I am actually skipping Schitt’s Creek as that was the next show I had watched right after Brooklynn Nine-Nine (Netflix records I watched Schitt’s Creek in 9 days, I claim it was because I had started working again that week!) because I don’t know what to say about this show yet. Um, my basic review: “It’s perfect in every way, watch it.” There? There’s not really anything else to say other than that it’s good and watch it, please. I do want to watch Schitt’s Creek once again but not for the sake of watching it, but for the sake of studying each frame, piece of dialogue, acting, etc. I want to actually study Schitt’s Creek because it is a case study of pure storytelling perfection!
Oddly enough, there are no spoilers in this review!
Anyway, I now move onto Kid Cosmic. I watched Kid Cosmic in under a day with episodes playing while I was working and during my lunch breaks at work, also! This show is truly a bingeable and digestible show! What helps the show being a sit-down, watch all ten episodes in one go with a bag of candy or chips or whatever snacks you have is the fact that it doesn’t give you much lore to think about. This show simply presents itself at face value and you have to take it at such. It is fantastic because this served as an intermission type of show. A show with zero consequence and has no big weight but is just fun to take a break from big projects and longer shows, long video essays on YouTube, etc. This is that type of show and it’s super fun! It works because the episodes, although they say 22, 25, and 21 minutes, they are only around 15 – 17 minutes each episode. They are perfectly digestible because one happens roughly right after the other, if not in time, in concept and story (watch it).
But it does suffer from at least one big viewer aspect for it to work. This show relies heavily on the viewer to simply accept the show as is. What’s cleaver – a little too clever, but I’ll get on that in a second – is the art of the show is that of an old-style comic book of sorts, which is the whole idea behind the show. The problem with this is that the art is almost too perfect to be idealistically drawn by a child or simply hand-drawn art. It looks a little too good and the concept gets a little lost. I mean, I was wholly invested in the show and that’s how I noticed, otherwise, who is to know if I would’ve or not. I’d bet money, however, that I would not have noticed. It’s a great aesthetic for the style and tone of the show, it just is a little too clean – that’s the word: clean. So, I guess that’s a compliment? The art is too good, too clean for the style and tone of the show, haha! “YOU HAVE TOO GOOD OF AN IDEA, HANK!” I don’t know who Hank is, but please read that with an old lady voice.
In terms of story, the story of Kid Cosmic is… it is not non-existent, it is just what it is, and it is very hard to explain. The show as a whole has a very contained story that takes place within a couple of days, it seems. The whole show feels like it is barely ever broken up in between episodes and it seems more like a very long pilot to a bigger series than an actual series on its own. That’s a big compliment! This is what this show will need because in terms of the actual content you’re simply like, “What?” throughout the whole show. It’s such a fun ride to embark with the Kid and the Local Heroes, but you’re just wondering what on the living planet is actually happening with the goofiest smile on your face. This is such a fun show to throw yourself into with the mindset that you’re not getting much until the very last minute of the show, HAHA! That’s the only “spoiler” I will tell: You get NO substance until the very end! Then that substance you just thought you had nothing of… suddenly becomes SUPER SOMETHING, in fact, a lot of something and I suggest if you like cartoons and have time on your hands, grab some candy, get a soda or drive to a Circle K or a Tom Thumb or wherever you get your discount slushees and watch ourself some Kid Cosmic. I had such an enjoyable time laughing at the cheesy jokes aimed for kids, but also, done for adults – not inappropriately, just a way that adults can enjoy it too! Again, you just have to take it at face value. That’s the key to this show: taking it at face value. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you truly take this show at face value. You must enjoy it for what it is and expect nothing. I mean, I am sure the writers wanted the viewers to expect some things but, trust me, it is better if you expect nothing at all and just takes it all in.
Now, it is not without its flaws. The show’s lack of real substance does sometimes make the show a little boring at times. It makes it predictable and a little flat at times. Even in the story itself, it can get a little predictable if you start to look for how this show could go. I remember thinking to myself, “My gosh, what the crap is happening here?!” and then the plot continued on and everything was fine. I did see it coming from a mile away, but that’s because it’s me and I have a knack for picking up weird story beats, HAHA! I wonder what that says about the stuff I’ve written, OH BOY!
Created by Craig McCracken, Netflix has its own Marvel or DC Comics version of Infinity Stones! Kid Cosmic is about a 10-year-old (maybe 12?) boy who happens upon five cosmic stones of power that he superglues to lug nuts and calls them his “Cosmic Rings of Power!” Each “ring” has a certain ability that grants its user, powers which I won’t reveal because they are revealed as they get assigned to a character and it’s just a fun time with mini reveals so there’s something to look forward to. The kid then has to assemble a team of “unlikely heroes to band together and battle an oncoming galactic threat to earth.” See, the show plays on this trope and acknowledges that it is a comic book way of thinking. They make it pretty evident early on in episode 1 and drive the fact home throughout the entire series. The stuff that is currently happening to them is something out of a “comic book, not real life.” The show plays with this in a variety of ways for our main hero and for the rest of the Local Heroes and even the antagonists of the show.
Overall, this show is a great show to use to break up the routine of your life. It serves as a perfect intermission show to disrupt your flow just a tiny bit and then back to business. Kid Cosmic flies in at an 8/10 for me.