Regular Show‘s eight-year run on Cartoon Network came to an end last night. Sadly, I’m way behind on the show since DVDs only go to the third season, we don’t have cable and CN’s stuff is on the equally sucky, commercial-plagued Hulu. I have seen bits and pieces via on-demand when housesitting.
Anyway, Regular was either loved or despised by the people in my life, it lacked any gray in its following. For me, I am in the love camp. The show’s humor followed in the footsteps of other cartoons like Home Movies, Sealab 2021 and Archer. The animation was secondary because the conversations and absurdity is what made Rigby and Mordechai’s adventures hilarious. It was also the first CN show to actually spend the money on licensing some well-known rock songs to enhance the jokes: “Lies Lies Lies” by the Thompson Twins during the fibbing contest; “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain while the gang were tripping on hot sauce; and they springed for Bowie’s version of “Heroes” to make the show’s finale complete, not a cheap song to clear.
I’m going to miss the show and the characters’ silly catchphrases. It might live on through its comic book. I hope there will be DVDs to cover the gap. Adventure Time made it to Season Five on physical media.
The next question is what does CN have in store to replace (almost) everyone’s favorite park slackers. I’ve noticed that CN and Nickelodeon go through spells of several good shows and then several crappy ones, repeat. The only thing new CN has promoted is Magiswords. Pass. It’s even more boring than the Total Drama dreck they rebroadcast from Canada or Johnny Test, sadly these are both available on Netflix.