The PJs (1999-2001) - Claymation-style stop motion cartoon about an inner-city black project. It caught a fair amount of flak in its day for having “stereotypes”, but I never thought it went too overboard, and seeing poor blacks being acknowledged in any context in mainstream television was refreshing. Mainly I found the writing consistently good and didn’t see anything that was a massive turnoff, which was more than I could say for any other primetime cartoon at the time.
Siberia (2013) - A typical reality TV gaggle of contestants meet for what they think is going to be a Survivor-style contest in a remote part of Russia. Things quickly go south, with disasters wrecking both their camp and supplies, their host mysteriously vanishes, and they find themselves zapped several decades in the past and confronted by angry Cossacks. And then things gets weird. One of those “high concept” shows that got so wrapped up in its enigmas that it never bothered to nail down what the heck it was supposed to be. A survival drama? A time-slip mystery? A fight against nature and a hostile foreign presence? A surrealist adventure? Had some fun with this, but by the end I was as done with this as the actual Survivor.
Son of Zorn (2016) - Did a thread on this. The underlying lesson everyone should learn from this is that if your show is going to have any kind of liberal bashing, much less completely bake it into the premise, you absolutely have to blast it out of the park. The viewers must become slavering diehard fans right away and feverishly shout down any and all opposition. If they’re saying things like “It just didn’t click for me,” “It has potential,” “Something feels a bit off,” “I’m not seeing the point,” or “I’ll give it a few weeks and see how it goes,” it is doomed. The chances of it surviving the backlash from viewers who don’t give a free pass to slavering right-wing punching down are zero. Here’s an idea of what I’m talking about. With each passing year South Park looks more and more like lightning in a bottle. Heck, even Beavis and Butthead got its Quote For The Ages. The only time you ever hear about Son of Zorn anymore is when I need something to harp on for a discussion like this. Shame.