ICYMI - Animated Gems

If you are like me you spend a lot of your time with Netflix running in the background, content with it to be background noise and restarting an episode if it get's to far and you're now totally lost...

Anyway, I've got some great animated shows on Netflix that definitely deserve some more attention. The first two are great for children of all ages; being nearly 30 myself, I've not recommended anything that I don't think an adult would get a kick out of.

As much as I want to gush about The Hollow, and to talk it up nonstop.

I can't. Not if you don't want me to spoil every second of this creepy spooky thriller. The only plot synopsis I can give away without giving anything away, is that the three teens above wake up in a room together with some memory loss. That part kind of reminds me of Saw, but that's about the closest parallels. Either way, short quick episodes that constantly leave you in a cliff hanger make this show completely binge worthy and quick to consume.

For my second recommendation, I'm going to talk about 3 Below, Tales of Arcadia, and thankfully I can tell you much more about it. However, first thing is first, and this is a "Twofer", but if you haven't yet watched TrollHunters on Netflix, then beware that watching 3 Below first will give you things out of order.

Okay, so Krel and Aja are alien royalty and they are fleeing a military coup with their guardian, Varvatos Vex when their ship crash lands on Earth. That's the premise of this entire child comedy, and a majority of the humor comes from the misunderstandings that they face the entire time. However, this is from the mind of Guillermo Del Toro, so the art direction and creativity are phenomenal. On top of that it's put in a world with tons of reoccuring characters and creatures, amazing character development, and one of the most power hungry and destructive characters I've ever come across.

That's right, i'm talking about Varvatos Vex. Varvatos is a mighty warrior who's human disguise is a feeble old man, complete with cane with four feet and a tennis ball for each. He is very simple, but has some of the best moments in the entire series. Your kids will enjoy this, but you won't be able to look away either.

My last recommendation is for Adults only due to language, graphic imagines, and the psychological and philosophical concepts that are touched upon, but I've watched The Midnight Gospel through four times and it's quickly becoming a repeated mantra or book I return to like a fount of knowledge.

The midnight gospel is interesting, because although there is a story involving the character pictured above, Clancy, as he uses a Simulator to visit numerous worlds and interview those within for his SpaceCast, there is also something more going on behind the scenes.

Duncan Trussel, the voice of Clancy is interviewing and sharing some very deep, heart to heart talks about subjects from drug use, life, love, death, reincarnation, meaning, enlightenment with a variety of celebrity folk. They often break the fourth wall forgetting to call Duncan by his characters name, and the last episode in particular is a doozy.

The Midnight Gospel only has 8 episodes at the minute, but with Pendleton Ward of Adventure time fame on the set as well, it's highly likely that we will see another season of this. I certainly hope it continues and the drug induced visuals can continue to guide people on difficult subjects.