Netflix: Carmen Sandiego Cartoon

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Leila Hann said:
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.
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I remember in the Australia episode that the mad scientist was talking about some sort of cherished person and Le Chevre initially thought she was talking about El Topo. And didn't the scientist respond with something along the lines of "No, not your sweet thing, I meant mine"? There's a lot of paraphrasing here, btw.
 
Whachamacallit said:
I remember in the Australia episode that the mad scientist was talking about some sort of cherished person and Le Chevre initially thought she was talking about El Topo. And didn't the scientist respond with something along the lines of "No, not your sweet thing, I meant mine"? There's a lot of paraphrasing here, btw.
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Bellum directly said "No, no, not your sweet thing. My sweet thing," when she was talking about Crackle. Former Crackle, I mean. Le Chevre immediately assumed she was talking about El Topo too.

There is definitely something going on with the two of them.
 
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Marla said:
Bellum directly said "No, no, not your sweet thing. My sweet thing," when she was talking about Crackle. Former Crackle, I mean. Le Chevre immediately assumed she was talking about El Topo too.

There is definitely something going on with the two of them.
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Minor nitpick: It was "dear boy", not "sweet thing".
 
Marla said:
Bellum directly said "No, no, not your sweet thing. My sweet thing," when she was talking about Crackle. Former Crackle, I mean. Le Chevre immediately assumed she was talking about El Topo too.

There is definitely something going on with the two of them.
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Huh. That's definitely stronger evidence.


EDIT: Speaking of those two, I wonder if they're supposed to be a subtle callback to Double Trouble?
 
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Leila Hann said:
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.
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I actually kind thought it was a clever approach. Just like in James Bond you know that all of Q's gadgets are going to be used, you can expect all the things mentioned in the seemingly innocuous infodump ending up part of the plot somehow by the end. That said episodes were inconsistent in that regards to how much of it actually turned up.
 
Leila Hann said:
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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I think it would be funnier if she stays opposed to VILE but ACME is convinced that she is actually the head of VILE so she starts these overly complex super capers of stealing national monuments to get ACME's attention and then conveniently her "henchmen" always get caught but Carmen always slips away.
 
HamHamJ said:
I think it would be funnier if she stays opposed to VILE but ACME is convinced that she is actually the head of VILE so she starts these overly complex super capers of stealing national monuments to get ACME's attention and then conveniently her "henchmen" always get caught but Carmen always slips away.
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Or makes it look like she slips away, while in reality she's at a nearby café having a drink with agent Argent. Nobody says you can't mix business with pleasure.
 
IIRC, they filmed more episodes than they aired in the first season, so I guess technically a Season 1.5?

Still, I loved the first half and so I'm eagerly looking forward to this. Hope they get a proper renewal when all is said and done.
 
Watched the first two episodes; season's off to a good start.
 
Chief was a surprise as someone who's never watched the trailers. I like how they took her design from the various edutainment games and shows and other media over the years, including some that didn't develop a late online or even solo offline fandom but were more obscure
 
Season 2 was great. Strong opening, and an even stronger finish. Brilliant setup for continuing a plot arc in the third season, which I hope there is one. And damn, that final reveal about Carmen...

Can't wait to hear about the continuation. Netflix would be crazy not to.
 
I liked quite a bit of Season 4. The conflict was interesting and the characters were well written. I know some people - in and out of the show - thought putting Carmen on the faculty was a bad idea but from the perspective of the Vile leadership she was practically their daughter. They finally had her back. She was everything they wanted her to be and more.

I am kind of curious what ACME is up to while VILE was shut down. Are they helping behind the scenes for other law enforcement agencies?

I only have two complaints:
  1. Player was basically sidelined once Carmen was taken. As her oldest friend it would have been nice to see him helping to get Carmen back but I acknowledge they had limited screen time to cover everything.
  2. I would have loved to see the meeting between Carmen and her mother. The showrunners did an amazing job in general despite this being a show aimed at kids. I actually trust they could have handled that well.
 
Opifex-Plebian said:
What do you guys think about season 4?
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Jcogginsa said:
I've quite enjoyed the show, though I wish that they had more episodes to flesh out certain plotlines
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I second what @Jcogginsa said. I enjoyed this latest season, it had some good stories and had me chuckling a few times as well, but overall, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this season's plotlines was rather rushed. It felt to me like the writers had some good ideas for some seasonal arc plans, particualrly the last two pairs of episodes, but they were told this was the last season, and had to wrap things up quite quickly because of that. So they stuck all the ideas they had in mind in this last season, and as such I felt that they didn't quite stick the landing.

Also, did anyone else think that Carmen Sandiego's team has been a bit too successful, particularly in the last few seasons? Like, Carmen's team doesn't seem to suffer any major setbacks, or else they are usually resolved in a few episodes, whereas VILE loses every single time. I think the latter sticks out to me, because the series is willing to show that Carmen's actions have had an impact on VILE's finances, forcing them to change headquarters etc. I think Shadowsan mentions a few times throughout this series that "<Heist> could restore VILE's finances and keep them in business for years", and perhaps I got the impression from what he said that VILE wasn't doing so well financially, and was on the brink of collapse for lack of funds. So I kept wondering throughout the show "If they are down on their luck, how are they still going this far into the season?".

I don't know, I guess I would have liked to see VILE win a few times with their heist, or at least achieve a partial victory throughout the whole show, enough to justify how they could still be operating despite Carmen's interference, and maybe acting as another way to raise the stakes throughout the show before what happens in the last two episodes. Which I guess is another reason why I think the show didn't quite stick the landing.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this show while it lasted, and I hope we see more shows like this in the future!
 
Thy-Robocop said:
I second what @Jcogginsa said. I enjoyed this latest season, it had some good stories and had me chuckling a few times as well, but overall, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this season's plotlines was rather rushed. It felt to me like the writers had some good ideas for some seasonal arc plans, particualrly the last two pairs of episodes, but they were told this was the last season, and had to wrap things up quite quickly because of that. So they stuck all the ideas they had in mind in this last season, and as such I felt that they didn't quite stick the landing.

Also, did anyone else think that Carmen Sandiego's team has been a bit too successful, particularly in the last few seasons? Like, Carmen's team doesn't seem to suffer any major setbacks, or else they are usually resolved in a few episodes, whereas VILE loses every single time. I think the latter sticks out to me, because the series is willing to show that Carmen's actions have had an impact on VILE's finances, forcing them to change headquarters etc. I think Shadowsan mentions a few times throughout this series that "<Heist> could restore VILE's finances and keep them in business for years", and perhaps I got the impression from what he said that VILE wasn't doing so well financially, and was on the brink of collapse for lack of funds. So I kept wondering throughout the show "If they are down on their luck, how are they still going this far into the season?".

I don't know, I guess I would have liked to see VILE win a few times with their heist, or at least achieve a partial victory throughout the whole show, enough to justify how they could still be operating despite Carmen's interference, and maybe acting as another way to raise the stakes throughout the show before what happens in the last two episodes. Which I guess is another reason why I think the show didn't quite stick the landing.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this show while it lasted, and I hope we see more shows like this in the future!
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I don't know, I think kids can use a source of uncomplicated wins for the good guys right now. I doubt the target audience is going to think too hard about supervillain's budgetary prospects.
 
mesonoxian said:
I don't know, I think kids can use a source of uncomplicated wins for the good guys right now. I doubt the target audience is going to think too hard about supervillain's budgetary prospects.
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Especially with the show's set up of thieves stealing from thieves being unusually grey on black morally in the first place for the ~10 year old target demographic. (If it were intended for primarily 13+ then there would have been some romance somewhere, as that's a big part of appealing to that demo)
 
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Thy-Robocop said:
Also, did anyone else think that Carmen Sandiego's team has been a bit too successful, particularly in the last few seasons? Like, Carmen's team doesn't seem to suffer any major setbacks, or else they are usually resolved in a few episodes, whereas VILE loses every single time.
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Yes. This is my main criticism with the show, Carmen is too skilled for me to be really worried/excited.
I think the show would be much improved if Carmen would not outclass the vile agents in their speciality.
eg. she can't outfight Tigress, outrun the Le Chevre, uh.. throw? El Topo

Or well do it like Kim Possible and have the supporting cast/antagonists carry the show.
 
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