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"Final Space" is the WORST cartoon I've seen in my life.
7 years ago
EDIT: I was extremely angry when I wrote this, and my phrasing was, to put it lightly: aggressive. I still dislike the show, I won't apologize for that. But I should not have gotten so PERSONAL with the insults. For that, I do apologize. I have rewritten a few sentences to be less hateful. While I don't think much of his writing, Olan Rogers, as a PERSON, seems pretty cool and chill. I haven't heard anything bad about him on a personal level, but I don't know much about him otherwise, so I can't make any judgements on his character. Anyway, on to the venom:
I REALLY hate the show “Final Space.” I hate it. I can scarcely even REMEMBER the last time I hated any work of fiction this much, aside from “Thief 2014.”
So why am I writing this? Well… I’m writing this review because nobody else will. I don’t know if it’s because the animation quality bar has been lowered, or if people suddenly got dumber as a whole in the last few months, but people seem so blinded to this show’s myriad faults that they are praising it like its the second coming of Walt Freaking Disney. It’s baffling.
So if you’re one of those people who thinks Final Space is the greatest animated show of 2018, please be warned that I am going to be VERY `unkind to this show.
Also keep in mind that while I’m not a professional reviewer (or even a smalltime Youtube reviewer), I’m only doing this because I simply CAN’T stay quiet about it. Some of these references might leave you scratching your head if you haven’t watched the show. But like I said. I’m only writing this as a form of catharsis, so don’t expect “pro” levels of review structure. Also, some spoilers.
Now, let’s go over the list of why this show makes me so angry.
Irredeemably obnoxious, one-dimensional protagonists. Gary is obnoxious and self-centered. KVN is even more obnoxious to distract from Gary’s obnoxiousness. Quinn is “serious.” Avocato is also “serious.” Little-cato is “revenge-obsessed.” Lord Commander is “evil.” Six-eye guy (I forget his name and I don’t care) asks “yes or no” questions to himself and always answers “yes.” That’s his entire character. Nothing more to him.
And the roster goes on like this. None of these characters have any layers to them. And any time they DO try to introduce some backstory or pathos, it comes across as desperate and out of character. And because the character stories are so shallow and devoid of passion, I feel NOTHING when they are killed off, or when they suffer.
Nobody in this show reacts to things in a way that normal people would in their situation. Gary, the lone convict aboard a prison ship, has been leaving hundreds upon hundreds of messages for Quinn the soldier girl, and this is somehow “flattering” to her? How do you think a real woman would react if she learned that a convict she barely knew was obsessed with her and has been sending her love letters daily? If HUE is an on-board A.I. for a prison ship, why is he so easily convinced to give this “friendship” thing a try? He’s a digital PRISON WARDEN, he shouldn’t be this chummy with a convict. And what the HELL is up with the obvious ship-baiting between Avocato and Gary? Those pouty-lipped looks and “hair blowing in the wind” poses they did for each other was so cringe-worthy I had to pause several times to get through it. This isn’t how friends act. This isn't even how actual lovers act. The writers clearly don’t know anything about how people talk to each other.
Wasted plot threads in almost every episode. Olan keeps introducing plot points that have no significance whatsoever. Sci-fi events that are so inconsequential and interchangeable, you’d swear they were from a rejected Family Guy script.
I'll wear this dead alien's skin so I can hide! Oh wait never mind, it fell apart 2 minutes later.
Oh cool! Gary now has a robot arm! What’s he gonna do with it? Oh... Nothing? Not even super strength? Maybe finger guns or grip strength...? No? Okay...
Hey, Avocato shrunk to the size of an action figure! Maybe he can hide in a guard’s pocket or sneak in through the air vents! Oh wait never mind, he's back to normal.
Whoa, this planet is actually TWO planets, we're on the wrong one! Oh wait, nvm. We can just jump to the other.
Oh shit! HUE just put a timed explosive collar on Gary, so they have to be back on the ship real fast! No, just kidding, he lied about the explosive.
'Hey Quinn. I'm you from the future, and I love Gary.'
'Well I hate Gary.'
'No, you love Gary.'
'Oh, okay. I guess I love Gary now.' :T
Also, why would the Lord Commander have a warship fleet when literally ANY ship can just throw out their Light Fold (warp) core and obliterate everything? Has this honestly never been tried by anyone in that universe? Never been attempted by any military? This is like a police officer trying to take out a whole squadron of fighter jets by running them down with his car, and somehow succeeding.
The worldbuilding is among the laziest I have ever seen. All we know is that: Aliens exist, Earth has some sort of…. ffffederation? …and we have virtually no understanding of how humans (as a race) get along with other species. We don’t know how Lord Commander rose to power or acquired his army. How did he get that army? Even if he has psychic powers, ONE person can’t force loyalty from millions all by himself, with no assistance from anyone. Unless they’re as powerful as Freeza from Dragon Ball Z. We don’t even know the NAMES of any alien races. WHAT SPECIES is Avocato and (ughh)LIttle-Cato? And don’t say he’s a cat-person, because shut up.
The world doesn't even feel alive. Nothing seems to exist outside of the main cast. The prison ship is conveniently empty, Quinn is the only other human with any meaningful contribution to the plot, KVN serves no purpose whatsoever, except to die for a joke that wasn’t even funny. Earth is ravaged by gravity anomalies, and New York is empty. Just… empty. NOBODY IS ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK DURING THE APOCALYPSE. They can’t even build worlds that are ALREADY built for them! Where the hell is everyone!?
The character designs admittedly aren’t the worst I’ve seen. If the show was actually well-written, I wouldn’t even be complaining about the visuals. But you can see the lazyness in the show’s style that is sadly so popular nowadays. Pouty “outie bellybutton” mouths, as seen in the picture above. Ultra-simplifed rubber hose designs, uninspired wardrobes, not to mention just how uncreative the main character designs are. Six-eyed green alien. Floating green oval with antennas. Tiny green humanoid in a black robe. Green = alien, apparently. Black and white cat. Teenage neon mohawk fursona. No effort was made to be unique or memorable.
https://78.media.tumblr.com/cb4bad9.....kmuru_1280.png
^ Wow, it’s like I’m browsing FurAffinity, in the far off year of 2004!
The show is absolutely desperate to be taken seriously, like an edgy teenager. The show utilizes brutality and violence in a pitiful attempt to shock the audience. Every episode, we are treated to some sort of grisly death or hideous misfortune befalling a completely (or at least somewhat) undeserving character. Like bathroom stall guy being left unconscious in a bathroom stall for 5 years, electrocuting someone for 30 actual seconds until they explode, or wearing the skin of a grief-stricken family’s mother. This is the kind of humor you would expect from someone who watches Rick and Morty, but doesn't understand anything about its themes, or have any understanding of irony. The word "butthole" is said like, 20 times in 1 minute. It's like jingling keys in front of a baby. Except the baby is dead. You get it? The baby is dead! IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S HORRIBLE! LAUGH, DAMN IT!!
Gary is just... awful. Gary is just the absolute worst, scummiest protagonist I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. A destructive, self-centered, dangerous SOCIOPATH who doesn’t deserve to have ANYTHING good happen to him. Knocking a soldier unconscious and taking his uniform so he can score with another female soldier? And then faking being a pilot and accidentally shooting down like 20 Earth ships? And then STALKING that same girl from his prison cell for 5 years? That’s just a fraction of his atrocities. Is this who we’re supposed to root for!? And having a dead father doesn’t in any way excuse his actions. Clearly his father didn’t raise him right anyway, so seeing him explode in flashbacks isn’t heartwrenching.
But what really makes this cross from "forgettably bad show" to "offensively bad" for me, is the production values. That is what truly makes me hate this show more than any other I’ve watched in my 36 years on this Earth.
Yes. This show DOES have legitimately good moments. But they're so few and far between that it almost feels like a completely different program. The special effects are vividly colorful and well-rendered. Earth's Gravity failing was an interesting event, or at least it would have been if Gary wasn't talking like a douchebag throughout. The Cosmic Titan grabbing earth from the portal was epic, and it was wasted on a show like this.
https://78.media.tumblr.com/877f7b8.....kmuru_1280.png
^ During this scene, all I could think about was how much more awesome this would have been in another movie.
In our frustratingly imperfect world with limited talent pools, every BAD show getting made represents another brilliant show NOT getting made. And that's why this show enrages me so much.
As someone else so succinctly put it:
“It tries to be the best of Futurama and Rick & Morty, but winds up being the worst of both.”
And that pisses me off, because when I saw the preview last year, this SEEMED to be the exact sort of thing I would like. But it wasn’t.
So yeah. Final Space?
Don't really like it.
Oh. And if by some impossible chance, a youtube reviewer reads this journal and hates the show as much as I do? Feel free to take whatever you want from this to use yourself. You don't even need to give me credit, I don't care. The more people that are convinced to skip this show, the better.
Still, watching this show wasn't a complete waste of time. By watching it, I legitimately, no sarcasm, learned a lot about how NOT to write a story.
... this show fucking sucks.
I REALLY hate the show “Final Space.” I hate it. I can scarcely even REMEMBER the last time I hated any work of fiction this much, aside from “Thief 2014.”
So why am I writing this? Well… I’m writing this review because nobody else will. I don’t know if it’s because the animation quality bar has been lowered, or if people suddenly got dumber as a whole in the last few months, but people seem so blinded to this show’s myriad faults that they are praising it like its the second coming of Walt Freaking Disney. It’s baffling.
So if you’re one of those people who thinks Final Space is the greatest animated show of 2018, please be warned that I am going to be VERY `unkind to this show.
Also keep in mind that while I’m not a professional reviewer (or even a smalltime Youtube reviewer), I’m only doing this because I simply CAN’T stay quiet about it. Some of these references might leave you scratching your head if you haven’t watched the show. But like I said. I’m only writing this as a form of catharsis, so don’t expect “pro” levels of review structure. Also, some spoilers.
Now, let’s go over the list of why this show makes me so angry.
Irredeemably obnoxious, one-dimensional protagonists. Gary is obnoxious and self-centered. KVN is even more obnoxious to distract from Gary’s obnoxiousness. Quinn is “serious.” Avocato is also “serious.” Little-cato is “revenge-obsessed.” Lord Commander is “evil.” Six-eye guy (I forget his name and I don’t care) asks “yes or no” questions to himself and always answers “yes.” That’s his entire character. Nothing more to him.
And the roster goes on like this. None of these characters have any layers to them. And any time they DO try to introduce some backstory or pathos, it comes across as desperate and out of character. And because the character stories are so shallow and devoid of passion, I feel NOTHING when they are killed off, or when they suffer.
Nobody in this show reacts to things in a way that normal people would in their situation. Gary, the lone convict aboard a prison ship, has been leaving hundreds upon hundreds of messages for Quinn the soldier girl, and this is somehow “flattering” to her? How do you think a real woman would react if she learned that a convict she barely knew was obsessed with her and has been sending her love letters daily? If HUE is an on-board A.I. for a prison ship, why is he so easily convinced to give this “friendship” thing a try? He’s a digital PRISON WARDEN, he shouldn’t be this chummy with a convict. And what the HELL is up with the obvious ship-baiting between Avocato and Gary? Those pouty-lipped looks and “hair blowing in the wind” poses they did for each other was so cringe-worthy I had to pause several times to get through it. This isn’t how friends act. This isn't even how actual lovers act. The writers clearly don’t know anything about how people talk to each other.
Wasted plot threads in almost every episode. Olan keeps introducing plot points that have no significance whatsoever. Sci-fi events that are so inconsequential and interchangeable, you’d swear they were from a rejected Family Guy script.
I'll wear this dead alien's skin so I can hide! Oh wait never mind, it fell apart 2 minutes later.
Oh cool! Gary now has a robot arm! What’s he gonna do with it? Oh... Nothing? Not even super strength? Maybe finger guns or grip strength...? No? Okay...
Hey, Avocato shrunk to the size of an action figure! Maybe he can hide in a guard’s pocket or sneak in through the air vents! Oh wait never mind, he's back to normal.
Whoa, this planet is actually TWO planets, we're on the wrong one! Oh wait, nvm. We can just jump to the other.
Oh shit! HUE just put a timed explosive collar on Gary, so they have to be back on the ship real fast! No, just kidding, he lied about the explosive.
'Hey Quinn. I'm you from the future, and I love Gary.'
'Well I hate Gary.'
'No, you love Gary.'
'Oh, okay. I guess I love Gary now.' :T
Also, why would the Lord Commander have a warship fleet when literally ANY ship can just throw out their Light Fold (warp) core and obliterate everything? Has this honestly never been tried by anyone in that universe? Never been attempted by any military? This is like a police officer trying to take out a whole squadron of fighter jets by running them down with his car, and somehow succeeding.
The worldbuilding is among the laziest I have ever seen. All we know is that: Aliens exist, Earth has some sort of…. ffffederation? …and we have virtually no understanding of how humans (as a race) get along with other species. We don’t know how Lord Commander rose to power or acquired his army. How did he get that army? Even if he has psychic powers, ONE person can’t force loyalty from millions all by himself, with no assistance from anyone. Unless they’re as powerful as Freeza from Dragon Ball Z. We don’t even know the NAMES of any alien races. WHAT SPECIES is Avocato and (ughh)LIttle-Cato? And don’t say he’s a cat-person, because shut up.
The world doesn't even feel alive. Nothing seems to exist outside of the main cast. The prison ship is conveniently empty, Quinn is the only other human with any meaningful contribution to the plot, KVN serves no purpose whatsoever, except to die for a joke that wasn’t even funny. Earth is ravaged by gravity anomalies, and New York is empty. Just… empty. NOBODY IS ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK DURING THE APOCALYPSE. They can’t even build worlds that are ALREADY built for them! Where the hell is everyone!?
The character designs admittedly aren’t the worst I’ve seen. If the show was actually well-written, I wouldn’t even be complaining about the visuals. But you can see the lazyness in the show’s style that is sadly so popular nowadays. Pouty “outie bellybutton” mouths, as seen in the picture above. Ultra-simplifed rubber hose designs, uninspired wardrobes, not to mention just how uncreative the main character designs are. Six-eyed green alien. Floating green oval with antennas. Tiny green humanoid in a black robe. Green = alien, apparently. Black and white cat. Teenage neon mohawk fursona. No effort was made to be unique or memorable.
https://78.media.tumblr.com/cb4bad9.....kmuru_1280.png
^ Wow, it’s like I’m browsing FurAffinity, in the far off year of 2004!
The show is absolutely desperate to be taken seriously, like an edgy teenager. The show utilizes brutality and violence in a pitiful attempt to shock the audience. Every episode, we are treated to some sort of grisly death or hideous misfortune befalling a completely (or at least somewhat) undeserving character. Like bathroom stall guy being left unconscious in a bathroom stall for 5 years, electrocuting someone for 30 actual seconds until they explode, or wearing the skin of a grief-stricken family’s mother. This is the kind of humor you would expect from someone who watches Rick and Morty, but doesn't understand anything about its themes, or have any understanding of irony. The word "butthole" is said like, 20 times in 1 minute. It's like jingling keys in front of a baby. Except the baby is dead. You get it? The baby is dead! IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S HORRIBLE! LAUGH, DAMN IT!!
Gary is just... awful. Gary is just the absolute worst, scummiest protagonist I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. A destructive, self-centered, dangerous SOCIOPATH who doesn’t deserve to have ANYTHING good happen to him. Knocking a soldier unconscious and taking his uniform so he can score with another female soldier? And then faking being a pilot and accidentally shooting down like 20 Earth ships? And then STALKING that same girl from his prison cell for 5 years? That’s just a fraction of his atrocities. Is this who we’re supposed to root for!? And having a dead father doesn’t in any way excuse his actions. Clearly his father didn’t raise him right anyway, so seeing him explode in flashbacks isn’t heartwrenching.
But what really makes this cross from "forgettably bad show" to "offensively bad" for me, is the production values. That is what truly makes me hate this show more than any other I’ve watched in my 36 years on this Earth.
Yes. This show DOES have legitimately good moments. But they're so few and far between that it almost feels like a completely different program. The special effects are vividly colorful and well-rendered. Earth's Gravity failing was an interesting event, or at least it would have been if Gary wasn't talking like a douchebag throughout. The Cosmic Titan grabbing earth from the portal was epic, and it was wasted on a show like this.
https://78.media.tumblr.com/877f7b8.....kmuru_1280.png
^ During this scene, all I could think about was how much more awesome this would have been in another movie.
In our frustratingly imperfect world with limited talent pools, every BAD show getting made represents another brilliant show NOT getting made. And that's why this show enrages me so much.
As someone else so succinctly put it:
“It tries to be the best of Futurama and Rick & Morty, but winds up being the worst of both.”
And that pisses me off, because when I saw the preview last year, this SEEMED to be the exact sort of thing I would like. But it wasn’t.
So yeah. Final Space?
Don't really like it.
Oh. And if by some impossible chance, a youtube reviewer reads this journal and hates the show as much as I do? Feel free to take whatever you want from this to use yourself. You don't even need to give me credit, I don't care. The more people that are convinced to skip this show, the better.
Still, watching this show wasn't a complete waste of time. By watching it, I legitimately, no sarcasm, learned a lot about how NOT to write a story.
... this show fucking sucks.
In fact the show reminds me a lot of Harmon Quest, and seems like it could be a solid animated scifi analog to that, like a tabletop campaign that nobody took seriously to begin with and then just went completely off the rails.
Oh yeah Gary is definitely cringeworthy, but that's the joke. The plotlines are also mostly pointless, but who really needs them? IMHO I still enjoyed the off the cuff comedy, will admit the show is WAY better when you're heavily intoxicated though.
There is way worse out there too, some of the adult swim shows lately have been hugely disappointing and flat out unwatchable (hot streets, ballmasterz, the jellies). I have a pretty high tolerance for crappy cartoons, I think usually I'm just enjoying the work that goes into animation even when it's crude, but those three shows I haven't even been able to get through. I gave ballmasterz a couple of shows but it's so hard to watch a spiritual reboot of superjail where it's somehow worse looking than when studios switched after the first season (because of all of the lazy flash background animation and crap you usually see on their daytime kids cartoons). So again I can't really hate Final Space given that it's an independent thing and they at least made a competent SF cartoon. At least the animation doesn't look totally phoned in.
Final Space is unfortunately the product of the times, with western animation getting lazier and lazier... and it's getting truly baffling amounts of praise for reasons I legitimately can't understand. Like you said, they tried to mix a bunch of sciencey tropes in a blender with youtube humor. And yeah.... like you said, there isn't much out there for Sci-Fi right now. So it's no wonder SF fans are grasping at whatever they can find that even tangentially appeals to their tastes.
That said, the animation and special effects are by far the MOST positive thing about this show. And I understand anyone acknowledging that... just like I'll defend the use of color in Steven Universe, despite the plot going nowhere and the character designs having no consistency.
And I've never heard of those other Adult Swim shows you've mentioned. But it sounds like my life is better for not having been exposed to them.
However, if one were to compare Rick and Morty to crack (I enjoy the show but there's always room for improvement); and they say Final Space is a substitute to watch until season four comes out. Would one compare Final Space as tricking a crack addict (a Rick and Morty super fan) with powdered milk and dandruff (Final space)?
But yeah, I'd say Final Space is like "The Poor Man's Rick and Morty." Much as I dislike R&M(for different reasons), I can at least see the intelligence and meaning behind the writing.
This show is exactly as you said, it tries to have edgy Rick & Morty style shock moments but fails to understand why those worked, it tries to be crazy an random without any basic understanding of comedy, pacing or tone, it's all desperate, forced and aimless. The characters aren't even characters, they're just vapid shells that spew interchangeable, detached 'jokes'. The only thing it has going for it is an occasionally nice looking explosion or effects shot... but those don't last long, then it's back to mediocrity.
There really are so few bright spots in Western 2D animation anymore... I am truly sick of this insipid CalArts looking type of crap with all its blobby, featureless designs, spazzy stop-start ADD riddled animation and the insulting, infantalized writing that usually goes along with it.