Sorry about last week.  The Migraine Fairy arrived Wednesday night and hung out through Saturday morning.

Whee.

I hate her.

Anyway, between that and a work conference Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, this week is going to be a little chaotic and I apologize.  I’ll try to make it up to you guys.

And on to the topic at hand.

Gravity Falls.

WHY DID NONE OF YOU TELL ME HOW AMAZING THIS SHOW IS? HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS!!!!!

First off, we started watching this while I was not able to look directly at a screen for any length of time, so for most of the episodes, I was listening along, and the Geek Husband What Rules was narrating the visual gags for me, unless it was something truly weird, and then I’d put my glasses on and look for that part.

EVEN SO…

I laughed my ass off at this show.

Several reasons this show is catnip to me.

1. It’s smart.
2. I like the animation style.
3. It’s about hauntings, curses, mysteries, time travel, and cryptids.

Also, fuck you spell-check, “Cryptid” is so a word.

The side characters really grow and develop over the course of the first season, and I’m looking forward to season 2.

I decided to give Gravity Falls a shot after listening to a Women in Caskets podcast about non-horror shows and movies with horror elements, that specifically mentioned Gravity Falls.

Now, a lot of children’s television has horror elements in it, because a large portion of horror in general is a loss of control, and let’s face it, children don’t have a lot of control over their lives in the first place, so media directed at them tends to work with that.  I mean, think about how many things directed, ostensibly, at children have horrific elements.  Bambi, Dumbo, almost any Disney film really.  Land Before Time, I was in high school when I saw that one and it fucked me up.  All Dogs Go to Heaven, I mean… good grief!

Power Puff Girls.  Seriously, they were created in a lab accident. Mojo Jojo was a science experiment of the Professor’s gone wrong that he just abandoned, Him…  And don’t let me get started on the use of class markers in the signaling of good versus evil in that show.

I have a bone to pick with children’s television and media in general and their use of class markers to denote goodness or badness.

Anyway, I find Gravity Falls delightful. So far they’ve had a couple of truly weird incidents and at least one Scooby moment “It’s Old Man Jenkins in a mask…”  Well, ok, it was an old hillbilly guy in a giant sea monster robot.  But, you get the point.

I have really enjoyed the writing.  The dialogue is great and feels real.  At no point does it feel like an adult is trying to sound “hip” or “young,” except where appropriate to a character.

Ok, maybe next time I will talk about horror elements in children’s media, or the use of class markers as stand ins for good and bad, and why it’s fucked up. And I definitely need to also watch Over the Garden Wall.  But right now, I am going to go take a lie down, and try to get over the headache brought on by someone’s perfume.

I would just like to state for the record, again:  If I can smell your perfume/cologne and we are not actively making out, you are wearing too much. Please stop, the migraine sufferers of the world will thank you.

If you like what you read here, or want to help fund my ability to watch all the things please consider donating using the link at the top right of the page:  Keep Us Geeking, or checking out my Patreon.  Thank you!

Also, if you’d like to see what sort of fiction I write when left to my own devices, please feel free to check out my fiction Patreon, Nothing Nice Comes Out of My Head.