3 out of 5

Created by: Alex Hirsch

covers season 1

An animated Eerie, Indiana.  There’ve been a few variations on the “move to a weird town” formula, and they all tend to adhere to similar tropes of episodes dealing with bogey monsters, and spotty mythology moments that build up to some explanation as to why things are weird.  Gravity Falls sets the stage for something similar: Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) move in with their great uncle Stan (voiced by series creator Hirsch) for the Summer in his tourist-attraction “Mystery Shack,” which, ironically, is filled with faked mysteries and non of the real stuff Dipper and Meg constantly confront haunting the town and surrounding woods, and within the first episode, Dipper discovers a buried book numbered 2 of an apparent set, cataloging Falls’ oddities.  We also see Stan disappear into a secret door.  Woop woop, mythology afoot.  But the show should be applauded for its restraint, as it doesn’t push the mythology stuff beyond using the book as a reference, as well as far Hirsch’s balance between different styles of kid humor: random, gross, silly, etc., equaling a show that’s definitely bonkers enough for kids but tolerable – if not enjoyable, thanks to its constant nods to things of the 80s and 90s – for adults.  But again, we have been here before, and the pitch that had me interested in the show, calling it an animated Twin Peaks, is granting it way too much surreality, when it’s pretty straight forward Scooby Doo fare.  The voice cast does do a great job, though, adding to that balanced tone: Ritter is perfect as our everyman anchor, with Schaal and Hirsch fun counterpoints as crazy and dumb.  In this sense, it’s a show that definitely benefits from what’s come before (or Hirsch’s awareness of this), as it can tread familiar ground with a sense of self-awareness that allows it to get just weird enough to be consistently entertaining.

For me, more something that I’d say I don’t mind watching versus something I’d seek out.