I was an avid SML viewer from 2009 to around 2017. While not all of the videos from that time (particularly and especially from 2016-2017) were winners, it had a place in mine and a lot of others' all hearts as a charming little series of plushies of pre-existing characters getting into all kinds of shenanigans while living in civilization... some of those shenanigans being more graphic than others.
Flash-forward to 2023, and to say the series has lost its way would be like saying water is wet. 2023, in many ways, might just be the absolute worst year the channel has ever had if we're talking about the quality of the videos themselves — and considering how bad some of the other recent years have been, that's saying a lot.
Every single character (the ones they even still bother to use, anyway) has lost any remaining shred of likability; Marvin is a killjoy, Rose is insufferable Jeffy is hardly even a character at all than a contrived way to force in conflicts, Brooklyn Guy is a childish cretin incapable of knowing when to STFU, and Junior and his friends are essentially the Eds but without any of the things that make them good characters. The new characters they've introduced either have next to no real discernable personality to speak of (Penelope), or are so insufferable that they singlehandedly outright ruin any video they show up in (Jonathan and the Huckerdoos).
The plots are similarly at an all-time creative nadir. Sure, SML has always been formulaic to a degree, but 2022 and this year have been taking it to extremes I would've never even thought where possible. Most of them barely even take place anywhere besides the couch.
At this point, I'd say we've reached a point where SML isn't just dead; it's flat-out unsalvageable.
WebVideo For the love of god, just put it out of its' misery
I was an avid SML viewer from 2009 to around 2017. While not all of the videos from that time (particularly and especially from 2016-2017) were winners, it had a place in mine and a lot of others' all hearts as a charming little series of plushies of pre-existing characters getting into all kinds of shenanigans while living in civilization... some of those shenanigans being more graphic than others.
Flash-forward to 2023, and to say the series has lost its way would be like saying water is wet. 2023, in many ways, might just be the absolute worst year the channel has ever had if we're talking about the quality of the videos themselves — and considering how bad some of the other recent years have been, that's saying a lot.
Every single character (the ones they even still bother to use, anyway) has lost any remaining shred of likability; Marvin is a killjoy, Rose is insufferable Jeffy is hardly even a character at all than a contrived way to force in conflicts, Brooklyn Guy is a childish cretin incapable of knowing when to STFU, and Junior and his friends are essentially the Eds but without any of the things that make them good characters. The new characters they've introduced either have next to no real discernable personality to speak of (Penelope), or are so insufferable that they singlehandedly outright ruin any video they show up in (Jonathan and the Huckerdoos).
The plots are similarly at an all-time creative nadir. Sure, SML has always been formulaic to a degree, but 2022 and this year have been taking it to extremes I would've never even thought where possible. Most of them barely even take place anywhere besides the couch.
At this point, I'd say we've reached a point where SML isn't just dead; it's flat-out unsalvageable.