My expectations for "Gravity Falls" were rather misplaced - I expected a continuous adventure story arc with some comedy, "dark-for-children" aesthetics and adult appeal. In the end, "GF" attempts to be all these things and more, but fails at most of them - other than at comedy, that one's good most of the time. My main issue is how childish it is - of course, it's a children's cartoon, I don't exactly expect bare boobies and blood splatter (although it kind of has the latter on occasion, so maybe I should!), but I remember the sort of kid I was at 6, and I would've been facepalming just as hard at the cringy morals as I do now. It has a moral in every episode, and these are so surface-level, aimed-at-toddlers, that it completely discombobulates you when it has some horror elements, which do go pretty hard for a kids' show (of course, nearly every situation magically resolves itself by each episode's end). But wait - many of these morals are about... dating?.. And teenage relationships?.. Who IS the target audience for this thing?! What teenager will suffer through an episode of "friends good actually" to get to the next one's "be the best version of yourself to get the chick", which in itself is a lame moral?! I found some morals morally suspect as well, but your mileage may vary.
The show boasts some great characters (Wendy, Bill Cipher), some meh ones (even the great Kristen Schaal of "Flight of the Conchords" fame can't always make the sugar/coffee overdose that is the character of Mabel palatable), and some legitimately disgusting ones (Grenda, the cops). Some of the visual designs and setpieces are also great (Bill Cipher, the series' supposed antagonist, especially packs some stylistic punch), and really ask to be appropriated by a better series. The plots are usually very dumb and hole-y. The first season is more serialised as our twins muck about the town, stumbling into supernatural mysteries and lame life morals; the second is slightly less serialised, as Bill Cipher appears for more than 1 episode and actually does some antagonising for a spell. However, I appreciate the series' comedy the most and don't appreciate its lame overcontrived adventures or boring-to-tears life lessons. As such, I like S1 more. However, I don't recommend watching either - there surely are better cartoons to pass the time.
My ratings by season: S1: 3 S2: 2.
The show boasts some great characters (Wendy, Bill Cipher), some meh ones (even the great Kristen Schaal of "Flight of the Conchords" fame can't always make the sugar/coffee overdose that is the character of Mabel palatable), and some legitimately disgusting ones (Grenda, the cops). Some of the visual designs and setpieces are also great (Bill Cipher, the series' supposed antagonist, especially packs some stylistic punch), and really ask to be appropriated by a better series. The plots are usually very dumb and hole-y. The first season is more serialised as our twins muck about the town, stumbling into supernatural mysteries and lame life morals; the second is slightly less serialised, as Bill Cipher appears for more than 1 episode and actually does some antagonising for a spell. However, I appreciate the series' comedy the most and don't appreciate its lame overcontrived adventures or boring-to-tears life lessons. As such, I like S1 more. However, I don't recommend watching either - there surely are better cartoons to pass the time.
My ratings by season: S1: 3 S2: 2.