Adventure Time ends again as Netflix’s Q-Force debuts
Plus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine continues to double up on episodes
TV Lists Adventure Time
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, September 2. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Adventure Time: Distant Lands—Wizard City (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m.):
Having already given a fond and final farewell to Finn, Jake, Marceline, PB, and BMO with its three previous Distant Lands specials on HBO Max, Adventure Time now prepares to say goodbye to… itself. On the surface, Wizard City is a far less fitting finale for this series of animated epilogues than May’s grand and ambitious Together Again, forgoing big plot revelations or moving emotional growth in favor of tossing several of the show’s most minor characters (most notably Pep, a de-aged version of running joke character Peppermint Butler) into a distant, Hogwarts-riffing setting and letting them all be magical jerks to each other. But it’s also funny, quick-moving, and filled with weird and amazing new characters, underlaid with just enough heart to keep the whole thing from collapsing into nihilism. In that sense, it’s a perfect finish for a show that never stopped pushing on its borders, or losing touch with the fact that beloved heroes might come and go, but the adventure always continues. Also: Bill Hader plays a cranky frog wizard. Hard to say no to that. [William Hughes]
Regular coverage
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC, 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.): NBC has been doubling up on episodes, but Vikram Murthi will continue to cover in a single recap.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (Paramount+, 3:01 a.m.): A quick reminder that coverage on this All Stars season is embargoed until 9:15 p.m., so look for our recap then.
Wild card
Q-Force (Netflix, 3:01 a.m.): Unfortunately, this show suggests that queer superspies have pretty far to go for proper representation. As Juan Barquin writes, “To watch Q-Force, Netflix’s latest adult animated series, is to sit through 10 episodes of scripted material at the same level of quality as RuPaul’s Drag Race’s acting challenges, where talented performers try to bring to life a script with no actual jokes, just cultural references. It’s like scrolling through the drafted tweets of Gay Twitter Comedians or sifting through the outtakes for a gay podcast, where every other sentence in a conversation involves a name-drop of a pop star or actress and a catty observation about them.” Still, the animated series boasts a stacked voice cast, with co-creator Sean Hayes as the leader of the group (Steve Maryweather, a.k.a. Mary), along with Patti Harrison, Wanda Sykes, Matt Rogers, David Harbour, Laurie Metcalf, and Gary Cole.
11 Comments
Queer folks, help me out: who’s watching stuff like Q-Force?
There’s sometimes a vibe that something is meant to appear to be for us, but isn’t for us. Like RuPaul – that feels catered to curious cis people, and I’m not gonna open up that can of worms in regards to cultural impact.
But Q-Force stuff is stranger. It’s like this strange micro-genre that doesn’t seem to be for *anyone*. I don’t mean to dump on this, it’s just something I talk about with friends a lot. It’s very celebrity-worship based, I think, and playing to certain expectations. At the same time, however, it doesn’t feel like it’s meant for the queer crowd, nor expectant straight folk who are trying to get a feel for the subculture.
It’s like somebody playing a game of telephone with Buddy Cole, y’know? I get how it’d be more appealing 20 years ago, just not today – we have the internet, so a premise like ‘queer people existing’ isn’t really as much of a novelty anymore.
I truly mean no offense if this is your thing, it’s just strange to feel so out of the loop on that.
In my own lifetime I’ve (and most likely many folks here) seen queer identity go from the realm of the subversive to what we now call “normie”. Q-Force is not aimed at the socially conscience Stonewall crowd, but the very same audience every middle of the road pop-culture referencing show is aimed towards. The gays can like trash TV and low brow art, too. It’s just a part of the assimilation of queer culture, for better or worse.
Come on, grab your friends
Yeah really don’t understand the decision to air Wizard City as the final Adventure Time special and not the one with Finn and Jake. Just seems strange. Really enjoyed the specials overall — although I feel it all may have left a bigger impact if there was some more carry-over between specials as opposed to having each one do their own thing.
I would suspect it has to do with production order, I think I read that they originally only planned to do the first 3 and this was like a bonus extra one they got the budget for. I agree with you, but I’m also never going to complain about more of my favorite TV show of all time
The Finn/Jake special was bittersweet but really good. Though I’m sorta ok with it not being “last” because it does trend on the sad side the more you think about it. I haven’t seen Wizard City yet but I’m ok with “ending” the show on something a little more upbeat and happy.
Does it really matter though?
No mention of What We Do in the Shadows?!! WTF??I hope we’re still getting recaps/reviews.
Hope someone got fired for that blunder etc….
Thank you for reminding me!!!
I love adventure story. I’m looking forward to my adventure-Kailash tour.https://www.greattibettour.com/tibet-travel-tips/kailash-mansarovar-yatra-once-in-a-lifetime-experience.html