Saying Goodbye To Regular Show

Howdy ladies and gents, how’s it going? I know its been a little while since I wrote any film or TV reviews, but today I return with a topic that just needed to be talked about. The other day I finally got around to watching the three-part finale for season 8 of Regular Show, and the fact that one of my favourite cartoons has come to end has me feeling a lot of emotions. And I don’t think I could let this blog continue without addressing the show’s 8th and final season, the finale and my feelings on the show overall. MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD…

Now some of you may already know about my love for Regular Show as I did a post about it a while ago, but season 7 and more recently season 8 has done a fair amount to reinforce that love not with only the quality of the storytelling and character development, but also the ability to mix up the basic formula by creating new and interesting scenarios, adding to the existing mythology of the world, and building off of the foundations of previous seasons. And yet it still retains the balance between humour and more relatable/dramatic material which fans have come to appreciate.

I will admit, for all the love I’ve had for this cartoon over the years, its consistency in overall seasons hasn’t always been on point. I remember I think after season 4, some ways into season 5 things started to slow down for me, and while there were certainly moments in season 6, again, I didn’t feel like I was having as many great episodes as had come in the show before. That being said, it was during these later seasons that there was more continuity and on-going storylines taking place from what I recall. Season 7 was when things really picked up with the humour and crazy material that made me fall in love with the show, but also bringing up plot points from previous seasons, having character-driven stories and a greater focus on Rigby and his journey to get a high school diploma. And the way that season ended, bloody hell, it totally took me by surprise (SPOILERS with the dome leaving Earth taking the main primary cast into space). And season 8 has featured a lot of really random and bizarre material for the characters to deal with stuff like being homesick, understanding the different rules of space, making new allies and enemies, learning about the history of the space dome and dealing Pops’ key storyline. I had a lot of fun watching this season with all the inventive ways the people behind this show were able to give us more of the same in the simplest/normal of ways, but at the same time was able to provide larger than life circumstances in various ways, some of my favourite episodes include:

• Space Creds
• Ugly Moons
• The Brain of Evil
• Fries Night (one of my absolute favourites)
• Stuck in an Elevator
• The Space Race
• The Ice Tape
• The Key to the Universe
• No Train No Gain
• Christmas in Space (one of my absolute favourites)
• Kill ‘Em with Kindness
• Meet the Seer

But then you have that finale, “A Regular Epic Final Battle” where we got a lot of information from learning about the planet Pops came from to the history of the many battles between Pops and Anti-Pops to the all-out battle between good and evil and how everything got resolved. Good gravy it was a lot to take in, but it was one hell of a ride. The humour was on-point from the dialogue to the visual material, but it also brought in so many characters and elements from previous seasons together for this absolutely fun and action-packed session. It felt like a mini event, like Regular Show had tapped into Captain America: Civil War‘s style of taking most of the best elements from what’s come before and put it all in one place and made it work. But then there was two major surprises: 1) The way Mordecai, Rigby and ultimately Pops finally dealt with Anti-Pops was unexpected, yet natural and quite sad. And 2) That ending montage… Good gravy, I know that there have been shows that have ended like this; with a montage of future events, but to see how long the characters were in space and more importantly where their lives went after they went their separate ways, it was some heavy stuff, but it felt natural, cute, beautiful and most importantly relatable. And the fact that it was set to “Heroes” by David Bowie, damn, that brought the feels on a whole new level. I love that song, and with it being the final music in the Regular Show finale, it meant so much more to me and felt so perfect. While I wish I had seen what had happened to Margret and CJ, and possibly even Thomas, I feel like the conclusion to this show was very appropriate.

It has been like two days since I finished Regular Show and I honestly felt a little empty after I finished the episode. Regular show has been part of my life for around 5 years and for it to be over, it does make me feel sad. Not since Parks and Recreation ended in 2015 have I felt such a loss in the world of TV (check out my thoughts here), funnily enough both shows share a lot of similarities in terms of its characters, humour and emotional material too. Even at the time of writing this, it feels surreal talking about Regular Show in past tense, but I’m glad the show ended on a high with the show having a satisfying conclusion.

It sucks that one of my favourite TV shows has left the airwaves, but I am so thankful for the memories and the fact that it ended on a good note. Regular Show is one of the best shows Cartoon Network has released and I will miss it greatly. So now I ask you ladies and gents, if you’re a fan of this cartoon did you watch the finale and if so what did you think of it? Drop me a comment below! And if you’re not on this hype already, sort your life out watch some Regular Show, it’s damn good! 😀 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #26

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. This is the 26th week and I’m a little late with some of these reviews due to my bnge session with Luke Cage over the weeked (review available here), but with that out of the way I can finally get back to some of these TV episodes from last week. Today I’ll be talking about Blindspot, Regular Show, Lucifer, Star Wars Rebels and South Park. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀 Oh and careful for minor spoilers…

Blindspot (Season 2) Episodes 2 & 3

I’ve been a little behind with Blindspot, but I’ve been catching up on my days off. There’s been a lot going on with this show over the last few episodes. In “Heave Fiery Knot” there was trust issues going on being Weller’s team, Jane and the NSA, more revelations leant about Jane’s history and crazy action scenes with firefights and a missile that almost hit a plane! That was some intense shit! I’m enjoying the ties to last season when it came to Reade following up his case from last season and Weller dealing with the memory of his father, but there were a lot of new and interesting elements Sandstorm and the tension between Shepard and Roman. As for “Hero Fears Imminent Rot“, bloody hell, that episode had one heck of an opening, I’m never gonna trust a random bag in cab ever again. It looks like Jane’s had the worst of luck with Sandstorm clearly aware about Jane’s lies in relation to her captivity, then they sent her on a mission to an innocent man just to see if she was still loyal to the cause, which she couldn’t do and then after going out on field operation almost got herself killed and lost the guy she was originally following. As for the main case of the week with the bomb guys that stuff was crazy, I hate it when there’s insane people wanting to kill innocent people because of a personal loss because it’s emotionally fueled, and it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable because one wrong move during a diffusion or saying the wrong thing to a bomber while he’s got a trigger in his hand can spell game over, luckily our protagonists got out of it okay. Some other things I wanted to cover briefly were: 1) Looks like Patterson and Dr. Borden are a thing now, after being initially hesitant, Patterson went in for that kiss and I’m curious to see where that relationship goes. 2) Reade telling Zapata about him potentially being molested by his former coach was pretty significant and I’m curious if we’ll see him unlock those memories. And 3) I was surprised Roman covered for Jane which shows that he really cares for her, but knowing that he can’t cover for her again means Jane will have to get with the program or risk further danger in the future.

Lucifer (Season 2) “Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire”

After a week off Lucifer came back with its second episode and this one was more entertaining than the last with better jokes, more character development and new character/story elements which will probably arc across the season. I liked the introduction of Lucifer’s mother, how she hoped from dead body to dead body to find her son and finally settled on woman who just happened to be part of the key investigation for this episode. Tricia Helfer is awesome as Lucifer’s mother, she’s complicated, sassy, fun and not fully aware of human customs, plus her and Tom Welling have great banter. It was interesting to see Lucifer angry at his mother for abandoning him and trying to figure out what his mother was up to, when in fact there was a lot more to the story with his mum explaining the situation and history surrounding his and her events. And while they made up at the end of the episode, that smile she gave to the sky indicates that she’s up to something for sure.

South Park (Season 20) “The Damned”

So here we are with se. I once again adored this show’s approach to social media, and how obsessed the world can be with technology and the use of Twitter. I love how everyone treated Twitter like the be all and end all of life, whether it was the police officers talking about Twitter suicide or homicide or all of the boys freaking out about the police looking into Cartman’s disappearance because of what they did, that material fabulous. I haven’t found too much of Mr. Garrison’s material too entertaining so far, but this episode was solid because it highlighted the real life madness going on with Donald Trump’s campaign where the man spouts nonsense and everyone’s down with it because he speaks his mind and doesn’t say the same usual political material. But that ending was what got me. Having Cartman and Heidi hanging out as two lost souls left to hang out in the real world was strange/cute enough, but that part when Heidi asks Cartman if he’d like to see her vagina took me by surprise, but it was Cartman’s “Holy shit” line that killed me. BEST. REACTION. EVER!

Regular Show (Show Season 8) Episodes 1-4

When I found out about Regular Show‘s return last week I freaked out, I knew it’d be back for another season but I just didn’t know when. So firstly there’s “One Space Day at a Time” this episode basically dealt with the Park crew and Eileen adjusting to their new situation in space, while “Cool Bro Bots” introduced our heroes to a new set of helpful robots that came across as friendly individuals that Mordecai and Rigby were skeptical of. With the crazy/unexpected ending of season 7, RS had a lot of places it could go with the new setting and larger-than-life possibilities of space, and these two episode did some interesting things with the Park crew trying to get a phone signal, checking food supplies and almost getting sucked into space, and then having to deal with robots that secretly harvested plants for money and  getting into a laser gun battle alongside hardcore human resistant fighters. “Welcome to Space” expanded the mythology behind the park being in a dome and gave reasoning for the dome coming into play in the past, it was a bizarre yet interesting/funny way to propel this show into new situations and I loved the concept of the Spark Initiative and the fact that all of the Park crew were on board besides Benson, and speaking of Benson, while I understood his pessimistic attitude at the same time he was be being a right party pooper and he started to annoy me. Bt it was awesome that he had a hilariously horrible life on earth, decided he’d made a mistake and came back around on the idea of living in space, even if it was due to being a hologram room haha. And finally “Space Creds” felt like a normal episode of the show with Mordecai and Rigby wanting something dangerous/cool and needing to do something ridiculous to get it, in this case it was hover boots. I loved the random nature of the relationship between the doctor and her husband, their backstory and their interaction with Mordecai and Rigby. There was so much over-the-top foolishness, humour and random material, but it came together well.

Star Wars Rebels (Season 3) “The Holocrons of Fate”

So how do you follow-up a great season premiere? You bring in Darth Maul that’s how! 😀 Now I know there are previews of upcoming episodes, but I never watch them so I didn’t know the guy would be showing up so soon in season 3 and man this episode was awesome because of it. I love how Maul was able to capture the Ghost team and force Kanan and Ezra to give both the Sith and Jedi Holocrons. And even after getting what he wanted he was willing to kill Kanan and try to influence Ezra. It was interesting to see Kanan and Ezra not only interact with the Bendu, but also how to work together inside that cave to obtain the Holocron, that was good character development for those two. But what was my favourite aspects of the episode was when the Holocrons combined, I assumed the locations that Ezra saw must be tied to various places in the Star Wars films, but the “two moons” comment must have been in relation to Tatooine because when Maul left in his ship and was frazzled/angry saying “he” was still alive he must have been talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi which just makes me all the more excited to see those two have rematch.

Well that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of these shows? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching  too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #9 – Regular Show Season 7 So Far

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to post #9 on What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. Earlier on today I was having a mini binge session of Regular Show since I hadn’t really watched much of season 7, so with that in mind. With that out of the way let’s crack on, oh and careful for minor spoilers as we continue…

Regular Show has survived into its 7th season and that was no fluke, thanks to great humour, madness, and stories with characters that have relatable issues and great pop culture references it has continued into 2015. Like many other TV shows that have lasted beyond 4 or 5 seasons, RS has been quite reflective with its episode content when it comes to its stories and established characters, and while there are new scenarios presented, it retains the same quality and consistency that you’ve come to love (similar to what I experienced with Parks and Recreation and Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s final seasons). At this point all of these characters really are family and have been through a lot together, so when they’re bonding, having a good time or going through a struggle it is quite effective. But beyond the character development, the show still retains a lot of its random nature that made the show so much fun to watch and while not all of the episodes are laugh-out-loud material, it definitely has its moments of hilarity in specific episodes that’s so stupid, ridiculous and amazing because of the creativity and humour. This cartoon has been going on for a while and yet it continues to transform and be relevant with its continuity, character development and references to modern culture were good as always.

My favourite episodes so far would be “Dumptown USA“, “The Parkie Awards“, “The Lunch Club“, “Local News Legends” and “The Dome Experiment“. These episodes have been great because of the humour, chaos and touching moments between the characters. Having the focus not so much Mordecai and Rigby and giving screen time to Margret, Mr. Maellard, Muscle Man and High Five Ghost or pairing Benson with Rigby was interesting as it created different dynamics and cool new situations in certain episodes. Oh and while I didn’t like “Cat Videos” as much as the other episodes, the concept was fun and seeing Benson, Mordecai and Rigby as cats was worth the watch, it was so bizarre and delightful. In additional to that I adored the references to The Breakfast Club, Terminator 2 and Rambo, they were handled pretty well and used effectively.

In conclusion if you couldn’t tell already I’m really into season 7 of Regular Show, its good stuff and if you’re a long-term fan I would definitely recommend it. So have you seen Regular Show yet and if so what do you think? Also if you haven’t gotten on this hype train yet then why not? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to comment below and I’ll se ya on the next TV review, laters! 😀

 

How I Feel In Pictures #4

Good day to you ladies and gents and welcome to the 4th edition of How I Feel In Pictures. In these posts I’ll upload a piece of art that I’ve drawn that basically represents how I feel at that current point in time. Well I’m feeling decent at the moment, work has been murder but in between all of that chaos I’ve been all creative in my head and felt like making stuff all the time and my latest piece of work is something simple, yet affective.

Check it out below:

Yeah it’s Mordecai from Regular Show!

As some of you may know I got my laptop back this week, but what I didn’t mention was how most of my programs were erased which meant that I had to obtain all of them all over again, including Adobe Photoshop. Luckily I’m back in the groove and over the last two days I made this, a picture of Mordecai from Regular Show which was an update from a sketch I did in my notebook ages ago. Check it out below:

As you can see it pretty similar but very different at the same time. I do like the way this picture turned out but I also feel like more could be done, I guess now is as good a time as any to experiment and get things to look as fancy as possible, probably will mess around shading and colour layering or something. 😛

In conclusion I feel like this is the start of something, hopefully this one picture will create a snowball effect and I’ll start doing more art on a consistent basis. Plus I wanna do more Regular Show stuff because I love that cartoon so much! 😀

 

Random Blog 08: Regular Show

Howdy ladies and gentlemen, time for another random blog instalment. Today I’m gonna be doing a quick blog post on what has become one of my favourite TV shows in recent times, Regular Show.

So yeah Regular Show, what can I say? It is a truly unique cartoon which is so close to reality and so far from it at the same time. For those of you not in the know, this cartoon centers on the lives of Mordecai and Rigby (pictured above in name order) , they’re two best friends who work together at this park along with an array of other colourful characters who are co-workers and superiors. And episodes mainly focus on Mordecai and Rigby’s everyday lives which always seems to go from normal to frigging insanely weird in just a few moments in each episode.

Now I think for around almost two years I’ve known about Regular Show because I sort of caught just around the time I started watching Adventure Time, and at first I thought this show was some knock-off which was alright but not nearly as good as AT. But after my flatemate told me how good RS was, every time I went home I watched a bit of it and over the course of last year it really started to grow on me, and in 2013 I feel like more appreciation for the show has gone up significantly to the point where I actually like it more than AT (I’ll discuss this more at another point).

I think what makes this cartoon so unique is that is so true to life in the sense that the two main characters are friends, their lazy, silly, bicker with each other all the time and the way they act and behave is so similar to most friends in the real world. Plus when the show’s not doing some of its supernatural-based stuff it does deal with issues that most people go through in real life like: sibling rivalry, the highs and lows of relationships, secrets, trust, father issues and so much more and while its never taken to the point where its a life-changing experience, for a kids cartoon it does get pretty deep sometimes. Oh and speaking of it being a kids show, at the same time RS rocks because it has so much stuff there that isn’t meant for kids like guns, the use of the word ‘death’, very adult references to kissing, sex and cursing, I love it. And then of course there is the over-the-top, weird, supernatural elements of the show. RS is one of the most a random shows I have ever seen, just the amount of ‘WTF?’ moments in the show are beyond counting, somehow things just go from simple to frigging unnatural in a matter of seconds and sometimes it gets worse and worse. But again that’s the reason I adore the show so much, because it leads to some absurdly funny scenarios.

In the last week and a bit I’ve been watching the show from the beginning non-stop and I can’t get enough. I’ve just started season 4 and I’m already in love with it. I have never laughed so hard at a TV show since the days when the IT Crowd used be on-air (oh and possibly PhoneShop). This is the best kind of TV for me and it is one of the few reasons why Cartoon Network (a shell of its former self) is still alive these days.

To conclude Regular Show is something I highly recommend for anyone who are either fans of Adventure Time, have lost faith in good cartoons or just fancy something weird and funny yo.