Genuine question: is SU a worthwhile watch? I've thought about giving it a look for a while, but I'm not sure.
Definitely!
That show has, without an ounce of exaggeration, changed my life. Rebecca Sugar has all my respect and admiration for the depth of emotional understanding in both Steven Universe and her writing in anything else I’ve seen of hers. I maybe have a celebrity squish just from watching it all. It’s got themes of mental health that branch out into trauma and abuse, healing and love, relationships ranging from toxic to mutual growth and more ambiguous, honest statements about the flaws in everyone. (The themes of forgiveness are a bit controversial, andddd I can see why. I think that’s a feature, though.) And every character gets a wonderful arc from start to finish that focuses on their mental health and sense of self worth. Even the side characters. Except maybe Ronaldo. And Jasper’s is also controversial; I like where it went, but I’d like to see it go a bit further, personally.
If you’re familiar with Cartoon Network, you might find it starting out like... any other show? It is a children’s show, and at the start it’s easy to dismiss everything going on if you don’t know that Steven, the exclusive PoV character, is completely misinterpreting the events around him. A lot of those early episodes are more interesting on a second or third watch, at least for me. I know there’s some folks who don’t care for it, but I like the way it introduces the characters, and... it’s just cute and pleasant.
That’s not to say it starts bad and then gets better. The way each vital element of the show is introduced is perfect imo. The runtime being only 10 minutes long (tbh they should have gotten longer when stories got more tight, but that’s the network) leads to entire episodes being dedicated to, for example, Steven learning about Amethyst’s personal life; Steven learning about Garnet’s powers; Steven learning about Pearl’s insecurities; etc.
Steven is the audience’s eyeballs, so most anything new to us after episode 1 is new to him too. And things we may have dismissed early on come back later as he realizes their significance.
I say all this because I know some people will be like, “It’s so worth getting through the first season,” as if that first season isn’t worthwhile on its own. It is! Just know that the show’s tone starts out more relaxed (cute~) and continues to hold onto an episodic style between story-arcs throughout. It’s emotional. And they had to get it popular before sucker punching the network with all the gay.
Also the music and art is amazing and the acting and singing and *fanboy squeal*
I love it.
