all fictions
I hate you! (it's not against the rules!)
- Location
- Mons Regius
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Probably a mistake there.
Netflix: Carmen Sandiego Cartoon
- Thread starter AnimalKrazed
- Start date
- TV
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Carmen Sandiego stole my grammar.
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- Location
- secret base
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Somewhere
It looks fun, although making the good guy Carmen seems weird. As said, given her entire characterization before was stealing as a game, making her not steal as a game makes me confused as to why this wasn't a wholly original character?
EDIT: Thinking about it, why not make the MC someone who learned from Carmen, but decided to steal heroically rather than for nefarious purposes? Then you get a wholly new character to design however you want, can still use the Carmen Sandiego aesthetics, and can draw in new and old alike.
EDIT: Thinking about it, why not make the MC someone who learned from Carmen, but decided to steal heroically rather than for nefarious purposes? Then you get a wholly new character to design however you want, can still use the Carmen Sandiego aesthetics, and can draw in new and old alike.
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- Location
- Texas
Watched the first couple episodes, and it looks like they're handling the concept in a smart and fun way.
Being raised by supervillains is a good take on how she became the greatest criminal ever without being, herself, a particularly terrible person. Gives a strong basis for quirky other characters to bounce off, too. Easy to add more cast members with history as required.
I also like all the jokes about the pun names and all the geography notes. Carmen Sandiego started in an educational game about geography with silly pun names, and it's nice to keep that around a bit.
Stolen hard drive of VILE's data for a year is a great plot hook for how and why she's picking targets.
It's a good thing that Interpol agent is very durable. Falling off a multi-story building onto a car would really hurt most people, but he walked it off pretty well. Be a shame to start Carmen's career of no-killing thievery with a dead police officer splattered across a Volkswagon.
Being raised by supervillains is a good take on how she became the greatest criminal ever without being, herself, a particularly terrible person. Gives a strong basis for quirky other characters to bounce off, too. Easy to add more cast members with history as required.
I also like all the jokes about the pun names and all the geography notes. Carmen Sandiego started in an educational game about geography with silly pun names, and it's nice to keep that around a bit.
Stolen hard drive of VILE's data for a year is a great plot hook for how and why she's picking targets.
It's a good thing that Interpol agent is very durable. Falling off a multi-story building onto a car would really hurt most people, but he walked it off pretty well. Be a shame to start Carmen's career of no-killing thievery with a dead police officer splattered across a Volkswagon.
- Location
- Australia
My head canon is that the setting is like Assassin's creed. ACME is not an organization that is given tonnes of government money to look for an organization that nobody can prove exists. ACME and VILE are both actually secret societies dedicated to finding, controlling and exploiting the technology of ancient aliens. This is why both organizations are able to develop and use super science tech that is far in advance of what is publicly available.
RogueIce
Noctis Æternæ
- Location
- New Lunar Republic, Equestria
Watched the whole season, pretty good.
Her anti-hero status makes sense, and feels right. When she was at VILE stealing was a game to her, it was thrilling and exciting and she never really considered the consequences of it. Then she goes out on a real job, and yeah she sees it can hurt people. But what mattered most to her, I think, is not so much the stealing is hurting people as the hurting people to steal aspect. That's what really turned her away from her former family. And Carmen - at least in the old show - was never about the violence and would indeed cross over to help the heroes when some thief took it too far. That she had her worldview and opinions about her own family and friends shattered like that, I can see how she'd swing pretty hard the other way.
In this case it put her firmly in the "good thief" category, but this is only the first season. We'll see how things go from here. She still works outside the law, so maybe if/when VILE gets busted/reformed - with her at the head? - she'll slip back into classic Carmen thievery-as-a-game mode.
Zack and Ivy took a little getting used to, but they're growing on me. Agent Argent is pretty neat. Chase is a little too over the top for me, but he did show a brief moment of self reflection in the finale, so perhaps his character will have some room to grow. Looking forward to the second season.
Her anti-hero status makes sense, and feels right. When she was at VILE stealing was a game to her, it was thrilling and exciting and she never really considered the consequences of it. Then she goes out on a real job, and yeah she sees it can hurt people. But what mattered most to her, I think, is not so much the stealing is hurting people as the hurting people to steal aspect. That's what really turned her away from her former family. And Carmen - at least in the old show - was never about the violence and would indeed cross over to help the heroes when some thief took it too far. That she had her worldview and opinions about her own family and friends shattered like that, I can see how she'd swing pretty hard the other way.
In this case it put her firmly in the "good thief" category, but this is only the first season. We'll see how things go from here. She still works outside the law, so maybe if/when VILE gets busted/reformed - with her at the head? - she'll slip back into classic Carmen thievery-as-a-game mode.
Zack and Ivy took a little getting used to, but they're growing on me. Agent Argent is pretty neat. Chase is a little too over the top for me, but he did show a brief moment of self reflection in the finale, so perhaps his character will have some room to grow. Looking forward to the second season.
- Location
- Illinois
I just finished the season and I generally liked it. I never had watched the original show, but this was pretty good! It had some fun geography trivia,and it served to remind me that in the end, this is a kid show. The story is pretty episodic, which is actually a bit of a nice refresher compared to the a lot of other shows who are pretty heavily trying to tie every episode of a season together. Even so, the finale was surprisingly tense for what was usually a pretty tame show.
The supporting characters are great as well. I like how both Zack and Ivy are competent even as they're goofy. Zack is an excellent driver and learns fast, Ivy is good at improvising and decently acrobatic (not as much as Carmen, but still). I really like Investigator Chase at first, although as the season continued I got a bit more annoyed with him. Luckily, it seems like he's about to go through a bit of an arc and become a little less bullheaded, so that's good.
The supporting characters are great as well. I like how both Zack and Ivy are competent even as they're goofy. Zack is an excellent driver and learns fast, Ivy is good at improvising and decently acrobatic (not as much as Carmen, but still). I really like Investigator Chase at first, although as the season continued I got a bit more annoyed with him. Luckily, it seems like he's about to go through a bit of an arc and become a little less bullheaded, so that's good.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I found the villains more interesting actually. Eccentricities and colorful specializations aside, they're fairly competent and operate in a sane way compared to a lot of comparable fictional villain organizations. Carmen is just a worst case scenario for them.
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- Location
- Patriarchova
Two episodes in, and my god is this the trippiest thing ever, it's like the what the fuck never lets up for more than a second.
I'm loving it.
I'm loving it.
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- Location
- Malaysia
I'm watching the show right now, although the origin story is a bit eeeeehhh for me the rest of it is fun and campy enough for me to just go along with it. I mean, it's a show for kids.
The bits of geographical trivia is fun to watch, reminds me a bit of Dora the Explorer in a way. I do want Chase to grow up a bit though, he's the most childish character in a show full of adolescents.
The bits of geographical trivia is fun to watch, reminds me a bit of Dora the Explorer in a way. I do want Chase to grow up a bit though, he's the most childish character in a show full of adolescents.
- Location
- Patriarchova
Me after watching the trailer: WHAT THE FUCK WHY WOULD YOU EVER DO THIS???
Me after watching the first couple episodes: Oh. That's why they did this. Cool.
It's definitely a major break from the franchise's tradition, but they made a really entertaining and educational show out of it, and that's what's important. It's hardly flawless (in particular, those infodumps at the start of each episode are intrusive and totally unnecessary, since all the information in them comes up again more organically later in the episode), but damn, it's good.
Also, I think this show might just be more openly lesbian than She-Ra.
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- Location
- Malaysia
I just love how most of the VILE agents have common sense especially Brunt and the Cleaners, because my god they're actually fairly competent. Most of the junior VILE agents are pretty good too, they just get consumed by pride which gives Carmen enough opening to exploit. Like, Paper Star is legit awesome. Tigress could have done a good job on her task too if she didn't get her rivalry with Carmen clouding her judgment. Mime Bomb despite his eccentricity actually did his part of the heist well enough.
Also, Shadowsan favoring Tigress who just literally rip coats off rather than subtle pickpocket tricks like Carmen's is... I don't know, it just shows what kind of person he is? He prefers overt violence rather than subtleties, which Brunt who literally taught the students martial arts is actually better at. I mean, this guy is more than ready to cut Carmen down when she stole Cookie's boat.
- Location
- Patriarchova
Finish the season. There's a bit more complexity to Shadowsan than just that.
But yeah, aside from Mime Bomb doing his mime-running away from Black Sheep instead of ACTUALLY RUNNING that one time (hilarious scene, though), the villains are behaving as rationally within the silly rules and genre conventions of their world as the heroes are. The VILE council all seem legitimately good at their jobs, and I like how they can have friendly rivalries with one another instead of outright betrayals like a lot of similar cartoon villains.
Also, like. The show mixes in the usual silly superthief capers (Contessa's purview) with actual serious shit (environmental and economic sabotage on national scales in the name of profit, courtesy of Bellum). The episode where Maelstrom wanted to melt down a historic artifact for a pair of cufflinks to show off to his friends also just had to be a commentary on rich, western big game hunters who kill endangered African megafauna just for the thrill of having gotten away with it, etc.
- Location
- Malaysia
I just finished the show. If it's not 12.30AM here I would have screamed out loud because no fucking way that twist.
I need season two NOW.
Also the level of misunderstanding between ACME, VILE and Carmen's team is just goddamn hilarious. It's going to be a continuous running joke, won't it? If there is a future season planned.
This show is legit better than most show-for-kids I have watched in years. Solid writing, solid acting, solid animation. Maybe I should try that She-Ra series next.
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- Location
- Patriarchova
The initial Netflix contract was for 20 episodes, I believe, so at least one more season. I suspect it'll get renewed for more though, and indeed hope it will, as the kind of slow burn story they're going for needs more time than that to develop.
There's a fan theory that this show will end with Carmen actually taking over VILE and becoming the villainous character from the previous media, due to getting burned by ACME and other law enforcement groups perpetually misunderstanding her.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fun Fact: Cookie Booker is voiced by the old Carmen VA
Speaking of the Junior VILE agents, anyone else think Le Chivre and El Topo have a thing for each other. They pretty consistently abandon their missions when the other is in trouble.
Speaking of the Junior VILE agents, anyone else think Le Chivre and El Topo have a thing for each other. They pretty consistently abandon their missions when the other is in trouble.
Suryn
On the wings of a Dragon
I loved the first 2 episodes of this. I just bounced so hard when Carmen's teammates really entered into the story. Player is fine, as the vague voice that you gives advice and does tech stuff. But those two other kids who act as Carmen's muscle/help just pull me way to much out of enjoyment of the show.
- Location
- Texas
The biggest annoyance I had is that they consistently treat "Shadowsan" as a single word name.
Like, his codename is Shadow, and he's a -san. His codename isn't "Shadowsan".
It's like Lordgenome in Gurren Lagann. I want an episode where his elderly ninja mother shows up and addresses him as "shadowsan-chan".
Although, honestly, in a criminal organization that features such luminaries as Mime Bomb and Paper Star, maybe his codename really IS "Shadowsan".
Also, kind of expecting that something is up with Detective Azure. She's much too competent for her organization, and her name is a pun. Very suspicious.
Like, his codename is Shadow, and he's a -san. His codename isn't "Shadowsan".
It's like Lordgenome in Gurren Lagann. I want an episode where his elderly ninja mother shows up and addresses him as "shadowsan-chan".
Although, honestly, in a criminal organization that features such luminaries as Mime Bomb and Paper Star, maybe his codename really IS "Shadowsan".
Also, kind of expecting that something is up with Detective Azure. She's much too competent for her organization, and her name is a pun. Very suspicious.
- Location
- Patriarchova
They did a cute thing with Cookie, yeah. The old Carmen passing the torch to the new Carmen. But instead of being passed the torch, she's stealing it, because this is Carmen Sandiego we're talking about. Cookie even had that line about Black Sheep following in her own footsteps, though obviously it had a different diagetic meaning.
I'd love it if Chivre and Topo were a thing. Cartoon lesbians are becoming more and more normalized, but male homosexuality is still considered much more taboo, so this would be a bold and progressive move from the creators. That said, I don't think "they're fond of each other" is enough to base that reading on. Especially compared to Julia making those exaggerated doe-eyes at Carmen while leaning forward and playing with her hair (and then cutting to an ass shot that's got to be from her POV), or Graham coming onto her post-amnesia; this show is not subtle in how it depicts sexual attraction. I'd love it if you turned out to be right about Chivre and Topo in the coming season, though.
Yeeeeaaah.
It kinda switched around, interestingly. In "Where On Earth," Zach and Ivy were engaging and likable protagonists, while the player was this immersion-breaking irritant who basically just existed to remind you that there are games they want you to buy. In this new show, Player is awesome and has an important role within the story, while Zach and Ivy are the annoying hangers-on.
They'd annoy me less if they weren't named Zach and Ivy, tbh. They just have so little to do with the originals on any level that...just why? The awful fake Boston accents don't exactly help either.
At this point, I have three major critiques to make of the show. Zach and Ivy are one of them. Deveneaux is another, though the finale suggests that he's finally going to undergo some damned development next season and stop just being the same joke on repeat over and over. The third is the infodumps at the start of each episode; they're kind of immersion breaking, and most of that info is going to be repeated organically over the course of the following caper anyway.