[8.4/10] One of these days, the reveal that grumpy, greedy Grunkle Stan has a heart of gold will stop working on me. But today is not that day. Maybe that’s the benefit of having a forty-episode run. You can keep going to these wells without the show running dry.
Whatever the long term outlook, or the predictability of the reveal that Stan loves his niece and nephew, him coming to save the day absolutely worked on me. The show sets up the feint nicely. There’s reason to believe that Stan is so excited about the completion of his mysterious device, and all he cares about is keeping the feds off his trail so he can enjoy it. His professed, implausible skepticism about magic suggests he’s creating a smokescreen so that Dipper won’t meddle in his business or inadvertently point the coppers in his direction.
You could buy it, particularly considering the moment from the opening scene where Stan looks at a photo of his young niece and nephew and worries about them messing with his device. You can buy it even more when he seems too wrapped up in operating the machine to notice that his young relatives are about to be devoured by zombies.
But then he springs into action and he’s never seemed braver or more courageous. I didn’t exactly peg Stan as bold action hero, and the show is smart enough to have him declare “everything hurts” after he holds off the undead for a while, but it’s downright stirring to see him put himself in harm’s way so that Dipper and Mabel can escape to safety. He’s genuinely pretty badass between his baseball bat theatrics and the (nciely setup) brass knuckles he uses to defeat the walkers. When his niece and nephews need him the most, when it seems like all is lost, there is Grunkle Stan to save the day, and that’s lovely.
What’s lovelier though are his motives. Yes, he obviously knows about all the supernatural goings on in Gravity Falls, and yes, he’s tried to keep the kids away from it. Only, he’s not discouraging the kids to keep them out of his business -- he’s doing so because that supernatural stuff is dangerous (case in point: zombies) and he couldn’t live with himself if the two people he loves most got hurt. It turns out Stan is an old softie, and the reveal that he’s looking out for the kids, not stepping over them to feather his own nest, plays with the audience’s emotions nicely.
I’m also impressed at Gravity Falls ability to restore the status quo, despite the enormous changes seemingly promised at the end of last season, while adding in some exciting new twists. It would feel cheap not to have anything change at all, but I’m also loath to have the series mess with its winning formula after such success in season 1. So this season promises to have the same journal-fueled misadventures and yuks around the mystery shack, but there’s enough new wrinkles to keep things fresh.
One is the aforementioned fact that now Stan admits he knows what’s up, and both he and Dipper have made crossed-finger promises not to keep any more secrets or use the journal for anything but self-defense. It portends good psychological storytelling when each finds out the other broke their promise.
On a more practical level, Dipper and Wendy messing around with blacklights for the big party sets up the discovery that there’s more/secret writing in Journal #3 to uncover, which is good fodder for more adventures. Likewise, I’m intrigued by the arrivals of Agent Powers (Nick Offerman!) and Agent Trigger. It continues the series’ Twin Peaks/X-Files homages, with a couple of suits coming to the small town to unravel the paranormal activity going down there. It creates a new hurdle/allies for our heroes, and adds to the local color.
Speaking of color, I love the zombie sequences here. Even in 2012, the glut of zombie media made the whole genre seem oversaturated. But the show does outstanding work paying homage to the likes of Return of the Living Dead while adding in some cool designs for the undead, animation for how they move and shamble, and set pieces where the Pines crew fights or escapes them. I especially love Mabel throwing a multicolored party light into one’s mouth and the whole thing turning into a combination of horror and splendor.
The humor continues to be on point as well. Soos as a zombie is great. Him maintaining his same happy-go-lucky attitude while also seriously wanting to eat some brains is hilarious. As the show kicks off again, we get more town color with everyone in Gravity Falls coming for the party. The Cute Biker getting texts from Wendy’s teen friends was a big laugh, and the local bumbling cops are always a hoot. And for an episode with Mabel in the B-story, her efforts to get the party going, and inability to start a chant are good for a laugh as well.
Yet, it’s Mabel’s party-friendly, karaoke-loving attitude that truly saved the day. It is both hilarious and heartwarming to watch the three-part harmony of Mabel, Dipper, and Stan reluctantly than resoundingly belting out a girly pop song together to explode some zombie skulls. The moment is inventive and fun, with the symbolism that with the three members of the Pines clan working together, there’s nothing they can’t keep at bay.
All-in-all, this is a wonderful return from Gravity Falls, with an episode that works as its own visually-exciting standalone story, a season premiere that kicks off new plots and mysteries to span the rest of the year, and most importantly, shows that for all his scheming and money-grubbing, the most important thing to Stan is, in fact, those two kids he loves very much.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-08-18T04:35:18Z
[8.4/10] One of these days, the reveal that grumpy, greedy Grunkle Stan has a heart of gold will stop working on me. But today is not that day. Maybe that’s the benefit of having a forty-episode run. You can keep going to these wells without the show running dry.
Whatever the long term outlook, or the predictability of the reveal that Stan loves his niece and nephew, him coming to save the day absolutely worked on me. The show sets up the feint nicely. There’s reason to believe that Stan is so excited about the completion of his mysterious device, and all he cares about is keeping the feds off his trail so he can enjoy it. His professed, implausible skepticism about magic suggests he’s creating a smokescreen so that Dipper won’t meddle in his business or inadvertently point the coppers in his direction.
You could buy it, particularly considering the moment from the opening scene where Stan looks at a photo of his young niece and nephew and worries about them messing with his device. You can buy it even more when he seems too wrapped up in operating the machine to notice that his young relatives are about to be devoured by zombies.
But then he springs into action and he’s never seemed braver or more courageous. I didn’t exactly peg Stan as bold action hero, and the show is smart enough to have him declare “everything hurts” after he holds off the undead for a while, but it’s downright stirring to see him put himself in harm’s way so that Dipper and Mabel can escape to safety. He’s genuinely pretty badass between his baseball bat theatrics and the (nciely setup) brass knuckles he uses to defeat the walkers. When his niece and nephews need him the most, when it seems like all is lost, there is Grunkle Stan to save the day, and that’s lovely.
What’s lovelier though are his motives. Yes, he obviously knows about all the supernatural goings on in Gravity Falls, and yes, he’s tried to keep the kids away from it. Only, he’s not discouraging the kids to keep them out of his business -- he’s doing so because that supernatural stuff is dangerous (case in point: zombies) and he couldn’t live with himself if the two people he loves most got hurt. It turns out Stan is an old softie, and the reveal that he’s looking out for the kids, not stepping over them to feather his own nest, plays with the audience’s emotions nicely.
I’m also impressed at Gravity Falls ability to restore the status quo, despite the enormous changes seemingly promised at the end of last season, while adding in some exciting new twists. It would feel cheap not to have anything change at all, but I’m also loath to have the series mess with its winning formula after such success in season 1. So this season promises to have the same journal-fueled misadventures and yuks around the mystery shack, but there’s enough new wrinkles to keep things fresh.
One is the aforementioned fact that now Stan admits he knows what’s up, and both he and Dipper have made crossed-finger promises not to keep any more secrets or use the journal for anything but self-defense. It portends good psychological storytelling when each finds out the other broke their promise.
On a more practical level, Dipper and Wendy messing around with blacklights for the big party sets up the discovery that there’s more/secret writing in Journal #3 to uncover, which is good fodder for more adventures. Likewise, I’m intrigued by the arrivals of Agent Powers (Nick Offerman!) and Agent Trigger. It continues the series’ Twin Peaks/X-Files homages, with a couple of suits coming to the small town to unravel the paranormal activity going down there. It creates a new hurdle/allies for our heroes, and adds to the local color.
Speaking of color, I love the zombie sequences here. Even in 2012, the glut of zombie media made the whole genre seem oversaturated. But the show does outstanding work paying homage to the likes of Return of the Living Dead while adding in some cool designs for the undead, animation for how they move and shamble, and set pieces where the Pines crew fights or escapes them. I especially love Mabel throwing a multicolored party light into one’s mouth and the whole thing turning into a combination of horror and splendor.
The humor continues to be on point as well. Soos as a zombie is great. Him maintaining his same happy-go-lucky attitude while also seriously wanting to eat some brains is hilarious. As the show kicks off again, we get more town color with everyone in Gravity Falls coming for the party. The Cute Biker getting texts from Wendy’s teen friends was a big laugh, and the local bumbling cops are always a hoot. And for an episode with Mabel in the B-story, her efforts to get the party going, and inability to start a chant are good for a laugh as well.
Yet, it’s Mabel’s party-friendly, karaoke-loving attitude that truly saved the day. It is both hilarious and heartwarming to watch the three-part harmony of Mabel, Dipper, and Stan reluctantly than resoundingly belting out a girly pop song together to explode some zombie skulls. The moment is inventive and fun, with the symbolism that with the three members of the Pines clan working together, there’s nothing they can’t keep at bay.
All-in-all, this is a wonderful return from Gravity Falls, with an episode that works as its own visually-exciting standalone story, a season premiere that kicks off new plots and mysteries to span the rest of the year, and most importantly, shows that for all his scheming and money-grubbing, the most important thing to Stan is, in fact, those two kids he loves very much.