Blog Talkback: In Defense of Problem Solverz

Interesting blog, he made me look at the show in a way I haven't before(I also learned that Foster's and Superjail were made in flash. That's pretty cool). Right now I'm not sure what to say about this because my mind is tied up on other things, but I'll be sure to come back with a comment.
 
I think TPS DOES have good plots, but I simply cannot watch this show. I just hate the characters and flash, if I could get around that I know I'd enjoy it though...
 
I guess when you think of it, TPS is like the My Immortal of cartoons. The colors don't bother me that much, but it really does seem like this show has a lot of trolling into it. I can barely watch it though because of the art style which just makes me want to puke.
 
I can't watch it either. I think it has a good concept but the execution is just totally botched . . . much like Xavier, actually.
 
So you enjoy this show for the same reason everyone else enjoys Rebecca Black (I know everyone says they hate her, but they watch her video and listen to and sing her song all the time so they must actually enjoy it.)
 
Actually, it isn't trolling many people outside of animation buffs, nostalgia fanboys and a small chunk of the target demographic. I expected higher ratings for the premiere episode out of bile fascination mixed with ample marketing, but it failed even at that.

I don't see how TPSz will lead to creative and thought-provoking animation in the future... unless if it's in the exact same sense that Batman & Robin was so unmitigatedly awful that it led to studios showing actual care and effort with the superhero films that came after.

Really though, my idea of creative and thought-provoking animation isn't eyebleed-inducing art nor making people angry on purpose. But whatever.
 
People like Rebecca Black because she's well aware "Friday" is a terrible song. She just recorded it so she could go further later on.

As for Problem Solverz... sorry. The backgrounds/designs improved slightly after the first episode was aired, but I just can't get past it. I'm all for total irony but not like this.
 
I think the issue here that, not a lot of people are going to look past the horrible art style to see this show for what it's actually trying to tell people. And for that matter, why do they need to? I don't think a lot of people watching this show are going "wow, this show is really thought provoking and I want to make an animated series now that my brain is stimulated". The people that need to think that kind of thought would be actual animation producers, but something tells me they're thinking "dear god that was horrible. Let's never make some like that ok guys?" I'll admit that TPS grew on me a bit after the first episode, but really only because the jokes got better, not because I noticed some sort of subtle ironic subtext. I think what I'm saying is, everybody is too busy judging this book by its ugly, ugly cover, to actually open and read it.
 
People can make a case for the humor until they are blue in the face. quasi creative hipster trolling is still trolling. The animation in a cartoon counts for a lot. Just like nobody wants to watch dark, wooden CGI, no one wants to watch seizure inducing flash with ugly, characters and bad voice acting. It'll stay on because it's cheap and its a good lead in for adult swim (which doesn't say much for what as is doing, but that's a different post)
 
I've seen two of the three episodes that have aired so far (I missed the third) and haven't been particulary impressed with what I've seen and that's including the jokes. I see absolutely nothing clever about making a show intentionally ugly just to get a reaction out of people. Apparently kids don't think so either, judging from its ratings.
 
Nail on the head right here. I can see where Chdr's coming from, but that kind of ironic humor does nothing for me.

Plus to be honest, that kind of pot-induced, simple and slow dialogue puts me to sleep. It's hard to laugh at any of the jokes when the voice acting is just so lifeless.
 
I'm more bored than offended by Problem SolverZ. All of its artistic minimalism, awkward dialogue and all the other things chdr champions; hasn't that already been done by South Park, Home Movies and numerous Spike and Mike shorts? It's been done, I think.

Heck, Action League Now has one up on Problem Solverz by barely having any animation at all (by stop-motion standards), yet that was entertaining because the creators realized a show needed more of a hook than just intentionally alienating people.
 
I can't support a show whose sole purpose is to go "We're doing our best to annoy you." Trolling is not artistic, it's stupid. This show is not smart or "deep" for having worse animation than Hammerman, it's just pathetic and infuriating to dozens if not hundreds of creators who will never get a shot at production while seeing this get made.

I don't respect a show that tries to make its main appeal being ugly or counterculture. Give me a reason to care. Tim and Eric, for all their bizarre visuals, at least try to create something unique. Is it repulsive? A lot of the time yes, but it's different and most of the time, they do follow a fairly conventional pattern in jokes (see their NFL commercials). This is just like 12 Oz. Mouse, "Let's be minimalist for no reason and we'll be lauded as art!" And all it does it make you look lazy.

You know what the worst part of it all is, even if it's not intentional? This airs right around the same time the cancelled due to cost Sym-Bionic Titan ended. The difference between the two highlights that this show's sole reason for existence is to troll.
 
It's shows like this that makes me wonder where the complaining about the Ben 10 and Generator Rex series are coming from... even though those shows and Problem Solverz have totally different demographics and are on totally different program blocks, I'd take AF/UA and GR over this anyday. What's ironic about that is that I am in the target demographic for Problem Solverz. I've never really liked watching the Adult Swim block anyways (if I want to watch something with adult content, I would rather see and hear it on live-action than a cartoon... but that's just me:shrug:), and this show just seems annoying... the animation style being the biggest problem for me.

I never knew that this show was an intended troll, but now that I know, it just makes me not care for the show even more. There's nothing really creative about a show that was initially intended to PO somebody.
 
The existence of an unmitigated low point like this doesn't make other shows with actual production values immune to criticism. If I follow that logic to it's conclusion, then I shouldn't hate Fanboy & Chum Chum or anything by Noah Z. Jones simply because they have larger budgets and are (marginally) less hideous than TPSz.
 
I didn't say either of those shows were immune to criticism... if you look through my posts in the talkbacks of those shows, you'll see that despite liking those shows, there are still a few things in each one that I don't particularily care for.

What my comparison was about is that there are shows that are worse than others. The "complaining" that I was talking about was the unecessary bashing that I've seen in other forums, the type of criticism that isn't even justified and is coming from someone who sounds like a 10-year-old that's high on something (and trust me, I've seen this happen... not on this forum, thankfully. And it ain't pretty...:sweat:). But seriously, it goes without saying that most of the shows that are currently airing on CN are far better than TPSz, regardless of how much criticism each show gets.
 
Back
Top