Shows we watched this year
Avatar: The Last Airbender
This 3 season series from the early 2000's is one of our all time favourites and one we love to re-watch time and time again. The three seasons tell one long story so you can't jump in or stop at one season but you need to see them all to get the full picture. It's hard to find but in NZ it's available on
Neon.
Aang, the main character, is the Avatar; a human with a mystical connection to the spirit world. He is charged with bringing peace and balance to the world and is befriended by two other teens who together try to fulfil his destiny in a time of great war and chaos in the world.
The world of Avatar is very different to ours; people are gifted with "bending" in which they can manipulate objects and also the physical world can be invaded by mystical spirit creatures. The worldview of the Avatar world is loosely based on Eastern philosophies like Shinto and Buddism which can be jarring if you come from a Judaism/Christianity worldview but the larger themes of friendship, love conquering hate and overcoming prejudice which are extolled in Avatar are things all worldviews can embrace and agree with.
The characters in Avatar are developed deeply, the action and suspense are exciting and the humour is fun. However for the philosophical reasons above, and quite a bit of violence I would recommend Avatar for older kids. But whatever you do, don't watch the movie (everyone who has seen it agrees it is terrible).
Rebels - season 4
Star Wars Rebels continued to be great in season 4. This is the final season of a great series and one that has had us on the edge of seat and smiling at the same time. I'm not sure where it will be available once
Disney XD stops airing it (and DVD's are becoming a thing of the past) but if you can find it, it will be worth your while.
Voltron - season 2, 3 and 4
We had a big wait for season 2 of Voltron and it was worth it. So exciting and the characters are well developed now with great chemistry between them. The story is complex but there is enough going on that even younger viewers have enough to stay captivated. Seasons 3 and 4 came out sooner and were shorter which
Netflix did deliberately so we didn't have to wait so long (thank you!!). Season 4 has been pretty wacky but so much fun!
Bravest Warriers
Back in 2010 a surreal TV series called
Adventure Time hit our screens and we were entertained and disturbed in equal measure. After a couple of years the creator, Pendleton Ward, launched another show, this time on
YouTube called Bravest Warriers. It's in a similar style to Adventure Time but set in space. A cast of wacky characters and equally wacky plot devices make for an entertaining and again, slightly disturbing time. It's not really a show made for kids but it's so bizarre that they will enjoy it as much as you.
Miraculous Ladybug
We have girl kids in our house and the younger one is as girly as they come. Favourite colour: pink, favourite animal: cats, favourite item of clothing: pink frilly skirt/dress. So when we discovered
Miraculous Ladybug on Netflix she was hooked. Ladybug has everything a girly girl loves: pink clothing, a cute mini creature friend, a larger cat hero, and crushing... lots of crushing; buildings, cars, buses, but mostly of the love variety.
Marinette is a clumsy but lovable teen who is given a mystical gift where she can transform into a powerful ladybug themed hero who teems up with the mysterious Cat Noir (the cat hero). The twist is that Cat Noir is actually her real life high school crush Adrian. Every episode follows a similar format but there is a larger storyline going on the background through the season.
This French animated series is being slowly dubbed into english so only season 1 is available but kid 2 is eagerly waiting for season 2 having seen the first episodes multiple times. We have also been sucked into the ladybug universe as it's pretty funny and exciting (the first time).
Axe Cop
A few years ago my hub found a web comic series called
Axe Cop. The series was a collaboration between a
20 something comic artist and his younger brother, age 5. The younger brother came up with the story ideas and the artist finessed the ideas and drew them up. It took a corner of the internet by storm and it was a big enough corner that it was made into a TV series.
Axe Cop is very bizarre and hilarious! But also incredibly, cartoonishly violent... so not suitable for younger kids - more for tweens/teens I would say. I include it because if you are looking for a series to watch with your teens that they won't turn their noses up and you don't mind some blood and guts then you will love Axe Cop.
Axe Cop is available on FXX in the States but you might find it online somewhere if you are outside the USA (wink).
So Beauty and the Beast have a kid and he grows into a handsome prince, a prince who is troubled with his world and so he decides to do something about it. He selects four descendants of the villains from the forbidden villain island and gives them full scholarships to the high school for heroes and good guys' kids hoping that his kindness will change them from bad guys to good guys and he will have changed the world in some way. However the bad guys come with agendas of their own and we are left waiting to see if good will triumph over evil... dun dun duuuunnnn!
