SBManiac's (Re)Watch: "Adventure Time" (2010 - 2018)

[SBManiac]

Sup peeps, it's SBManiac here with a new project for the SBC forums: "SBManiac's (Re)Watch," where I revisit TV shows I stopped watching a long time ago and never took the time to finish, though I'm also open to using this format to revisit older shows that I have finished watching or even review shows that are totally new to me as well.

Starting off the proceedings is the now-legendary and quite influential animated television series from Cartoon Network, Adventure Time, a show that I somehow lost track of after its third season in 2012, when the show was still a mostly episodic surreal fantasy comedy, if my memory is correct. So, having an interest as to why this show was and continues to be beloved by so many animation fans, I decided to take it upon myself to revisit the show from the very beginning, making my way through each of the show's 282 11-minute segments (and one 11-minute non-canon special that takes place in Minecraft, apparently) season by season. I understand that Cartoon Network deviated from the production order of the show's seventh and eighth seasons, breaking it up into three separate seasons (what are now known as the show's seventh, eighth and ninth seasons, respectively); however, I will be going by airing order when it comes to reviewing and ranking each season as a whole. Also, yes, I will be watching the Distant Lands and Fionna and Cake miniseries once I am done with the original series as a whole. Watch this topic for updates on those.

My process for this project will be to break up each season of a show into three "chunks" based on that season's episode count, and write my thoughts about each "chunk" after I have finished watching it, with a short summary of my thoughts on the season as a whole at the end of each post. For example, I have already finished watching Adventure Time's first season, and have broken up its 26 episodes into three chunks of nine, nine, and eight episodes, respectively. Each episode of a show will be graded on a scale of 0-10, and so will each season.

Full disclosure: I am not a very efficient binge watcher, somewhat by choice, but mostly because, from my experience, every time I've tried to binge a whole season of a show in a relatively short time, even a show as brief as the original FLCL, I often tend to forget most of what happens in those shows, including both story elements and character traits, since my literally-autistic brain can't handle processing so much information at once. Even something as light as Adventure Time's first season took me about ten days to finish. So, I ask that everyone please be patient with me as I update each (Re)Watch, as these could end up being months-long journeys.

With all that out of the way, let's begin with my thoughts on the first season of Adventure Time, which originally aired from April 5 to September 27, 2010.

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Thoughts on Season 1, part 1 ("Slumber Party Panic" to "My Two Favorite People"), written on 2023/11/22:

So far, it seems like Adventure Time is a kooky, surreal fantasy comedy with more focus on characters and episodic stories than an overarching narrative, at least for now. That being said, after watching the first nine episodes, it’s doing a damn good job of keeping me entertained; while its sense of humor doesn’t always line up with my own, the kaleidoscopic worldbuilding through its different colorful settings (Candy Kingdom, the Ice King’s frozen lair, Finn and Jake’s "tree fort," etc.) and creatures of all sorts (rainicorns, candy people, frozen businessmen) definitely keeps things interesting. I also like the creative approaches to storytelling even at this early stage, such as how “Slumber Party Panic” throws us into the Land of Ooo (as well as Finn and Princess Bubblegum’s contrasting personalities) by way of the characters’ dialogue and actions (Finn is a young thrill-seeking boy, Bubblegum is a mad scientist brainiac who also happens to be royalty), without getting too bogged down in exposition. Another example is the sound-less scene of Lady Rainicorn rescuing Finn from underwater lake knights in the episode “My Two Favorite People,” resembling the lack of sound you’d hear below those depths. While the show at this point is still obviously for kids (episode “The Jiggler” has a standard “don’t take in wild animals for pets” moral, even if the “animal” itself is a jiggling, juice-spewing creature that can’t exist in our world), I’m having a fun time with it and am looking forward to watching more of this first season.

 

Thoughts on Season 1, part 2 ("Memories of Boom Boom Mountain" to "Dungeon"), written on 2023/11/28:

Not a whole lot to add here, besides that these next nine episodes are where Adventure Time’s brand of surreal comedy really starts to hit its stride, especially in episodes like “What is Life,” with its gallows humor concerning one’s purpose and mortality, years before Rick and Morty would do so (this episode also has Andy Milonakis as the pie-throwing robot, surprisingly enough). I appreciate that even this early on, the writers continue to expand the Land of Ooo and give different challenges for Finn and Jake to face, even if the stakes are still pretty low. The team could have easily gone with a formulaic structure of “Finn and Jake rescue Princess Bubblegum/fight the Ice King” every episode (“When Wedding Bells Thaw” does come close to that, though, and it’s my least favorite episode of this part of the season as a result), and it shows the team’s care in telling engaging stories that they didn’t really stick to a formula at all. In short, this part of the season is nothing mind blowing, but still very fun.

 

Thoughts on Season 1, part 3 ("The Duke" to "Gut Grinder"), written on 2023/12/03:

Nothing much to report here, either, other than noting that “Henchman” seems like the beginning of the show’s growing continuity (it has the second appearance of not only Marceline, who is admittedly a vibe, but also the Duke of Nuts, first seen in “The Duke”). While probably my least favorite part of the season due to no real standouts, the key exception here would be “Rainy Day Daydream,” with its clever (in-universe) blending of reality and fantasy leading to a tightly-paced and entertaining episode. I genuinely wish “Gut Grinder” wasn’t so underwhelming a season ending as it is; even as a light, episodic adventure, there are other episodes even in this part of the season that had more interesting and punchy storylines and dialogue, such as the previously mentioned "Henchman," as well as "Donny," and "His Hero." 

 

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Summary:

Overall, this season wasn’t a bad start to the series at all, and I definitely could see AT building a cult following from here due to its loose, wacky artstyle and surreal comedy, which at times even had me in stitches. I do wonder if the show’s change from episodic comedy to layered fantasy narrative will start taking place in Season 2, or if such a change was more gradual throughout the early seasons of the show. 

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Top 5 episodes: “Rainy Day Daydream,” “Henchman,” “What Is Life?”, “Evicted!”, “My Two Favorite People”

Bottom 5 episodes: “The Duke,” “Freak City,” “When Wedding Bells Thaw,” “Gut Grinder,” “The Jiggler”

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Season 1 final score: 9/10 (A-).

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If you've made it this far, I'd like to thank you for reading this beginning of what is hopefully a long and interesting journey of chronicling, reviewing, and hopefully enjoying our favorite TV shows. Hope to see youse back here soon for my rankings and thoughts on Adventure Time, season 2!

Edited December 3, 2023 by SBManiac
Weird formatting on numbered lists - best to do away with them, imo

[WhoBibbles]

I think Adventure Time ages better over time. So I think there's no better time for you to delve into it than now. Season 1 is very underrated to me. Some fans disregard season 1 cuz it doesn't mesh well with stuff that came after but I think it should be appreciated for being a very weird and over the top comedy season. I love Finn and Jake's adventures in this season and humor is top notch. I love the facial expressions and the mature humor (still for kids) they represent here. I don't think animation has ever looked this good again after this season which is a shame. As fr as character introductions go, i think it has done a good job. I love PB, Ice King and Marceline's introductions as well as some others and you'll get to see how these characters change and grow as thhe series goes on. My favorite episodes in s1 are city of thieves, ocean of fear, dungeon and rainy day daydream and your picks are also solid. You can see why this season along with season 1 of Regular Show feel so much different than what came after and how they saved the CN from total annihilation. So yeah, I loved your reviews for this season. Can't wait for rest of your season reviews.

[SBManiac]

WE'RE BACK!

Sorry for taking so damn long to watch another season--a lot has been going on with my personal life lately, but I've finally been able to catch up!

Anyone interested in my episode (and later on, season) rankings can look at my master doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/101bjY0onyYALsnhzV0eIUrzFDHmrq70g8SrH_mi_Li4/edit?usp=sharing

This time, we'll be discussing the second season of Adventure Time, which originally aired from October 11, 2010 to May 9, 2011. Buckle up, people, this is gonna be a long one!

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Thoughts on Season 2, part 1 ("It Came from the Nightosphere" to "The Other Tarts"), written on 2023/12/14:

So, what I’ve noticed from this first “chunk” of episodes is that Adventure Time is, slowly but surely, growing up with its audience. I believe this is the case through the addition of two major themes in the season so far: the characters being in mortal peril (for example, Finn literally almost gets the life sucked out of him in both “It Came from the Nightosphere” and “Blood Under the Skin”), and some characters dealing with parental trauma (see Marceline’s “Daddy, why’d you eat my fries” song from “Nightosphere” and Jake’s troubled recollections of his father in “Crystals Have Power”). While the show is still very much in “goofy episodic adventure” mode, I do appreciate the writers taking more risks with how big the stakes are in this season. I also appreciate how the writers refuse to stick to a formula or setting for every episode, with a notable example being “Loyalty to the King,” which shows just what would happen if the Ice King actually had the princesses fall in love with him. (Spoilers: he still turns them away due to his revolting personality once the princesses find out who he is, and they beat him up at the end of the episode. Girl power lmao!) 

 

If there’s any critique I have so far, it’s that the show might be a bit too overt with its sexual innuendo, even if said innuendo is coming from the antagonists of the story, like in “Power Animal” and “Crystals Have Power.” (The idea that someone wrote a bunch of adult gnomes forcing Finn, who is a child, to do “sexy pole dancing” to power up some sort of earth-moving machine in the former episode still strikes me as very questionable, but I’ll digress since I don’t think the framing of the episode condones such behavior.) 

Either way, a great start to the season, and hopefully more great episodes to come!

Thoughts on Season 2, part 2 ("To Cut a Woman's Hair" to "Susan Strong"), written on 2023/12/26:

Very, very sorry for the delay here! It’s been a quite hectic holiday season for yours truly - if you know, you know. 

 

When it comes to this second “chunk” of Season 2, things seem to be “business as usual” concerning the stories and character development, at least in the first few episodes that aired in 2011 (around “To Cut a Woman’s Hair” to “The Silent King”); in other words, the focus is still on goofy adventures, wacky comedy, and relative lightheartedness. While Princess Bubblegum starts appearing more often towards the end of this chunk in supporting roles—especially in “The Real You,” which we’ll get to—Ice King’s role seems to become more limited as an antagonist, only appearing in “The Chamber of Frozen Blades.”

 

To be honest, I don’t have much beef with Ice King as a character; he’s more or less an incel with ice superpowers, and is rightfully framed by the writers as a socially stunted jerk. However, the Ice King is actually given some relatability and sympathy in “The Chamber of Frozen Blades” (he shares an interest in ninjas with Finn and Jake and even Finn himself states that invading the Ice King’s privacy by reading his diary would be wrong), and I do appreciate the nuance applied to his character here.

 

That being said, I want to focus on three episodes in particular: “Her Parents,” “The Real You,” and “Susan Strong,” as they seem to be the beginning of a couple of long-reaching story arcs.

 

“Her Parents,” while ostensibly a slice-of-life story about Jake pretending to be a rainicorn to impress his girlfriend’s parents, has the bombshell revelation at the end that the reason rainicorns eat “soy people” is because humans like Finn are not too common in the Land of Ooo…and this is written as a joke that can be easily ignored if you’re not paying attention to the dialogue, which is honestly a fresh take on foreshadowing such an important plot detail. This bit of worldbuilding will lead to “Susan Strong,” which directly deals with Finn’s search for other humans like him, and is arguably one of the best episodes of the show so far. In my opinion, this episode makes Finn showing Susan everything about the Land of Ooo in an honest attempt to connect with a kindred spirit pretty poignant, while still keeping a light-hearted and humorous tone in the writing.

 

As for “The Real You,” I enjoy how the episode puts the dynamic between Finn and Princess Bubblegum into sharp focus, with Finn’s insecurities over “not being smart enough” to win Bubblegum’s love almost destroying the Candy Kingdom by way of an intelligence-boosted Finn blowing a fourth-dimensional bubble! Also, between you and me, I already get the feeling that Bubblegum just isn’t into Finn like that, though I’ll wait for confirmation of that from the show itself before sharing any more thoughts on it.

 

The point is, this show is still really fucking weird, but now it’s getting weird in a way that seems honest, personal, and profound, even. Can’t wait to see more!

 

Thoughts on Season 2, part 3 ("Mystery Train" to "Heat Signature"), written on 2024/01/03:

This chunk of episodes continues the trend of silly, if somewhat darker, episodic adventures as well as some development on Finn’s awkward attempts at romance, as seen in “Go with Me,” and Finn blundering through trying to get Bubblegum to watch a movie with him in that episode is honestly freaking adorable. Kid knows he has feelings for her, but is too damn clueless to know what to do with them or even how to express them, which also comes up in “Mortal Folly”/”Mortal Recoil” (case in point: “the power of luh-luh-liking someone a lot!!!”). 

 

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for “Mortal Folly”/“Mortal Recoil” – there will probably be more of these spoiler warnings as we move forward with this series, so be on the lookout.

 

Speaking of those last two episodes, I definitely was not expecting the show to have a “serious” story until later on in Season 3, even if the tone of the show had already shifted by this point from “silly, wacky adventures” to “silly, wacky adventures that could actually kill the main characters.” In any case, this dramatic two-parter was definitely welcome.

 

I will try to give the briefest of plot summaries: While Finn and Jake are meditating with Princess Bubblegum in the Candy Kingdom, an ancient malevolent force known as The Lich intrudes on Bubblegum’s thoughts, and by way of a brainwashed snail (because of course, this is Adventure Time we’re talking about here), The Lich is released into the Land of Ooo to once again decimate all forms of life. Also, Ice King shows up to nicely ask Finn if he can take Princess Bubblegum as his bride. Can Finn and Jake rise to the occasion and defeat The Lich?

 

While the first part is perhaps a bit awkwardly paced, the “Mortal” two-parter was not a bad attempt at writing a dramatic story at all. There’s still plenty of humor due to Ice King’s and later Jake’s misreading of the situation regarding Princess Bubblegum, and there’s actual real dramatic tension involving whether Bubblegum, a ruler of a kingdom that is literally populated by anthropomorphic sweets and pastries, could even survive being dropped into The Lich’s well of lost souls. This bizarre but enticing mix of the macabre and the absurd may be the beginning of what made Adventure Time great as a whole, and it’s already a fitting payoff to the darker themes explored earlier in the season on its own. 

 

As for how this two-parter was concluded…while I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see The Lich not really be defeated (he seems to have “final boss” energy already from his brief depiction here), I had completely forgotten that, in the attempt to once again save her life and not having enough bubblegum left to do so, Princess Bubblegum has been aged down to 13 years old–an apparent perfect match for Finn, who is also 13 by this point. This seems like it would create an even more interesting dynamic between the two–maybe Bubblegum might actually have feelings for Finn this time around? Maybe Finn might learn how to appropriately express his own feelings for her? All I know is that I am way more intrigued by this plot twist than Regular Show’s seasons-long “will they, won’t they” bullcrap when it comes to its own portrayal of romance (we’ll get to RS eventually, don’t you worry). But hey, I guess we’ll find out what happens in Season 3!

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Top 5 (in ascending order): “The Real You,” “Video Makers,” “Susan Strong,” “It Came from the Nightosphere,” “Mortal Recoil”

 

Bottom 5: I don’t feel one is really necessary for this season, it was pretty solid all around.

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Season 2 final score: 9.5/10 (A)

[WhoBibbles]

Great s2 review. AT in season 2 imo is still a pretty wacky and hilarious show but you notice the shift to a more serious and more epic road down the way. You get to see side characters becoming more sympathetic and interesting than their earliest appearances and the show is slowly coming to terms with the world it's built and you start to see some of it being unfold in s2 (Susan Strong being one of the first steps) and I'm not gonna delve into it too much but even in there, it has only started to scratch the surface. It has really fun adventures with some good character work in between. I'm surprised you were more in favor of Mortal Recoil cuz I remember Mortal Folly being more liked by fans in general but both parts are banger to me anyways. The Lich is such a menacing villain with amazing speeches and quotes (bless Ron Perlman for his delightful performance). I'm really curious about what your thoughts on s3 will be cuz I consider s3 as a transitional season, it's the season when Adventure Time starts to become a really philosophical and dark show with larger than life themes but it doesn't lose the sense of fun and wackiness.

[SBManiac]

 

12 minutes ago, WhoBibbles said:

Great s2 review. AT in season 2 imo is still a pretty wacky and hilarious show but you notice the shift to a more serious and more epic road down the way. You get to see side characters becoming more sympathetic and interesting than their earliest appearances and the show is slowly coming to terms with the world it's built and you start to see some of it being unfold in s2 (Susan Strong being one of the first steps) and I'm not gonna delve into it too much but even in there, it has only started to scratch the surface. It has really fun adventures with some good character work in between. I'm surprised you were more in favor of Mortal Recoil cuz I remember Mortal Folly being more liked by fans in general but both parts are banger to me anyways. The Lich is such a menacing villain with amazing speeches and quotes (bless Ron Perlman for his delightful performance). I'm really curious about what your thoughts on s3 will be cuz I consider s3 as a transitional season, it's the season when Adventure Time starts to become a really philosophical and dark show with larger than life themes but it doesn't lose the sense of fun and wackiness.

 

I'd like to thank you for your responses (and jjs for his in our Discord DMs)--they have been incredibly insightful and helped me put some things into context!

While I'm definitely invested enough to want to watch AT till its very end, I'm wondering if I should detour into another, shorter series before diving into Season 3...definitely something to ponder lmao

[WhoBibbles]

10 hours ago, SBManiac said:

 

 

I'd like to thank you for your responses (and jjs for his in our Discord DMs)--they have been incredibly insightful and helped me put some things into context!

While I'm definitely invested enough to want to watch AT till its very end, I'm wondering if I should detour into another, shorter series before diving into Season 3...definitely something to ponder lmao

I forgot to mention but my favorite episodes of this season would be It Came from the Nightosphere, The Chamber of Frozen Blades, Death in Bloom, Susan Strong and Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil. Death in Bloom is arguably one of the funniest eps of the series and The Chamber of Frozen Blades is amazing Ice King hijinks