Critical Role, a weekly web video of voice actors playing the game. And it would seem surprisingly effective condensing the story out of what is presumably much messier game play. Let’s just say the alignments tend towards chaotic

So yes – it features its ensemble cast as a classic D & D adventuring party: ax-crazy goliath barbarian Grog, insecure half-elf druid Keyleth, aristocratic human gunslinger Percy, brash gnome cleric Pike, snarky half-elf twins ranger Vex and rogue Vax, and of course everyone’s favorite lecherous comic relief, gnome bard Scanlon.

Because everyone loves bards! Does anyone not play bards as lovable sex maniacs? I’m pretty sure it’s a class feature

The first season also featured a superb antagonist necromancer-vampire duo in Sylas and Delilah Blackwood, the latter voiced by Grey DeLisle, who always does good villainess voice.

 

And again – Rings of Power take note this is how you do it…

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(4) INVINCIBLE
(2021 – PRESENT: SEASON 1)

“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!”

Beware the Superman!

It often seems that the deconstruction of superheroes – particularly along the lines of the trope beware the superman – is more popular these days than the more straightforward narratives of them as heroic figures.

Certainly that seems to be the case for two of the most popular series on Amazon Prime – live-action series The Boys, and this animated series, each adapted from a comic of the same name. In the case of Invincible, it was adapted from a comic series that ran from 2003 to 2018, by none other than Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead fame – although I prefer Invincible, both for the comic and its adaptation. For that matter, I tend to prefer Invincible to The Boys for the breadth and depth of its superhero universe, which features a more DC or Marvel style universe with aliens, parallel dimensions and supernatural beings – although usually with a twist in the tropes.

We are introduced to the titular superhero as Mark Grayson, pretty much your typical high school student, except that he is the son of Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet – and just maturing into his own superhero powers, inherited from his father.

And that’s where things start to get complicated, as he quickly learns there is much more to this world than meets the eye – with some jaw-dropping twists and turns along the way, particularly concerning his own father – including a season finale montage which indicates things are just starting to heat up for Invincible.

The animated adaptation has an all-star voice cast, most notably with J.K. Simmons as its Superman character, Omni-Man (or Nolan Grayson as he is in his everyday suburban life).

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

(3) HARLEY QUINN
(2019-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)

“No way! It’s got comedy, action, incredibly gratuitous violence, and unlike that Deadpool cartoon, it’s actually coming out!”

Now this is how you do Harley Quinn!

Harley Quinn has split off from the Joker and aspires to become the criminal queenpin of Gotham with best friend Poison Ivy and a motley crew of henchmen – Doctor Psycho, Clayface and King Shark. Of course, setting out to become queenpin isn’t going to be easy – but it does make for a fun f-bomb-dropping adult animated series that is by turns “crude, raunchy, violent and completely shameless about all of it”, not to mention a blackly comic parody of the DC comics and cinematic universes.

Add in a stellar voice cast (led by Kaley Cuoco, who voices Harley Quinn to perfection matched only by Margot Robbie in hot pants) and you’ve got a winning formula, particularly in its “grasp of what makes its titular antiheroine so beloved”. As per Caroline Framke of Variety – “Most importantly, Harley gets to be an entire person all her own, as heartbreakingly naive as she is wickedly strange and funny”. It also demonstrates that she’s more than just eye candy – although she plays that to her advantage – but also surprisingly effective in combat and crime with her gymnastic ability, as well as smart and indeed insightful into her own state of mind (when she chooses to be).

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

 

(2) RICK AND MORTY
(2013 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-6)

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!! It’s fine! Everything is fine! There’s an infinite number of realities, Morty! And a few dozen of those, I got lucky and turned everything back to normal! I just had to find one of those realities in which we also happen to both die around this time. Now we can just slip into the place of our dead selves in this reality, and everything’ll be fine. We’re not skipping a beat, Morty. Now help me with these bodies”.

As its second place entry indicates, Rick & Morty is the best animated series bar one, ever since its premiere in 2013 – “If you haven’t watched Rick and Morty, a cartoon about the adventures of a mad scientist and his hapless grandson, teleport to the nearest screen and shove every episode into your eyes as soon as possible.”

Rick and Morty was inspired by Back to the Future, if Doc Brown was a caustic alcoholic sociopath and Marty his ever more progressively traumatized grandson – and instead of travelling through time, they hop dimensions throughout the multiverse. It plays with, parodies, satirizes, subverts and deconstructs tropes across the range of popular science fiction and fantasy.

The focus is of course on the titular characters (both of whom voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) and their bizarre misadventures – as mad scientist (and maternal grandfather) Rick Sanchez constantly pulls Morty Smith, a hapless high school student (whom Roiland voices with the perfect distressed wail), and increasingly, Morty’s older sister Summer, out of their normal lives to go on abstract trips across the multiverse for purposes that are never usually expressed. However, the rest of the Smith family is also comedy gold – particularly Morty’s harried and insecure father Jerry (perfectly voiced by Chris Parnell), who is also increasingly (and often unwillingly) dragged into the duo’s adventures. As such, the general formula consists of the juxtaposition of two conflicting scenarios – the intergalactic or interdimensional adventures of the eponymous duo, intercut with family drama. (Co-creator Dan Harmon has referred to it as a cross between The Simpsons and Futurama, balancing family life with heavy science fiction). At the center of it all is Rick, who drinks and behaves like a jerk most of the time – although he has saved the Earth at least once by getting schwifty.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

(1) ARCHER
(2009 – 2023: SEASONS 1-14)

“Every single noun and verb in that sentence totally arouses me!”

Indeed, as does every episode of my favorite animated TV series Archer, still running strong from its debut in 2009. Although perhaps a more descriptive tagline might be that used by TV Tropes from this exchange between the titular character, Sterling Mallory Archer (codenamed Duchess) and his mother:

“Most secret agents don’t tell every harlot from here to Hanoi that they are a secret agent!”

“Then why be one?”

Aptly described as James Bond meets Arrested Development, the series is about the title protagonist, a dysfunctional spy, working for a dysfunctional spy agency headed by his mother, in which virtually everyone and everything is dysfunctional. Even the time setting of the series is dysfunctional – it is “comically anachronistic, deliberately mixing technology, clothing styles and historical backdrops of different decades”, not to mention the Soviet Union. (“How are you a superpower?”):

“What year is this?”
“I know, right?”

Archer has a reputation, certainly in his own mind, as the world’s most dangerous spy – and he might well be, but for his negligence or incompetence fuelled by one of his many vices and his tendency to remain oblivious to everything but himself. “His primary interest in the job is the opportunity to enjoy a jet-setting lifestyle full of sex, alcohol, thrills, lacrosse, fast cars, designer clothing, and spy gadgets” – hence, my adoption of him as my spirit animal. (After all, who doesn’t want to go on a cobra whiskey bender in Thailand?)

However, he is proficient in field work or stereotypical spy skills – weapons (including an uncanny ability to keep track of every shot fired), combat and driving – although in large part this is driven by the complete lack of any sense of his own mortality or ability to take situations seriously (accompanied by a childlike or adolescent delight in them).

Archer is one of the few (or perhaps only) animated series I recommend to people who are not otherwise a fan of animated series, because in style (including its realistic art style) resembles a live action series – indeed, with a few cosmetic changes, it could be a live-action series. (Well, if only H. Jon Benjamin resembled the appearance of Archer as well as providing his voice – man, I love his voice!). It certainly is a series that improves with watching it (in sequence) over time – as TV Tropes notes, the series’ humor “relies heavily on call backs and running gags alongside a large ensemble cast”, many of whom are recurring and as much a source of character humor as Archer himself.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

TV – ANIMATION: TOP 10 (TIER LIST)

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)
(1) ARCHER (2009-2023: SEASONS 1-14)
(2) RICK & MORTY (2013-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-7)

If Archer is my Old Testament of TV animation, Rick and Morty is my New Testament.

And as an exception to the rule of the highly fluid nature of my TV top tens, Archer has good prospects of enduring in top spot (and my interest) beyond its peak quality – and its final season, Season 14 in 2023.

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)
(3) HARLEY QUINN (2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)
(4) INVINCIBLE (2021 – PRESENT: SEASON 1)
(5) VOX MACHINA (2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2)

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
(6) THE DRAGON PRINCE (2018 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-5)
(7) PRIMAL (2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-2)
(8) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS (2018 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)
(9) ARCANE (2021 – PRESENT: SEASON 1)

X-TIER (WILD TIER)
(10) INSIDE JOB (2021-2022: SEASON 1)