Binge-watching Steven Universe, one eleven-minute episode after another, three or eight or fifteen at a time, was a very enjoyable experience. Sitting around waiting for Cartoon Network to release eleven minutes of Steven Universe at a time with no regularity, on the other hand, has been a real pain in the ass. No, seriously - this show has no time slot. Every few months, Cartoon Network will drop a "Steven Bomb," which means it will air new episodes of Steven Universe every night for a whole week at, like, 7pm or so. And then also every now and again, Cartoon Network will decide to schedule new episodes on a weekly basis - last time, Fridays at 8pm, oof - for two or three weeks at a time. And on top of all this, they'll have episodes scheduled to go, and then on the day of, they'll just kind of disappear. It's maddening. It's unlike any other show I've ever tried to watch with regularity and consistency. Granted, in the age of DVR (and really, now, more so, the age of streaming shit online), this really isn't a big deal. The episodes will air, eventually, and I'll see them. But still!
Okay. Anyway. Season 4. (Oh, the show also doesn't even have actual seasons. They'll just kind of declare one episode a season finale. Season 3 finished on a Wednesday and Season 4 began the next day. It's insane. Okay, okay, I'm done, I promise.) Season 4 was a bit of a mixed bag for me, as all the seasons have been, really. One episode we'll be diving into some deep mythological explanations - this thing's like Lost in the way it keeps adding as many new questions as answers - and then for like four straight episodes we'll just follow Steven around town, having fun with a friend or two, learning a lesson or two, none of the Crystal Gems in sight. It's an interesting issue unique to 11-minute episodes - you really don't have time to split a story into an A-plot and a B-plot, so instead you just constantly mix up the focus and the intensity of the various episodes. I get it! It just makes for wildly uneven seasons sometimes.
All in all, I'm still having fun with this, enjoying it a great deal in the macro sense. The highlight this season was probably the series of episodes in which Steven and the Gems ended up on the Homeworld. Interesting stuff, great mythology building, plenty of emotional stakes. And Season 4 has ended in a manner that should allow Season 5 to start out strong, too. (When, though? No one knows!)
I'm glad you called attention to the irregularity of how the "seasons" are released.
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of shows out there, "Steven Universe" is best enjoying by binge-watching it. That's partly true because, hey... you just don't want the story to stop, right? But that's also true because, like you point out, their release schedule makes no fucking sense.
Maybe it's just because it's technically a kid's show on what's technically considered a kid's network. I remember watching Nicktoons back in the day and didn't give a fuck if I was watching the newest episode of "Hey Arnold!" or a re-run I've seen twenty times before. JUST GIVE ME MY DAMN CARTOONS!
Now, trying to keep up with a show and watch it in chronological order -- IN REAL TIME! -- is just a nightmare. In fact it's your post here that's clued me into the fact that season 4 has wrapped. So I guess I'll start searching through Cartoon Network's app or other places online to get to viewing this guy.
Oh yeah, the big binge I took in December and January was nothing short of delightful, but I can't make heads or tales of the release schedule. It's also clear that some of their Steven Bombs are meant, at least sort of, to connect to each other, to tell one longer, arcing story. The Steven Bomb that kicked off 2017 was excellent - the one where they first visit the Homeworld. It was tied together, a complete story of sorts. But goodness gracious, there's nothing more infuriating to me, from television, than unpredictable release schedules.
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