Chaotic

My husband and I were trying to think of a new show to watch as a family in the evenings, and I scrolled through Amazon Prime and found several old shows I watched when I was young, including Chaotic. After explaining the absolutely insane premise, I knew I had to share it with the family.

Okay, folks, strap in, because the very idea of this series is, well, chaotic.

In the world of the show, Chaotic is a trading card game similar to Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh!  There's also an online version of the game, and everyone that plays also has a "scanner" that I'm not totally sure what it does in the real world, but I think you can actually scan your physical cards and then play online with those same cards. 

Don't get too hung up on any of this because it has very little to do with most of the series. Even the card game's rules (which I don't think are ever fully explained) isn't important because it turns out there's another aspect to the game.

Our main character, Tom, receives an invitation to enter the world of Chaotic. His best friend, Kaz, has been telling him about this for months, that Chaotic is real and you can actually go there, and of course Tom didn't believe him, but finally decides to enter the secret code sent to him in the invitation into his scanner. Tom then is transported into another... dimension? Or maybe it's like his consciousness got turned into code and he was sucked into the game like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle? Anyway, he ends up in a sort of lobby area where other online gamers gather before going into the real Chaotic game.

So here's why the card game's rules don't matter. To play Chaotic in the world of Chaotic, you go to a little arena (they call it a battle drome), select the cards you want to play, and then you BECOME the creatures on the cards and are transported to locations you selected to fight your opponent.

One of the battle dromes. I'm telling you, it's called a drome

I won't go too much into the mechanics of this version of the game, either. It's mostly just throwing attacks and using battle gear to take out your opponent. I will mention mugic, though, which is their version of magic spells that have special effects. No, that's not a typo, it's called mugic because the spells are all "songs" and every time someone uses mugic there's this short techno tune followed by the same notes played by an orchestra and there's a bunch of laser lights. Music + magic = mugic, get it? 

No, music isn't a huge theme of any other part of Chaotic, it's just their magic system. I have a feeling the creators really wanted to be different somehow from other card games.

But we're not done, folks. Battling in the dromes is cool, but it's only part of the Chaotic world. Tom also learns that you can transport to yet another dimension or planet or something which contains the actual creatures and locations from the game. This place is called Perim. If you have a scan of a location, you can transport there and scan creatures, battle gear, and even new locations if you walk far enough. The lore of the game actually matters because it's real. And that's where the most interesting plot points in the series come from, in my opinion.

But before I go into the plot, there's one last thing about all of this I want to mention. While Tom is in the world of Chaotic, his consciousness is actually split. In the real world, he continues living his regular life. At a certain point, when the part of his consciousness in the game wants to return home, he clicks a button on this scanner and the part of him in the real world sees the light blinking on his own scanner, clicks it, and their minds meld back together. All the memories from both worlds combine into one.

Can you imagine the possibilities this poses? Let's say you have finals coming up. You could send half of yourself into Chaotic to study one subject while the other stays in the real world and studies another. When you come back together you remember both subjects. 

Got chores to do but also want to hang out with friends? Port to Chaotic and real world you will get the chores done while you play games and eat snacks with your buds (oh, yeah, in the Chaotic lobby area you can order snacks and drinks from floating robots while watching other people's battles on television screens). 

I really hope real me is almost done cleaning.

As a parent, maybe you feel like you and your significant other haven't had a date night in forever, but you can't find a sitter. Port to Chaotic and take a romantic stroll through Perim or play a game in the battle dromes together, all while real world you is still watching the kids at home.

Not to mention the biological implications. As far as I can tell, the part of your consciousness in Chaotic is simply that: consciousness. I believe this because there's an episode where they meet someone who is paraplegic in the real world but can walk in Chaotic. So, does that mean if you're blind or deaf in the real world, you could gain those senses in Chaotic?

On a more trivial note, if you're on a diet in the real world but are craving some chilli cheese fries, you could go to Chaotic, eat your fill, and it wouldn't affect you in the real world. 

I don't quite know what happens if you die in Chaotic (which is possible to do when walking around Perim). Either you would get a notification in the real world on your scanner that your other self is dead, but you can still further split your consciousness to visit Chaotic, or because you can't rejoin minds you would never be able to go back to Chaotic, or use your online deck (which you are locked out of while half of you is in Chaotic). Either way, I think it would be kind of weird knowing part of you had died but you were still alive.

Anyway, entering Chaotic, playing games in the dromes, porting to Perim, all that is just the premise of the show. We haven't even gotten into the plot. At first, there isn't much of one beyond Tom and his friends scanning new creatures and then using them in the battle dromes, with a few episodes all taking place in Perim as they get to know that world.

Yet another aspect of Chaotic I haven't talked about comes into play as well. When you scan a creature, and turn into it in the battle drome, you also gain its memories. Any injuries or mental states that the creature had when you scanned it become part of you in the game. In this way, Tom and his friends learn about problems in Perim and even do a little spying at times.

In Perim these two are enemies, but Tom and his friend Kaz play as them in the dromes.

The lore of the game also becomes a big part of the plot. There are four different tribes in Perim, and the Overworlders and Underworlders in particular are constantly fighting. There's also the Mipedians and Danians, and while they aren't mortal enemies like the other two, everyone obviously thinks their tribe is the best. 

Tom and his friends become involved in the wars and relations between the tribes, and eventually a catastrophic event changes everything.

But no spoilers here, except to say that the animation changes partway through the series going from a flat asthetic to basically anime. That's not due to the catastrophic event, though. My guess is they got more funding and realized they could hire more animators.

The characters go from looking like this

To looking like this

Ratings:

Kid entertainment: 4/5 stars

We've been watching Chaotic as a family for the last two weeks or so, and my daughter loves it. We haven't even gotten to the main plot yet! I'm not exactly sure what it is that draws her in so, if it's the creatures or the magic or the main human characters, but she can't wait to watch it as a family every day.

My entertainment: 4/5 stars

I would honestly love to give this a higher rating because I know it gets so good, but some episodes are kind of fillers right now and not super interesting, so I knocked it down from a 5 to a 4. But I remember loving this show when I was young and the plot gets so crazy! I highly recommend you give it a try, but if you don't love it at first, hang on at least until the animation changes. You'll see.

Content: 3.5/5 stars

Okay, so I guess there's not a ton of good morals or educational content in here. It's mostly for entertainment. But Tom is a good guy and he tries to help the people of Perim, which they notice (most Chaotic players just sneak scans and port back, but Tom and his friends are willing to run errands for some creatures or even put themselves in danger to protect them). And there are other positive messages about friendship, believing in yourself, and some even deeper themes of equality, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

But those can get overshadowed by the giant creatures throwing attacks at each other.

Technically this show was originally rated TV-Y7, but I haven't seen anything so far that I feel uncomfortable with my kid watching. Some of the creatures are kind of scary, and the main characters certainly end up in peril a lot of the time. Also, if your kids are prone to acting out fight scenes maybe you want to avoid it because there are plenty of those (though mostly they fight with magic, not punching and kicking).

Secrets of Sulphur Springs

 

Secrets of Sulphur Springs is a show that we watched as a family after dinner because my husband and I need a little down time at the end of the day, and we needed something that would be kid-friendly. Our after dinner shows are usually a little more grown up than what our kids choose to watch on their own, and their interest in these family shows vary. Secrets of Sulphur Springs is probably more for my husband and I than for our kids.

Secrets of Sulphur Springs is about a family that move back to the dad's childhood home, Sulphur Springs, in order to buy the abandoned hotel and fix it up. The reason the hotel was abandoned is a young girl named Savannah disappeared one summer at a camp run by the hotel. Rumors of her ghost haunting the establishment have proliferated in the town ever since. The oldest son, Griffin, soon discovers a bunker in the basement of the hotel with an odd device that turns out to be a kind of time machine. He of course messes with it and goes back in time to meet Savannah before she disappears, along with a much younger version of his dad.

It's been a while since I watched Season 1, and so many things happen in each season, but here's what I mostly remember. Griffin also meets a girl his age (in his time) named Harper, and Harper's mom does not like her going over to the hotel constantly. I don't remember if this is because she dislikes talk of ghosts, if she's afraid of the supposed curse of the hotel, or if there's something else, but over and over again she forbids Harper from going to the hotel. Griffin's mom, meanwhile, also feels that he shouldn't be hanging out with Harper, and I think it's because when the two of them are together they do things she doesn't like, such as going down to the basement, disappearing for long periods of time, and discussing ghosts, which scares the twins, Zoey and Wyatt, Griffin's younger siblings. Anyway, both moms mutually agree Griffin should stay away from Harper, the one friend he has made since moving to their new home. They are never able to enforce this rule.

Wyatt and Zoey are constantly ghost hunting in the show, and this bothers the adults so much they ban the word, "ghost," which is a problem when you have a literal ghost in your home.

Meanwhile, Griffin and Harper keep going through the bunker time portal to try to save Savannah by gathering clues about what is about to happen to her. Creepy stuff keeps happening in the hotel, making them believe Savannah is trying to speak to them from beyond the grave, but the creepy stuff is also ruining the repairs Griffin's parents are trying to make to the hotel so they can reopen the place. 

In later seasons, as the kids continually go back in time for other purposes, I often wanted to scream at the kids to just tell their parents about the time portal. Things would be so much easier if they just explained, "We disappear for hours because we go back in time in order to save Savannah. Would you like to come with us and help because we are obviously way out of our league here?" Seriously, their parents are freaking out at weird things happening in the house and then further freaking out because their kids keep disobeying and going into the forbidden basement. If they knew what was actually going on they might be a real asset instead of a hindrance.

The other major failing of this show is that all three seasons take place one right after another, but filming each season takes several months if not a year and these kids are growing fast. I think the twins are supposed to be ten or younger, but by the third season Wyatt is really hitting his stride and starting to look like a young man. In Stranger Things, where each season takes place several months or years apart, you can believe that the kids have grown a little and that's why they look so different. When a season picks up where the last one left off and suddenly Griffin is growing facial hair, it feels like you stepped through some kind of time portal yourself.

These pictures supposedly take place within a few months of each other. Puberty hits fast in Sulphur Springs

But for a kid's show, this one has some nice plotlines and twists and turns. I struggled a little to remember season 1 because seasons 2 and 3 introduce so many other secrets and revelations. I didn't want to spoil anything so I had to be a little more vague with this review, because there are a LOT of potential spoilers. As I said above, this was more for my husband and I than it was for our kid. In fact sometimes it got a little scary and we had to cuddle our kid to help them through. The ghost in the hotel isn't always friendly.

Ratings:

Kid entertainment: 2.5/5 stars

I'm not sure whether my kid actually enjoys this show. Most of the time they watch for a few minutes and then end up playing on the floor with their toys while my husband and I watch. But I seem to remember at least a few times my kid commented on things happening so I think they were at least sort of engaged? This might be better for older kids.

My entertainment: 4/5 stars

The main reason we watched this was to have something family friendly we could watch and relax with while our kid was in the room, and in the end we accomplished our goal. Our kid may not care for it, but we certainly do. I mean, it's not on the same level as Brooklyn 99 or The Mandalorian, but we like it. Maybe I'm making it out to be better than it is because when it comes to finding a show we can watch with our kid that we actually enjoy, anything with a good plot is like rain in a drought. 

Content: 3/5 stars

I guess there's a little bit in there about friendship and helping others, and I suppose you could argue going back in time teaches a little about how things were in the past (there is some discussion about race when Harper, a black girl, goes back in time), but this show is primarily meant to entertain, not educate. And that's fine. There's nothing really bad, so I don't feel bad about my kid watching it. Although it can get a little scary with the ghost stuff, so I also wouldn't have her watch it alone... not that she would want to. 

SuperKitties

 

SuperKitties is actually the show that made me want to write a review blog, because I found myself comparing it to other kid shows and considering its value over others. It's about four kittens that are also superheroes, but only solve problems related to other animals. Sometimes their actions do impact the humans in the neighborhood, but only the animals know that the SuperKitties were the ones to fix the problem. And, honestly, I feel that is appropriate.

By day, I think the kittens live in some kind of cat play place where kids can come play with them. But none of the cats seem to be adoptable, they belong to the lady who owns the place. Now that I think about it, I have never seen a place like this. I've heard of cat cafe's where you can eat and have cats surround you, and I've heard of animal rescues where you can come play with the cats and then adopt one if you like, but I haven't heard of a cat play place that's just for little kids to play with a person's kittens. Is this a thing?

Anyway, like many modern kid shows, in the first episode we are thrown right into the action and there is very little exposition about how the Super Kitties got their powers (I am also still unsure if the kittens actually have powers or if their gadgets or outfits give them powers, because when they're not suited up they don't seem to be able to do many of their signature moves). Also, two of them are brothers, but the youngest kitten, Bitsy, seems like she has recently joined the Super Kitties, but we don't get any explanation about that other than an episode where an even smaller kitten wants to be a Super Kitty, and one of the older kittens says he reminds her of another kitten who wanted to join, and that kitten is Bitsy.

The Super Kitty Call!

So for whatever reason, Ginny, Sparks, Buddy, and Bitsy are superheroes and they get called on their Super Kitty Call (I think avoiding the name Cat Call is one reason the show continually refers to them as kitties) whenever animals in the city need help. There are actually little stations throughout the city where animals can push a button to connect to the kitties through a video call, which is a pretty good idea when you think about it. The Super Kitties often have to do a bit of sleuthing to figure out who is causing problems, which, as a member of the audience, always seems unnecessary because there are only four potential bad guys and the very nature of the crime usually matches one of them very clearly.

For example, one time the entire town is slowly turned to cheese, and somehow it takes more than .2 seconds for them to realize Lab Rat is behind it. Like, who else would want to turn everything to cheese?

Lab Rat, by the way, has a little octopus sidekick named Otto, who really doesn't seem to do a whole lot, but Lab Rat insists that Otto helped in every one of his/her schemes. I say he/her because I'm not entirely sure if Lab Rat is male or female. I keep thinking she's a girl because she has fabulous eyelashes, but so do Buddy and Sparks and they are boys. His/her voice also doesn't really tell me because it's one of these kind of high-pitched, slightly scratchy voices and ends up being fairly gender neutral (although the voice actress is a woman, men and women voice opposite gender characters all the time, so that doesn't necessarily nail things down).

Cat Burglar is another bad guy who's MO is also pretty obvious. If something gets stolen, it's probably Cat Burglar. I guess in the real world, if something was taken we couldn't immediately assume the perpetrator was the most famous (and only) thief in town, because it could have been anyone, but... honestly, he's the only thief in town. Why are the Super Kitties spending more than three seconds wondering who could have stolen said item? At least question him first.

Zsa Zsa is a cockatoo and her crimes are not nearly as clear cut. She's hogged blueberries for a facial scrub, contaminated the city's water supply to have a giant bubble bath, and destroyed the voices of some singing squirrels so she would be the best singer in town. In a word, Zsa Zsa is extra.

But I've saved the best villain for last.

This is Mr. Puppypaws, and whoever came up with him is a genius. He is this perfect blend of adorable and supervillain. He wears a little sweater and his owner pushes his around in a pet stroller, but he has this deep, dramatic voice and a rubber ducky minion called Quacksely (who isn't actually alive).  And Mr. Puppypaws can move around in the pet stroller using a video game controller in the same way a lot of villains in comics or spy movies get around in a motorized wheelchair. Every time I see this dog I laugh. Everything about him on the surface screams cute and cuddly, but many of those adorable things are also reminiscent of a bond villain. It's genius, I tell you!

After the Super Kitties stop the bad guys, they usually make them clean up the mess they made, but often the bad guys actually recognize the error of their ways, apologize, make things right, and then might even get to party with the Super Kitties. For example, Zsa Zsa feels so sad that by putting soap into the town's water supply she has prevented baby ducklings from learning to swim (yes, that was the biggest problem...), so she cleans up the water and then gives the ducklings a swimming lesson as the Super Kitties look on. I think this is nice, but I half wonder if the bad guys need to face some kind of greater justice for their actions. One time Cat Burglar feels terrible for stealing a statue, returns it, and then is invited to the art gallery to come see it. There is no jail time, no community service. The Super Kitties are satisfied that the lesson is learned. Maybe that's good? And the fact is, there's no pet prison where they can send these ne'er-do-wells, so I guess putting things back to normal is the best the Super Kitties can really do.

Guilt is the Super Kitties' greatest ally

Every episode wraps up with Bitsy making a video recording of herself laying out the moral of the story, which I think is helpful for little kids who often need a lesson repeated several times to stick. In fact, kids will learn the lesson three times every episode. I forgot to mention that near the beginning of every episode, the Super Kitties themselves learn the moral of the episode by making the same mistake as the villain. Of course, they right their wrong much quicker than the bad guy, and then get to have the moral high ground when they tell off the villain later on. So kids see the lesson acted out with the Super Kitties, then the bad guy, and then Bitsy summarizes everything just in case they missed it.

But who is Bitsy making this recording for? Is she the group historian? Is this another part of her backstory we will never know? She always says, "And I'm taking that... to heart," at the end, and then winks, like we should be in on this little pun, but the only heart I see is on the Super Kitties' collars/superhero emblems. What does it mean? What happened before all this? I need a prequel!

Ratings:

My kid's entertainment: 4.5/5 stars. This show isn't on constantly, but my kid does ask for it often, and will watch it for hours when it's on.

My entertainment: 3.5/5 stars. I like this show, but let's be honest, it's fairly generic. It's superheroes stopping bad guys. The music is good, the voice-over lady who announces the names of the villains often makes me laugh ("And Otto helped too!"), and Mr. Puppypaws' existence warms my cold heart, but it's still a kids' show with kid show entertainment value.

Content: 4/5 stars. If there was more educational content, like reading, math, or science, I would have given it 5 stars, but I do love the morals that it teaches. My kid in particular doesn't do well with subtle. They need the lesson spelled out for them, and as I said, this show lays out the moral of the story three times. I also like the Super Kitties' motto. "We're Brave." "We're Smart." "We're Strong." "We're Kind." The first time I heard it I laughed because Kind sounded almost silly after the others. I was reminded of The Civic-Minded Five from The Tick.

"Let's make a difference!"

But then I thought about it, and making kindness a super power, an attribute just as important as bravery, intelligence or strength is exactly what the rising generation needs. If there's one thing we could use more of in this world, it's kindness. For that reason, I highly recommend SuperKitties.

Puppy Dog Pals

Pup pup pup puppy dog paaaaaaaals (bark bark bark)!

Sorry, even writing the title of this post got the theme song stuck in my head.

This is the show of the week at my house. Literally. Whenever I ask my kid what they want to watch this week it's "Puppy Dog Pals!"

This show is about two pug brothers, Bingo and Rolly, who are perpetually stuck as puppies despite the multiple seasons of this series, and who go on "missions" to help others. Most of these missions are for their owner, a guy named Bob who gave his dogs extremely advanced collars, but he never realizes his dogs are using those same collars to make his life perfect.

Here's a typical episode. Bob is happy about something, and then something happens to make him not happy. I'm convinced Bob whines about anything not perfect in his life because his dogs ensure that any slight inconvenience in his life is fixed. One of your socks is missing? We'll fix it. No snow on the mountain you want to ski on? We'll fix it. The Mona Lisa, which you maybe wanted to one day see in person has been stolen? We'll fix it. Bob has never had a lasting problem since getting these dogs and thus the tiniest difficulty is suddenly a tragedy. 

In this episode, Bob can't find his golf socks and is forced to wear these purple ones which fit him so badly he is constantly tripping on them. If he didn't have super dogs, maybe he would learn where to buy a good pair.

Bob then leaves his dogs alone and they say, "Poor Bob, I wish there was some way to help him. Oh, wait, we have collars that Bob invented which have Mary-Poppins-like magic allowing us to carry literally anything inside. Also time is a construct and we can somehow fly anywhere in the world and back before Bob even notices we're gone. I think we can help Bob!"

Hissy is actually a very nice cat, but besides sleeping and hating water does not do much on the show.

Hissy, the cat who also lives with them (who is actually not hissy at all and super chill), usually says, "Cool, you guys have a great time on your mission. I'm'a stay here and sleep," and the pups are off. The earlier episodes usually involved them flying somewhere in the world on a chartered flight (who knows how they got aboard, but they are always in paid seats and no one minds), but many of the newer ones stay in their neighborhood.

The missions themselves range from the probable to the impossible. For example, one mission was simply about getting a food truck to Bob's house because he didn't have time to drive to his favorite food stand for dinner because he was so busy with work. But another mission saw them attempt to capture wind from Chicago (the windy city) in a jar to bring back to Bob so he could fly a kite; the wind ended up being sentient and followed them back to their house.

At the end, Bob is always elated that his problem was somehow fixed, never suspecting that it was his dogs that did the fixing. The dogs never, ever, ever get credit for solving Bob's problem, and they are fine with that, which is nice. I'm just saying, you would think that eventually Bob would notice that nothing ever stays wrong in his life for long and start to wonder what his dogs with magic collars THAT HE GAVE THEM do all day.

Some things I forgot to mention: the pups also have a robot dog brother called ARF. Bob built him for the express purpose of cleaning up after the pups, but he treats him like any other pet.

ARF stands for Auto-doggy Robotic Friend. Despite his soulless eyes, he is actually quite useful and nice, and probably won't eventually join the robot uprising.

There are two older dogs who sometimes attempt to foil Bingo and Rolly's plans, but in the Christmas episodes Santa still says he sees that deep down they are good dogs. Even though they really aren't, the little pink one is seriously the worst.

Rufus and Cupcake. Rufus doesn't really talk and is more of an enforcer. Cupcake is just mean.

There's this couple in virtually every episode, Frank and Esther, that often help the plot move along by exclaiming, "Look at that, Frank! [Exactly what Bingo and Rolly need]!" Frank is relaxed and is voiced by none other than The Office's Leslie David Baker, giving him a deep, smooth voice. I think Esther might be part hummingbird; if she ever gets any amount of caffeine in her, her already hyperactive heart might explode.

I know Frank is giving Esther the side eye in this picture, but they have a better marriage than most people in real life.

At some point in the later seasons, Hissy disappears and I don't know why. My kid is currently re-watching season 3 and I check every now and then to see if she's still there because I want to know how the writers explain why the beloved family cat is suddenly no longer part of the household.

Ratings:

My kid's entertainment: 5/5 stars. This might be her favorite show right now. At the very least, when I ask, "What do you want to watch while I take a shower?" She turns down Frozen AND Bluey in favor of Puppy Dog Pals.

My entertainment: 3/5 stars. There are some good jokes every now and then, and some of the songs are pretty banging. But also some of the songs are super annoying, and I feel like Disney keeps shunting all of the voice actors with awful voices to this show. Still, my husband walked upstairs to find only me watching an episode while I was getting dressed because my kid had wandered off and I was mildly interested in the story.

Content: 3/5 stars. There are lots of good morals about being a good friend, and at the very least they introduce some geography and culture about the world. But at the same time, there are a lot of un-truths and stereotypes in the show that sort of counteract the knowledge the kids should be getting, so it all kind of cancels out to be middle of the road as far as children's edutainment.

Introduction

I'm a parent to two kids. This means I see a lot of children's shows. A lot of the time my kids are watching these shows, I'm passed out on the couch next to them, or taking a shower (that's actually why they're watching them), so I admit I'm not exactly consuming the content.

But over time, in between naps or while drying my hair, I pick up on some stuff. I watch bits and pieces, and sometimes can even be convinced to watch a whole episode or more. And like many other parents, I have realized some shows are better than others.

And some are absolutely ridiculous.

If you're a parent, you probably already know which shows you like, and which shows you don't approve of. You may have even banned some shows from your home. This blog is not necessarily meant to tell you which shows to avoid and which you should definitely let your kids watch.

This blog is so I can give you my hot takes on kid shows I've seen. You might get some guidance or insight into TV programs for children, but mostly I want to make you laugh. Because the premises of some of these (maybe a lot of these) programs are crazy. 

I hope you have a good time here, and I hope I don't offend you if your favorite show gets lambasted. Remember this is for fun, not to tell you how to live your life or raise your kids. But if you learn of a new show you hadn't heard of here, or you realize you need to take another look at your children's TV repertoire after reading a review, I am happy to be of help.