So I know I'm a little late to the party, but... · 4:07am Mar 22nd, 2021
DuckTales (2017) is a show that managed to, in my opinion, not have a single bad episode in its entire run. I'm saying this as someone with no nostalgia for the original - I never watched it. But from beginning to its recent series finale, this show was nothing short of amazing...and given that I didn't start watching it until after Friendship is Magic ended, it's definitely served as a much-needed balm over the past couple years.
The series finale in particular was pitch-perfect to the series, matching the tone and the theme, paying off the season and the series worth of buildup, and overall just leaving me incredibly satisfied. Without spoiling anything, I'm confident that there's people who will nitpick this or that thing in it, but not me. The only disappointment I feel is that the show's over - but that's a good disappointment.
I would love to share in this excitement
Sadly I have not been able to watch season 3 yet. But I have high hopes!
Highly enjoyed the first and second season, and haven't had a chance to check out the third, but glad to hear it was something you enjoyed. Heightens my anticipation for when I'm able to watch it myself.
The DuckTales finale has brought me back to a topic that I keep chewing over and I’d welcome thoughts from other people. The show nearest and dearest to my heart is and will likely always remain, of course, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I adore the show, the characters, the music, etc. It became a cultural phenomenon because of how smart, funny and even sophisticated it was compared to all the expectations that initially greeted it. It deserves its place in animated history.
But I’m far from blind to its faults. The overall quality started to dip quite a bit in the latter half of the series, with episodes ranging from truly fantastic to truly dreadful: repeated lessons, some morals that are terrible for children, idiot plot-driven mischaracterization, pointless character regressions, sometimes outright character assassination, the heroes behaving in unlikable ways, episodes that try to make one character out to be in the wrong while the others are behaving far worse, etc. I could harp on this for hours. But part of me recognizes that’s just par for the course for a more episodic series, especially when it reaches 9 seasons and over 200 episodes: there will be some duds. I may hate it, but it is virtually inevitable.
This is often the case with many more long-running episodic series with no real planned ending. The quality varies greatly over time, with amazing highs and abominable lows. When folks talk about things like seasonal rot or a series outliving itself and just shambling along, they usually mean episodic series like Simpsons or Family Guy. Bad episodes are inevitable.
But what about when it DOESN’T happen?
MLP was at the forefront, the crest of a wave, of truly great animated series that flooded the airwaves from 2010 to the present, a veritable new golden age of animation. But barring some exceptions, most of the best of these series were more serialized arc series telling a grand over-arching narrative. Most had at least some idea from the beginning of how long the series would be and when and how it would end, usually lasting only around two to four seasons. Just enough time to tell their one big story and then draw it to a close. There tended to be a plan in place, in other words.
When a show is written that way, with knowledge about where things have to reach and what goalposts have to be hit by the time it wraps up story-wise and character-wise, the writing feels a lot tighter and a lot more consistent. While not every single episode necessarily advances the overarching story, the characterization and writing quality tends to keep at a fairly consistent level, and it's often a high one.
(A drawback to this approach is that when a series is a single arc, then it’s sometimes harder for individual episodes to really distinguish themselves and they run the risk of blurring together. I might have favorite scenes, but favorite episodes are a bit harder to determine. An episode can be amazing to watch because it pays off for a season's development, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily as great to rewatch on its own again and again.
The other drawback is that if the payoff to the arc isn’t handled well, then that tends to spoil the goodwill built up till then, even if the majority of the show itself is still really good. This happened with the final season of Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Voltron: Legendary Defender, or, to use a more infamous if non-animated example, Game of Thrones. Bad episodes of a more episodic series are more easily lost in the shuffle, by way of comparison).
DuckTales, Owl House, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, Infinity Train, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Dragon Prince (among others) all fall into this general arc-category I'm describing above (as does Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gargoyles, though they came a bit before this period).
When it comes to shows like DuckTales and Gravity Falls, I have the experience of not being able to think of a single episode I consider bad in either show’s entire run. Not one. There were some that were, perhaps, a touch blander or not as outstanding as others by comparison, but one I disliked or had a negative experience while watching? Not a single solitary one.
For MLP, I wish I could say the same, but there the episodes I don’t like watching are not weak or bland only by comparison to other, better MLP episodes—the bad episodes of MLP are just plain bad. Some were so terrible I almost quit watching the series and eventually did give up on Equestria Girls, cold-turkey.
But by the same token, as much as I loved DuckTales, Gravity Falls and those other series I listed, and however much the bad episodes of MLP still make me froth with rage—I never commissioned art for those other series, seldom felt the urge to read fanfics about those, much less write any of my own. It’s only MLP that I’ve done that for, so I’m wasn’t certain if my views towards the lack of bad episodes in DuckTales or Gravity Falls reflected if those series were just that good, or if I just wasn’t as emotionally invested as I was in MLP. I’m still not totally sure.
It pains me to admit that MLP isn’t as well-written as those other series and I dearly wish it had been—but despite that, for some reason, I still find myself caring more about it than other series that honesty compels me to conclude are overall better.
I had only watched the first season. It’s an awesome show. I would probably watch more episodes soon.
Late to the game here myself, but I ditto all of this--the show had an amazing run, and the only real downside about it I'd have to list is that it's now over...but at least it ended on a heck of a high note.
And now it could also pave the way for a likely Darkwing Duck reboot show too, and as a diehard DW fan, I can't say no to that.
Before the series ended, I was hoping to see Merlock the Magician (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) make an appearance in the show. Now that it concluded, though, I’m hoping that he’d be featured in a sequel film to the show instead.