I wrote about this a while ago, but essentially, I’m a new dad of two beautiful twin boys. As such, I spent a lot of those first 8 weeks with them on the couch, cradling one in my arm, watching a billion shows.

NOTE: These are my personal opinions and should not be treated as yours.

The Premise: Steven discovers his life isn’t exactly normal as he’s drawn into an inter-galactic conflict with all-powerful space gems wishing to conquer the galaxy. Combat, war, feelings, and catchy(?) musical numbers ensue.

What Worked For Me: I get it.

Really, I do.

It’s a show about a gigantic interstellar war with some of the most overt LGBTQ representations on children’s programming. Its protagonist isn’t a typical hero-type kid and the villains are “complex” and “broken.” This is all incredibly unique for a network that reaches millions of kids around the country and showrunner, Rebecca Sugar, should be commended for pitching a show like this.

Bully for them.

But…

What Didn’t Work For Me: Like, I get it? I get it.

That doesn’t make it good for me.

The story never seems to stay on track, swaying between episodic and serialized story-telling. While that might have worked for a show like Avatar the Last Airbender, it most certainly is not handled with the same finesse here. The animation wobbles around the “so-bad-it’s-bad” line, with some episodes having slick animation while the rest do the characters absolutely no favors.

Worst of all, what Sugar and the crew have done is given us an amazing premise with spectacular ideas about humanity, trauma, PTSD, and the horrors of war…THEN decided that the most interesting thing about this interstellar war between gem-Nazis or whatever was to focus on a beach side town.

It’s not good. It’s not good for me.

Final Rating: 1 out of 5.

I understand what they were going for, but that doesn’t mean that they always succeeded. I’d say they hardly ever succeeded.

…But it’s one of the most popular shows on Cartoon Network, with a finale that got nearly 1 million viewers, so, what do I know?

Thanks for reading,

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