Steven Universe

[Ragnoros]

EDIT: Quinton did a better job than me of explaining why you should watch the show about half way down the page.

Just got caught up on Steven Universe on a recommendation from my sister/fiance. It is the first show on Cartoon Network to be created/run by a woman and she is hitting it out of the park. Steven Universe is fun, smart, action packed and full of heart.

Rebecca Sugar is behind many of the best episodes of Adventure time, and she continues the ten minute Adventure Time format with less LSD but the same level of character building, continuity, fun, awesomeness and better pacing too. It features women characters Joss Whedon wishes he could write. They are strong, interesting, realistic and flawed. The guys are great too. Although some of the minor characters feel a bit one dimensional given the level of character put into the main cast.

As you can tell by my avatar, I'm a bit biased, but if you watch stuff of this sort it's worth checking out and it won't mess up your kids, other than subverting a few social norms.

EDIT: I was informed by people that I should clarify sister/fiance is in fact two separate persons.

[Khaldun]

It's very good. Fun show.

[shiznitz]

It is the first show on Cartoon Network to be created/run by a woman

Why is this fact relevant or even interesting?

[sickrubik]

Because it's the first show on Cartoon Network, a network that has been around for over 20 years now, to be created/run by a woman.

I'm really not sure where you would be lost on this. Animation is still generally dominated by men, as is most of the entertainment industry still is.

[angry.bob]

Animation is still generally dominated by men, as is most of the entertainment industry still is.

If you follow the animation industry you'll know that it's packed with women up and down the ladder. Just because she's the first at Cartoon Network to get her own show doesn't mean the animation industry is a seething cesspit of misogyny. Rebecca Sugar is extremely talented at a lot of different things and IMO responsible for the bulk of what made Adventure Time a good show. You'll note the show declined quite a bit after she left. She deserved a shot at a show and she got it. A lot of women think they deserve a shot with a great idea and don't get it. It's not because they're women, it's that they're pitching shiity ideas that wouldd fail on the channel. When almost your entire audience is boys age 4-12, stoners, nerds, and manchildren none of those groups wants to watch a preachy show full of SJW empowerment bullshit.

Also, pretty much everything is "generally dominated" by men. Probably because men are about a million times more assertive than women . The shit women will put up with in a workplace, even one that is literally 100% woman is incredible. In fact it's way worse than a coed workplace because at least in that setting they the need to "behave" and not engage in their passive-aggressive bullshit. I get told this right to my face when I get floated to units that have all female staffing.

Steven Universe is a great show.

[sickrubik]

Okay. I said generally. And yes, it's true of every industry.. I wasn't saying animation is worse than anywhere else...

I think we ... agree ... so not really sure what's happening here. Mind you, I would probably argue the whole male/female assertiveness thing to a degree... but that's dancing on a politics thread.

The point is that it's a good show, run by a woman, which is the first for the network. So....

[Ironwood]

People are being dicks.

[angry.bob]

I think we ... agree ... so not really sure what's happening here.

My hot button being pushed. I thought you were implying something you apparently weren't. My apologies.

[Quinton]

Steven Universe is my favorite thing on TV at the moment.  The first few episodes can be a little rough for some people, but I'd encourage anyone to stick with it for a bit, because the show is a lot deeper than the monster-of-the-week format it seems to start with, the characters are a lot of fun, and Steven gets less shrill and more competent pretty quickly (a common initial reaction is finding Steven kinda annoying -- he is in some ways, but he's a kid and the series is about him growing up).  The 9th episode (Tiger Millionaire) really sold the show for me.

The show runners took a no fear approach, going full steam into the end of their first half-season (the two-part ep25/26) picking up the little plot and backstory hints threaded throughout the earlier episodes and raising the stakes significantly, willing to go out on a huge cliff-hanger (overall plot-wise) if they didn't get picked up for more episodes, and it seems to have paid off as they got green-lit for the second half of season one, 52 more episodes for season two, and just recently 52 episodes of season three were ordered.

I feel like there really are no "filler" episodes -- every one further develops characters, backstory, or both.  Minor characters get fleshed out in later episodes, which is fun.  Once season one wrapped up with a week of plot-heavy episodes and a pretty epic two-part finale, I went back and rewatched it end-to-end and feel it all holds up really well (and there are a ton of subtle little hints and clues and events that stand out further given what happens throughout the season).  Season two is off to a great start.

Rebecca Sugar has stated that one of the principles behind the show design is to be funny without being cruel and I think they pull it off well -- there's plenty of humor, but it's not mean, and there's deeper stuff going on too.  It's notable for being progressive but not preachy or moralizing and enjoys subverting traditional story elements and tropes.

Any way, I like it a lot and think it's worth a look.

I advise avoiding spoilers, but once you're caught up there's a huge pile of production art, storyboard bits, episode promo art, etc at the official show blog: http://stevencrewniverse.tumblr.com/

And there's also the in-universe blog of Ronaldo Fryman: http://keepbeachcityweird.tumblr.com/

[shiznitz]

The point is that it's a good show, run by a woman, which is the first for the network. So....

There you go.

[Merusk]

This show messes with my headspace and I can't figure out why. It's good, but I can't get the, "Wow this is out there. Why am I watching this?," voice to shut the fuck up sometimes.

[angry.bob]

It really is a great show. I just hope it continues to be great and survives the type of  attention it's attracting without being influenced and fucking things up.

[Quinton]

It really is a great show. I just hope it continues to be great and survives the type of  attention it's attracting without being influenced and fucking things up.

The network has been crazy supportive of the show-runners, ordering the second season (52 episodes) along with the second half of season one (26 episodes) and ordering a third season of 52 episodes just as season one was finishing.  The production process runs (based on comments by show staff) roughly 50 episodes ahead of what's on-air right now -- something they've repeatedly pointed out whenever anyone theorizes that anything is the result of reaction to the fanbase or other external pressures.  There's been a lot of doom and gloom predicting cancellation from the network for various reason, but nothing has ever materialized.  I suspect they're going to do fine.