Harvey Beaks: New Nick series

[Drtooth]

Somehow I didn't get this at first, but Princess's father is the voice of a classic internet celebrity...

Yep.

 

[Drtooth]

Finally got caught up with the last 2 episodes.

I really liked "Comet Night (exclamation point)." It was great to see how much of a mother figure Harvey's mother became for Fee, as well as even Fee having standards about getting in trouble. The last few episodes really had some great character development on Fee and Foo's parts, and this was one of the strongest examples of this. Foo got some really great development in "The Almighty Foo." He has a sense of conscience and responsibility here. It really gave him some of his greatest moments in the series so far. I'm glad the twins aren't just over the top wacky all the time and they get these emotional moments.

And it's freaking clever that one of the library employees is a tree spirit. Especially since he's essentially working with what dead trees are made into. And he's Chuck the evil Sand which Making Guy too.

 

[Drtooth]

The Babysitter episode seems to have referenced all the same mishaps that befell Jeremy in the Comet Night episodes and had them all happen to Harvey. Nice little callback and proof that Jeremy wasn't so much incompetent as that egg manages to get into quite a lot of trouble.

Foo getting the pizza phone prank backwards was pure brilliance. Either that or their world's version of the prank is naturally different from ours. Loved Mr. Beaks asking for the specials.

 

[mr3urious]

I really liked both those episodes. They both show that Harvey is willing to grow and mature as a character in spite of his flaws, whether resisting change and being able to last a full night at a sleepover without calling his parents to take him home or taking care of his soon-to-be baby sister and accepting help from others from time to time.

 

[Drtooth]

Certainly. The theme of the show is of an overly sheltered kid that wants to break free of his comfort zone and have fun. These two episodes restate this show's concept, and in two brilliantly different ways. One episode if full of self doubt, the other is full of overconfidence.

I just thought of something. The fact that Harvey used to really stick into his sheltered lifestyle, I wonder if that's why Dade is so close to him and hates Fee and Foo so much. Dade clearly has a different reason to be sheltered, but it seems he enjoys Harvey's mild temperament as it's compatible with his own ultra-orthodox upbringing.

 

[mr3urious]

I loved all the different hairdos Fee went through in the latest episode. Reminds me of when Homer took that hair growth formula and went through the same thing.

And the following one where Harvey got Piri Piri (the excitable bird girl in the beret) interested in a series of mystery books and encouraged all the other kids to get hooked on it, thus making it less special for Harvey since it was no longer just "his thing" and preceded to keep an upcoming entry all to himself, was really good. Loved the reference to "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob", too, despite being culturally irrelevant now.

 

[Drtooth]

Really great to see Harvey back. This show has a genuine sweetness all over that's grounded and not saccharine. There are positive comparisons to Hey Arnold apparently, and that sort of thing really helps this show stick out on Nickelodeon's channel. Certainly more thought provoking and gentle than their awful abrasive live action programming. It's expected a cartoon about children "gets" children better than sitcoms starring children meandering around 1980's fam/com tropes done poorly.

I really liked the book episode. It had a nice gentle "books are fun" Aesop without getting preachy and hypocritical, and also finding a new angle about it too. It's confounding to a fan when their thing that they thought was special blows up. You have more people to talk about it, but suddenly, you feel less special because you found something that isn't mainstream that became mainstream. This was so much better than the stock "books are for nerds" or "television makes you stoopit" pro-reading messages in kids' shows. I'm happy that a show where one of the parents works at a library that's fairly important to the community manages to give that subtle, gentle, and respectful importance to reading.

 

[mr3urious]

I loved how Claire's fan fic comic with Foo was done in that stereotypical bishie style of anime. You know, that style that so many on the Internet obnoxiously love to use whenever they draw Western cartoons in an anime style.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm actually excited for Tomorrow night. They're going to show a whole episode of Harvey for a change.

Anyway, loved the last episode and how it built depth for a secondary/tertiary character. And the big build up that leads to the fact that Foo just doesn't get what that kind of love is. Nice to also take a break from Harvey this time and focus just on the twins and their dynamic with other residents of the forest. And some great stuff with Princess here too. Just wanting Foo as her boyfriend to spite Claire and because she was raised to be entitled. And you gotta love how Foo actually liked the weird effects of Fee and Claire's scheme. He would like having his fur blown up.

 

[mr3urious]

Looks like the Nostalgia Critic was proven wrong again in the 1st Halloween episode: Corn has actually been made scary!

And I love how in the following ep, Harvey fails to tell a terrifying story and goes for faux horrific stuff like a shirt with missing buttons. It's only when Fee encourages him to psychologically destroy his friends only for that to go horribly right.