By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 5, 2014
I’ve never watched anything from the Disney Channel, besides once when my dentist’s TV remote wasn’t working. I watched an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place over the whirring noise of a cleaning tool, and, of course, I hated it. I like kids shows that appeal to more than just a child, probably because children have more depth than we give them credit for. Children are not dumb adults, and I hate TV shows and films that seem to assume they are. I don’t claim to understand kids, but I do know what makes a good kid’s show: whimsy, imaginative writing (the opposite of predictability and tropes), and depth.
Wizards of Waverly Place certainly didn’t have these characteristics. So when I watched the first episode of Gravity Falls, my prejudice against Disney set me up for a surprise: Gravity Falls is not half-bad.
Gravity Falls is about 12-year-old twins Dipper and Mabel, who are spending a summer at their great uncle Stan’s in the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. Their uncle (or “gruncle,” as Mabel often calls him) runs a tourist trap called the “Mystery Shack” (the “S” has fallen off the sign, revealing Stan’s true identity as a hack), where he sells souvenirs and oddities.
Mabel and Dipper soon discover that Gravity Falls is stewing with dark magic and mystery, and with each episode, they are solving mysteries. Gravity Falls, headed by Alex Hirsch, began its first season this summer, and has been renewed for a second season.
Gravity Falls could fit into the genre of “children’s Gothic” (did I just make that up? That should be a genre). The show is deeply tied to its Northwest Cascadia setting, which we in BC are familiar with: the Douglas fir, the grey skies, the deep green and shadowy forests. This setting is refreshing and perfect for gothic mysteries. The animation is very impressive for the opening credits, but falls back to average once the show begins.
One element that I love is that there is no technology. Besides watching Gruncle Stan’s old TV and listening to an Icelandic girl-pop group covering ABBA, Mabel and Dipper are iPod-, iPhone-, and Twitter-free. Thank goodness, because this show would not fit well with technology; Gothic and modern don’t always work.
The creatures that Mabel and Dipper face are, as in many children’s shows, quirky, but there are levels of menace underneath the peculiar façade. For example, in “Headhunters,” Gruncle Stan’s wax figures — including Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Reagan — murder the newly carved wax figure of Gruncle Stan by chopping his head off. They were trying to kill the real Gruncle Stan, though, which Mabel and Dipper barely prevent. Wax figures were made for horror.
Dipper and Mabel aren’t the most original duo. Dipper is serious, rational, and insecure about his masculinity. Mabel contrasts him by being flamboyant, energetic, and always optimistic, embracing her little girl with sparkles and pony-sweaters. Mabel is the sidekick, but she definitely takes charge more often than not. My favourite scene so far is when Mabel and Dipper have to use fake ID to get into the hardcore biker bar Skull Fracture. Mabel takes care of counterfeiting the ID. The huge bouncer tells the guy ahead of them in line “No miners!” and the soot-covered miner leaves in a huff. Mabel flashes her handiwork confidently — their pictures adorned with moustaches, decorative macaroni and sparkles. “Lady Mableton” is 21, and “Sir Dipping Sauce” is 45. The bouncer shrugs and lets them in.
Gravity Falls doesn’t have the most original characters; maybe the writers thought the unique setting and magic was original enough, or maybe they thought they’d better make Mabel and Dipper “relatable.” I feel like the idea of “relatable” is poison: any human character will be relatable to an audience — you don’t have to make them familiar to be relatable. The setting almost makes up for predictable characters, but the issue is that is the characters react predictably to their environment, which takes away from the setting. It’s almost better to have a cliché setting than a cliché character. At least the character acting is good — and Mabel is the best of them, played by a favourite of mine, Kristin Schaal, who played Mel in Flight of the Conchords.
Gravity Falls has the whimsy and depth that make a show worth watching. Hopefully the characters will move away from the “relatable” territory in the second season.
