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Gravity Falls Season 2 Review

The second season of Gravity Falls is such a great season and a major improvement over the previous one. It was such a great swansong for the show.

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“Grunkle Stan, karaoke isn’t about sounding good.

It’s about sounding terrible together“

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Because this second season is much more connected and spread like one giant story arc, I will thus organize this review character by character unlike going through each episode which I did for the first season. So let’s start with the major characters – the siblings. I just loved Mabel and Dipper. Mabel is as great as ever here and she even became more likable which was almost impossible. A genuine sweetheart, she also got her fair share of development to go through; I loved her various adventures and I loved how she remained an extremely positive and good-hearted person through and through.

Dipper was here much better than the last time around as he got much more to do. I loved how he got to follow the adventure and mystery of the entire town with his new uncle and those episodes were great, but his relationship with Wendy is so well established and of course his sibling relationship with Mabel is extraordinary. The last couple of episodes perfectly showcased the love they have for each other and did that in an emotional, but never overly sentimental manner. They are such a great duo whom I simply adored.

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Grunkle Stan also got some great development and although he was still a bit annoying in certain episodes, he was mostly really well utilized and I especially loved his relationship with his brother. Speaking of Grunkle Ford, he was a bit too serious, but that was needed for this overly goofy and comedic show. I really enjoyed his smart and eccentric mix in personality and he fit so well within the rest of the gang.

Soos was to me the only character who was better in the previous season as here he overstayed his welcome and was quite frankly frustrating at times with his stupidities. But he did get a couple of awesome one-liners here and there. Wendy is pretty good and realistic and he interacted really well with everyone else and is a strong female presence. Waddles should have been used much more and to me Candy Chiu and Grenda were typical, goofy sidekicks. But McGucket is great and I just loved his backstory and how well it explained his current state and behavior. Bill is an over-the-top, but capable villain. Gideon remains a foolish, ridiculous creation and all of the others serve their purpose, but are not memorable enough.

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I have to say that I really liked the action in this season. It was overwhelming, but mostly better executed than in the previous season. The three-part finale was very strong and could serve quite well as a movie of sorts. The entire mystery is pretty solid, although the conclusion felt a bit too over-the-top in a typical cartoon fashion. The villains are still pretty good, but definitely typical in their goals. I honestly liked those standalone adventure episodes much more than those important arc episodes, though they were still pretty solid, just not great.

The humor in Gravity Falls is very good and it remained strong throughout this season. Sometimes the jokes were too typical and goofy, but mostly they were good and some lines definitely cracked me up and were unexpectedly hilarious and even clever. I liked the animation and the score and sound effects are all great.

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This season is very emotional. All of it, but the highlight is the finale as it was just so powerful and it almost made me cry as I connected with it so much. They had a great childhood and such a wonderful summer, but now they are thirteen, must go back to school and the teenage years and adulthood await. The series did this theme really well as it showcased how wonderful and nostalgic childhood really is, but still reminding us that at some point we need to grow up. Plus I liked that the message here is that you can remain somewhat childlike even as an adult and because I myself am like that, it was great seeing that sentiment here.

I just loved this season so much. It is sometimes inconsistent with some pretty problematic episodes, but most are actually great and it is overall much better than the previous pretty good season. I’ve had such a great time watching this wonderful, childlike, adventurous show and although I am sad that it ended, I still liked that it only got two seasons as it remained great throughout its whole run. Gravity Falls is definitely a future classic.

Worst Episodes: Scary-oke and Little Gift Shop of Horrors.

Best Episodes: The Love God, Not What He Seems, Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future and Weirdmageddon.

My Rating – 4.4

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