Ultimately I rated this show an 8.0 for a few reasons. I, as a 22-year-old male, many times caught myself laughing at this show, which was a little shocking to me. I also liked how it was a clean enough show for absolutely all ages, but it didn’t try super hard to be that way, if that makes sense. It didn’t feel like the writing was trying overtly hard to be wholesome, rather they just avoided putting in inappropriate content. I really appreciate a show that can be shown to all ages and be enjoyed by all, rather than a show that can safely be viewed by all ages but only enjoyed by a younger crowd. I also loved the strict adherence to three-act structure and the lessons each episode taught, while very discrete.
This review was a difficult one for me, as I typically don’t watch cartoons or any animated content. With that said, I was able to separate my feelings toward this particular set of content and analyze Steven Universe with an open mind.
For starters, I noticed after the first episode that this show was going to follow the three-act structure for every single episode. As the episodes are only about 10 minutes, it is fairly impressive how well the episodes are written and developed in this way. Almost every episode begins with an innocent scene of humor but it almost immediately met with a problem that needs to be solved. The episode spends about 3 minutes setting up the problem that occasionally foreshadows how it is going to be solved. Following this, the show then spends approximately 5 minutes fighting/solving the problem (and subsequent problems) before it is finally resolved. The last (about) two minutes are spent teaching some kind of lesson to Steven, such as “listening when people talk to you,” or “don’t bite off more than you can chew,” etc.… In light of all of this, it made the show easy to watch, understand and follow to the end.
I mentioned above that the show taught a lesson with every episode. I really liked this, because I can remember watching a few cartoons when I was growing up and it always felt like the shows that tried to teach a lesson tried WAY too hard to do so. These shows would out and out use the exact words your parents would use and it was just kind of a corny ending to a show and it made you, as a kid, not want to watch. With Steven Universe, the lessons were very discrete. I am not sure a lot of kids would necessarily even catch that they were being taught a lesson, rather just subconsciously taking it in. I liked how discrete the lessons were in this show because I didn’t feel like it was being pushed down my throat and I think this was definitely a goal of (executive producer) Rebecca Sugar’s.
Sugar, most notably, is known for her work on the hit show Adventure Time. It is no surprise that Steven Universe has such a tremendous following when you look at the success of Adventure Time. I wholeheartedly believe that the success of these shows certainly lands on Rebecca Sugar, who is known for her extensive creativity in the storyboarding stages of production development.
Ultimately I rated this show an 8.0 for a few reasons. I, as a 22-year-old male, many times caught myself laughing at this show, which was a little shocking to me. I also liked how it was a clean enough show for absolutely all ages, but it didn’t try super hard to be that way, if that makes sense. It didn’t feel like the writing was trying overtly hard to be wholesome, rather they just avoided putting in inappropriate content. I really appreciate a show that can be shown to all ages and be enjoyed by all, rather than a show that can safely be viewed by all ages but only enjoyed by a younger crowd. The other reasons were explained above, being the adherence to three-act structure and the lessons it taught.
P.S. The theme song is hauntingly catchy.
