Children’s Shows vs. Childish Shows: A Case Study

In a recent episode of The Fanwankers, Wendy, Julia and I talked about how children’s media seems to be getting so much right these days, especially when it comes to “heavy issues.” We were not exactly…subtle in the shade that we threw at Game of Thrones (GoT)—the show that Emmy voters apparently consider the “best drama” on television.

I don’t meant to act as though “adult” shows can’t handle these subjects with nuance and sensitivity, of course. For every GoT or The 100, there’s a Jessica Jones or Outlander. Those shows are important examples, and save me from a sense of utter hopelessness when it comes to the entertainment industry. But children’s media is more than holding its own these days, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Yet it is. It is sneezed at. Tell an ardent GoT fan that Steven Universe, a show I once called the “smartest on television,” is a better narrative in terms of plot, consistency, characterizations, and messaging, and it will be dismissed. There’s this certain attitude that because it is “geared for children,” it’s inherently “dumbed down” to be digestible, and therefore not worthy of an adult’s time (or even worse, regressive for an adult to engage with). Which I kind of see where this argument stems from: though there are shows such asBeyblade that are purely the cynical marketing of toys meant to entertain, most children’s media does have an inherently pedagogical quality. Asking a schmadult to consume such a thing would be like asking them to fill out an 8’s multiplication table for funsies. We’re past this, right?

Well…what if I told you that Steven Universe (SU), the brainchild of Fandom Following’s favorite cinnamon roll Rebecca Sugar, handled similarly heavy subjects and themes present in GoT with not only more sensitivity, but more complexity? That it is actually a more challenging show to consume? I mean, sure, there’s no narrative sadism, so you’re not going to be able to tweet those  cerebral “they killed X? Whaaaatt?” reactions. But I promise you, in terms of purely intellectual qualities, SU outstrips GoT in every single way.

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