As I pointed out in a cheap ploy to get you to look at an old blog post, when I recommend something to someone (further alluded to as “reco”) their most common response is usually to dismiss it, probably because something they’ve never heard of wasn’t what they wanted recommended to them.

It would save us all a bunch of time if you directly say, “Someone suggest a good book for me to read, but it needs to be Hunger Games, LOL.”

Many things were reco’ed to me throughout my lifetime that I shrugged off and then eventually caught on to and genuinely appreciated; 24, Harry Potter, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and each one was a good recommendation, despite the year(s) that went by between their initial reco and my eventual acquiescence.

So here is the long-awaited closure on that thing you suggested I watch, and why I just couldn’t get into it.

This week’s reco:  Adventure Time

Since I have Paul’s Netflix Adventure Time is available at the click of a button.  The show has appeared on at least a dozen blogs I’ve visited, and friends (and friends of friends) have reco’ed this show to me every few months.  People cosplay as it, it makes its appearance at ComiCon.  People are obsessed.

About a week ago I had shared a viewing of Adventure Time with our staff writer Kitty and The Good Doctor.  Since we’re in the television period before the summer all the shows are winding or have wound down.  We’re not sold.  Despite all the drinking we cannot buy into it.  I tell myself I’ll try again.

Adventure Time starts.  I’m introduced to Fry Finn and Bender Jake.  Even though I can watch an animated cartoon like Futurama, Archer, or American Dad, with no disconnect this animated style looks like a nuclear power plant exploded somewhere in The Busy World of Richard Scarry.  Then THAT got overtaken by Cloud Cuckooland.  Or Sugar Rush.

It just is.

The premise is that a boy and his deus-ex machina dog (voiced by Jon DiMaggio) go on all sorts of adventures, hence the name.  Big duh there.

There’s a lot going on all the time, which is completely necessary for anyone with a short attention span.

I watch one where a yellowish dwarfed elephant, cutely named Tree Trunks, goes on an adventure, she is completely oblivious to danger and mortal peril.  And then she dies in the end, roll credits.  This is a cartoon where the characters are all just blobs and shapes, right?

That is bold.

Then there’s another episode where the main duo go on a quest for a book.  There’s some punching.  When told to kill a harmless ant the main character refuses.  There’s some weird dissonance there because there’s punching, but there’s a lesson of not hurting innocent things, which, given that this exists, might be a lesson worth dispersing among every form of entertainment.  It is applicable to every age and every demographic.

I don’t know what this show is trying to do.  It feels like a hodgepodge of familiar shows, but is this for kids?  Or is this a cartoon for adults?  Because I don’t see it for one, while it would be sort of intense for another.

I can admire what the two characters represent, and I can appreciate how open the two characters typically are.

My issue is that it’s also so random and silly for the sake of being random and silly.  The  charm is there, but I’m just not sure if I’m too old for it?  Perhaps I missed something?

But hey, I tried Internet, I gave it an honest shot.