Watching: Over the Garden Wall

2014, download

I am often, in my head and on this blog, whinging about how most things are just "meh" or on occasion, "OK". But on rare occasions something comes along and I yell, as I did on social media (FB, cuz yer old), "OMG, how am I just hearing about this?!?!" And I heard about it from Marmy, who saw the 10th Anniversary Short on YouTube. That was followed by me finding the original short film, or pilot if you wish, called "Tome of the Unknown". And after that, a quick run for the full mini-series, which is commented on below.

And that's a rock fact !!

What 100. Wirt and Gregory have become lost in the Unknown, basically a fairy tale forest. A bluebird named Beatrice, a cursed girl, joins them and the three have a bunch of adventures while trying to find their way out of the forest. The Unknown is a weird place full of fairy tale monsters, a woodsman cutting down haunted trees, a stalking Beast, Mississippi river boat frogs, American folksy vegetable people, etc. Its an odd mashup of Americana circa the 40s-50s and traditional magical stuff that plays out like a shroom dream. Eventually we learn what's really going on, and that's a bit disappointing.

1 Great. The dynamic between Wirt, a worrisome teenage boy, and his utterly bonkers little half-brother Gregory is probably the best thing about the show. Wirt tolerates Gregory's scatter brained, always optimistic approach to the world, and while he seems to genuinely seems to care for his brother, the kid's clearly ... odd. There is no explanation as to why Greg walks around with a tea pot as a hat and carries a frog he constantly renames, nor why Wirt kind of looks like a attic trunk wizard, until there is... and again, that's a bit disappointing. And while we are in a fairy tail like environment, the characters are clearly from modern times, though not really out of sorts with the idea being in a fairy tale... they just need to get to the other side of the Unknown and everything will be alright.

Wirt calls him "Greg" for the most part, but really, he's a Gregory.

1 Good. The weird mashup of Americana with fairy tale is fun and weird and disjointing. And along with that ideal comes a ton of music & songs, which are all sorts of folksy, quirky jazz diddies, which are, to quote Elijah Wood, "if this show were a record, it would be played on a phonograph." I am sure that for music nerds there is a whole breakdown as to the stylistic choices made, and the musicians chosen to score the show and write & perform the songs.

1 Bad. Honestly, I didn't care that the show "explained" away the weird and wonderful world Wirt and Greg were travelling through. I like my weird to be weird for weirdness sake. But, given that there were obvious hints as to the why's and how's, I cannot begrudge the idea they did that episode. Also, along the same line, the "pilot" was a short on its own, and it was just a few shades weirder / more magical than the show itself. I wish it had embraced that odd stylistic choice and doubled down on it, instead of softening it a bit to make an entire season. 

SPOILER.

But, as a meta aside, like the show turned out to be just a dream / transportation to a magical world while the kids were drowning in an icey lake, once I woke up from the show (finished watching it) it kind of fade, like a wonderful dream you just want to get back to. I hope it can find a permanent spot somewhere in my brain so we can return each Autumn for a rewatch.