I think the show does a great job with appealing to both young and adult audiences at the same time.

The adult stuff isn't things that kids would get, and the kid stuff isn't too over the top ridiculous to make me just stop watching it.

 

This show is brilliant. Just started watching.

 

I think the Disney censors have given up by this point. One of their other shows, Star VS the Forces of Evil, had the main character - a 14 year old girl - actually cut someone's arm off in the S1 finale. (He grew it back, but still.)

 

The worst thing about the show is the wonky schedule.

Bill Cipher is creepy/fun as hell.

 

I left off on Episode 11 of this season. I've had trouble picking it up again since though -- not because of the quality of the show at all, it's great, I just get sidetracked.

 

I love this show. It's actually the first TV show I’ve watched regularly since GoT S3 and Spectacular Spider-Man. I love the characters, Dipper is so likeable and relatable, and Mabel is adorable, and what would ake them annoying in another, lesser, show, makes they even more likeable. Highly recommended.

I also live how fantastic the writing is, how smart the plot is and how natural and real the interactions between the characters is.

 

That was always my thought watching this show, and then Northwest Mansion Mystery happened. My jaw dropped at how far that episode went. And of course Weirdmageddon has gone full Lovecraft, so we get everything.

I adore this show with a fiery passion. I watch it with my 13 year old son, who has made the theme song his cell phone ring tone.

 

I love this show it just bothers me sometimes that Seuss didnt learn to be you know, not stupid in all the episodes where he almost died, but its a kids show even if the humour is more for adults. I also think it would be even better if there was no censorship at all.

9/10 would watch again

 

I think the Soos and The Real Girl episode is pretty brilliant (it aired again tonight and I stopped to watch it, even though it was already on the DVR). Like so many other episodes, it appeals to kids on one level, but then it's loaded with references and sometimes concepts that are going to sail over most children's heads (a trait they even make a meta reference to in episode 33).

Right off the bat, the episode title is a reference to a movie about a guy in a relationship with a sex doll. Yup.

Spoiler

Compared to that, the .gif pronunciation joke is pretty tame, but still something most kids aren't going to get unless they're spending a lot of time on the internet.

Then there are all the gags about Japanese dating simulators, including a line that implies .GIFfany's father was a tentacle monster...

And there was some nice continuity stuff, with Rumble McSkirmish making a brief cameo, and Mabel actually having a doll of the animatronic bear in previous episodes.

How many kids in the supposed core Gravity Falls demographic have ever seen a Showbiz Pizza restaurant with its animatronic band? Hell, as old as I am, the only place I ever saw those creepy fuckin' robo-puppets -and the memory is very vague- was on an old episode of Romper Room (I think).

Take Evil Dead 2 and throw in a dash of that damned Mountain Dew commercial with the limp-legged taxidermy deer dancing around, and you get Northwest Mansion Mystery.

Spoiler

That bit with the deer dragging itself along the floor...

:fire

 

Northwest Mansion Mystery really made my jaw drop. It was... Disturbing. Verily.

It was also awesome seeing Dipper being acknowledged as a badass motherfucker. Grenda and Candy weren't annoying even one bit and the lesson they learn, through more beaten than an NFL’s player’s wife, was given an interesting spin. Pacifica development was amazingly natural, and awesome to watch.

 

Northwest Mansion Mystery is definitely a stand out episode (both in quality and freakiness). The only thing that bugs me about it is we don't get to see Dipper fighting the giant bat from the newspaper. That would be freaking cool.

 

I watched the first two episodes, mostly based on the hype in this thread.

They were okay - I really like Soos (totes thought it was Zeus) - but not to the level you guys are bigging it up.

Is there a specific episode where the show jus launches into another stratosphere? Or is it a gradual build up?

 

I'll stick with it then.

 

I think it's important to understand that it's very good for what it is. It isn't really comparable to actual adult TV shows in terms of depth and complexity, but it's a fun show that you can watch without having to think too much.

The show really does keep improving as it goes on though. I ended up skipping a few episodes in the first season, but watched them all in the second.

 

There's actually a pretty good reason for this iirc. Season one was designed around the 'prove that it works' monster of the week concept. Any plot advancement for the greater narrative had to be done tangentially to smaller arcs (save for the Bill episodes which culminate later).

Season two, on the other, is actually two seasons squished together. They have so much plot to get through that there's only been a couple of dud episodes so far. Everything else has been on point because it has to be.

 

They won't make a Season 3?

Actually, I think Gravity Falls is better than almost all adult TV Shows currently on. And it's relative simplicity and amazing characters who aren't 10,000 layers deep is one of the main reasons. It doesn't need a 1001 plots or a cast of a hundred coming and going characters who you never really know until 'big reveals' to keep itself with a top rate quality, it's a tight, intelligent narrative with great writing whose main advantages are on the details and how they matter in the long run and on its charming world and characters. It doesn't get lost on its own layered plot, it knows what it'ss doing and what it's aiming for, the characters are what you see, but still surprise you because you didn't look well enough.