Changes In Taste

When it comes to entertainment, no person's taste is completely set in stone and Yours Truly is no exception to this rule. Certainly, there are plenty  works of fiction whose plots, characters, themes, etc will always resonate deeply with me and which I revisit regularly without finding that the love and admiration I felt for them when I first encountered them, has in any way faded. That said, there are also plenty of works of which is not the case. These are the works that I used to be really into at various points in my life, but that do not resonate as strongly as they used to back in the day. "The Day" in question can refer to any time in my life, from childhood and adolescence to just a few years ago.

TV-shows, whether animated or live-action are particularly prone to falling victim to this, especially long-running ones, which is why the majority of my favorite shows tend to be comparatively short, either by design or due to cancellation. Now, there are of course long-running shows that avoid this, Mad Men being the first example to come to mind. I actually thought that that show got more interesting in its later seasons, but again, its an exception.

Then there are shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Archer, Adventure Time and Steven Universe, among others. All of them clear-cut examples of this. Out of these, Steven Universe is the only one that I'm caught up with and even there, I can't say that I'm as invested in the show as I used to be.

Moving away from television, there is the Star Wars franchise. Now, I'm too young to have seen the original trilogy when it came out, but it  was nonetheless a part of my childhood. As time went on though, my interest in Star Wars as a whole, became more and more casual. These days, I've come to the realization that I find the setting in which Star Wars takes place more interesting than any of the actual movies or shows. This also applies to the Harry Potter books, by the way.

Let me provide one final example, this time from the 9th artform. Jacques Tardi's Adele Blanc-Sec comics was a favorite of mine when I was in my teens, but upon revisiting some of the albums recently, I found that it didn't quite hold up to me. Still entertaining, but not in the same class as some of Tardi's other work.

There are other examples I could mention, but I'll stop here. I should point out though, that I do not dislike any of the works I listed here. No, at worst, I'm simply indifferent towards them and even when that's the case, there are parts of them that I will always be fond of, but none of them are works that I consider to be indispensable to me, even though, at some point, they might have been.

A Brief Rant Concerning The Gem Show

Its never pleasant having to write something negative about a thing that you enjoy, but nevertheless, there are times when it must be done.
Steven Universe, created by Rebecca Sugar, is a show that I have a deep fondness for, and is there any wonder why? In addition to being creative and imaginative, the show also boasts engaging characters, fascinating lore and some really excellent songs. However, recently, I must confess that I've started to be a tad frustrated by the show. More precisely, what frustrates me is the rather staggering amount of so-called filler; that is, episodes that are mostly inconsequential and do not further the plot in any way.

The latest episode, Room For Ruby is a good (or not) example of what I mean. Yes, I enjoyed the character of Navy and how devious she turned out to be, but in the end, I can't help but wonder what this episode accomplished in the grand scheme of things. Is the fact that the characters no longer have access to a spaceship going to be important down the line? One should hope so, otherwise, I can't help but wonder what the purpose behind the episode was.

Do not get the wrong idea, I have nothing against the more small-scale, character-focused episodes per se, but at this point, we already know the characters well enough. I want to find out more about Homeworld, about the diamonds, about the circumstances that led up to Rose Quartz's rebellion. How Pearl joined up with Rose and so forth. The show is at its fourth season; its high time that it gained some momentum and started to give us answers to some of these questions, instead of meandering about. Otherwise, I fear that the show may end up like Adventure Time and that is not something I wish to happen.