For those of you who don't know it appears come 2014 Young Justice will be cancelled and become just another fond memory shared among the comic book community like so many others. Young Justice for me is one of the best shows on television right now as it has its own unique flair and the ability to grab anyone from any age and amaze them.
But I do have to admit it came with a huge array of obstacles that in the end costed it's life on air here's why I think Young Justice failed.
1.Cartoon Network What Happened?
Like all good shows they need a good show runner and the stereotype surrounding animation lately is that it's "just a kids thing" and it's something Cartoon Network isn't doing much to cleanse and is in fact pushing.
Cartoon Network is a great channel but the issue with Cartoon Network is that it is set up purely for kids and we can see this in the shows they have.
Shows such as "Amazing World of Gumball", "Regular Show", "Ben 10 Omniverse" and "Annoying Orange" are mixed in between "Young Justice" so it gets smothered as it is a show tailored more towards story and characters rather than a joke every second sentence.
While you could argue older audiences watch these "kids shows" I've listed above it's certainly not something that would make them run and pay for Cartoon Network if all you're getting is "Young Justice" and "Green Lantern" mixed in with the occasional nostalgic shows that air every now and then from the 80's and 90's.
So what do people do? we turn to online streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu or just simply click on an illegal streaming site.
Which in turn affects the views of the shows we love so much as television stations generally do not take into account streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu as their main source of income is through the views on the television station.
2.Shifts In Tone What Happened?
While I do agree shows should have freedom to explore darker themes I found Young Justice to be inconsistent in what it wanted to be at times.
In one episode you'll see the witty jokes from Wally or a girl's night out with Miss Martian and Artemis though in the next episode you'll see the whole team get killed or a character get lobotomized.
At times I found it difficult to know whether I should let my little brother watch this episode or not or whether I should prepare to laugh or be depressed.
The issue with the shifts in tone is the show ignored the audience that take up the majority of the viewers on Cartoon Network, kids.
3.The Frickin' Hiatuses What Happened:
As any Young Justice fan will know hiatuses were one of the worst things to happen to the show.
Let alone people had to wait months for the show to come back, it was done in the middle of the seasons so that meant at times if you didn't recap the episode before you had no idea what was going on.
You couldn't remember which character was where or what plot point we should be thinking about.
4.Invasion This for me is what killed the show.
In season 2 the show jumped forward five years, created a lot of wtf moments and we were completely confused as to what was going on as it was like watching season 8 of a show after only watching season 1.
The characters we grew an attachment to over the course of season 1 were either changed or just taken out of the spotlight by the overcrowding of new characters. I would have been okay with the new characters taking the spotlight but very few of them actually got the attention they needed to make me care. Instead of wondering what Lagoon Boy's back story was I was throwing my popcorn at the screen screaming "where the hell is Nightwing?"
In the end the shows had to juggle too many plates, there was just too many plot lines that needed to be cleared up, too many characters that needed spotlight and in the end what you got was a confused viewer trying to latch on to the show and feeling pretty much welmed.
While I do realize the Young Justice: Invasion has started to pick up pace
lately and we did get some nice characters out of it, I can't help but wonder would have lasted longer if it waited for a while until at least season 3.
So What Can We Do? You could send an angry letter to the producers of Cartoon Network or Young Justice for not continuing the show but trust me you've a one in a million chance of the show getting back on air if you do.
No, how shows are brought back or how good mature shows stay on air is by you supporting it, I mean how hard could it be to sit down and watch the show on it's premiere time?
How hard could it be to buy the dvd if you missed an episode just like the old days.
Heck any bit of merchandise from comics to figures would help the show.
The fact remains that the whole world is in a recession and that includes stations, stations that are more anxious to get money quicker so they'll adapt to the audience otherwise it'll mean going bankrupt.
Their view right now appears to be 95 percent kids 5 percent adults watch animated shows.
I believe there is far more teenagers and adults out there that do watch shows like this that simply aren't having their voices heard because they're afraid of being judged for liking "kids stuff" but they couldn't be more wrong.
The more we talk about animated shows the more familiar it will feel and the less odd it will seem.
The more we show we are watching the good mature shows by flicking on to the channel when we see something we like the more of them we'll get, but it all starts with you, I and everyone else who wants these shows.
If we don't we're just going to go around the same circle for another decade and trust me there is nothing I fear more.
What do you think?
Do you agree or disagree?
Any suggestions you'd like to add?
Leave a comment and lets start talking so we can make something weird cool again.