So it started very solidly, and I was expecting it to easily hit 9/10, but as it went on it just kept getting slightly more boring every episode, but at the end it really picked up, so I would say that it is worth a watch! Even if the middle is kind of a slog.
== Major Spoilers == The conflict between Barney and his parents didn't really work for me... I don't know if I missed something but the whole thing felt hollow, I kept waiting for the reveal of them doing something that would be bad enough for him to run away, but it just didn't come.
They did keep saying that the Grandma was saying terrible things but we never do hear what she says, so unless you decide to do the heavy lifting with your imagination and make the grandma into something truly horrible than the whole conflict feels kind of empty.
They do kind of hint at what Grandma says in episode 2, so we do kind of have an idea of what she says that makes her so bad, but it doesn't feel like it reaches running away from home level, especially as she doesn't live with them and only visits occasionally!
The whole thing would have worked way better if it wasn't Barney reconciling with his parents but Barney reconciling the grandma.
Another thing that didn't really work for me was Norma feeling betrayed and starting to cry due to the reveal that Pauline Phoenix was a ghost, and was possessing her own impersonators to continue living!
I mean what exactly does that betray? That she isn't as immortal as she seems? That she isn't as perfect as she imagined her to be? I don't know and anything that I imagine feels like it isn't enough to cause such a reaction from a fan, feels very forced!
Would have worked way better if she had decided to spread the truth to make sure that her perfect reputation didn't survive, or something like that...
Additionally I didn't like that they really spent a whole episode showing Norma's anxiety issues and then just never brought them up again, especially when she had to preform/talk/sing in front of lots of people constantly... It felt very inconsistent, and could have been an interesting problem for her to overcome!
And final thing that comes to mind, is that it wasn't clear if all supernatural stuff was normal to literally everyone or if they were just supper accepting of it all, like what was the situation there? Because they constantly see Courtney and Pugsley doing magic, even if that is somehow explained away, Pugsley is a talking dog and basically no-one ever questioned that! So that should have been explained way better.
But other then that everything was pretty good, the animation was on-point, the music was good, the voice acting was good, the characters were good and even if the overarching story was kind of a stretch in places it was also good!
Can't really think of anything that they did perfectly that I will think back on later...
== Major Spoilers == The conflict between Barney and his parents didn't really work for me... I don't know if I missed something but the whole thing felt hollow, I kept waiting for the reveal of them doing something that would be bad enough for him to run away, but it just didn't come.
They did keep saying that the Grandma was saying terrible things but we never do hear what she says, so unless you decide to do the heavy lifting with your imagination and make the grandma into something truly horrible than the whole conflict feels kind of empty.
They do kind of hint at what Grandma says in episode 2, so we do kind of have an idea of what she says that makes her so bad, but it doesn't feel like it reaches running away from home level, especially as she doesn't live with them and only visits occasionally!
The whole thing would have worked way better if it wasn't Barney reconciling with his parents but Barney reconciling the grandma.
Another thing that didn't really work for me was Norma feeling betrayed and starting to cry due to the reveal that Pauline Phoenix was a ghost, and was possessing her own impersonators to continue living!
I mean what exactly does that betray? That she isn't as immortal as she seems? That she isn't as perfect as she imagined her to be? I don't know and anything that I imagine feels like it isn't enough to cause such a reaction from a fan, feels very forced!
Would have worked way better if she had decided to spread the truth to make sure that her perfect reputation didn't survive, or something like that...
Additionally I didn't like that they really spent a whole episode showing Norma's anxiety issues and then just never brought them up again, especially when she had to preform/talk/sing in front of lots of people constantly... It felt very inconsistent, and could have been an interesting problem for her to overcome!
And final thing that comes to mind, is that it wasn't clear if all supernatural stuff was normal to literally everyone or if they were just supper accepting of it all, like what was the situation there? Because they constantly see Courtney and Pugsley doing magic, even if that is somehow explained away, Pugsley is a talking dog and basically no-one ever questioned that! So that should have been explained way better.
But other then that everything was pretty good, the animation was on-point, the music was good, the voice acting was good, the characters were good and even if the overarching story was kind of a stretch in places it was also good!
Can't really think of anything that they did perfectly that I will think back on later...