Amphibia - Série 1

Amphibia is created by Matt Braly, who was a part of the production team of the TV show Gravity Falls, however, the first season turned out to be quite a disappointment. It has no real charm, lacks suspense, and even a bit of originality. If such productions are supposed to reveal something about their creator, then from what I have seen so far, I would say that Matt Braly is a guy from the American deep south who grew up on a farm, and as a young kid loved observing animals (like catching frogs in a jar...) and had a close relationship with his grandfather... Am I right about that? Well, actually I have no idea, although the nature of this TV show seems to be absolutely consistent with that idea. The whole world it is set in is actually a kind of a miniature version of our own nature. I would not be surprised if someone told me that the main character had just been shrunk and had not really gone anywhere... On the one hand, as this is a familiar environment (as a small boy I also caught many little creatures in glass jars and observed insects and other small animals), I can relate to it. On the other hand, however, nothing surprises you much. There is nothing enchanting, interesting, or mysterious - and a lot of things are just cribbed from a basic knowledge of wildlife. I did not get on with the people in this show, I was never really into that (nowadays I think those folks are called KKona, years ago they were Rednecks)... Then there is the classic problem of the struggle against oppression, then the struggle for self-realization and self-discovery related to growing up, the generation gap, and relations between family and friends - there is quite a lot of interesting subject matter here. To be honest, though, I have seen better shows dealing with these issues, or at least in a more interesting way. Is it fairly predictable and primarily aimed at children? I guess so. The show is very simplistic, there are no complicated twists or surprises, so kids can easily digest it... Are the characters friendly? I think most of them are quite likable, and I think the best one is Grandpa Frog, although I think the younger generation would slam him with the tag "OK boomer"... Am I going to keep watching this show? Yes, I am. I do not find it exceptionally entertaining, although occasionally it is amusing and it did hold my attention, so I did not feel it was a complete waste of time. At the end of the first season, my feeling is to award it 5.5/10, which is enough reason for me to watch the second season. However, as I am more of a flywheel kind of guy, if it has stand-alone episodes and is as disjointed as the first season, then I might even get quite bored… (23/08/2020)