Hello all! It is my great pleasure to officially announce ‘Come Along with Me’, a collaborative review and discussion series of the hit animated show Adventure Time. You may have seen my posts over the past couple of weeks attempting to set this up, but in case you missed them the premise is simple: starting next Monday, each week one or two of your fellow Avocadoans will share their thoughts on a pair of Adventure Time episodes. The intention is to create a place where people of all levels of familiarity – from complete newbies to those who have seen the show multiple times – can come together to discuss this heavily influential cartoon. Adventure Time is a show that is deeply important to me, one that has gotten me through a lot of stressful times, and I am excited to talk about it with all of you and see all of your diverse opinions on the series.

For those unfamiliar with Adventure Time, the show begins as the story of human boy Finn and his talking and shapeshifting dog/brother Jake as they go on a myriad of adventures in the wacky land of Ooo. Over the course of its run its story expands far beyond this initial premise. Created by Pendleton Ward, a former writer and storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, the initial pilot was released in 2007 on Nicktoons (the sister network of Nickelodeon). After Nicktoons passed on ordering a full series (a big ‘Oops’ moment if there ever was one), production company Frederator Studios pitched the show to Cartoon Network. The series ran for ten seasons from 2010 to 2018, the first four and a half with Ward as showrunner before writer Adam Muto took over midway through Season 5. The series was a runaway ratings and critical hit, spawning four epilogue specials (collectively titled ‘Adventure Time: Distant Lands’), an upcoming spin-off series (‘Fionna and Cake’), a comic series, and several video games. The influence of Adventure Time on modern cartoons is still being felt to this day, especially as it served as a launchpad for a number of talented creators like Rebecca Sugar (creator of Steven Universe), Patrick McHale (creator of Over the Garden Wall), Ian Jones-Quartey (creator of O.K. K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes!), Julia Pott (creator of Summer Camp Island), and Natasha Allegri (creator of Bee and Puppycat).

The plan, at least for now, is that reviews will be released every Monday at 10:00 AM ET and will each cover two episodes. For the full list of contributors for the first season, look here. If you would like to potentially be considered for reviewing future episodes, let me know and I will tag you as subsequent seasons open up. In order to ensure that these reviews are a welcoming place for those with all levels of experience with the series, spoilers are allowed but must be clearly marked/tagged in both the reviews and the comments.

For fun, I decided to end with a couple of prompts aimed at those who have watched the series before. (Remember to tag spoilers if necessary.)  

Prompt 1: What is your favorite episode of the series, and why?

Prompt 2: Adventure Time is a show with many entry points. What was the first episode you saw and what about it got you hooked?