Gravity falls
Quick facts
Favourite characters: Grunkle Stan, Fiddleford Mcgucket and Soos
Favourite episode: A tale of 2 Stans. either that or weirdmageddon 3, I can't decide.
Gravity falls... oh boy. Gravity falls.
I never watched gravity falls when it aired, i think i was like, 4 years old. I also never had paid TV channels so i wouldnt have watched it regardless. In fact, I only started watching gravity falls a couple weeks ago (sometime in August, 2024), so needless to say I'm late to the party. But when has that ever stopped me, eh?
So i kept seeing on social media that the new gravity falls book had come out, i barely knew anything about GF but from what i kept seeing, The Book of Bill looked REALLY good. I kept seeing and seeing it and eventually I caved. I cracked open the family Disney+ account for the first time in ever, really. I never really watched tv or tv shows before, so it took a bit of persuading to get into it.
But man, oh man, gravity falls is a really, REALLY good show.
In the span of about a month, I have watched both seasons, ordered 3 books (one of which is yet to arrive), ordered a bill cipher plushie, and cried over the price of the full show dvd box set on ebay. Needless to say, Ive fallen hook, line, and sinker.
What can I even say? The writing is great, the characters are amazing, the humour is really good, the feel and themes of the story and wider narrative are perfect. Even in season one, before a lot of the big plot elements are introduced, I found myself enjoying it quite a lot. And season two? Oh christ, its good.
I can't help but feel that my experience was probably a bit different from most gravity falls fans however. I had the luxury of being able to watch the show in a couple afternoons, however it means I missed out on a lot of the initial fandom speculation and conversation that it's known for. It also means I had a bit of knowledge of certain twists before the show (yknow, the whole 'this guy was actually that guy's twin brother who was the author' thing). Despite this, I still had a very enjoyable experience watching it, even removed from the time it was made in it still holds up.
As a (probably very pretentious) kirby fan, im kind of disillusioned to the whole "this is for KIDS?!?!?" aspect of the show. But unfortunately, it does really feel relevant. The whole show has a lot of depth and, while i hate to use this term, 'maturity' in it. Both in the 'haha thats an adult joke' way and in a 'this is FAR too good of a plot to be watching on disney' way. But it's why the show was (and still is) so popular, I guess.
The fandom is half of the fun, too. I don't think I've ever been in such a big fan community before, even the kirby fandom starts to feel small when you stay there long enough. But with GF, theres THOUSANDS of fan art, fanfiction, fan animations, its everything a lonely nerdy teenage girl who spends a lot of time online could dream of.
There's so much more I could talk about here, but I feel like I can save that for later when I go back and add more sections to the nonsense articles, but dont worry, the 800 word essay on why Silas Birchtree is the most underrated gravity falls character will come eventually.