[5.1/10] Oh man, I have real problems with this one. Taken on its own, it’s just an unveiling version of a pretty standard 1990s cartoon story. For whatever reason, parents worried about stranger danger moral panics or other phobias prompted various children’s television studios to produce these “I ran away from home” episodes on dozens of different shows. (Batman: The Animated series did a pretty weak one around this same time.)
“Runaways” isn’t particularly novel in that regard and also not particularly good. Dave and Bobbi are standard issue moppets, and the whole scenario of some local thug using runaways as courier makes it feel like “Baby’s First The WIre”. The kids’ run-ins with local gangsters, an effort in the underworld to catch gargoyles for cash, and a disgruntled Brooklyn commiserating with the munchkins are bland but capably-done bits out of the usual playbook for these Very Special Episodes:tm:.
But I have two major problems with this. The first is straightforward -- Elisa Maza pulls a gun on an unarmed teenager. I get that Kenny is bad news, but holy hell, that is jarring to see in contemporary times where that sort of conduct is under greater scrutiny.
Even if you could compartmentalize Elisa’s move as a product of the time, I have real mixed feelings about the show’s message. There’s a solid arc for Brooklyn here. He feels put off by Goliath yelling at him for slipping up on a stakeout and Broadway dating the girl of his dreams. But he realizes over the course of his adventures that the clan is still his family, and Goliath is tough on him because he cares and has high expectations of his second in command.
That alone would be a little dicey. The message of “Parents can be mad sometimes but it doesn’t mean they stopped loving you” is a good one for young audiences. The message of “Parents who are hard on you are only doing it out of love” is much more of a mixed bag, to say the least.
And it becomes downright corrosive when applied to the young runaways. Look, I’d be lying if I said I was particularly invested in Dave or Bobbi. The reality, however, is that a lot of young runaways are fleeing abusive or other harmful situations. Not all of them of course, but a whole hell of a lot of them. We don’t really get a glimpse into the kids’ family life beyond Bobbi’s “Dad yells a lot and mom’s never there.” But the message that those kids should really just go home because their parents totally have their best interests at heart is concerning at best given the state of who was running away from home in New York City in 1996.
I think Gargoyles means well in all of this. It’s a pap-filled little after school special with four-color morals. Unfortunately, though, those morals have some troubling implications when we look back on them and try to map them onto real life, both now and then.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-08-28T16:23:04Z
[5.1/10] Oh man, I have real problems with this one. Taken on its own, it’s just an unveiling version of a pretty standard 1990s cartoon story. For whatever reason, parents worried about stranger danger moral panics or other phobias prompted various children’s television studios to produce these “I ran away from home” episodes on dozens of different shows. (Batman: The Animated series did a pretty weak one around this same time.)
“Runaways” isn’t particularly novel in that regard and also not particularly good. Dave and Bobbi are standard issue moppets, and the whole scenario of some local thug using runaways as courier makes it feel like “Baby’s First The WIre”. The kids’ run-ins with local gangsters, an effort in the underworld to catch gargoyles for cash, and a disgruntled Brooklyn commiserating with the munchkins are bland but capably-done bits out of the usual playbook for these Very Special Episodes:tm:.
But I have two major problems with this. The first is straightforward -- Elisa Maza pulls a gun on an unarmed teenager. I get that Kenny is bad news, but holy hell, that is jarring to see in contemporary times where that sort of conduct is under greater scrutiny.
Even if you could compartmentalize Elisa’s move as a product of the time, I have real mixed feelings about the show’s message. There’s a solid arc for Brooklyn here. He feels put off by Goliath yelling at him for slipping up on a stakeout and Broadway dating the girl of his dreams. But he realizes over the course of his adventures that the clan is still his family, and Goliath is tough on him because he cares and has high expectations of his second in command.
That alone would be a little dicey. The message of “Parents can be mad sometimes but it doesn’t mean they stopped loving you” is a good one for young audiences. The message of “Parents who are hard on you are only doing it out of love” is much more of a mixed bag, to say the least.
And it becomes downright corrosive when applied to the young runaways. Look, I’d be lying if I said I was particularly invested in Dave or Bobbi. The reality, however, is that a lot of young runaways are fleeing abusive or other harmful situations. Not all of them of course, but a whole hell of a lot of them. We don’t really get a glimpse into the kids’ family life beyond Bobbi’s “Dad yells a lot and mom’s never there.” But the message that those kids should really just go home because their parents totally have their best interests at heart is concerning at best given the state of who was running away from home in New York City in 1996.
I think Gargoyles means well in all of this. It’s a pap-filled little after school special with four-color morals. Unfortunately, though, those morals have some troubling implications when we look back on them and try to map them onto real life, both now and then.