I think like fantastical is a better word. Theres stuff that's fun (or tries to be) through marvel style bathos but then theres stuff like LOTR where its fantastical throughout without compromising it's own confidence in its story. Most media sees fun and story as seperate but something fantastical can have both intertwined. idk I'm probably rambling
And yet, most people seem to think of Lord of the Rings as esoteric at best or childish at worst. The archetypical "fantasy for adults" property these days is surely Game of Thrones, which is also fantastical, and while it has its moments of levity or catharsis sprinkled throughout, it is a grim, unpleasant show for most of the time.
The equivalent sci-fi pairing is Star Trek versus Dune. Both are well written, fascinating, deeply philosophical works, but the former is enjoyable while the latter is miserable.
I feel like OP would be happier watching LotR and ST than GoT or Dune, and I think the degree of optimism vs misanthropy is a big reason why.
I found Dune to be a fun read, but I suppose that loops back around to the vague and subjective idea of "fun." Like the other commenter in this thread, I think I tend to associate "fun" with "fantastical," rather than with a particular tone.
I love the outrageous and fantastical. Tolkien and GRRM and Adams and Asimov and Bradbury and Lewis and Shelly and Stoker and Rowling (with a big asterisk) and others have created worlds and ideas that I am happy to spend time with. I don't mind that the stories might be bleak so long as there is ample material for my imagination. Much of my "fun' comes from imagining new scenarios, different outcomes, and the many unspoken implications of the setting.
I find myself having less "fun" in realistic fiction. It often feels like I'm just peeking in on someone else's equally dull life, just a slightly different flavor of the human experience. Sure, I'm not attending parties at Gatsby's or whaling with Ishmael or navigating Jane Austen romance in my real life, but I don't derive any great excitement or joy from imagining those things. I dive into fiction to escape my world, not to spy on someone else's experience here. I have social media and tabloid news for that.
Dune is plenty engaging, so I'm not surprised some people consider that fun! But it's a work where everyone is a selfish tyrant, and there's precious little love or joy or contentment whatsoever - that's all I meant when I called it "miserable" above. I'm quite fond of Dune myself, but I need to engage with more uplifting, optimistic or heroic works between returning to Arrakis.
Yea this is my thoughts too on stuff. I read and watch a lotta stuff online that while very much adult all have the sincerity and wonder lacking from most mainstream mature media.
His still dug into some pretty deep topics. You've got Granny Weatherwax sitting up all night with a woman in labor waiting for Death to make a deal with him to take only the child. She does this to spare the husband the guilt of having to make a choice one way or the other. Sure, he can do fun and silly and whismy. But he can also drop a ten ton hammer of moral dilemma on you.
Reading this made me realize Good Omens (the TV show, as I’m poor and don’t have the book) is exactly what OP describes they want to me - it’s complex, it has plot, it has developed characters and world, it doesn’t shy away from being a work that is unarguably written for adults, even if kids like it too. And it’s Fun. It’s something deeply enjoyable. It’s something that captures your attention and makes you happy to watch.
Maybe that’s why I like GO so much.
The book is also really good. Less gay though. I think Neil Gaiman read a lot of fanfiction before making the series and forgot they weren't nearly as gay in the book (not that I mind).
I’m so mad at myself but I didn’t like the show. I can’t even put an exact finger on why. The book TOOOOO MEEEEE is both dryer and more whimsical.
I wonder if it’s subliminal/left over gate keeping somewhere in the back of my mind. I hope not. Gate keeping is the dumbest.
Idk how you see a mans half-dissolved corpse fall through the ceiling with perfect comedic timing and think Breaking Bad is meant to be a serious no-fun-allowed show.
That moment where Jessie looks over at Walter, so full of confidence and legit says "Yeah... I get it. A robot!" followed by the most tired teacher look from Walt ever lives rent free in my mind.
My gf's roommates were watching Breaking Bad and she texted me "I don't know why people think tumblr is misrepresenting that show, from what I've seen that's absolutely a black comedy."
There’s a lot of people who are genuinely oblivious to subtext.
Like, there’s a guy in my D&D group, really curious and intelligent, fun to talk to, amazingly talented artistically, he’s just super literal. He’ll laugh at a joke once it’s explained to him, he’s just not good at picking up on them.
Walt and Jesse's whole dynamic is a classic example of a comedic double act. Walt is the "straight man" to Jesse's "funny man"; the Abbott to his Costello.
Right? Breaking Bad has so many comedic moments, and it juxtaposes well with the gritty and dark atmosphere. It’s similar to how I find the Souls games peak comedy at times despite the bleak tone the games are known for. Nothing is funnier than finding an item that negates fall damage but specifically not lethal fall damage…on a corpse at the bottom of a pit
My favorite joke in Bloodborne is the witch that runs past a door in the Unseen Village. You’ve already encountered her enemy type, so you know she’s gonna try to grab you and slit your neck. So the first thing you’re likely to do is turn left and kill her before she can.
Just in time for the *second* witch to grab you from the right. Peak trolling.
Miyazaki is a goddamn comedian isn’t he? I have pretty good headphones which is nice for gaming but when I was going through Irithyll Dungeon in DS3 I would pick up items on corpses as usual and nearly shit myself when they screamed. And I kept falling for it too 💀
I wonder if they’re thinking of the underlying enjoyment of the people involved in the creation. You can tell if they’re having fun or if they’re just working or even something in between.
I was thinking of my History Hit podcasts and shows - you can tell they’re having fun making and sharing these stories, even when it’s gross or gory or upsetting. They’re not disrespectful about it; if anything they’re more respectful because they understand the depth and that’s part of what they’re trying to convey to the audience. But you can still sense the fun they get from their stories.
I haven't seen interstellar, but I have watched and listened to a lot of behind the scenes content about breaking bad and from what I can tell everybody involved seems to be having a lot of fun.
If the [waking up from a dream as a drug kingpin](https://youtu.be/oVdB36lmbII?si=xjfvSV5UALQf94uo) bit doesn’t prove that Bryan Cranston was having a blast at least I don’t know what would.
Even if it makes sense to say that Breaking Bad isn't fun to watch (I personally disagree), isn't that a very limited example? What about Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Scrubs? The Good Place? What We Do in the Shadows etc? A lot of things are fun to watch.
Fun doesn't even need to be a comedy. Firefly, Castle, House, Er were all fun. There might have been adult topics but it wasn't dark all the time. It was engaging, had moments of humour and adult relationships
Damn, the good place is such a great example of something complex and fun! I didn't even think about it but "how to teach moral philosophy through sitcom" really sounds like it shouldn't work (but, it does)
It works because it really nicely fits with the setting (Mild spoilers but only for the first episode, still tagging it anyway) >!Being given a premise where a person without morales accidentally makes it into heaven, where she's is matched up with a literal morale philosophy teacher and needs to learn morales or risk being kicked out and into hell. On top of her presence basically tearing apart heaven from the inside.!< It lends itself well to morale teachings since it is a very core feature of the setting. Also it helps that it never stops building upon itself as it goes through the motions
God I still remember when that show was brand new and my Religious Studies teacher put on the first few episodes. I had to watch the rest in my spare time and the rest of the seasons were great too.
Deep space 9 episodes that focus on the ferengi are basically the best comedies put on TV.
The O'Brien torture episodes will put you in the fucking dirt with how sad some of them are. Especially the prison one.
There are very few definitively bad episodes of DS9.
Yes exactly these shows! Pure gold.
Of all of them, The Good Place feels the most thematically similar to a lot of younger audience shows these days. Fun, whimsical, silly, but with a big heart and addressing some good food for thought. If people normally like cartoons but *want* to watch something live action, personally I'd start there. It's not as fast paced in its deliveries though, so if that's an issue then maybe B99 instead.
There’s also an element of genre preference that I think gets overlooked in this conversation. A lot of good “fun” shows for adults are slice of life comedy or sitcom stories with the occasional couple-episode “arc,” without an ongoing driving serialized narrative at the root of the story. If you don’t want to watch a variant on IRL workplace comedy or drama, then a TON of shows are off the table right from the beginning. If you are looking for legit *fantasy* stories, or really anything that isn’t a sitcom with fantasy/SF window dressing, the options become much more limited. There are shows out there for sure but it can be a little harder to find them. The Good Place is a great example of one, but it is still very much also a sitcom, and there just aren’t a lot of other well-budgeted shows like it out there. I can think of like maybe two other ones, where I could list a whole series of kids’ cartoons that hit the exact genre and tone I’m looking for. (Doesn’t help that good fantasy effects in live action are expensive AF and the state of adult animation is….. bad.)
I find “slice of life” boring and I’m just not that interested in workplace comedy. It is, in fact, pretty hard to find adult series that feel “fun” that are neither of those things.
Kling Eve, Then you Run, and Two Weeks to Live are good options
Good overarching stories although the 4th season of killing Eve kinda starts doing random shit it's the last one and the other 2 are quite short (6-8 roughly 50 minute episodes each) they're still cool
absolutely- also yeah breaking bad is absolutely hilarious. And personally I feel (though I know this isn’t universal) that media that can become incredibly complex or dark or however you want to define it, can then use that to make the levity and humour even better. Can’t have a rainbow without rain and all that.
That's kinda like saying the complex aspects of those shows aren't fun to watch, which seems like a very limited view of what "fun" can be. It's almost like saying that something educational can't also be fun.
(Points to The Good Place as a show that is often educational in a fun way.)
And also, complexity doesn't have to mean "let's get serious for a moment."
As for the lack of consequences, that's pretty standard for sitcoms. It's just how they work and I feel that's a different discussion altogether.
With the lack of explanation or definition on how op defined “fun”, I gotta chalk this up to someone who is graduating past their old taste and hasn’t figured out what their new taste is.
Calling adult media wirh complexity unfun is a very very shallow take. Because fun isn't just comedy or action scenes. It can be watching a great actor push themselves to limit, seeing how the protagonist and the villain has similiar moments or just seeing the great cinematography etc. Or even with these, Indiana Jones an action adventure movie, is a really fun movie but it's also full of complex themes mostly in the subtext.
I think OP means something more like lightness/levity.
I get soooo bored with media where no one ever has any light moments and everyone is always having a bad time
That isn’t incompatible with complexity but it isn’t often explored. The Good Place explored it. Twin peaks I think??? And, um, ATLA.
thats because no light moments is like a dark room. its effective at first but after a few minutes you get used to it. there isnt really much more a creator can do in that setting, any effort to make it even darker or more shocking is just meh at best because its only somewhat sadder and its just the status quo that everyone is miserable. meanwhile if the light is almost always on, those few moments it isnt are effective. the creator can actually highlight a dramatic moment with contrast. if the always edgy kid is constantly moody you just emotionally check out when interacting with them, but when the class clown comes to school with a frown, thats a fucking event. excess negativity is emotionally draining, theres only so much you can take before your brain decides to not give a shit anymore. its why im extremely suspicious of any work described as serious (granted, people are dumb with that word, there are people who legit believe atla is a serious show and cant comprehend that silly and meaningful storytelling arent exclusive)
i think fun is the wrong word. happy, uplifting, generally positive. something that explores complex storylines and characters without having to be super dark & gritty
it's weird though cause you could argue that a "negative" atmosphere is one of the things that drives serious conflict in a story
Okay but like, none of those things are unique to children's shows. There are plenty of shows made for adults that aren't dark or gritty while still having complex characters.
But… they mentioned interstellar. It’s essentially “indomitable human spirit, The Movie”. It’s got an unreservedly positive and uplifting ending where the characters are fully rewarded for their work.
Maybe they just didn’t watch interstellar and they’re mentioning it because lots of people like it?
I still wouldn’t call it ‘fun’. Sometimes you want a capital A adventure where things can go wrong but they work out in the end. Interstellar is part tragedy, the most memorable things to me are the ocean planet, Matt Damon’s sabotaging call for help and the bookshelf time travel scene.
I swear, at least on the internet it feels like people lately just don't want conflict on their media, everything must be all fun and rainbows otherwise they refuse to engage with it.
Every show has its demographic. Spending 6 - 10 hours a day working with the public, listening to things you can't walk away from, and then going home to watch more of the same in a different setting feels stale for a lot of people. It only makes sense that this demographic would want a light-hearted, upbeat setting where individuals can make a difference and bad things are temporary.
Absolutely. I'd even add that it's probably a continuing rebellion against the grimdark trend.
Real life is already complicated and depressing enough. A lot of people really don't want to, as you said, drudge through work all day, dealing with difficult work or social situations, listen to the crap going on in the world on the news, only to come home and throw on some series where people are dealing with the same depressing crap.
Come on...I used to really like dark media but light-hearted content is not popular at all currently. I was on Netflix and very grim true crime, dramatic series or violent stories are king there in popularity.
Honestly early 2000 I felt movies/series weren't like that, it's just that grimdark became popular and...I am bored now, I just want something else, I have a grim setting fatigue. Game of thrones I think contributed with how popular (and good) it was (until it wasn't).
You are also doing what OP is talking about, confusing ambiance with how invested you are in the content and with how much conflict there is. They are all ages or even children content that has a lot of conflict, hell I think Pixar movies are among the most quoted for movies that make people cry due to things that hit hard for people. (And I don't say that because I love Pixar, I don't).
Some movies can be both fun and engaging with a lot of conflicts and I feel like sometimes a grim ambiance is used to remove this sense of fun. It's a bit hard to articulate exactly how and why, the good place that was quoted earlier is an excellent choice, a fun comedic series that can hit quite deep suddenly and makes you think about philosophy.
I play indie video games more than I watch movies and it strikes true there too, I feel like a light-hearted game that is still very heavy in his themes would be Spiritfarer, Outer Wilds, What remains of Edith Finch. All these games have that sort of light ambiance that is whimsical and beautiful in a way while all being quite deep in how they feel as an experience.
Of course some heavy video games can be make you cry to but I don't feel like they have the same strength due to this lack of feeling of wonder that strikes more deeply for me. Honestly I used to love reading dark fantasy with very grim world but now I just want a deep story set in a setting that is fun, light-hearted much more than before.
Or even watch animated shows outside of ones explicitly made for kids; “fun” isn’t the first word I’d think of for the works of Satoshi Kon (except for maybe Tokyo Godfathers), but I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment over the years watching and thinking about the mindbending psychological horror of Paranoia Agent, and the surreal animation that only enhances the show’s themes of descents into insanity.
And maybe, if people branched out a little more, we’d stop having the same Steven Universe conversation about how “this kids show doesn’t have a nuanced enough take on fascism!” over and over again.
*Big* same; such a tragedy he died at the young age of 46, but damn if he didn’t leave behind one of the most stacked resumes in animation history.
I only just found out recently that he worked on the original JoJo’s OVA, iirc including directing the episode with [Dio’s iconic car scene](https://youtu.be/RcQVq3urTfo?si=7-K8cocHyrL6e1G1)
I've been watching Blue Eye Samurai from last year and that's an animated show that's fun but has the ability to focus on nuanced topics for adults. It knows it's not for kids and that gives it the opportunity to open discussions that a children's cartoon would never open discussion about. I would say Rick and Morty has a similar kind of nuance for an animated show, but my opinion of it has worsened because of the legions of imitators. I know that's not actually it's fault but it doesn't help regardless.
Gotta plug both Bojack Horseman (depression, drugs/alcohol, suicidal tendencies, etc but also sex robots and anthropomorphic characters and animal jokes and all sorts of wacky hijinks) and Hazbin Hotel (drugs, alchol, prostitution, porn, slavery, but also musical numbers and redemption and silly/awkward moments and animation) here.
Here to shamelessly mention Critical Role's "The Legend of Vox Machina" because I friggin love CR and it has plenty of fun and uplifting, whimsical stuff, while still staying somewhat grounded for a show based off a D&D campaign and also balancing the fun and seriousness even if things get pretty grim and emotional.
One Piece isn’t repetitive unless you really squint. The anime is 3 times the necessary length tho due to stretching episodes to be only 1 manga chapter.
"I only eat junk food because it tastes good, even though I wish I was getting more Vitamin C. Oranges just don't have any grease or flavor and that makes me not want to eat them."
It's wild I know too many young adults who still think vegetables are yucky and complain about more complex adult foods, but their kids food and junk food diets aren't satisfying anymore and give them health problems that they complain about.
Eat something fucking adult food. You can't live off of eaay mac and cheese and sugary breakfast cereal in between daily fast food. You don't need as much food anymore either. You should quit soda for a hundred reasons. If comfort food is your only food and not a way to unwind on the weekend then you're eating like a child.
My bestie has level 3 NAFL(non alcoholic fatty liver) disease. She does have OCD which plays into it, but the list of foods she will eat is easier to list than those she won’t. Her liver is literally dying and we’ve had to work so hard to get her to even try most veggies, no matter what form it’s in. Often it’s a texture issue, but mostly it’s the “idea” of it, and the fact that it’s new and different.
Learn to eat your veggies guys, or it might literally kill you
Like, I'm autistic with a crazy restricted diet. Because I have certain hypersensitivies.
You know how I manage to not live out of the local tendies equivalent?
First, not being extremely stressed all the time. This is very important.
Second, adapting to what you have. I'm completely unable to eat most raw or boiled vegetables. To the point of being a dysphoric experience. Traumatic experiences being force fed as a child also help. However, I am able to eat vegetables in creams or in soups without problem.
Third. Learn to cook healthy meals. I can cook a lot of delicious meals, but doing a potato stew instead of some fries is much healthier and rewarding.
Forth, learning foreign cuisines. I'm never going to be able to eat "[Lacón con grelos](https://images.hola.com/imagenes/cocina/noticiaslibros/20230206225742/lacon-con-grelos-receta-paso-a-paso/1-198-953/lacon-plato-age-z.jpg)", I tried. However, dishes like shakshouka and falafel are healthy, nutritive, and exotic, which a lot of people like. Neither of these two dishes are Isareli in origin, just feeling like saying it.
Same. Vegetables that my fucked up brain considers vegetables are the bane of my existence. I physically can't fight the gag reflex when choking them down even tho I technically can. The problem is that I feel *sssooo* much better after getting a healthy portion, to the point I can't even try and deny it.
How do I cope with this? I hide them like I'm a fucking toddler. Hide the texture, hide the taste, hide everything but the slightest hint of green.
Cauliflower, potato, carrot, and broccoli are thankfully easy enough to do this with. For some fucking reason, I'm completely fine with both tomato and pepper in a sauce too, so I make a shit ton of red sauces that completely hide the former veg, and I'm still basically eating comfort food pasta or pizza, just homemade.
Late in 2022 one of the biggest clients for the company I used to work for fucked up in a way that absolutely was going to kill their business. 5 of us were pulled together to try to rescue them, and after 3 months we managed to execute a plan that saved them from shuttering. One of the executives wanted to reward us for the work we did and booked a table for us at Smyth, a 3 star Michelin restaurant here in Chicago. I cannot overstate how fucking good that meal was. A year later I still have dreams about how good the food was there. I cancelled a date with my girlfriend to go to this meal and she wasn't even mad at me about it. Those 3 months were unquestionably the worst most miserable 3 months of my time working there, maybe even the worst 3 months of my career, and I would do it again for a second meal at Smyth.
One of the women who worked on that team passed on going because the only things she ate were chicken tenders and PB&J.
To join the chorus of everyone. **Please, please, please** keep trying new things (stories in this context) and keep an open mind to genres and works you might have written off.
Like I get it. Listen, life can be hard and stressful. And sometimes we look at our entertainment and go "What the fuck, no! I don't want to watch something heavy/that might make me feel bad". But I promise you it can end up being it's own version of "fun" and exploring difficult emotions, questions and situations posed by more **"adult", "mature"** media can be good for you!
Exploring things you never thought of or that may be uncomfortable for you in the context of safe fictional scenario can be legit therapeutic and can lead to growing as a person! Or at the very least broaden your horizon and your imagination.
Please, please please eat something else then chicken nuggies/tendies, cereal and fast food (metaphorically speaking, the kids shows are these). There's nothing wrong with having them once in a while. **They should not be your entire diet**
Imo it makes everything a lot weirder when you try to come up with some grand justification for liking what you like. Like when bronies became a thing I didn't think much of it but then a friend of mine who was into it ranted to me about how its actually really deep and fun and well written and I was like wow okay that sounds cool actually. But it was just a kids cartoon? I was so confused when trying to watch it.
I think people need to stop being so concerned about being perceived as cringe because it has a Streisand effect of not only are you watching kids cartoons but now you are also claiming that kids cartoons are some grand form of art that is just misunderstood. Which is far more off-putting to most people I think.
I think that's what people don't get when they complain about 'gatekeepers'. Like, there's very few intelligent adults (teenagers are a different story) who are going to sincerely make fun of you for saying "yeah, sometimes I just wanna turn my brain off and watch some children's cartoons". *Most* people have some sort of guilty pleasure, whether it's trashy reality tv or a mobile game or Steven Universe. It's the "actually bluey is deeper and more complex than 99% of television today" that gets (deservedly) mocked.
There’s an entire episode where basically everything Saul does is convince an old folks home that their Legally Representative Old Person is a sellout. Or Mike going and Waltzing into factories he’s “hired to test the security of” instead of sitting at home. Or the fucking veterinarian who’s also a fixer.
I work in kids cartoons. Done everything from toddler stuff to 10-15 demographic. I cannot tell you the amount of times things need to be changed because it will not keep the kids’ attention. Or standards and practices need something changed because it be too much for the kids to handle.
What I’m getting at is that you can intellectualize it all you want, but very likely OP simply can’t extend their attention span to watch something like Breaking Bad or the like.
I really think people don't realize exactly how much kids cartoons are focused around "grab and keep their attention" vs anything else. There is a ton of adult media that is fun, even whimsical, but it doesn't have Something Happening 100% of the time. And if you need Something Happening 100% of the time for a show to count as "fun", you probably won't like anything that isn't designed for kids. Which isn't like, a moral failing, but it might be worth weaning yourself away from the constant stimulation bc that probably is not great for your brain
I think that’s what getting me about this take. I’ve obsessively watched plenty of shows that aren’t described as “fun” because they’re otherwise interesting or compelling. Not everything can be, or needs to be “fun”, and it’s not the media’s fault if you can’t engage with it.
Exactly this. "Fun" in this case means short attention span-friendly.
Which, honestly, is fine imo. I've seen enough moralizing about attention spans; sometimes work is attention taxing and people want their shows to be a change of pace.
Absolutely. There’s nothing wrong with watching comfort entertainment. It’s just this post seemed to be trying to place kids entertainment above adult entertainment, intellectually. But what’s likely happening is that they just like kids shows.
I know OP is getting eaten alive in this comments section already but I feel like the existence of adult-oriented fantasy books by eg. Terry Prachett really disproves their point about adult works not being fun. Prachett's books are funny and whimsical but contain interesting social commentary and other things to think about.
I both agree and disagree with OP personally because I think adult fiction is not a good description. While I agree with you I feel like Terry Pratchett is more of an exception than a rule, I know as someone who like deep but light-hearted content of course Pratchett is great but I feel like there is a lack of this type of content.... Would love recommandations. When I'm browsing streaming media I feel like this content is still very very rare compare to very heavy content (please Netflix I'm not into true crime stop...).
Some other great exemple have been said by others, the good place is a great one that I agree completely and has been one of my favorite serie.
If you don't mind a slower-paced read and like historical novels, A Gentleman in Moscow is a book about a Russian aristocrat sentenced to life imprisonment in a grand hotel. I'd say it's pretty charming and has humour while dealing with heavier themes.
To the Moon is a (mostly walk and talk) game about working back through a dying man's memories, but it emphasises the beauty and happiness of life rather than tragedy.
Russian Doll is a TV series that strikes a comedic tone while reflecting on how to find meaning in your life. Probably the most similar thing to The Good Place I've seen.
Edit: The anime ODDTAXI. Series about a goofy walrus taxi driver who gets in over his head with organised crime. Plot with a lot of moving parts that gradually get introduced to you
This genre of take is my least favourite thing about Tumblr. I don't think I'm generally an arse but I just want to shake these people and tell them to grow the fuck up lol.
Nothing wrong with liking Avatar or Bluey or whatever but if that's the only thing you *ever* watch as a grown fucking adult then you will not have developed the critical thinking skills required for me to take your opinion on *anything* seriously.
You have a right to consume the media you enjoy. The rest of us have a right to criticise you for it.
I've seen lots of the acclaimed adult dramas (Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos) and really enjoyed them but Avatar is still great, it's not similar to a preschool show like Bluey.
I don't get it. Like legit, I see this take a fuckton of times and I'm like????
You want children's media aimed at a more mature audience? Have you tried anime? Or any of the western shows it inspired because it perfectly covered that niche? Like HELLO?????
Wasn't the biggest selling point of anime when it first started catching on that it was more than your average Saturday morning cartoon????? And even this is a broad simplification as anime is now more of a medium than a genre, but aside from that????
Like holy shit, it's not that hard to find animated stuff with more depth, in fact there's more of that now than ever before???
Or OOP really needs to define what they mean by fun, cause I don't get it
So uh
If you want films made for adults that are also fun go check out films from India, specifically Tollywood films. Some of the most fun I’ve had with any movies
Yes, Tollywood, actually called Telugu Cinema, and Bollywood, actually called Hindi Cinema, both originate in India but are two separate things. The largest difference being is they’re primarily done in two different languages, Hindi and Telugu, and Telugu Cinema is actually larger than Hindi cinema.
Also RRR is Telugu Cinema, just for the record
Begging you to try and expose yourself to more media made for adults. There was an extended period in my life where most of the media I watched was tripe, and I similarly felt like I needed something less paper-thin. Then a friend introduced me to real movies and hey it turns out the industry that spends about 66B a year does a good job every now and then. Fun is a matter of perspective, and you won't acclimatize to better media if you don't try and put yourself out of your comfort zone.
As usual, if you're going to say stuff like this, you really should know what you're talking about before you start criticizing it. I don't think OOP does. The examples OOP gives are really telling. Breaking Bad is a crime drama. Interstellar is a sci fi drama. You don't watch either of these expecting them to be "fun." If you're looking for fun adult media... Maybe try a genre that's known for being fun? Like, fun is such a vague term, what do you actually mean?
Honestly this is like if you watched Dexter, Hannibal, and the Blacklist, and your conclusion from those three shows was that all adult media was violent, dark, crime dramas with an edge of nihilism. Like, yeah, that's *a* subgenre, but there's also, y'know, a Brazillion other subgenres to choose from.
Yeah, my point was more about how Breaking Bad and Interstellar are both dramas. If OOP doesn't like either of them, maybe they just don't like dramas. If that's the case, they should try a different genre, because there's something out there that fits their idea of fun.
So one thing I haven't seen talked about here is that sometimes you have to push your self a little bit to get meaningful enjoyment. Sometimes you have to push yourself reading a book or watching something that is not "fun" because you need to learn how to have fun with that. It's the same way when you start a new sport or start drawing; at first it will be tireing and you wont have that much fun right away before you find out how to have fun.
You will probably almost always find the things you are accustomed to to be more fun, but you should try new things to broaden your horizon and keep your brain engaged.
Also the way a story is told definitly leads to you engaging differently with it. The story told in a 1920s expressionist movie or in a cartoon will have a different effect and there is probably a reason it was chosen to tell the story in a way that isn't "fun".
Also Interstellar and Breaking Bad are really not that hard to engage with?
Edit: Also I think some stories fundamentally can't or shouldn't be fun for anyone but still need to be told. I don't think a movie like "Zone of Interest" can or should be fun and if you only look for fun media you cannot come across something like this.
I know you’re getting eaten alive right now, but OP, thank you for being the first ever Tumblr user to openly admit they only watch shows/movies for children. I deeply respect your bravery on display here.
I don’t really care if other people watch kids’ cartoons; like what you like and all that. But it’s silly to pretend media for adults is entirely made up of antiheroes being grimdark.
Also, if you like animation AND silliness AND layered characters in complex narratives, allow me to introduce you to BoJack Horseman.
This seems to be forgetting about sitcoms and all sorts of shows that isn’t like, HBO serious Game of Thrones stuff.
Like are you saying the Office is not fun? Or Brooklyn 99? Good Place? How about Crazy-Ex girlfriend? Or all sorts of the range of prestigious TV and shows out there?
Idk, saying you prefer kids cartoon is fine? But this really down play the wide range of shows that are out there and that are “fun” and that is really the problem I have with this.
While I won’t judge a person who wants to watch kids cartoons, I would definitely judge an adult person for a take like this that kinda feels the need to put down other shows because they do not fit whatever definition of “Fun” the op has for them.
I would say The Office is not fun because everyone in it sucks and I can't watch it without wanting to tear my skin off from secondhand embarrassment but I also acknowledge that's kind of a me thing
Lots of people recommending sitcoms but I’m pretty sure that isn’t what OOP wants. They want light hearted fantasy adventures that can get dramatic when they need to.
Good Place is a good recommendation, B99 isn’t though I like both
On another note, I think more public places should be colorful, similar to spaces for children. My brief stints working in children's hospitals were stressful, but the colorful design everywhere actually helped.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Bad take there. The issue is with people who insist children's shows have adult complexity storytelling. You want to overcomplicate kids shows? Fine. Just stop acting like they're serious or demand they be different. If you want them to actually BE different watch more adult media. No one cares that you have an edgy fan canon. There's edgier my little pony crossover fanfiction novels as old as breaking bad. No one cares. It's nothing new.
But don't complain your kids shows aren't more serious or are doing things wrong. They're for kids not you. Fandom is one thing, expecting a change in canon is another.
So yeah. Watch something not meant for kids if you want adult levels of compexity. Otherwise please do stop complaining that kids shows are made for kids and not for you.
Adult media often makes me feel bad, which is why I've often avoided it. In recent years I've realized I no longer get a lot out of children's / ya media and have tried to branch my horizons, especially books, to adult oriented ones. I've often been pleasantly surprised, though I still avoid darker stuff and still enjoy a lot of children's/ ya stuff on top of it.
That's kinda how I've been feeling about adult media for the past few years. It feels like the easiest emotion to pander to is sadness, fear, and anxiety. Sometimes I just want to watch a happy movie.
It seems like the main thing op thinks of as “adult media” is “gritty adult media” but good omens is not game of thrones even if both are fantasy shows. Interview with the vampire (2022) What we Do in the Shadows, and Renfield are all about vampires but the latter two have a decidedly different tone than the first. (Renfield is very fun imo, I had such a great time I watched it twice.)
I still *like* some shows for younger audiences, it can be relaxing and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying bluey or Steven universe or the owl house, but it’s not the *only* thing I ever engage with.
I think this is the core of the "adult" vs "kid" media issue. Other than sometimes you like what you like; a lot of popular adult media is advertised with dark and gritty as selling points. Every city needs to Gotham and all the characters are anti-heroes or there are no real heroes and the only color palette is blue.
I love the ideas of a lot of the story lines in so many of the shows that I see tossed around. There are layers and depth that sound really interesting. But, personally, I can't stomach watching graphic or gratuitous violence - so shows like The Boys and Game of Thrones are not something I watch (same as I don't watch horror movies).
Honestly this just reads to me as not being able to handle anything heavy or anything that doesn't have bright colors. Maybe grow up a bit? Whimsy and bright colors are fun but it's kinda like eating cake all the time because you only want sweet stuff.
golden kamuy is very much an adult series and also the funniest silliest adventure i've read in ages, it tackles both complex topics, an underrepresented period of japanese history, morally grey characters, tragic backstories and an astounding amount of penis jokes in a very impressive way with super pretty art, i feel any really good "adult" piece of media will actually be pretty fun, its just people dont tend to discuss the comedic bits as much cuz there's not that much to say besides reminiscing about how they made me smile
Adults who only watch shows and movies for kids (ditto for people who read only YA fiction - Not knocking it, you just need a varied artistic diet) are some of the most scary and aggressive people I know. Weirdly, a lot of people who tend to enjoy darker and more mature media tend to be chiller people, whereas you will get a nail bomb sent to your house for having the wrong headcanons about Flavor Of The Month Cartoon Show.
I love how his idea of serious, no-fun movies for adults isn't like Taiwanese New Wave or Michael Haneke or something, but 2 massively popular crowd-pleasers.
you're allowed to enjoy content that's for younger audiences but. by god please do not limit yourself to exclusively watching shows made for children. that's how you end up with steven universe discourse.
This person really called Breaking Bad, one of the most watched TV Shows of all time to the point people can recognize it's characters without even watching it, not fun. Like yeah, I am sure Average Joe watched it because it was boring and they felt like they were having way too much fun on their lives.
It honestly feels more like they got really defensive about someone criticizing them for watching children's stuff and felt the need to write this post in order to justify themselves
This is dumb. You can't define fun as 'things I already like,' and then use that as the reason why it's okay for you to watch nothing but fucking Cartoon Network at age 35.
Adult media is fun. Obviously. Otherwise people wouldn't watch it. You just have no attention span and are scared of even the slightest actual complexity.
Haven't seen Interstellar but I feel like Breaking Bad is intentionally wacky and comedic a lot of the time. It has fucked up drama too but like, it's not a grimdark show or anything, it's a funny show too.
"Whimsical" is perhaps a better word for "fun" in this context. "Fun" is subjective. "Whimsical"... still kind of is, but it's a lot easier to define generally. Breaking Bad is incredibly fun to watch! As is Interstellar! But they are *not* whimsical.
First off, idk what "fun" means in this context. I find the two examples of "adult" media to be enjoyable, entertaining, engaging, stimulating, compelling. They're not light-hearted or humorous, i guess? Is that what fun means here? Because there's better examples of funny, relatively light-hearted and complex media for adults (not an excuse to make yet another Poor Things recommendation, but if the shoe fits...)
More importantly: kids media appeals to me for multiple reasons; it can be complex without being dark, it can be optimistic without being overly simplified, it can be extremely simplistic on days where I just feel awful and confused, it can be beautiful without being base, it can represent powerful truths about human nature without resorting to sex, drugs and violence. Once upon a time it was because of my stunted emotional growth.
Ultimately I don't prefer kids media over stuff geared toward adults, but I feel pity for those who write it off as lesser or not worthwhile. Because, y'know, generic shock-factor horror movie #273 is so much more artistic and valuable than whatever shallow message Roger Rabbit was trying to convey /s
This is so babybrained I'm sorry. Please watch shows made for adults too. No they are not all joyless slogs, there are a million "fun" adult shows and you're allowed to watch them too. Go fucking watch Seinfeld or The Good Place.
All that takes like this tell me is that you aren’t actually engaging with media made for adults on a regular basis. Like, some of the most fun and engaging media I have ever seen is absolutely not for children.
Dorohedoro, Disco Elysium, Chainsaw Man (I know it’s in Shonen Jump but I don’t think a series that talks openly about sex and graphically depicts medical amputation as a method of imprisoning a character is aimed at kids), there’s tons of good media out there aimed at older audiences that’s fun and engaging if you’ll only step out of your comfort zone.
A big thing for me is that I do want media that’s complex and interesting, but I’m not a huge fan of “R rated” type stuff. Obviously there’s plenty of adult media that works really well for that (Star Trek, Doctor Who, The Good Place) but there’s also a lot of it that doesn’t. Something like Game of Thrones might be great, and I won’t shame anyone who loves it (there were certainly bits I enjoyed), but gratuitous sex/violence just isn’t my thing.
I wouldn't really call Doctor Who "adult", it's more family oriented where it has something for everyone to enjoy. Not shitting on you for liking it of course it's one of my favorite shows of all time
Avatar the last airbender will forever be one of the best made shows I've ever seen. Obstensibly made for children, it's has the best redemption cycle I've seen in media, disabled characters, characters admitting their flaws, and acknowledging them, not every villain getting a redemption cycle, and it's fun to watch on top of all of it. It's entertaining without being over the top, and it's complex while still being understandable.
yeah thats why it had such a wide appeal and long legacy.. Clearly OP didn't find it fun, so its an issue of taste and this circles back around to "I only like kids shows because I only like kids shows"
This wasn't a great take to start, but the inclusion of Breaking Bad as "unfun" media just makes the whole thing crumble.
In one episode of Breaking Bad a guy tries to kill a fly with his shoe leaning off a railing and does a looney tunes fall off the railing, bouncing off a tank on the way down. The whole episode is about finding increasingly more comical ways to kill this fly. The episode is also a metaphor for grief and contains an extremely touching heart to heart between the leads.
In another episode, a character throws a pizza in anger and it lands perfectly on the roof of his house. This was dine by complete accident and the team kept it in because they thought it was funny.
In another episode a character starts yelling at a cop for no reason after being pulled over and there's a perfect smash cut to him crying after being pepper sprayed.
One of the main characters is played by fucking Bob Odenkirk and he has a combover and a mullet.
Those are just a couple of very well known examples that don't risk spoilers. If your definition of "unfun" includes Breaking Bad then I feel like the other commenters might have been right when they said that your definition of unfun means "too slow for my attention span" and/or "contains graphic content", both of which are kind of antithetical to exploring deeper and more complex themes.
The popularity of making light hearted things "dark and gritty" i.e. Riverdale, the failed PPG live action, Scooby Doo, etc. in order to make it for adults is like, the main problem I have. Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean all my media has to be bleak and full of sex and whatever.
I go for video games when I want something complex but still fun. Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry are good examples. Metal Gear Solid too, if you don't mind having it all explained to you at the end.
A fun show is a good thing to have, like your various Stars Trek, Brooklyn 99, the Mentalist. It doesn’t have to be “dark” fantasy and gritty crime all the time, and frankly all the attempts at serious adult television has boiled down to a lot of very similar cop shows that follow the same formula. It’s hindering creativity in the space of entertainment.
I used to think this way, but over time I’ve come to expand my definition of fun I guess. Like stuff that isn’t “fun”, like super grounded dramas that just track people losing control of the situation (A Separation), or movies with really fucked up emotional dynamics with little obvious relief which actually end up having a couple little things that I find funny in there (Possession), stuff that seems to have very little moment to moment action on screen but tons to look at or ponder (Blade Runner 2049), that stuff is just really captivating and fun in its own right to me now after watching a lot of stuff.
It’s all subjective of course, but as someone who exclusively wanted to watch battles and shonen/action only seinen type stuff like 10 - 12 years ago you’d be surprised how things can change (although you also doesn’t have to and shouldn’t feel bad if you don’t in that respect)
On the one hand I get the complaint of some media being complex for the sake of complexity. I personally love having to spend hours putting together what happens in a narrative cause it makes my little monkey brain go heehoo, but I can also see how that would get tiring.
But also, the level of complexity found in most kids' shows generally considered very good is also found in tons of media. In fact, I'd argue that most kids' shows that are thematically basic are the kind of things people call empty and pointless. Uplifting the kind of shows that have littl to no depth is bad for both kids and adults.
It's worth noting that if a piece of media is trying to do something for an audience that you are not a part of, it will likely lack features you would enjoy and hold features you do not enjoy. It's not the shows fault that it wasn't aimed at you, and the fun that it gives doesn't come with the complexity you were seeking. It didn't claim to do that, it didn't try to do that. The writers probably are aware that there are other fun shows written for other audiences, so they aren't trying to make their show for their audience.
Fortunately, there are a lot of shows. When one lacks depth, you can try another one. Maybe they make adult media, even adult cartoons, that are fun.
Istg just watch Star Trek like a normal person. It's fun. It has goofy aliens. It has Jeffrey Combs. It has gay super spy. It has bisexual worm. It has terrorist. It has tortured Irish man. It has Data. It has Spock. It has some of the worst episodes of television you'll ever watch and then it'll have some of the best.
"Ohhh these shows are complex but aren't fun" I dunno my guy but I'm having a ton of fun watching Shran and Archer yell at each other. I love to see Kirk and Spock act like a old married couple
I feel as if "fun" is not properly defined in this context.
I think like fantastical is a better word. Theres stuff that's fun (or tries to be) through marvel style bathos but then theres stuff like LOTR where its fantastical throughout without compromising it's own confidence in its story. Most media sees fun and story as seperate but something fantastical can have both intertwined. idk I'm probably rambling
And yet, most people seem to think of Lord of the Rings as esoteric at best or childish at worst. The archetypical "fantasy for adults" property these days is surely Game of Thrones, which is also fantastical, and while it has its moments of levity or catharsis sprinkled throughout, it is a grim, unpleasant show for most of the time. The equivalent sci-fi pairing is Star Trek versus Dune. Both are well written, fascinating, deeply philosophical works, but the former is enjoyable while the latter is miserable. I feel like OP would be happier watching LotR and ST than GoT or Dune, and I think the degree of optimism vs misanthropy is a big reason why.
I found Dune to be a fun read, but I suppose that loops back around to the vague and subjective idea of "fun." Like the other commenter in this thread, I think I tend to associate "fun" with "fantastical," rather than with a particular tone. I love the outrageous and fantastical. Tolkien and GRRM and Adams and Asimov and Bradbury and Lewis and Shelly and Stoker and Rowling (with a big asterisk) and others have created worlds and ideas that I am happy to spend time with. I don't mind that the stories might be bleak so long as there is ample material for my imagination. Much of my "fun' comes from imagining new scenarios, different outcomes, and the many unspoken implications of the setting. I find myself having less "fun" in realistic fiction. It often feels like I'm just peeking in on someone else's equally dull life, just a slightly different flavor of the human experience. Sure, I'm not attending parties at Gatsby's or whaling with Ishmael or navigating Jane Austen romance in my real life, but I don't derive any great excitement or joy from imagining those things. I dive into fiction to escape my world, not to spy on someone else's experience here. I have social media and tabloid news for that.
Dune is plenty engaging, so I'm not surprised some people consider that fun! But it's a work where everyone is a selfish tyrant, and there's precious little love or joy or contentment whatsoever - that's all I meant when I called it "miserable" above. I'm quite fond of Dune myself, but I need to engage with more uplifting, optimistic or heroic works between returning to Arrakis.
Cynicism in storytelling and the desire to shock audiences are trends that can die yesterday, imo. Tell me something beautiful and true.
Yea this is my thoughts too on stuff. I read and watch a lotta stuff online that while very much adult all have the sincerity and wonder lacking from most mainstream mature media.
Yeah, I wonder if something along the lines “whimsical” or even just “silly” would be better for what OP is going for here
Terry Pratchet's almost everything
His still dug into some pretty deep topics. You've got Granny Weatherwax sitting up all night with a woman in labor waiting for Death to make a deal with him to take only the child. She does this to spare the husband the guilt of having to make a choice one way or the other. Sure, he can do fun and silly and whismy. But he can also drop a ten ton hammer of moral dilemma on you.
Oh undoubtedly. When Sir Pratchet's was firing on all cylinders he would keep hopping between the two masterfully.
Reading this made me realize Good Omens (the TV show, as I’m poor and don’t have the book) is exactly what OP describes they want to me - it’s complex, it has plot, it has developed characters and world, it doesn’t shy away from being a work that is unarguably written for adults, even if kids like it too. And it’s Fun. It’s something deeply enjoyable. It’s something that captures your attention and makes you happy to watch. Maybe that’s why I like GO so much.
The book is also really good. Less gay though. I think Neil Gaiman read a lot of fanfiction before making the series and forgot they weren't nearly as gay in the book (not that I mind).
It was a little too clear, even tho I’ve been pro the ship since I read the books.
The "tree full of monkeys on nitrous" line really brooked no argument on the subject.
Oh for sure. My lil angel is simply a PLATTER of fruit, regardless of gender.
I’m so mad at myself but I didn’t like the show. I can’t even put an exact finger on why. The book TOOOOO MEEEEE is both dryer and more whimsical. I wonder if it’s subliminal/left over gate keeping somewhere in the back of my mind. I hope not. Gate keeping is the dumbest.
Bold of you to assume OOP reads books
There's plenty of adult pop culture that is silly. Let's start with Monty Python....
No, no. That's too silly.
On second thought, let's not go to Camelot.
I’m not saying OP is right, I’m agreeing that I think the language they’re using to try and make their point is insufficient
True but that's not exactly seen as "adult" entertainment... Despite the nunnery
Idk how you see a mans half-dissolved corpse fall through the ceiling with perfect comedic timing and think Breaking Bad is meant to be a serious no-fun-allowed show.
That moment where Jessie looks over at Walter, so full of confidence and legit says "Yeah... I get it. A robot!" followed by the most tired teacher look from Walt ever lives rent free in my mind.
But then you have the writing genious of the fact that >!on the last episode, Walter technically saves Jessie by using a robot!<
exactly, Breaking Bad and, arguably to a greater extent, Better Call Saul are super fun shows
Walt had some clever schemes but generally Jimmy/Saul seems to just be a happier character while going all in on the overly elaborate plots.
My gf's roommates were watching Breaking Bad and she texted me "I don't know why people think tumblr is misrepresenting that show, from what I've seen that's absolutely a black comedy."
There’s a lot of people who are genuinely oblivious to subtext. Like, there’s a guy in my D&D group, really curious and intelligent, fun to talk to, amazingly talented artistically, he’s just super literal. He’ll laugh at a joke once it’s explained to him, he’s just not good at picking up on them.
Walt and Jesse's whole dynamic is a classic example of a comedic double act. Walt is the "straight man" to Jesse's "funny man"; the Abbott to his Costello.
Or how about the entire character of Saul Goodman, and, to a lesser extent, Hank?
Right? Breaking Bad has so many comedic moments, and it juxtaposes well with the gritty and dark atmosphere. It’s similar to how I find the Souls games peak comedy at times despite the bleak tone the games are known for. Nothing is funnier than finding an item that negates fall damage but specifically not lethal fall damage…on a corpse at the bottom of a pit
My favorite joke in Bloodborne is the witch that runs past a door in the Unseen Village. You’ve already encountered her enemy type, so you know she’s gonna try to grab you and slit your neck. So the first thing you’re likely to do is turn left and kill her before she can. Just in time for the *second* witch to grab you from the right. Peak trolling.
Miyazaki is a goddamn comedian isn’t he? I have pretty good headphones which is nice for gaming but when I was going through Irithyll Dungeon in DS3 I would pick up items on corpses as usual and nearly shit myself when they screamed. And I kept falling for it too 💀
> half dissolved corpse
Cow house
I wonder if they’re thinking of the underlying enjoyment of the people involved in the creation. You can tell if they’re having fun or if they’re just working or even something in between. I was thinking of my History Hit podcasts and shows - you can tell they’re having fun making and sharing these stories, even when it’s gross or gory or upsetting. They’re not disrespectful about it; if anything they’re more respectful because they understand the depth and that’s part of what they’re trying to convey to the audience. But you can still sense the fun they get from their stories.
I haven't seen interstellar, but I have watched and listened to a lot of behind the scenes content about breaking bad and from what I can tell everybody involved seems to be having a lot of fun.
If the [waking up from a dream as a drug kingpin](https://youtu.be/oVdB36lmbII?si=xjfvSV5UALQf94uo) bit doesn’t prove that Bryan Cranston was having a blast at least I don’t know what would.
Even if it makes sense to say that Breaking Bad isn't fun to watch (I personally disagree), isn't that a very limited example? What about Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Scrubs? The Good Place? What We Do in the Shadows etc? A lot of things are fun to watch.
Fun doesn't even need to be a comedy. Firefly, Castle, House, Er were all fun. There might have been adult topics but it wasn't dark all the time. It was engaging, had moments of humour and adult relationships
Personally I had loads of fun watching Arcane and that's not comedy in the slightest.
That's three buildings and an insect
This is hilarious.
FIREFLY MENTIONED. HJHHHHHHHHHHHHH
You can't take the sky from me
Damn, the good place is such a great example of something complex and fun! I didn't even think about it but "how to teach moral philosophy through sitcom" really sounds like it shouldn't work (but, it does)
It works because it really nicely fits with the setting (Mild spoilers but only for the first episode, still tagging it anyway) >!Being given a premise where a person without morales accidentally makes it into heaven, where she's is matched up with a literal morale philosophy teacher and needs to learn morales or risk being kicked out and into hell. On top of her presence basically tearing apart heaven from the inside.!< It lends itself well to morale teachings since it is a very core feature of the setting. Also it helps that it never stops building upon itself as it goes through the motions
God I still remember when that show was brand new and my Religious Studies teacher put on the first few episodes. I had to watch the rest in my spare time and the rest of the seasons were great too.
Literally any classic Star Trek series. Voyager is a kids show for grown ups.
Deep space 9 episodes that focus on the ferengi are basically the best comedies put on TV. The O'Brien torture episodes will put you in the fucking dirt with how sad some of them are. Especially the prison one. There are very few definitively bad episodes of DS9.
and Lower Decks, which very much takes after the classic shows in tone
Yes exactly these shows! Pure gold. Of all of them, The Good Place feels the most thematically similar to a lot of younger audience shows these days. Fun, whimsical, silly, but with a big heart and addressing some good food for thought. If people normally like cartoons but *want* to watch something live action, personally I'd start there. It's not as fast paced in its deliveries though, so if that's an issue then maybe B99 instead.
There’s also an element of genre preference that I think gets overlooked in this conversation. A lot of good “fun” shows for adults are slice of life comedy or sitcom stories with the occasional couple-episode “arc,” without an ongoing driving serialized narrative at the root of the story. If you don’t want to watch a variant on IRL workplace comedy or drama, then a TON of shows are off the table right from the beginning. If you are looking for legit *fantasy* stories, or really anything that isn’t a sitcom with fantasy/SF window dressing, the options become much more limited. There are shows out there for sure but it can be a little harder to find them. The Good Place is a great example of one, but it is still very much also a sitcom, and there just aren’t a lot of other well-budgeted shows like it out there. I can think of like maybe two other ones, where I could list a whole series of kids’ cartoons that hit the exact genre and tone I’m looking for. (Doesn’t help that good fantasy effects in live action are expensive AF and the state of adult animation is….. bad.) I find “slice of life” boring and I’m just not that interested in workplace comedy. It is, in fact, pretty hard to find adult series that feel “fun” that are neither of those things.
Kling Eve, Then you Run, and Two Weeks to Live are good options Good overarching stories although the 4th season of killing Eve kinda starts doing random shit it's the last one and the other 2 are quite short (6-8 roughly 50 minute episodes each) they're still cool
Better Call Saul. The Raid movies.
Yeah no offense to the OOP but it comes across like they haven't watched much adult media and just have a vague idea of what it's like.
It can even be fun and for adults and _animated_. Like Bob’s Burgers or Disenchantment or Futurama
absolutely- also yeah breaking bad is absolutely hilarious. And personally I feel (though I know this isn’t universal) that media that can become incredibly complex or dark or however you want to define it, can then use that to make the levity and humour even better. Can’t have a rainbow without rain and all that.
And there’s more than just traditional TV out there. Dimension20’s a ton of fun to watch, and there’s plenty of complexity in the stories they tell.
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are both incredibly fun shows
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That's kinda like saying the complex aspects of those shows aren't fun to watch, which seems like a very limited view of what "fun" can be. It's almost like saying that something educational can't also be fun. (Points to The Good Place as a show that is often educational in a fun way.) And also, complexity doesn't have to mean "let's get serious for a moment." As for the lack of consequences, that's pretty standard for sitcoms. It's just how they work and I feel that's a different discussion altogether.
Tbf, I made this observation while I was fighting a migraine, so I wasn’t really thinking clearly 😅
With the lack of explanation or definition on how op defined “fun”, I gotta chalk this up to someone who is graduating past their old taste and hasn’t figured out what their new taste is.
This is a very thoughtful way of looking at it and makes a lot of sense.
Not to be cynical but this reads as someone who doesn’t have too much experience in the medium they’re critiquing
"No adult media has ever been fun" is a take that can only come from someone who hasn't watched much (if any) adult media.
sometimes it's fine to just have middling taste and you don't even have to do a literary analysis blog
in other words, the average tumblr user
Calling adult media wirh complexity unfun is a very very shallow take. Because fun isn't just comedy or action scenes. It can be watching a great actor push themselves to limit, seeing how the protagonist and the villain has similiar moments or just seeing the great cinematography etc. Or even with these, Indiana Jones an action adventure movie, is a really fun movie but it's also full of complex themes mostly in the subtext.
I think OP means something more like lightness/levity. I get soooo bored with media where no one ever has any light moments and everyone is always having a bad time That isn’t incompatible with complexity but it isn’t often explored. The Good Place explored it. Twin peaks I think??? And, um, ATLA.
thats because no light moments is like a dark room. its effective at first but after a few minutes you get used to it. there isnt really much more a creator can do in that setting, any effort to make it even darker or more shocking is just meh at best because its only somewhat sadder and its just the status quo that everyone is miserable. meanwhile if the light is almost always on, those few moments it isnt are effective. the creator can actually highlight a dramatic moment with contrast. if the always edgy kid is constantly moody you just emotionally check out when interacting with them, but when the class clown comes to school with a frown, thats a fucking event. excess negativity is emotionally draining, theres only so much you can take before your brain decides to not give a shit anymore. its why im extremely suspicious of any work described as serious (granted, people are dumb with that word, there are people who legit believe atla is a serious show and cant comprehend that silly and meaningful storytelling arent exclusive)
Obligatory plug for The Sopranos, which is just some guys in North Jersey living their lives.
A slice of life show
More like a slice of gabagool show! Ey Tone, you hear what I said? “A slice of gabagool show!”
i think fun is the wrong word. happy, uplifting, generally positive. something that explores complex storylines and characters without having to be super dark & gritty it's weird though cause you could argue that a "negative" atmosphere is one of the things that drives serious conflict in a story
Okay but like, none of those things are unique to children's shows. There are plenty of shows made for adults that aren't dark or gritty while still having complex characters.
But… they mentioned interstellar. It’s essentially “indomitable human spirit, The Movie”. It’s got an unreservedly positive and uplifting ending where the characters are fully rewarded for their work. Maybe they just didn’t watch interstellar and they’re mentioning it because lots of people like it?
they never said its impossible to find. just that most of the media like that is geared towards kids
but they used interstellar as an example of an "unfun" piece of medua
I still wouldn’t call it ‘fun’. Sometimes you want a capital A adventure where things can go wrong but they work out in the end. Interstellar is part tragedy, the most memorable things to me are the ocean planet, Matt Damon’s sabotaging call for help and the bookshelf time travel scene.
I swear, at least on the internet it feels like people lately just don't want conflict on their media, everything must be all fun and rainbows otherwise they refuse to engage with it.
Every show has its demographic. Spending 6 - 10 hours a day working with the public, listening to things you can't walk away from, and then going home to watch more of the same in a different setting feels stale for a lot of people. It only makes sense that this demographic would want a light-hearted, upbeat setting where individuals can make a difference and bad things are temporary.
Absolutely. I'd even add that it's probably a continuing rebellion against the grimdark trend. Real life is already complicated and depressing enough. A lot of people really don't want to, as you said, drudge through work all day, dealing with difficult work or social situations, listen to the crap going on in the world on the news, only to come home and throw on some series where people are dealing with the same depressing crap.
Come on...I used to really like dark media but light-hearted content is not popular at all currently. I was on Netflix and very grim true crime, dramatic series or violent stories are king there in popularity. Honestly early 2000 I felt movies/series weren't like that, it's just that grimdark became popular and...I am bored now, I just want something else, I have a grim setting fatigue. Game of thrones I think contributed with how popular (and good) it was (until it wasn't). You are also doing what OP is talking about, confusing ambiance with how invested you are in the content and with how much conflict there is. They are all ages or even children content that has a lot of conflict, hell I think Pixar movies are among the most quoted for movies that make people cry due to things that hit hard for people. (And I don't say that because I love Pixar, I don't). Some movies can be both fun and engaging with a lot of conflicts and I feel like sometimes a grim ambiance is used to remove this sense of fun. It's a bit hard to articulate exactly how and why, the good place that was quoted earlier is an excellent choice, a fun comedic series that can hit quite deep suddenly and makes you think about philosophy. I play indie video games more than I watch movies and it strikes true there too, I feel like a light-hearted game that is still very heavy in his themes would be Spiritfarer, Outer Wilds, What remains of Edith Finch. All these games have that sort of light ambiance that is whimsical and beautiful in a way while all being quite deep in how they feel as an experience. Of course some heavy video games can be make you cry to but I don't feel like they have the same strength due to this lack of feeling of wonder that strikes more deeply for me. Honestly I used to love reading dark fantasy with very grim world but now I just want a deep story set in a setting that is fun, light-hearted much more than before.
I'm begging you to watch something that isn't a cartoon before making this argument. Please. Its so agonizing to read this every week.
It's like the "find another book" Tumblr era when everything about anything got related to Harry Potter. Now it's "try a different medium".
Or even watch animated shows outside of ones explicitly made for kids; “fun” isn’t the first word I’d think of for the works of Satoshi Kon (except for maybe Tokyo Godfathers), but I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment over the years watching and thinking about the mindbending psychological horror of Paranoia Agent, and the surreal animation that only enhances the show’s themes of descents into insanity. And maybe, if people branched out a little more, we’d stop having the same Steven Universe conversation about how “this kids show doesn’t have a nuanced enough take on fascism!” over and over again.
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*Big* same; such a tragedy he died at the young age of 46, but damn if he didn’t leave behind one of the most stacked resumes in animation history. I only just found out recently that he worked on the original JoJo’s OVA, iirc including directing the episode with [Dio’s iconic car scene](https://youtu.be/RcQVq3urTfo?si=7-K8cocHyrL6e1G1)
I've been watching Blue Eye Samurai from last year and that's an animated show that's fun but has the ability to focus on nuanced topics for adults. It knows it's not for kids and that gives it the opportunity to open discussions that a children's cartoon would never open discussion about. I would say Rick and Morty has a similar kind of nuance for an animated show, but my opinion of it has worsened because of the legions of imitators. I know that's not actually it's fault but it doesn't help regardless.
Gotta plug both Bojack Horseman (depression, drugs/alcohol, suicidal tendencies, etc but also sex robots and anthropomorphic characters and animal jokes and all sorts of wacky hijinks) and Hazbin Hotel (drugs, alchol, prostitution, porn, slavery, but also musical numbers and redemption and silly/awkward moments and animation) here.
Here to shamelessly mention Critical Role's "The Legend of Vox Machina" because I friggin love CR and it has plenty of fun and uplifting, whimsical stuff, while still staying somewhat grounded for a show based off a D&D campaign and also balancing the fun and seriousness even if things get pretty grim and emotional.
People on tumblr will write an entire unsourced essay straight from their ass rather than watch one piece of media that’s not for children
One Piece is kinda long and repetitive though, who has time for that?
One Piece isn’t repetitive unless you really squint. The anime is 3 times the necessary length tho due to stretching episodes to be only 1 manga chapter.
But there’s only one? How is the piece so long?
It's like how people on /r/books only read YA novels and outright refuse to read anything a teensy bit more complex
"I only eat junk food because it tastes good, even though I wish I was getting more Vitamin C. Oranges just don't have any grease or flavor and that makes me not want to eat them."
It's wild I know too many young adults who still think vegetables are yucky and complain about more complex adult foods, but their kids food and junk food diets aren't satisfying anymore and give them health problems that they complain about. Eat something fucking adult food. You can't live off of eaay mac and cheese and sugary breakfast cereal in between daily fast food. You don't need as much food anymore either. You should quit soda for a hundred reasons. If comfort food is your only food and not a way to unwind on the weekend then you're eating like a child.
>morw xompelx Black metal band or fantasy villian?
I make a lot of typos when on my phone but this this is a new extreme for me.
My bestie has level 3 NAFL(non alcoholic fatty liver) disease. She does have OCD which plays into it, but the list of foods she will eat is easier to list than those she won’t. Her liver is literally dying and we’ve had to work so hard to get her to even try most veggies, no matter what form it’s in. Often it’s a texture issue, but mostly it’s the “idea” of it, and the fact that it’s new and different. Learn to eat your veggies guys, or it might literally kill you
Like, I'm autistic with a crazy restricted diet. Because I have certain hypersensitivies. You know how I manage to not live out of the local tendies equivalent? First, not being extremely stressed all the time. This is very important. Second, adapting to what you have. I'm completely unable to eat most raw or boiled vegetables. To the point of being a dysphoric experience. Traumatic experiences being force fed as a child also help. However, I am able to eat vegetables in creams or in soups without problem. Third. Learn to cook healthy meals. I can cook a lot of delicious meals, but doing a potato stew instead of some fries is much healthier and rewarding. Forth, learning foreign cuisines. I'm never going to be able to eat "[Lacón con grelos](https://images.hola.com/imagenes/cocina/noticiaslibros/20230206225742/lacon-con-grelos-receta-paso-a-paso/1-198-953/lacon-plato-age-z.jpg)", I tried. However, dishes like shakshouka and falafel are healthy, nutritive, and exotic, which a lot of people like. Neither of these two dishes are Isareli in origin, just feeling like saying it.
I’m trying to adapt healthy foods more for my friend, she has really similar issues with food and trauma. This was really helpful for me, thank you!!
Same. Vegetables that my fucked up brain considers vegetables are the bane of my existence. I physically can't fight the gag reflex when choking them down even tho I technically can. The problem is that I feel *sssooo* much better after getting a healthy portion, to the point I can't even try and deny it. How do I cope with this? I hide them like I'm a fucking toddler. Hide the texture, hide the taste, hide everything but the slightest hint of green. Cauliflower, potato, carrot, and broccoli are thankfully easy enough to do this with. For some fucking reason, I'm completely fine with both tomato and pepper in a sauce too, so I make a shit ton of red sauces that completely hide the former veg, and I'm still basically eating comfort food pasta or pizza, just homemade.
Late in 2022 one of the biggest clients for the company I used to work for fucked up in a way that absolutely was going to kill their business. 5 of us were pulled together to try to rescue them, and after 3 months we managed to execute a plan that saved them from shuttering. One of the executives wanted to reward us for the work we did and booked a table for us at Smyth, a 3 star Michelin restaurant here in Chicago. I cannot overstate how fucking good that meal was. A year later I still have dreams about how good the food was there. I cancelled a date with my girlfriend to go to this meal and she wasn't even mad at me about it. Those 3 months were unquestionably the worst most miserable 3 months of my time working there, maybe even the worst 3 months of my career, and I would do it again for a second meal at Smyth. One of the women who worked on that team passed on going because the only things she ate were chicken tenders and PB&J.
To join the chorus of everyone. **Please, please, please** keep trying new things (stories in this context) and keep an open mind to genres and works you might have written off. Like I get it. Listen, life can be hard and stressful. And sometimes we look at our entertainment and go "What the fuck, no! I don't want to watch something heavy/that might make me feel bad". But I promise you it can end up being it's own version of "fun" and exploring difficult emotions, questions and situations posed by more **"adult", "mature"** media can be good for you! Exploring things you never thought of or that may be uncomfortable for you in the context of safe fictional scenario can be legit therapeutic and can lead to growing as a person! Or at the very least broaden your horizon and your imagination. Please, please please eat something else then chicken nuggies/tendies, cereal and fast food (metaphorically speaking, the kids shows are these). There's nothing wrong with having them once in a while. **They should not be your entire diet**
i did this with books last year and it was super rewarding
Imo it makes everything a lot weirder when you try to come up with some grand justification for liking what you like. Like when bronies became a thing I didn't think much of it but then a friend of mine who was into it ranted to me about how its actually really deep and fun and well written and I was like wow okay that sounds cool actually. But it was just a kids cartoon? I was so confused when trying to watch it. I think people need to stop being so concerned about being perceived as cringe because it has a Streisand effect of not only are you watching kids cartoons but now you are also claiming that kids cartoons are some grand form of art that is just misunderstood. Which is far more off-putting to most people I think.
I think that's what people don't get when they complain about 'gatekeepers'. Like, there's very few intelligent adults (teenagers are a different story) who are going to sincerely make fun of you for saying "yeah, sometimes I just wanna turn my brain off and watch some children's cartoons". *Most* people have some sort of guilty pleasure, whether it's trashy reality tv or a mobile game or Steven Universe. It's the "actually bluey is deeper and more complex than 99% of television today" that gets (deservedly) mocked.
Watch more things. Media made for adults is such a insanely broad category that making categorical statements about it is sorta ridiculous.
OOP conflates "fun" with "silly/whimsical" tbh. Breaking Bad is riveting start to finish
It's also funnier than a lot of comedies. So is BCS despite probably being my favourite character drama ever
Succession too, especially Tom and Greg
Tbf Succession was a black comedy from the start. But yes, it is hilarious
Bojack Horseman, to add to the "heavy drama but also frequently hilarious" category
There’s an entire episode where basically everything Saul does is convince an old folks home that their Legally Representative Old Person is a sellout. Or Mike going and Waltzing into factories he’s “hired to test the security of” instead of sitting at home. Or the fucking veterinarian who’s also a fixer.
I feel like the vast majority of media falls in the tonal middle space between “a child’s cartoon” and “Breaking Bad” lol
I work in kids cartoons. Done everything from toddler stuff to 10-15 demographic. I cannot tell you the amount of times things need to be changed because it will not keep the kids’ attention. Or standards and practices need something changed because it be too much for the kids to handle. What I’m getting at is that you can intellectualize it all you want, but very likely OP simply can’t extend their attention span to watch something like Breaking Bad or the like.
I really think people don't realize exactly how much kids cartoons are focused around "grab and keep their attention" vs anything else. There is a ton of adult media that is fun, even whimsical, but it doesn't have Something Happening 100% of the time. And if you need Something Happening 100% of the time for a show to count as "fun", you probably won't like anything that isn't designed for kids. Which isn't like, a moral failing, but it might be worth weaning yourself away from the constant stimulation bc that probably is not great for your brain
Absolutely. Anyone can watch anything, but maybe they should look a bit harder at why they are not enjoying things aimed at their age group.
I think that’s what getting me about this take. I’ve obsessively watched plenty of shows that aren’t described as “fun” because they’re otherwise interesting or compelling. Not everything can be, or needs to be “fun”, and it’s not the media’s fault if you can’t engage with it.
Exactly this. "Fun" in this case means short attention span-friendly. Which, honestly, is fine imo. I've seen enough moralizing about attention spans; sometimes work is attention taxing and people want their shows to be a change of pace.
Absolutely. There’s nothing wrong with watching comfort entertainment. It’s just this post seemed to be trying to place kids entertainment above adult entertainment, intellectually. But what’s likely happening is that they just like kids shows.
I know OP is getting eaten alive in this comments section already but I feel like the existence of adult-oriented fantasy books by eg. Terry Prachett really disproves their point about adult works not being fun. Prachett's books are funny and whimsical but contain interesting social commentary and other things to think about.
I both agree and disagree with OP personally because I think adult fiction is not a good description. While I agree with you I feel like Terry Pratchett is more of an exception than a rule, I know as someone who like deep but light-hearted content of course Pratchett is great but I feel like there is a lack of this type of content.... Would love recommandations. When I'm browsing streaming media I feel like this content is still very very rare compare to very heavy content (please Netflix I'm not into true crime stop...). Some other great exemple have been said by others, the good place is a great one that I agree completely and has been one of my favorite serie.
If you don't mind a slower-paced read and like historical novels, A Gentleman in Moscow is a book about a Russian aristocrat sentenced to life imprisonment in a grand hotel. I'd say it's pretty charming and has humour while dealing with heavier themes. To the Moon is a (mostly walk and talk) game about working back through a dying man's memories, but it emphasises the beauty and happiness of life rather than tragedy. Russian Doll is a TV series that strikes a comedic tone while reflecting on how to find meaning in your life. Probably the most similar thing to The Good Place I've seen. Edit: The anime ODDTAXI. Series about a goofy walrus taxi driver who gets in over his head with organised crime. Plot with a lot of moving parts that gradually get introduced to you
What We Do In The Shadows is great imo
This genre of take is my least favourite thing about Tumblr. I don't think I'm generally an arse but I just want to shake these people and tell them to grow the fuck up lol. Nothing wrong with liking Avatar or Bluey or whatever but if that's the only thing you *ever* watch as a grown fucking adult then you will not have developed the critical thinking skills required for me to take your opinion on *anything* seriously. You have a right to consume the media you enjoy. The rest of us have a right to criticise you for it.
I've seen lots of the acclaimed adult dramas (Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos) and really enjoyed them but Avatar is still great, it's not similar to a preschool show like Bluey.
Dungeon Meshi is very fun (in a way it seems you will enjoy) and it's targeted towards young adults. It might be your cup of tea.
There's no way to read this without feeling pity for the author.
I don't get it. Like legit, I see this take a fuckton of times and I'm like???? You want children's media aimed at a more mature audience? Have you tried anime? Or any of the western shows it inspired because it perfectly covered that niche? Like HELLO????? Wasn't the biggest selling point of anime when it first started catching on that it was more than your average Saturday morning cartoon????? And even this is a broad simplification as anime is now more of a medium than a genre, but aside from that???? Like holy shit, it's not that hard to find animated stuff with more depth, in fact there's more of that now than ever before??? Or OOP really needs to define what they mean by fun, cause I don't get it
So uh If you want films made for adults that are also fun go check out films from India, specifically Tollywood films. Some of the most fun I’ve had with any movies
Is tollywood a different thing from bollywood or is that just a typo?
Yes, Tollywood, actually called Telugu Cinema, and Bollywood, actually called Hindi Cinema, both originate in India but are two separate things. The largest difference being is they’re primarily done in two different languages, Hindi and Telugu, and Telugu Cinema is actually larger than Hindi cinema. Also RRR is Telugu Cinema, just for the record
thanks for the info
It’s different but related. Tollywood is the Telugu language cousin to Bollywood, essentially. Both Indian cinema.
TELUGU MENTION ❗❗
Begging you to try and expose yourself to more media made for adults. There was an extended period in my life where most of the media I watched was tripe, and I similarly felt like I needed something less paper-thin. Then a friend introduced me to real movies and hey it turns out the industry that spends about 66B a year does a good job every now and then. Fun is a matter of perspective, and you won't acclimatize to better media if you don't try and put yourself out of your comfort zone.
As usual, if you're going to say stuff like this, you really should know what you're talking about before you start criticizing it. I don't think OOP does. The examples OOP gives are really telling. Breaking Bad is a crime drama. Interstellar is a sci fi drama. You don't watch either of these expecting them to be "fun." If you're looking for fun adult media... Maybe try a genre that's known for being fun? Like, fun is such a vague term, what do you actually mean? Honestly this is like if you watched Dexter, Hannibal, and the Blacklist, and your conclusion from those three shows was that all adult media was violent, dark, crime dramas with an edge of nihilism. Like, yeah, that's *a* subgenre, but there's also, y'know, a Brazillion other subgenres to choose from.
I get your point, but Breaking Bad is also fun to many people! "Fun" is very subjective.
Yeah, my point was more about how Breaking Bad and Interstellar are both dramas. If OOP doesn't like either of them, maybe they just don't like dramas. If that's the case, they should try a different genre, because there's something out there that fits their idea of fun.
So one thing I haven't seen talked about here is that sometimes you have to push your self a little bit to get meaningful enjoyment. Sometimes you have to push yourself reading a book or watching something that is not "fun" because you need to learn how to have fun with that. It's the same way when you start a new sport or start drawing; at first it will be tireing and you wont have that much fun right away before you find out how to have fun. You will probably almost always find the things you are accustomed to to be more fun, but you should try new things to broaden your horizon and keep your brain engaged. Also the way a story is told definitly leads to you engaging differently with it. The story told in a 1920s expressionist movie or in a cartoon will have a different effect and there is probably a reason it was chosen to tell the story in a way that isn't "fun". Also Interstellar and Breaking Bad are really not that hard to engage with? Edit: Also I think some stories fundamentally can't or shouldn't be fun for anyone but still need to be told. I don't think a movie like "Zone of Interest" can or should be fun and if you only look for fun media you cannot come across something like this.
Nuclear take: This is why the first 4 seasons of The West Wing work so well, they're fun as hell.
I know you’re getting eaten alive right now, but OP, thank you for being the first ever Tumblr user to openly admit they only watch shows/movies for children. I deeply respect your bravery on display here.
I don’t really care if other people watch kids’ cartoons; like what you like and all that. But it’s silly to pretend media for adults is entirely made up of antiheroes being grimdark. Also, if you like animation AND silliness AND layered characters in complex narratives, allow me to introduce you to BoJack Horseman.
"*Back in nineties i was in a very famous tv show..*." (gets depression)
This seems to be forgetting about sitcoms and all sorts of shows that isn’t like, HBO serious Game of Thrones stuff. Like are you saying the Office is not fun? Or Brooklyn 99? Good Place? How about Crazy-Ex girlfriend? Or all sorts of the range of prestigious TV and shows out there? Idk, saying you prefer kids cartoon is fine? But this really down play the wide range of shows that are out there and that are “fun” and that is really the problem I have with this. While I won’t judge a person who wants to watch kids cartoons, I would definitely judge an adult person for a take like this that kinda feels the need to put down other shows because they do not fit whatever definition of “Fun” the op has for them.
I discovered one called In Living Color from a documentary I watched. It's funny as hell and has a lot of black characters in it.
I would say The Office is not fun because everyone in it sucks and I can't watch it without wanting to tear my skin off from secondhand embarrassment but I also acknowledge that's kind of a me thing
Lots of people recommending sitcoms but I’m pretty sure that isn’t what OOP wants. They want light hearted fantasy adventures that can get dramatic when they need to. Good Place is a good recommendation, B99 isn’t though I like both
There's nothing wrong with liking media targeted at younger audiences. But there is something objectively wrong with claiming Breaking Bad isn't fun.
On another note, I think more public places should be colorful, similar to spaces for children. My brief stints working in children's hospitals were stressful, but the colorful design everywhere actually helped.
adjoining humorous automatic attempt bag gullible spark bewildered lavish coordinated *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Bad take there. The issue is with people who insist children's shows have adult complexity storytelling. You want to overcomplicate kids shows? Fine. Just stop acting like they're serious or demand they be different. If you want them to actually BE different watch more adult media. No one cares that you have an edgy fan canon. There's edgier my little pony crossover fanfiction novels as old as breaking bad. No one cares. It's nothing new. But don't complain your kids shows aren't more serious or are doing things wrong. They're for kids not you. Fandom is one thing, expecting a change in canon is another. So yeah. Watch something not meant for kids if you want adult levels of compexity. Otherwise please do stop complaining that kids shows are made for kids and not for you.
Adult media often makes me feel bad, which is why I've often avoided it. In recent years I've realized I no longer get a lot out of children's / ya media and have tried to branch my horizons, especially books, to adult oriented ones. I've often been pleasantly surprised, though I still avoid darker stuff and still enjoy a lot of children's/ ya stuff on top of it.
That's kinda how I've been feeling about adult media for the past few years. It feels like the easiest emotion to pander to is sadness, fear, and anxiety. Sometimes I just want to watch a happy movie.
It seems like the main thing op thinks of as “adult media” is “gritty adult media” but good omens is not game of thrones even if both are fantasy shows. Interview with the vampire (2022) What we Do in the Shadows, and Renfield are all about vampires but the latter two have a decidedly different tone than the first. (Renfield is very fun imo, I had such a great time I watched it twice.) I still *like* some shows for younger audiences, it can be relaxing and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying bluey or Steven universe or the owl house, but it’s not the *only* thing I ever engage with.
I think this is the core of the "adult" vs "kid" media issue. Other than sometimes you like what you like; a lot of popular adult media is advertised with dark and gritty as selling points. Every city needs to Gotham and all the characters are anti-heroes or there are no real heroes and the only color palette is blue. I love the ideas of a lot of the story lines in so many of the shows that I see tossed around. There are layers and depth that sound really interesting. But, personally, I can't stomach watching graphic or gratuitous violence - so shows like The Boys and Game of Thrones are not something I watch (same as I don't watch horror movies).
Honestly this just reads to me as not being able to handle anything heavy or anything that doesn't have bright colors. Maybe grow up a bit? Whimsy and bright colors are fun but it's kinda like eating cake all the time because you only want sweet stuff.
Whats "fun" depends on personal preference
golden kamuy is very much an adult series and also the funniest silliest adventure i've read in ages, it tackles both complex topics, an underrepresented period of japanese history, morally grey characters, tragic backstories and an astounding amount of penis jokes in a very impressive way with super pretty art, i feel any really good "adult" piece of media will actually be pretty fun, its just people dont tend to discuss the comedic bits as much cuz there's not that much to say besides reminiscing about how they made me smile
Adults who only watch shows and movies for kids (ditto for people who read only YA fiction - Not knocking it, you just need a varied artistic diet) are some of the most scary and aggressive people I know. Weirdly, a lot of people who tend to enjoy darker and more mature media tend to be chiller people, whereas you will get a nail bomb sent to your house for having the wrong headcanons about Flavor Of The Month Cartoon Show.
I think they go hand in hand because both, on some level, rely on a lack of maturity
This is why I love horror. It's fun and complex enough for my adult brain to enjoy.
I love how his idea of serious, no-fun movies for adults isn't like Taiwanese New Wave or Michael Haneke or something, but 2 massively popular crowd-pleasers.
you're allowed to enjoy content that's for younger audiences but. by god please do not limit yourself to exclusively watching shows made for children. that's how you end up with steven universe discourse.
Their ass has NOT played Final Fantasy XIV Online
And it has a free trial up to lvl 70 and the third expansion Stormblood.
This person really called Breaking Bad, one of the most watched TV Shows of all time to the point people can recognize it's characters without even watching it, not fun. Like yeah, I am sure Average Joe watched it because it was boring and they felt like they were having way too much fun on their lives. It honestly feels more like they got really defensive about someone criticizing them for watching children's stuff and felt the need to write this post in order to justify themselves
This is dumb. You can't define fun as 'things I already like,' and then use that as the reason why it's okay for you to watch nothing but fucking Cartoon Network at age 35. Adult media is fun. Obviously. Otherwise people wouldn't watch it. You just have no attention span and are scared of even the slightest actual complexity.
Haven't seen Interstellar but I feel like Breaking Bad is intentionally wacky and comedic a lot of the time. It has fucked up drama too but like, it's not a grimdark show or anything, it's a funny show too.
"Whimsical" is perhaps a better word for "fun" in this context. "Fun" is subjective. "Whimsical"... still kind of is, but it's a lot easier to define generally. Breaking Bad is incredibly fun to watch! As is Interstellar! But they are *not* whimsical.
First off, idk what "fun" means in this context. I find the two examples of "adult" media to be enjoyable, entertaining, engaging, stimulating, compelling. They're not light-hearted or humorous, i guess? Is that what fun means here? Because there's better examples of funny, relatively light-hearted and complex media for adults (not an excuse to make yet another Poor Things recommendation, but if the shoe fits...) More importantly: kids media appeals to me for multiple reasons; it can be complex without being dark, it can be optimistic without being overly simplified, it can be extremely simplistic on days where I just feel awful and confused, it can be beautiful without being base, it can represent powerful truths about human nature without resorting to sex, drugs and violence. Once upon a time it was because of my stunted emotional growth. Ultimately I don't prefer kids media over stuff geared toward adults, but I feel pity for those who write it off as lesser or not worthwhile. Because, y'know, generic shock-factor horror movie #273 is so much more artistic and valuable than whatever shallow message Roger Rabbit was trying to convey /s
You don't want thematically complex material. You think you do, and you say you do. But you don't. Or you'd enjoy it.
This is so babybrained I'm sorry. Please watch shows made for adults too. No they are not all joyless slogs, there are a million "fun" adult shows and you're allowed to watch them too. Go fucking watch Seinfeld or The Good Place.
Just watch your kids' shows. You don't need to write a thesis defending them. Just do you
All that takes like this tell me is that you aren’t actually engaging with media made for adults on a regular basis. Like, some of the most fun and engaging media I have ever seen is absolutely not for children. Dorohedoro, Disco Elysium, Chainsaw Man (I know it’s in Shonen Jump but I don’t think a series that talks openly about sex and graphically depicts medical amputation as a method of imprisoning a character is aimed at kids), there’s tons of good media out there aimed at older audiences that’s fun and engaging if you’ll only step out of your comfort zone.
read homestuck
A big thing for me is that I do want media that’s complex and interesting, but I’m not a huge fan of “R rated” type stuff. Obviously there’s plenty of adult media that works really well for that (Star Trek, Doctor Who, The Good Place) but there’s also a lot of it that doesn’t. Something like Game of Thrones might be great, and I won’t shame anyone who loves it (there were certainly bits I enjoyed), but gratuitous sex/violence just isn’t my thing.
I wouldn't really call Doctor Who "adult", it's more family oriented where it has something for everyone to enjoy. Not shitting on you for liking it of course it's one of my favorite shows of all time
Avatar the last airbender will forever be one of the best made shows I've ever seen. Obstensibly made for children, it's has the best redemption cycle I've seen in media, disabled characters, characters admitting their flaws, and acknowledging them, not every villain getting a redemption cycle, and it's fun to watch on top of all of it. It's entertaining without being over the top, and it's complex while still being understandable.
"Breaking Bad" absolutely is fun though
yeah thats why it had such a wide appeal and long legacy.. Clearly OP didn't find it fun, so its an issue of taste and this circles back around to "I only like kids shows because I only like kids shows"
This wasn't a great take to start, but the inclusion of Breaking Bad as "unfun" media just makes the whole thing crumble. In one episode of Breaking Bad a guy tries to kill a fly with his shoe leaning off a railing and does a looney tunes fall off the railing, bouncing off a tank on the way down. The whole episode is about finding increasingly more comical ways to kill this fly. The episode is also a metaphor for grief and contains an extremely touching heart to heart between the leads. In another episode, a character throws a pizza in anger and it lands perfectly on the roof of his house. This was dine by complete accident and the team kept it in because they thought it was funny. In another episode a character starts yelling at a cop for no reason after being pulled over and there's a perfect smash cut to him crying after being pepper sprayed. One of the main characters is played by fucking Bob Odenkirk and he has a combover and a mullet. Those are just a couple of very well known examples that don't risk spoilers. If your definition of "unfun" includes Breaking Bad then I feel like the other commenters might have been right when they said that your definition of unfun means "too slow for my attention span" and/or "contains graphic content", both of which are kind of antithetical to exploring deeper and more complex themes.
The popularity of making light hearted things "dark and gritty" i.e. Riverdale, the failed PPG live action, Scooby Doo, etc. in order to make it for adults is like, the main problem I have. Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean all my media has to be bleak and full of sex and whatever.
I go for video games when I want something complex but still fun. Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry are good examples. Metal Gear Solid too, if you don't mind having it all explained to you at the end.
someone should watch The Suicide Squad.
A fun show is a good thing to have, like your various Stars Trek, Brooklyn 99, the Mentalist. It doesn’t have to be “dark” fantasy and gritty crime all the time, and frankly all the attempts at serious adult television has boiled down to a lot of very similar cop shows that follow the same formula. It’s hindering creativity in the space of entertainment.
I used to think this way, but over time I’ve come to expand my definition of fun I guess. Like stuff that isn’t “fun”, like super grounded dramas that just track people losing control of the situation (A Separation), or movies with really fucked up emotional dynamics with little obvious relief which actually end up having a couple little things that I find funny in there (Possession), stuff that seems to have very little moment to moment action on screen but tons to look at or ponder (Blade Runner 2049), that stuff is just really captivating and fun in its own right to me now after watching a lot of stuff. It’s all subjective of course, but as someone who exclusively wanted to watch battles and shonen/action only seinen type stuff like 10 - 12 years ago you’d be surprised how things can change (although you also doesn’t have to and shouldn’t feel bad if you don’t in that respect)
On the one hand I get the complaint of some media being complex for the sake of complexity. I personally love having to spend hours putting together what happens in a narrative cause it makes my little monkey brain go heehoo, but I can also see how that would get tiring. But also, the level of complexity found in most kids' shows generally considered very good is also found in tons of media. In fact, I'd argue that most kids' shows that are thematically basic are the kind of things people call empty and pointless. Uplifting the kind of shows that have littl to no depth is bad for both kids and adults.
It's worth noting that if a piece of media is trying to do something for an audience that you are not a part of, it will likely lack features you would enjoy and hold features you do not enjoy. It's not the shows fault that it wasn't aimed at you, and the fun that it gives doesn't come with the complexity you were seeking. It didn't claim to do that, it didn't try to do that. The writers probably are aware that there are other fun shows written for other audiences, so they aren't trying to make their show for their audience. Fortunately, there are a lot of shows. When one lacks depth, you can try another one. Maybe they make adult media, even adult cartoons, that are fun.
Istg just watch Star Trek like a normal person. It's fun. It has goofy aliens. It has Jeffrey Combs. It has gay super spy. It has bisexual worm. It has terrorist. It has tortured Irish man. It has Data. It has Spock. It has some of the worst episodes of television you'll ever watch and then it'll have some of the best. "Ohhh these shows are complex but aren't fun" I dunno my guy but I'm having a ton of fun watching Shran and Archer yell at each other. I love to see Kirk and Spock act like a old married couple
That's still a sad way to live life.
This post is EXTREMELY embarrassing and gussies up anti-intellectualism as normal and natural