This show gets a lot of flak from the very, very few people who still remember it exists for supposedly being a run-of-the-mill Canadian cartoon. While there's definitely some truth to that, the first season in particular is surprisingly well-written. One of the aspects that makes it stand apart is that most if not all episodes specifically revolve around the existence of C2, and don't just follow a cliche sitcom-like formula with the main concept of the series shoehorned in.
But there's another, arguably more important, difference: put simply, season 1 has heart. Carl may be a lazy slacker, but he always tries to do the right thing in the end. Same goes for other characters' flaws - they can be irritating, but the episode almost invariably throws the viewer a bone, so to speak, by forcing them to be overcome or at least played down in some way. Unfortunately, though there are still occasional good-to-great episodes later on, this is largely lost in the other seasons, and by season 4 in particular the characters can be so cruel to each other you have to wonder how they can even be friends!
Season 1 is quite underrated
This show gets a lot of flak from the very, very few people who still remember it exists for supposedly being a run-of-the-mill Canadian cartoon. While there's definitely some truth to that, the first season in particular is surprisingly well-written. One of the aspects that makes it stand apart is that most if not all episodes specifically revolve around the existence of C2, and don't just follow a cliche sitcom-like formula with the main concept of the series shoehorned in.
But there's another, arguably more important, difference: put simply, season 1 has heart. Carl may be a lazy slacker, but he always tries to do the right thing in the end. Same goes for other characters' flaws - they can be irritating, but the episode almost invariably throws the viewer a bone, so to speak, by forcing them to be overcome or at least played down in some way. Unfortunately, though there are still occasional good-to-great episodes later on, this is largely lost in the other seasons, and by season 4 in particular the characters can be so cruel to each other you have to wonder how they can even be friends!