Anybody who has seen the Disney Channel in recent years knows that it has lost much of its appeal when it comes to its shows. Growing up, I loved a lot of the shows, such as: Zack and Cody, The Proud Family, Phil of the Future, Kim Possible, That So Raven, and many of the older stuff. Though, my favorite show ever would have to be So Weird, which aired in 1999 and ended in 2001 with 65 episodes. However, in my opinion, Disney started going down hill in 2006 when Hannah Montana first premiered. Now, I'm not going to lie, I have seen a lot of most of the horrible shows featured on Disney since this time. The reason is, my TV is almost always on the Disney Channel because I like background noise and the Disney Channel is the only one where I can tolerate the shows (I can't watch any reality TV crap that they show nowadays). But there are a few that I can't stand no matter what (i.e. Fish Hooks).
I love animated stuff, and grew up with Disney animated movies. So, when it comes to animated shows, I tend to judge a little more than live action ones. Now, I'm not an expert on animation or anything (I don't even know the different types really), but I find myself having a harder time watching animated stuff that I think is bad. For example, although I hated Hannah Montana (which I thought was shallow and overall stupid because Miley's character was just a whiny brat), I have seen a majority of the episodes. Yet, when it comes to the animated stuff, such as Fish Hooks or Phineas and Ferb (sorry, I just can't like the show), I can't watch it. So, when I saw the advertisement of Gravity Falls, I thought it was just another show I wouldn't be able to tolerate. Yet, Disney surprised me in so many ways that I had to write a review about it.
I saw Gravity Falls when it first premiered. From the advertisement, I understood the main point. Two fraternal twins, Dipper and Mabel, spend the summer with their Great Uncle Stan (that they call Grunkle Stan). They help Stan run his tourist trap store, call the "Mystery Shack" along with the two employees that work there, Soos (a man-child) and Wendy (a snarky teen).
While watching the show, I found myself somewhat drawn to it. In the first episode, Dipper finds a hidden journal with the number "3" on it, in the center. This immediately clues the viewers that there are at least two more journals out there. The journal contains secrets of Gravity Falls, a (fake) town in Oregon that the twins are staying in with their uncle. The secrets within the journal are that of paranormal monsters, demons, and messages. There is also a message that says, "TRUST NO ONE."
One of the things I have to say that turned me off when I saw the preview was when Mabel was hoping some guy was a vampire (that Dipper thought was a zombie, but actually turned out to be gnomes). At first, I was thinking, "Really?! I thought we were over vampires?" However, after watching the show, I realized that they were actually making fun of the whole "vampire craze." Guess how old the twins are? They are 12. Tweens. And who made up the majority of Twilight's fan base? 12 year old girls. And as the show continued, I realized that Mabel acted just like any tween would. I found it funny how dead-on they were with her character. In addition to acting like any normal tween, she also has a weird side to her, which makes her even more interesting. I like how they show that even the weird girls in the end... still act like typical girls. It's better than how some shows portray them. It's like, "They're weird, so they must be an alien from outer space or something."
I have to say that I do like Dipper. For once in a long while, there is a character that has common sense! Even though he is twelve, he is mature for his age, and most of the time thinks before he acts. However, that is not to say he doesn't act his age sometimes. He faces the same problems many boys at that age face. For example, he has a crush on Wendy, who is about 4 or more years older than him. He also has a "love rival," which is Wendy's ex-boyfriend who I can't remember right now. He sometimes feels insecure with himself because of his height and how weak he is physically. Yet, unlike most characters, he doesn't sit in a corner and whine about it. If someone he cares about is in trouble, he's willing to do what he can to help them.
Stan is also a bit of an interesting character. When viewers first meet him, he is your typical con artist. However, what makes his character interesting is that he is obviously hiding something. It is made very clear in one of the first few episodes when it is revealed that behind a snack machine in the Mystery Shack, there is a secret door. It's not until the season finale that viewers finally find out what is behind this secret door. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who has yet to see it, but if you paid attention to the show as a whole, it actually isn't surprising.
Now, the show does have its flaws. One of them is that the main antagonist, Gideon, has a weird obsession with Mable. Now, I'm a sucker for the whole, "Villain falling for the heroine" plot, but for this show... it seemed a bit strange. For me, I thought that it was something put in just to make Gideon seem a bit more crazy than he already was. But truthfully, it was just one of the things I thought was ridiculous. Another thing that was a turn-off at times were the "manly" characters. For some reason I would flinch every time they appeared. That's why I hated the episode where Dipper wants to be more "manly" and he ends up being trained by "Manitaurs" (or however you spell it... and it's not "Minotaur," though basically that is what those characters were)..
Overall, I think I would give this show an 8 or 8.5 our of 10. It was a decent show and had some adult humor in it for the older viewers. Though, at times I don't think they were subtle enough with the adult humor, so that would be another thing I didn't like every now and then. It was a decent show, and I was pretty much satisfied with season one.
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