Everything Wrong with Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles (feat. Dan)

Let's see, what to do, what to do... Should I write another chapter of ONAS? Nah, I'm out of ideas. Write my review of Rainbow Rocks? If only a high quality bootleg of it appeared on YouTube... Hey. Hey, Dan.
Dan: Yeah?
Kirb: Wanna do a crossover?
Dan: Sure. What do you have in mind?
Kirb: The Goliath Chronicles.
Dan: OH HELL NO! Please tell me there's something else we can watch! Aren't there some My Little Pony episodes we can look at instead?
Kirb: Sorry man, MLP won't be making any episodes until next year! Guess they really think this whole Equestria Girls thing will actually take off.. stupid fuckers.
Dan: I'm sorry, it's just that I'm really not wanting to talk about this show.
Kirb: Well, before we talk about this show, let's talk about... um, this show.

Dan: As many of you know, Kirb and I are big fans of the '90s Disney TV show Gargoyles. Kirb has made many fanarts and a fanfiction of it, I consider it one of the greatest animated series ever made, and both of us have seen every episode and own all of seasons 1 and 2. The show, about stone gargoyles from 10th century Scotland who wake up after a thousand-year stone sleep, aired on the Disney Afternoon programming block, which also brought us several other quality TV shows like Darkwing Duck and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
Kirb: Gargoyles was at its peak by the end of its second season in 1996, which was also the time when the Disney Afternoon sadly ended due to some of its new programming--such as Quack Pack and Bonkers--not being up to par with their other stuff. Many fans think the show ended at this point, but actually it was picked up by Disney's One Saturday Morning block on ABC. But apparently the new overlords--er, I mean "distributors"--thought the show wasn't child-friendly enough and needed to be more insulting to children's intelligence. This resulted in most of the original team of animators and writers being replaced, and show co-creator and producer Greg Weisman being reduced to creative consultant.

Dan: This season was rebranded as The Goliath Chronicles, and has been universally despised ever since. Fans refused to accept it into their canon, the show creators have created their own version of what happened after season 2, and even Disney was so ashamed of it that they never gave it a DVD release and have pulled all episodes of it from YouTube.
Kirb: But the question still remains. Is it really worth all that hate?
Dan: Are you even questioning this? It couldn't get worse if Michael Bay was directing it.
Kirb: I know, I know, but we have a review to do. So let's look at the Goliath Chronicles.

I'm not ashamed to admit I downloaded all the episodes of this season before they were pulled. Actually, yeah I am ashamed, but hopefully writing this review makes up for it. Just look at that new intro. They must have blown their entire budget just on that cheesy CGI and yet it still isn't nearly as awesome as the old intro.
Dan: For this season, the game was almost entirely changed. Now I'm not saying it didn't go through its changes in previous seasons. Season 1 followed the gargoyles trying to adapt to the new environment of '90s New York. Season 2 followed them protecting the city from danger while trying to remain hidden from the humans, as well as dealing with supernatural threats and partaking in the "Avalon World Tour," a great story arc that took up a large percentage of the season. In The Goliath Chronicles, the changes were mostly related to the finale of season 2, where the town found out that the gargoyles were real and ex-villain David Xanatos saved them from being lynched.
Kirb: A big complaint I've heard about the show is that it hammered in a message about prejudice but to be honest I never minded it. Prejudice is going to happen in a case like this, and in the show it's dealt wih in a subtle and mature manner, at times only seeming slightly forced. In this season, it's REALLY forced. Like, UNCOMFORTABLY forced. What do I mean by that? Well, now that the town knows about the gargoyles, an anti-gargoyle cult has established that goes out at night trying to kill the gargoyles while wearing masks.

Dan: And that's pretty much this season: the gargoyles fighting and fleeing prosecution by this really lame anti-gargoyle KKK called the Quarrymen. No supernatural things, no entertaining storylines, none of those pesky elements that made the old Gargoyles so great. This is the "new and improved" Gargoyles! Which is basically another version of the X-Men animated series, only less entertaining.
Kirb: "But wait!" I hear you ask. "You said these are the new villains! Don't any of the old villains appear?" Well, um... Demona is in one episode, but doesn't really do anything. Thailog and the other clones also show up--not sure how Thailog is still alive after we saw him get killed in season 2--and they don't really do anything. Macbeth appears in a debate on a TV show and doesn't really do anything. The members of the Pack make short cameos where they don't really do anything. And we never see anything about Puck, Oberon or any of the other great baddies they fought in the show.
Dan: But by far the biggest disappointment in the villain category is Xanatos. As I mentioned, he's an ex-villain, one of the choices of the season 2 finale. And if the show had ended there, I can see that. But here? Nobody wants to see him as a good guy, because everybody remembers him as one of the great cartoon villains! We don't want to see his happily married life with his son and wife!
Kirb: Speaking of which, let's talk about Xanatos's wife for a second. To this season's credit, it keeps every character in-character most of the time. The biggest exception however, is Xanatos' wife and former member of the Pack, Fox. In this season she's portrayed as a useless dumbass in distress. For example, in one episode the Quarrymen threaten to kill her son Alexander, and she responds to this news by crying in a chair and doing absolutely nothing. Now here's what she did a season earlier when Alexander was threatened.

JESUS! FOX IS PACKIN'! Doesn't really fucking add up, does it?
Dan: Now you may wonder to yourself, "Surely the episode plots will redeem this, right?" Well, to this season's very little credit, the very first episode, "The Journey," wasn't half bad. Apparently, this was the last episode that Greg Weisman wrote, and it shows. It still captures a lot of the feel of the original seasons. Some points are cheesy, but overall it's still good. Sadly, though, that's the last of the good episode plots, for everything changed when the Cliche Nation attacked.
Kirb: So it did, Dan. So it did. For the most part, earlier episodes of the show strayed away from overused plots. In this season, on the other hand... ugh, saying some of these episode plots aloud makes me tremble. Okay, so we get one episode called "...For May It Come True" where Goliath discovers that all this time he was really a human married to Elisa, but everything has changed and Xanatos is still evil, but we just can't get into it because it's so obviously a dream! Even Jimmy Stewart and the cast of It's A Wonderful Life would be like "Dude, that shit is old."
Dan: And other episodes are like that, too. There's an episode called "A Bronx Tail" that centers on Bronx befriending a human boy. Yeah, a dog and a boy. That hasn't been used a billion times before or anything. There's another one called "And Justice for All."

God, I wish. No, this episode involves Goliath being put on trial. Why would he be put on trial? He's a frikkin' gargoyle! Oh yeah, and apparently the new writers liked the cliched plot about one of the gargoyles leaving the clan and trying to go solo SO MUCH, that they used it not once, but twice! This doesn't even feel like Gargoyles anymore! This feels like bad fanfiction that somehow got a budget.
Kirb: Well obviously it didn't get a very big budget because the animation here has been significantly downgraded from the original show. Here's a screenshot from season 2:

And now here's one from TGC:

It's a shame because I wouldn't even call this bad animation, it's just downgraded from what we've come to expect. Guess most of their budget went into depicting the love triangle between Broadway, Angela and Brooklyn.
Dan: Oh great, now that you've mentioned it, I have to talk about it. Yes indeed, if you didn't think they couldn't fit any more cliches into this series, they throw a love triangle at us. I am dead serious. Okay, maybe there's somebody out there who wants to see the gargoyle version of Twilight, but it's certainly not me.
Kirb: Actually, hell, the love triangle isn't even there for most of it. It appears in one episode when Brooklyn sees Angela kissing Broadway, and is never brought up again. Consistency, TV show! You need consistency!
Dan: And that's another thing. In the season 2 episode, "Possession," it was briefly hinted that Broadway and Angela could become a couple. In season 3, it feels like we've skipped a few months because the two of them are just a couple now, no questions asked. Kirb, even you knew in your sub-par MLP crossover fanfiction, Of Night and Stone, that romance needs to develop.
Kirb: Exactly! Wait... hey! ONAS isn't sub-par!
Dan: Heh.
Kirb: Anyway, speaking of underdeveloped romance, remember how at the end of the s2 finale Goliath and Elisa finally confessed their love for each other and kissed?

Well, that should bring a whole new dynamic into the show, right? Actually no, it's rarely ever brought up. Nothing ever happens in their romance, just assume they got amnesia and forgot they were together.
Dan: But back to the episode plots. The ones that aren't incredibly unoriginal are incredibly weird instead. I think the one fans hated the most was "Broadway Goes to Hollywood." Why? Because it's just a stupid premise. The gargoyles are causing unease, so what do they do? Give Broadway a talk show on TV.

What sense does that make?
Kirb: Now remember how I said Greg Weisman lost most creative control of this season? Well, he did make smaller changes, changes that often ended up working. The biggest change was the season finale, "Angels in the Night." The production team's original plan was for the gargoyles and Elisa to leave New York for good and move to Chicago, while Brooklyn and Lexington leave to travel the world, similar to the Avalon World Tour from season 3. But I think Greg Weisman knew at this point that season 3 would be the last, and leaving it on a cliffhanger like that would be disappointing, so he persuaded them to change the ending to a more fitting finale of the gargoyles saving the day, the Quarrymen getting disbanded, and the world finally realizing that the gargoyles are not dangerous.
Dan: Kind of a disappointing finale to a disappointing season, isn't it?
Kirb: You said it.
Dan: Corporate meddling ruins everything.
Kirb: It's like the people in charge of ABC just didn't care. The whole thing feels like a pointless embarrassment. Why did they need to make so many changes to a formula that was already perfect? Why did we need to force the message about prejudice to the point where even Martin Luther King would tell them to shut up? And why did they replace all the original crew from behind it? I know that Greg Weisman and the original writing team created a spinoff comic that takes place after the events of season 2 and forms an alternate series of events, but I can't really judge that since neither Dan nor I have been able to find it, but it's sure as hell going to be better than The Goliath Chronicles.
Dan: As a die-hard fan of the first two seasons of Gargoyles, I don't think that The Goliath Chronicles is as bad as most fans say it is. To be fair, most of the changes in the formula came from the season 2 finale, which I feel was kind of rushed. The animation here still seems nice, and give them credit for keeping all of the original voice actors to reprise their parts. But with that said, yeah, it is pretty bad, and was definitely hard to sit through considering my love of the original show. If I told somebody that Gargoyles was my favorite animated series of all time and they saw one of these episodes, they'd think I was crazy. The Goliah Chronicles. What were they thinking?
Kirb: Well, this review was fun! We should do another sometime!
Dan: We should! What are you reviewing next?
Kirb: Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks.
Dan: And I'm done. Bye.
Kirb: Knew it. Stay tuned everybody for my Rainbow Rocks review!

-Kirb