I picked up the series again (I had previously watched about halfway into Season One before kinda trailing off) and just made it to Season Three.
Holy cow.
I’m about halfway into the season now and am completely floored by the shift in direction the series has taken. It’s amazing and heartbreaking and perfect. I don’t want the season to end, but I also don’t wanna stop watching.
Amazing stuff.
Does anyone know if Dino Stamatopoulos has any other irons on the fire? His imdb entry has Moral Orel as his latest project, but I’m hoping it’s just not up-to-date.
Yes. Moral Orel this season kind of struck me as a covert effort to decrease the stoner population by tricking them into committing suicide. Not bad, but hard to watch.
As for his next project, Stamatopolous is working on another stop-motion show for Adult Swim called Frankenstime, though I have no idea when it will hit air.
That’s the thing. Season Three is a complete departure from Season One. Season Two was a little in the middle, but a lot closer in theme to Season One up until the two-part finale.
Personally, I’m absofrickinlutely loving Season Three. I think it really makes the characters three-dimensional (no pun intended) and a lot meatier. But I can see how some people might not cope as well to the sudden tonal shift.
Jon - I’ll have to give it a watch next. [as] shows tend to be hit-or-miss for me (love Robot Chicken, never “got” ATHF or Tim & Eric), so I kinda wrote it off as one of those shows I just wouldn’t get. But I’ll definitely look for it now.
If it’s not too much of an Adult Swim Spoiler, what is the big change in tone? I watched 2-3 episodes of the first season, decided it was cute but not really my thing, and never looked back.
Seriously consider it, Dino S was one of the head writers on the show. Along with Bill Odenkirk (Bob’s brother who does Futurama now) and various other comedy alumni. Probably one of my favorite shows ever.
Basically, it shifts from a satire of fundie culture and focuses more on very cutting character studies. It gets a lot more serious (and depressing at parts), especially in light of the prior two seasons.
The best part is that it’s a shift that you can look back in retrospect and see where it came from, but it was so subtle in its gradual build that you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who saw it coming in advance.
I finished the series last night and I still can’t get it out of my head. While I love that things ended well for Orel, my heart still breaks for Clay and Bloberta. I’ve been listening to The Mountain Goats pretty much non-stop, especially “No Children” and “Love, Love, Love” – which isn’t helping matters.
I’m still blown away by how … real … Season Three got. Man.
