Series: Firefly (FOX, 2002) Episodes: 14 Streaming: Netflix Time it took to binge: My Saturday This is one that took me awhile to get too.
This is Firefly, a show that, no matter where you look, is always featured in a list of shows that were "Unfairly Cancelled" or "Gone Too Soon."
image via: wikia.com
Created by Joss Whedon (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Marvel's The Avengers) Firefly is a Western that focuses on a group of smugglers. The twist? This is a Western set in outer space in the 22nd century.
Leading the cast is Nathan Fillion as badass extraordinaire Malcolm Reynolds. He's a veteran of a universal civil war that had him fighting for an independent army known as "browncoats" (fun fact, this is what fans of the show call themselves.)
After the war, he becomes captain of the Serenity, a ship that resembles a firefly, as he and his crew of oddball characters travel around the galaxy.
The action picks up when Malcolm picks up a doctor, who smuggles in his sister. She's a psychic who went through several highly invasive experiments as a child, and now the government is after her following her escape.
image via: ign.com
Firefly has all thesignature elements of a Whedon show. We have the fast-paced, witty dialogue that made Buffy so famous, as well as a quirky premise that makes the show so unique. That's probably why the show was cancelled, this show was so..odd. The show had several Western motifs that made this show feel so anarchistic, and yet that was part of the charm. The show provided a ton of swashbuckling fun that shouldn't have worked, and yet oddly enough it did. Luckily, the show has lived on. first in a series of comic books that serve as a sequel to the series, then a 2005 threatrical film (that was seriously awful, but whatever) and more comics are coming out, so yay!
Series: Scooby-Doo!: Mystery Incorporated. 2010-2013 (Cartoon network) Episodes: 26 Streaming on: Netflix Time it took to binge: One Saturday Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is the Scooby-Doo show you never knew you needed.
I probably should've mentioned this last week during my Dilbertbut I'm a huge fan of animation.
Animation is a medium that gives its creators the freedom to provide us with visuals that would be difficult to create in a live-action environment. Much of the visuals are amazing, and when the story it's telling is just as goo
Scooby-Doo was a show that always annoyed me as a kid, and I grew to hate it when I got older. Too me, everything about was so corny and I hated how the success of it's "monster-of-the-week" episodes spawned several live action procedurals.
Mystery Incorporated, however, changes this formula.
While the show still has several "monster-of-the-week" episodes, there's also a strong serial narrative where each episode actually propels the plot forward.
In this nth reboot of Scooby-Doo, scooby and the gang are teens at Crystal Cove, a town prided at being known as "The Most Hauntedest Place on Earth." When the gang attempts to solve the mysteries plaguing their town, they get on everyone's bad side because the town is so dependent on the tourism its haungtings bring in.
In addition to these cases, the Mystery Team discover that there's a sinister secret in their town that involves the original Mystery Team, made up of 4 teenagers and a talking pet parrot, who mysteriously disappeared years ago.
This conspiracy involves an ancient Mayan curse that delves into some intense PG-13 territory. How this show got to air on cartoon network for over 3 years is beyond me. The closest thing to describe this show an animated version of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. The show comes with fast-paced dialogue, mysteries that also serve as metaphors for being a teenager and a great supporting cast (there's a character named Hot Dog Water because she smells like Hot Dog Water.)
There's also a batshit crazy series finale that will remind you of the Season 5 finale of Buffy. And that's a good thing.
image via: scoobydoo.wiki.com
To me, Scooby-Doo was always about how the younger generation should not rely on what the older generation says and use logic and common sense to solve what is going on around them.
Mystery Incorporated continues this tradition by having the gang's parents also involved in the action, in ways that i dare not spoil. All I'll say though, is that having them is great. Whenever I watched the older version as a kid, I was always wondering where their parents were, and this show presents us with the answer. Even the adults are the bad guys!
Also, I love this show for having some incredible pop culture references, ranging from shout-out to classic Hanna Barbera cartoons, to stuff that no one under the age of 13 will get (these include Watchmen, Twin Peaks, Hellraiser, Arrested Development, National Lampoon and more.)
Oh, and in case you ever cared, yes, Daphne and Fred are finally dating in this series. So are Velma and Shaggy in case you ever shipped those two together.
Major kudos must be given to the voice cast, which includes Mathew Lilliard as Shaggy (aka Shaggy from the two live action Scooby-Doo movies) and Fred is voiced by Frank Welker, who has been voicing him since Scooby-Doo first started.
I'm surprised at what they've done to Fred in this series. he was always the blandest character of the series, but the series managed to make him a fully-fledged three-dimensional human being complete with a surprisingly dark secret backstory, and Welkner's voice is somehow able to find new depth to this character that I didn't think was possible. they do the same to the other characters, but its so surprising that this show actually makes you care about Fred.
Overall, Mystery Incorporated is a fun show that is not just THE best Scooby-Doo show, but it's also a great show. Period.
