I hate Netflix originals, especially straight-to-Netflix movies. Most of it is schlocky content created mostly to feed the algorithm, though they do very occasionally have bangers likeThey Cloned Tyronethat blow me away. When I do take the time to flick through Netflix’s library, it’s when I’m with friends and we’re hunting for a horror movie to watch, because even bad horror can be good horror. Somehow, even that can be hit or miss – we caught Run Rabbit Run most recently, drawn in by the promise of Sarah Snook acting her ass off, and hated it. Most of the time I spend on streaming services is with Max, because I’m pretentious and love prestige television like Succession and The White Lotus. Netflix is almost always my last resort, because the algorithm has decimated the quality of its exclusives.
There is one category that always impresses though, and that’s animation. I’ve been thinking about this since aclip of Bojack Horseman went viralon Twitter a few days ago and had me thinking about the good old days, when I actually opened Netflix regularly to watch shows I cared about. Bojack Horseman is one of my favourite shows ever made, and is special precisely because it’s animated. The medium so often gets denigrated as being simply cartoons for children, but Bojack Horseman is one of the darkest, most adult shows I’ve ever seen in my life, and its cartoony aesthetic, anthropomorphic animals, and sense of humour do a lot of heavy lifting to hide exactly how incisive its cultural criticism is. It touches on abuse of power, addiction, mental illness, privilege, celebrity culture, and more in ways that only seem more relevant as time goes on. It is widely considered to be one of the best animated shows of all time. It was also a straight-to-Netflix show.
Related:The MCU Isn’t Dead, But It’s Far From Alive
The rest of the animation category has some heavy hitters as well. The excellent Castlevania has a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the anthology series Love Death + Robots is critically lauded, Arcane: League of Legends is widely considered to be one of the best video game adaptations ever made, The Midnight Gospel made me and many other people weep. All of these are Netflix originals. Then there’s the astonishing catalogue of non-Netflix shows like F is for Family, Archer, Avatar the Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Devilman Crybaby, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Total Drama, Cowboy Bebop… I could keep going, and going, and going.
The best thing though, is that the category is somehow getting even more stacked. The first teaser for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, an animated adaptation of the original comics but with the cast of the live-action movie, came out this week and it’s a doozy. I’ve already written abouthow good it’s going to be and how I may never recover from watching it, but the important thing here is that it’s yet another straight-to-Netflix series – and it looks amazing. I’ve long known that scrolling through Netflix to find something decent to watch will always disappoint me, but heading straight to the animation category and finding something good is a surefire thing. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to rewatch Bojack Horseman for the fourth time.
Next:I Spent 100,000 Yen At The Worlds Pokemon Center And Have (Almost) No Regrets
