God looking back the more i realise wbb kinda sucked fnfkdkkd
Its like it started off fairly coherent but over time the rifts in the writers started to show. One half wanted it to be a chill, cute slice of life show and the other wanted big drama and over the top storylines that did NOT suit the show at all. For a show about talking bears, wbb is EXTREMELY grounded in reality. The brothers being bears is barely relevant and for the most part just an aesthetic choice to hammer in the theme of them being outcasts. Thats what wbb is- its a show about social outcasts living in san francisco and making friends with other outcasts
So who decided we need an episode where panda gets braces that give him superpowers
Or an episode where evil bees enslave the bears
I just. Its so bad. This cast of characters is simply not suited to stories like that. Nor is the the writing, the art style or literally anything abt it. The best episodes were CONSISTENTLY small slice of life ones focusing on the characters. Road trip is the best episode in the series and that episode is literally just ice bear having a bad day.
The series shines in character work, in small, simple and grounded moments of kindness between the cast. Like- ok look at hibernation. That episode is about grizz getting jealous of his brothers because he thinks he isnt special so he obsesses over the fact grizzlies can hibernate to try and reassure himself that he is. But his obsession with it only pushes his brothers away because they never actually looked down on him and dont know what the fuck he's doing. And grizz ends up realising once he realises how long he'll be without his brothers while asleep that he doesnt want that.
This episode doesnt end with a big speech to grizz about how they love him how he is- it ends with grizz's brothers showing mundane concern over him before having a giggle at a recorded video of him sleep walking. Theres no big apology/confession- just a small 'sorry i freaked out before' and a quick 'eh you were weird but its ok' type exchange and then they all sit outside and watch the stars together. It doesnt need to be a lot. Its comfortable and its real
But someone on the writing team wanted the show to be some horrific mix of adventure time and always sunny so we dont get that for every episode. We get dumb high stakes situations that dont fit. And im not saying they never can- icy nights for example works because its a one off silly episode and also its ice bear. But one thing you'll notice in all the more bizarre episodes that do work is that they have a hint of character writing and soul in there. The island had the baby bears finding an adorable mother figure. Ice cave was about charlies character development. Hurricane hal broke my fucking heart by saying that ice bear was literally willing to kill himself for chloe on the off chance he might save her
These all had glimmers of heart in them. But primal? That disgusting anxiety nomnom episode? The cell phone cult? I literally cant remember the names of so many of these they're so dull. Whoever wanted this show to be more weird and over the top ruined it
Like, the baby bears episodes didn't do so well just because they're babies and thats it, or because the appeal was that they cause mayhem. They did so well because the small situations these children ended up in and how dramatically they viewed them was charming. Hundie is probably the best babybear episode and thats an episode where the bears treat a paper bill like a fourth brother and play domestic with it
Thats not even getting into the other problems like nomnom continuing to show up, the borderline abuse that was panda and charlies '''friendship''' or the way they turned panda in general into a loathsome piece of scum but we dont have all day here. Point is wbb proved it could be very good but it had some very dumb people on the writing team fucking it up for everyone
