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Benson's gonna drop his BALLS when he sees how good we set up these chairs. He's gonna be like
Oh no my gumballs

  no I am not dead. I am just the worst at making scorecards because there was a point in time where I found them a complete chore to make so now I have decided that I will make scorecards between the months of May-early November. To celebrate watching horrible shows in May last year, I thought this time I could go the opposite route and talk about shows I really love. I know it may seem like that right now, I am going overboard with my ratings because I have two shows that are Garbage, one that is good (EEnE will be promoted to great or better I promise), and like two shows that I think are masterful or something like that, but that's only because I've barely reviewed any shows up to this point and if I reviewed a ton more, the ratings for shows would be more varied, which is what I will aim for if I care to find motivation. Thankfully, I have motivation to review Regular Show because it is a series I deeply care for and have a fascinating history with... for the most part.

TTLF'S NOTE ON 9/24/2022: This review aged well, I don't think any part of it is wrong-- maybe I could have gone into more detail about S5-6's shortcomings, with S5 having tamer premises than before, and S6 being inconsistent all across the board, but I still managed to get my point across. A question some people might have is: Why on Earth is this show "Masterful", when it has 2 seasons dead in the middle of its run that are inferior to everything else? And yeah, maybe Regular Show shouldn't be a "Masterful", but S5-6 are only 2 bumps in the road before we get S7-8, in which S7 is my favorite season and 8 is of a similar caliber. 25% of the show isn't incredible and 75% is some of my favorite cartoons period. I still think Courage has a shot at surpassing Regular Show, but I have a lot of reasons why I would still call Regular Show a "Masterful", both for personal reasons, and for critical reasons-- both managed to align somehow, and that's pretty rare. For example, I wish I could call MLP and SU "Good" shows, but it's nearly impossible for me to turn a blind eye to their weaknesses because of how prominent they were.
Anyways, Regular Show is still fantastic after all this time. Although S1-4 each are slightly worse in quality, one after the other, you'll hardly care about which season is which because there are not any significant differences to note between seasons-- I think that's why I have a hard time revoking them of their "Masterful" ratings, since their lesser episodes are simply forks in the roads, the same way S5-6 are forks in the road, but are still fine seasons at the end of the day.

HISTORY: Regular Show was a childhood favorite of mine. I started watching the series back in 2011 seeing episodes like Just Set Up the Chairs and Mordecai and the Rigbys and it instantly had me hooked. But... that wasn't all. One of the best parts was that this was a show that my entire family would sit down and watch together, and my parents especially adored this show to no end at the time, I didn't really get why they seemed to have a greater love for the show than I did, but rewatching it from start to finish made it very clear what they saw in this series (hint hint: there's a lot of unadulterated shit in here). I also have a best friend who stans this show to hell and back and we usually quote the show to death. I still remember when Regular Show: The Movie was announced and I urged him that we should both see it together... which we unfortunately never did, but I do own the movie on DVD somewhere and watched it back in 2017. In fact, my best friend is the guy who prompted me to do a rewatch of this series, and because I had no motivation to marathon any of the shows I was watching at the time (it was March btw), I just decided to watch a show that I knew would fully invest me no matter what, and of course, I chose this one.

ANIMATION: Regular Show's animation is... alright. I can't say it's anything too special to be honest. In early season 1 and First Day, the animation is obviously a lot more loose and expressive, and I honestly wish the show kept this style because it is a slight improvement over how stiff the seasons after this look. That isn't to say that this show stops being expressive after early season 1, because Benson still retains a lot of over-the-top facial expressions beyond this point and they're all really hilarious. Although the general animation is standard, it does look really good when the show decides to have its crazy climaxes in episodes. At first, they usually begin with the backgrounds having a red overlay and it immediately delivers the feeling of "Shit's about to go down", but then they take it one step further by having incredibly fast-paced action where, contrary to the chill atmosphere and animation in scenes prior to the climax, a lot is actually happening on-screen. It's a perfect example of "calm before the storm". This is also complemented by fight scenes, which are genuinely amazing for the sole fact that I can feel the impact of every single kick, punch, or even sword slash mostly due to, once again, the animation being extremely quick and the sound effects packing a literal punch.
  As for the backgrounds, the show usually uses a lot of cool colors and they all blend in neatly. It indirectly gives this show a general "cool" vibe to it, which I believe is what they were aiming for and is a nice touch, and it's even better where, as I mentioned earlier with the backgrounds becoming red in climaxes, the show uses warm colors to indicate tension happening, so this show really knows how to set its atmosphere well. Speaking of backgrounds, this show generally has pretty good ones, but I absolutely adore the sunset backgrounds on this series because they go out of their way to add shading to the characters, which makes things like the final 20 seconds of Steak Me Amadeus a lot more real, if you know what I mean. The show can also get really creative with its visuals, which is shown the most exemplary in the Format Wars episodes where they insert as many visual gags as you can imagine and use bright, shining colors (such as the Laserdisc's final form) to make certain characters or objects stand out a lot more than whatever is appearing on-screen, and it's generally very pleasing to look at. In fact, that's exactly what I'd use to describe this show's overall animation: pleasing, but when it goes all-out, it goes all-out.

tl;dr version: It's pretty good animation for what it is. Although the expressiveness got toned down immensely after early season 1, they still reserved the expressions for characters like Benson when he gets furious, and they're all golden. There's a perfect use of cool and warm colors to create an atmosphere that's generally laxed but can go insane instantaneously, and when this show goes nuts in its climaxes, it goes really nuts. I feel as though there is a lot more to the animation than how I described it, but how can I describe the show's climaxes where they most of the time leave me speechless? They have to be seen to be believed.

CHARACTERS: Following up from the show's "weakest" (well, not really, you'll see why) aspect, we get to the show's absolute best aspect. This show has a wide variety of colorful and fun characters... besides Margaret, since she pretty much exists to be Mordecai's love interest and nothing more. So I pretty much shot down the only character I don't find fun, because the rest of the cast is a riot. I absolutely love the main park crew. Skips, Benson, Pops, Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and hell, even Hi-Five Ghost gets some shining moments later down the line. What I absolutely love about all of the main characters is how each of them have extremely unique attributes that bring something new to the table. What do I mean by this? I'm referring to things like Benson's obvious anger management problems, Pops's pure heart even though he can get rough sometimes, Muscle Man's "my mom" jokes, Skips's wisdom, Mordecai and Rigby's bromance. These attributes the characters possess make them shine really bright in the comedic and character development department.

  If I had to pick a favorite character, it would probably be Benson because his moments of anger are some of the funniest delivered lines in the show, like there is so much passion and effort into making him sound pissed off and imaging what the voice actor was sounding like in the recording booth only makes his moments more golden. Even better, as the series goes on, they actually do flesh out this anger management problem of his, which is why Think Positive is one of my favorite episodes of the series. It showed us a flashback of why Benson even yells at Mordecai and Rigby in the first place, and it's because he lives by the philosophy that his parents told him that "you're not going to get anything in life unless you yell for it", and the cherry on top of this sundae is that as the series goes on, he does develop an understanding towards Mordecai and Rigby and their habits. Speaking of Mordecai and Rigby, these two characters are super endearing in terms of how the show handles their friendship, this is a friendship that I'd describe as kinda realistic. I mean, they have many inside jokes with each other, use tons of colloquialism, act immaturely with each other, and do their iconic "OOOHHHHH!" to signify excitement. This is a true bromance, and I absolutely love how these two characters often look out for each other even if they sometimes have their own disputes, but it never gets to a point where I find either character dislikable.

  Of the two, Rigby is the better character because of how he exists to take the piss out of Mordecai and his moments are generally more memorable, since episodes that center him tend to be a lot sillier and more comedic-based, like One Pull Up, whereas Mordecai's episodes are usually a lot more casual with episodes like Picking Up Margaret. My point here is that Rigby is typically the gateway for jokes between the two and often throws out snarky remarks that have me dead. The same is true with Mordecai, but to a lesser extent, mostly because Mordecai is the smarter of the two of them and instead of being a lazy goofball like Rigby, Mordecai is a lot more... impulsive. He tends to throw himself into situations because of his own shortsightedness, but what makes him likable is that often times, Mordecai either has understandable/sympathetic motivations, or he genuinely wants to do something good for others. In the aforementioned Picking Up Margaret, although he didn't consider how exactly he would pick up Margaret, he still had a pure intention to do a favor for her by dropping her off at the airport, and I typically admire characters that provide a positive aura. There's only one exception to this whole "understandable motivations" things that I'll get into later down the line, but let's just say it involves the show's absolute worst aspect.

Skips is a character that was enigmatic from the moment the show began, seeing as he knows exactly everything about everything and has experience in places where a typical character on this show wouldn't have any experience in. This ultimately meant that Skips was hiding something and when the show finally revealed to us who Skips really is with episodes like Skips vs. Technology, Skips' Strike, Skips' Story, and so on, that is when I realized that Skips is incredibly three-dimensional. That isn't to say that the rest of the cast isn't three-dimensional, but Skips is obviously the most out of all of them since he was a character that's been revealed to go through countless tragic losses, and watching him pull through moments such as losing the love of his life was honestly heartbreaking to see. As a result, I find myself often times sympathizing with Skips even though I already know that his development happened prior to the present, if you know what I mean. It's honestly f how this show already had a well-developed character, but instead decided to show how Skips even got to the current point anyways, and that's what honestly makes him great.
I'd dedicate a paragraph to Pops (oops I did it anyways), but all you need to know is that he's a genuine sweetheart, but can get rough when he needs to. I mean, the entire last third of the show is Pops realizing that he can't always be soft with others and has to do what's contrary to his nature for the greater good (even though this isn't fully true if you know exactly how this series ends), but there are moments like Country Club, and especially Really Real Wrestling where it's shown that while kind, he's the complete opposite of weak and can willingly fight. I honestly satisfying to know that Pops, despite being the literal embodiment of good, has a tough side, and that is another reason why I absolutely adore Think Positive, since that episode has him in a position of power. I also love how sometimes he may have a passive aggressive attitude (like in Rap it Up) or may say hurtful things with a positive demeanor like when he called Rigby terrible at charades in Jinx. Pops pretty much has all the groundwork for being an easily likeable character.

As for Muscle Man, I absolutely love how abrasive he is, and his iconic "MY MOM" jokes are ones I always find myself smirking at, but what ultimately sells them for me is everyone's reactions to them. But the best part about Muscle Man is how, although he is definitely abrasive, he is also someone that is... caring. I think that's ultimately the pinnacle of Muscle Man since he: shares a genuine bromance with Hi-Five Ghost the same way Mordecai and Rigby have a bromance, constantly reinforces how much he loves his co-workers, and most of all, we see how much he loves his girlfriend and will do literally anything to keep her happy, even if it means avoiding her (it's the one reason why I can't give The Longest Weekend all the flack in the world). The fact that such a bulky character carries an abrasive demeanor but also show gratitude and compassion is great, since even when Muscle Man is irritating, it's mostly for the sake of jokes that do actually land. So when this show does produce an episode like Trucker Hall of Fame, which reveals how Muscle Man truly feels about his dad, you know for sure I'm going to sympathize wit him and want him to win. On the topics of jokes, I do love Muscle Man's pranks because they actually managed to craft a melodramatic, yet funny backstory behind them and all of the pranks tend to be really over-the-top yet harmless, so I never found myself ever thinking Muscle Man is going too far. He's the kind of character that's set up to be annoying, but somehow never is. Instead, like the rest of the cast, he is pretty damn likeable. I wish I could say anything about Hi-Five Ghost, but I can't because he's mostly just "there", though I do admire his loyalty like how in Under the Hood, he was willing to get fired if Muscle Man was going to be fired, it's a little touch that gives me a positive impression of his character.

This show also has really fun side characters too, like Death, who's the perfect blend of comedic and terrifying, the Guardians of Eternal Youth, who're literal floating babies that, despite carrying deep booming voices, can act like literal infants, the Death-kwon-do Sensei, who usually provides a lot of great lines and engaging fighting scenes (The Baby Ducks also exist for the same reason and they're great too), Don, Colonel Rawls, etc. My point is that the side characters are also colorful, but my favorite of them is probably Thomas. Introduced in the fourth season, he mostly existed for the sake of being the butt of jokes, but when episodes centered around them, they were usually the peak of this character. Like Skips, there was some form of mystery, as if Thomas was hiding something and wouldn't want anyone to know. I feel as though Thomas Strikes Back was a setup or even a foreshadowing of The Real Thomas because the former revealed that Thomas has immaculate stealth and deceit skills (which, at the time, he may have potentially used on the park crew themselves) and the latter of which fully confirmed that any suspicions that I have, and the anagnorisis in The Real Thomas is this episode's biggest strength as all it did was turn the tides really quickly. I'd explain why, but that'd involve spoilers, wouldn't it? All you need to know is that what they did with Thomas as a character was extremely clever and follows the show's traditional methods of "calm before the storm". I'll leave it at that and leave your imagination to fill in the rest of the gaps : )

tl;dr version:: This show's array of characters are extremely memorable and easy to like solely for the fact that each of them have unique attributes that bring out the best of them comedically and as... well... actual characters. Over the course of the series, we see numerous characters grow which cements them as more than comedic setpieces, but that's a topic for another paragraph. All I'm saying is, great characters... they're the gateway for the show's funniest moments and the show's more hard-hitting moments. Side characters are tons of fun too because they all have unique quirks and designs. That is all.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW: Let's cut right to the chase: If you couldn't tell already, I consider Regular Show one of the funniest shows of all time. No kidding, a majority of episodes, especially early on, rely on throwing a thousand jokes at you and many of the set ups and punchlines are unique to this show and this show only. What do I mean? I mentioned in my history section that my parents loved this show more than the rest of my family, and that's simply because this show has so many jokes that'll fly over children's heads. In Fuzzy Dice, for example, this whole scene happens (twitter.com/RegShowOOC/status/… ), and the show is packed with moments like this. I mean, in Party Pete, Muscle Man literally says that he wants "guests with breasts" and there was literal TEABAGGING, so you can tell this show pulled no punches with its comedy or depictions of things. Some episodes can even be complete satires, like Win That Prize, which is one big jab at the TV industry, and Cat Videos, which is a big jab at said genre of videos. OH, lest we forget Firework Run, which didn't even try to hide the fact that it was a jab at Mexican drug cartels. Chicken wings in this show are pretty much treated like alcohol too, so my only question is: Do you see how much unadulterated shit they got past the censors? It's literally an "adults" show in disguise as a children's one, and that's what ultimately makes so much of the humor work.

If we're also going by what makes Regular Show so unique, it would be this show's obvious influence from the 80s. You're guaranteed to find at least one reference to something from the 1980s in every single episode, but the most noticeable thing is this show's usage of songs from the 80s, and admittedly, it's a fresh change of pace from the bubbly samey soundtracks you hear in every other show. I mean, that's why an episode like Broken Alarm from SpongeBob was a surprise to me, because it somehow featured a rendition of Powerhouse, and it's the exact same thing here. I'd also argue that it's a great way to reintroduce timeless tracks to the current generation, because I find myself listening to songs like Hangin' Tough (this played in High Score) and I Ran So Far Away (it played in my favorite short, Fun Run). If that wasn't enough, entire episodes can be one big reference to 80s media, like how Weekend at Benson's alludes to
   Another thing I find absolutely surprising about Regular Show is this show's ability to tell heavy stories. I've been holding off on saying this in this review for so long, but I promise it'll tie up any earlier points I made about this series together, mainly the ones about characters developing: I think it was brilliant how this show used its comedy to make you like these characters, and then took said characters one step further by giving them more depth than they initially had.
  For this reason alone, I declare Season 7 my favorite season of the show. It's not a particularly funny season, although it does contain some really funny ones like Cat Videos and The Button, but this is a season that mainly aims to develop every character imaginable. Gary's Synthesizer reveals to us that Gary, a side character that I didn't mention in my list of fun side characters because I associate him with the Guardians of Eternal Youth, is materialistic and is the king of a planet called Synthos. You may be asking why this should matter to anyone, but this is literal worldbuilding seeing as though beyond this point, we don't really see Gary much and he wasn't fully-fledged before this episode. I also mentioned in my characters section that Benson grew an understanding with Mordecai and Rigby, but I think it more-so grew with Rigby prior to this episode, it's clear that Benson took more issues with Rigby than Mordecai (evidenced by Muscle Mentor and Wall Buddy), and this episode... had them both work together, it's literally carried by their character dynamics, and throughout the ep, they both learn more about each other which culminates into both of them nearly deciding to quit their jobs together, which is something I don't think anyone would expect out of this show. I didn't even expect them to take their developed relation one step further in Hello China, where although Benson was slightly irked by Rigby's presence, but ultimately trusted what he was doing, and trust was one thing Benson lacked with Rigby in literally any season prior. How about the episode The Parkie Awards? It's as if a Simpsons episode found its way into the show since this one has a big heart and demonstrates just how much like a family the park crew feels. I also adore how this season gave Benson a love interest in Pam I Am since Benson's relationship with women was only teased at in Weekend at Benson's and The Christmas Special, so it was genuinely satisfying to see Benson find true love. On top of that, Benson was revealed to have an interest in cooking as shown in Chili Cook-Off, and it's little touches like this that make a character so much more lovable to me. Hell, we even got the first true episode to focus on Muscle Man's relationship with Hi-Five Ghost in Struck by Lightning, which was legitimately tragic and heartwarming episode that showed how much these two characters care for each other, and it finally gave Hi-Five Ghost a good deal of screentime (I mean, we did get The Postcard, but it didn't Wow me like this ep).

But that's not all this season has: It has literal arcs. For starters, this season began with an arc about a Dome being placed over the park, which was a brilliant way to transition to this season's next series where it takes place in outer space, and this was foreshadowed in The Dome Experiment Special when Maellard said that the reason for doing the experiment in the first place was "to see how the park would survive in an apocalypse". The best part about this dome arc is how it was the segue for events such as Benson getting a girlfriend, and the button in the ep The Button actually being a button that sends the dome to space in the series finale, and even setting up Pop's strange powers and origin story in the episode Pops' Favorite Planet, but the true shining arc of this season is Rigby's graduation arc.
Thanks to this arc, Rigby is my second favorite character in the whole show. As far back as Lift With Your Back, I could tell that he was changing, but The Eileen Plan is really where it got going. Rigby feeling like a failure is something completely contrary to his character in say, an episode like Rigby's Body, where he was clearly arrogant throughout most of it and does almost nothing to help himself, but in his whole graduation arc, we see Rigby put genuine efforts into what he does and it all culminates into the grand season finale Rigby's Graduation Day Special, which I cannot praise enough. Rigby's speech in this episode had me tear up because seeing him evolve from being a lazy oaf to a mature and responsible person was absolutely beautiful to see, and it still feels like the same character in the end. My point here is that this season strayed away from the show's traditional formula, but it worked out perfectly because if you do genuinely care about the characters and want to see them grow and change, then you would be sticking around for this season.
  Even if this season may not be for you, season 8 should. This season is relatively small but what it does is bring in the best of the early seasons and the best of season 7. It has characters develop, mainly Pops, it has episodes that're heavily comedy-centered such as No Train, No Gain and Ugly Moons, but still has story-based episodes like the final stretch of this season and interspliced episodes such as The Ice Tape and Space Escape, but these still have elements from prior episodes by having high energy action sequences and insane climaxes, which were noticeably lacking in the seventh season. So overall, I guess that means that this show made the transition to being partially serialized perfectly, as the show didn't lose its identity, gave characters a lot more depth, was poignant at numerous points, and still has its humorous moments. Is there anything this show is missing at all? It has everything I could have asked for and it's why I consider it a flawless show. Seriously, the good episodes give me Classic Simpsons vibes, they're THAT level of top-tier.

I wish I could wrap up this review right here, but there's one aspect of this show I've deliberately ignored, and it's time I talk about because believe it or not, this show does have One. Fatal. Flaw. Take a wild fucking guess what it is.

The Love Triangle + Season 6 in general: You fucking guessed it. It's the one thing that literally every show of the 2010s is obliged to have. I mean... Adventure Time had one, Steven Universe had one, The Legend of Korra had one, Gravity Falls had one, Star vs. The Forces of Evil was pretty much Love Triangle: The Show, and I'm sure there are some others ones that I haven't seen or are overlooked that do have one, but this show fell victim to the same shit that every other show has had, and it frustrates me to no end. Romance was never meant to be this show's strong suit because it was treated like a joke in the earlier seasons, with episodes like Do Me a Solid,It's Time, and even Cruisin' if you want to count that, but I noticed how the blueprints for garbage romance episodes were present as far back as Yes Dude Yes, the first episode of the series I truly hate. Despite having one or two good moments, it was a Le Misunderstanding plot... and it introduced C.J., a character I will tear to shreds later down the line, who had a horrible performance in the climax. The climax of this episode felt like it came from a drama, and I think that's the best way to sum up every single love triangle ep. Following up on Yes Dude Yes, we have Steak Me Amadeus, which was jawdroppingly bad. It felt unlike any other season 4 episode, and was a conglomerate of two separate stories, neither of which get enough screen-time to be fully-fledged. There's a story about the Amadeus dollars and there's a story about Margaret and Mordecai going on a date, and I hate how this episode constantly changes its focus. The worst part about it is how they randomly brought back the antagonists from Fuzzy Dice just for the sake of more cheap drama, and it lead to one of the worst scenes in the show... when Margaret revealed her acceptance letter. She has explicitly stated prior to this episode that she was going to her dream school, so I have no clue why they decided to shove it in here of all moments. It felt like it was only revealed here to make shit artificially worse, as if the script simply demanded it, and it made the season end on such a shitty note.

As for season 5 romance episodes, you need to know is that they were excruciatingly boring. Play Date was fucking Dead At Eight yet again except removing anything that made that episode good, and I Like You Hi is another derivative episode (fucking Butt Dial 2) and is probably the most boring episode of the series... actually that honor goes to Real Date because does this episode have anything remarkable at all? However, I will say that Dodge This needs a lot more hate. Why the actual fuck did they decide that THIS EPISODE ABOVE ALL ELSE needed to have Mordecai and CJ's bullshit interrupt an otherwise fun episode? I actually liked two scenes in this episode, yet the climax halts anything involving dodgeball except superficially having this council being associated with dodgeball for some reason... and... once again... WHY IS THIS HERE? This should've been saved for a later episode, but I guess we need to have another instance of two plots clashing together. Oh yeah, great ending. Really fucking good ending you had right there. As if you didn't waste my time enough.

  Then we move onto season 6 and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you're kidding me. Did you know I gave 13/28 of the season 6 episodes a Meh and below? The good episodes in this season may be really good, but the ones that're Meh and below mostly consist of the steaming pile known as the love triangle bullshit. To start off, I absolutely despise Merry Christmas Mordecai (AKA the worst of Dodge This but for 11 minutes), it started off innocently enough but then turned into a literal cringefest, with two character avoiding each other for no good reason instead of talking things out, and when they do talk things out, it leads to a misunderstanding from a third party, which was CJ, and the following episode, Sad Sax, is the ending of Merry Christmas Mordecai on loop, with Mordecai constantly throwing himself into situations that will CLEARLY MAKE CJ MISINTERPRET THEM FOR 11 MINUTES. I think now's the time to rag on CJ because I seriously dislike this character and I'm glad she's nowhere to be seen after this season. Like Margaret, she has absolutely nothing noteworthy to her and can jump from being mentally stable to a fucking psychopath in a moment's notice, and this is especially egregious in 1000th Chopper Flight Party, where she nearly KILLS everyone onboard Frank's helicopter and sees no consequences for her actions. I hate how possessive she is of Mordecai and will instantly assume that, because he's in Margaret's vicinity, is cheating on her. Speaking of Mordecai, this character went from being an impulsive decision maker that meant well, to a complete fucking loser dumbass that did shit like kiss Margaret in Merry Christmas Mordecai, constantly place himself in scenarios that can easily be misinterpreted in Sad Sax, and best of all, getting on his soap box in the last 3 minutes of Dumped at the Altar for no reason. Surprisingly, I found myself liking a majority of Dumped at the Altar, but those last three minutes are the worst scene in the show. I don't know how stupid you would have to be to interrupt a wedding to give a speech about your love life to a literal room filled with strangers, but "stupid" is NOT what I associate Mordecai with. Oh yeah, there's also the embarrassment that is Not Great Double Date which is extremely dull and has nothing noteworthy. In the end though, at least I can say that season 7 did tie up all this bullshit in what I consider the most mature Regular Show episode, Just Friends, which felt like it was actively poking fun at Steak Me Amadeus and Merry Christmas Mordecai because it kept forcing both Margaret and Mordecai into awkward situations with both of them having each other's exact thoughts, so I guess that's one other thing season 7 did right. Oh yeah, it gave Margaret an episode that I genuinely loved, Local News Legend, since it focused on her news job instead of her being a character Mordecai wants to fuck, so that's two things season 7 did right. I'm done here.

tl;dr version for both the previous section and this one: This show is hilarious, you can pick out an episode at random and you're mostly guaranteed to laugh a lot because this show gets so much shit past the censors. It has its own unique style by having homages to media from the 80s or even including media from the 80s through songs. The show took a turn in season 7 but not to a point where it felt as though the series lost its identity; if you're someone that genuinely liked the characters, then this season does its job at expanding on them while still including episodes with a great amount of comedy, and even storytelling eps themselves can sprinkle in humor. Unfortunately, there was a rough patch on the way to s7-8 with S6 having so much love triangle bullshit that turned the show into a pathetic drama for several episodes but thankfully ditched it by season 6 finale. This show is nearly flawless, but fuck that love triangle.

Oh yeah free season ranking because why not (I know that, statistically, seasons 1-2 should be at the top, but S7-8 are what I think of when I hear "Regular Show" nowadays + those seasons have incredible highs)

7 > 8 > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 >>> 6 > 5

CONCLUSION: Finally, after this long ass review, I come to my conclusion. So uh, Regular Show's pretty fucking incredible for most of it. I'm disappointed in the fact that the series isn't 75% Masterful or higher because the absolute best of Regular Show is among my favorite things in all of animation. I adore this show's cast, I love its references to the 80s, the jokes are all perfect and can kill me no matter how many times I watch them, I think this show did a phenomenal job at becoming more serious and serialized but still retaining the show's core... just, get rid of that love triangle bullshit and you'd have yourself a flawless series. Initially, I thought that a show like Courage the Cowardly Dog would be my favorite Cartoon Network series, but for now, I think the honor goes to Regular Show since I have a bigger attachment to it, and if we're talking overall, I think Regular Show was a series that, although it was in a slump for a little, ultimately got better as it went on (in a sense, that is), since its final two seasons are spotless with two exceptions. I see no reason not to call this show MASTERFUL and it's easily one of CN's crowning jewels. It has a secure place in my top 7 favorite shows ever made.... or top 5. I dunno, I just have to redo my Simpsons scorecards first.

Description
Benson's gonna drop his BALLS when he sees how good we set up these chairs. He's gonna be like
Oh no my gumballs

  no I am not dead. I am just the worst at making scorecards because there was a point in time where I found them a complete chore to make so now I have decided that I will make scorecards between the months of May-early November. To celebrate watching horrible shows in May last year, I thought this time I could go the opposite route and talk about shows I really love. I know it may seem like that right now, I am going overboard with my ratings because I have two shows that are Garbage, one that is good (EEnE will be promoted to great or better I promise), and like two shows that I think are masterful or something like that, but that's only because I've barely reviewed any shows up to this point and if I reviewed a ton more, the ratings for shows would be more varied, which is what I will aim for if I care to find motivation. Thankfully, I have motivation to review Regular Show because it is a series I deeply care for and have a fascinating history with... for the most part.

TTLF'S NOTE ON 9/24/2022: This review aged well, I don't think any part of it is wrong-- maybe I could have gone into more detail about S5-6's shortcomings, with S5 having tamer premises than before, and S6 being inconsistent all across the board, but I still managed to get my point across. A question some people might have is: Why on Earth is this show "Masterful", when it has 2 seasons dead in the middle of its run that are inferior to everything else? And yeah, maybe Regular Show shouldn't be a "Masterful", but S5-6 are only 2 bumps in the road before we get S7-8, in which S7 is my favorite season and 8 is of a similar caliber. 25% of the show isn't incredible and 75% is some of my favorite cartoons period. I still think Courage has a shot at surpassing Regular Show, but I have a lot of reasons why I would still call Regular Show a "Masterful", both for personal reasons, and for critical reasons-- both managed to align somehow, and that's pretty rare. For example, I wish I could call MLP and SU "Good" shows, but it's nearly impossible for me to turn a blind eye to their weaknesses because of how prominent they were.
Anyways, Regular Show is still fantastic after all this time. Although S1-4 each are slightly worse in quality, one after the other, you'll hardly care about which season is which because there are not any significant differences to note between seasons-- I think that's why I have a hard time revoking them of their "Masterful" ratings, since their lesser episodes are simply forks in the roads, the same way S5-6 are forks in the road, but are still fine seasons at the end of the day.

HISTORY: Regular Show was a childhood favorite of mine. I started watching the series back in 2011 seeing episodes like Just Set Up the Chairs and Mordecai and the Rigbys and it instantly had me hooked. But... that wasn't all. One of the best parts was that this was a show that my entire family would sit down and watch together, and my parents especially adored this show to no end at the time, I didn't really get why they seemed to have a greater love for the show than I did, but rewatching it from start to finish made it very clear what they saw in this series (hint hint: there's a lot of unadulterated shit in here). I also have a best friend who stans this show to hell and back and we usually quote the show to death. I still remember when Regular Show: The Movie was announced and I urged him that we should both see it together... which we unfortunately never did, but I do own the movie on DVD somewhere and watched it back in 2017. In fact, my best friend is the guy who prompted me to do a rewatch of this series, and because I had no motivation to marathon any of the shows I was watching at the time (it was March btw), I just decided to watch a show that I knew would fully invest me no matter what, and of course, I chose this one.

ANIMATION: Regular Show's animation is... alright. I can't say it's anything too special to be honest. In early season 1 and First Day, the animation is obviously a lot more loose and expressive, and I honestly wish the show kept this style because it is a slight improvement over how stiff the seasons after this look. That isn't to say that this show stops being expressive after early season 1, because Benson still retains a lot of over-the-top facial expressions beyond this point and they're all really hilarious. Although the general animation is standard, it does look really good when the show decides to have its crazy climaxes in episodes. At first, they usually begin with the backgrounds having a red overlay and it immediately delivers the feeling of "Shit's about to go down", but then they take it one step further by having incredibly fast-paced action where, contrary to the chill atmosphere and animation in scenes prior to the climax, a lot is actually happening on-screen. It's a perfect example of "calm before the storm". This is also complemented by fight scenes, which are genuinely amazing for the sole fact that I can feel the impact of every single kick, punch, or even sword slash mostly due to, once again, the animation being extremely quick and the sound effects packing a literal punch.
  As for the backgrounds, the show usually uses a lot of cool colors and they all blend in neatly. It indirectly gives this show a general "cool" vibe to it, which I believe is what they were aiming for and is a nice touch, and it's even better where, as I mentioned earlier with the backgrounds becoming red in climaxes, the show uses warm colors to indicate tension happening, so this show really knows how to set its atmosphere well. Speaking of backgrounds, this show generally has pretty good ones, but I absolutely adore the sunset backgrounds on this series because they go out of their way to add shading to the characters, which makes things like the final 20 seconds of Steak Me Amadeus a lot more real, if you know what I mean. The show can also get really creative with its visuals, which is shown the most exemplary in the Format Wars episodes where they insert as many visual gags as you can imagine and use bright, shining colors (such as the Laserdisc's final form) to make certain characters or objects stand out a lot more than whatever is appearing on-screen, and it's generally very pleasing to look at. In fact, that's exactly what I'd use to describe this show's overall animation: pleasing, but when it goes all-out, it goes all-out.

tl;dr version: It's pretty good animation for what it is. Although the expressiveness got toned down immensely after early season 1, they still reserved the expressions for characters like Benson when he gets furious, and they're all golden. There's a perfect use of cool and warm colors to create an atmosphere that's generally laxed but can go insane instantaneously, and when this show goes nuts in its climaxes, it goes really nuts. I feel as though there is a lot more to the animation than how I described it, but how can I describe the show's climaxes where they most of the time leave me speechless? They have to be seen to be believed.

CHARACTERS: Following up from the show's "weakest" (well, not really, you'll see why) aspect, we get to the show's absolute best aspect. This show has a wide variety of colorful and fun characters... besides Margaret, since she pretty much exists to be Mordecai's love interest and nothing more. So I pretty much shot down the only character I don't find fun, because the rest of the cast is a riot. I absolutely love the main park crew. Skips, Benson, Pops, Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and hell, even Hi-Five Ghost gets some shining moments later down the line. What I absolutely love about all of the main characters is how each of them have extremely unique attributes that bring something new to the table. What do I mean by this? I'm referring to things like Benson's obvious anger management problems, Pops's pure heart even though he can get rough sometimes, Muscle Man's "my mom" jokes, Skips's wisdom, Mordecai and Rigby's bromance. These attributes the characters possess make them shine really bright in the comedic and character development department.

  If I had to pick a favorite character, it would probably be Benson because his moments of anger are some of the funniest delivered lines in the show, like there is so much passion and effort into making him sound pissed off and imaging what the voice actor was sounding like in the recording booth only makes his moments more golden. Even better, as the series goes on, they actually do flesh out this anger management problem of his, which is why Think Positive is one of my favorite episodes of the series. It showed us a flashback of why Benson even yells at Mordecai and Rigby in the first place, and it's because he lives by the philosophy that his parents told him that "you're not going to get anything in life unless you yell for it", and the cherry on top of this sundae is that as the series goes on, he does develop an understanding towards Mordecai and Rigby and their habits. Speaking of Mordecai and Rigby, these two characters are super endearing in terms of how the show handles their friendship, this is a friendship that I'd describe as kinda realistic. I mean, they have many inside jokes with each other, use tons of colloquialism, act immaturely with each other, and do their iconic "OOOHHHHH!" to signify excitement. This is a true bromance, and I absolutely love how these two characters often look out for each other even if they sometimes have their own disputes, but it never gets to a point where I find either character dislikable.

  Of the two, Rigby is the better character because of how he exists to take the piss out of Mordecai and his moments are generally more memorable, since episodes that center him tend to be a lot sillier and more comedic-based, like One Pull Up, whereas Mordecai's episodes are usually a lot more casual with episodes like Picking Up Margaret. My point here is that Rigby is typically the gateway for jokes between the two and often throws out snarky remarks that have me dead. The same is true with Mordecai, but to a lesser extent, mostly because Mordecai is the smarter of the two of them and instead of being a lazy goofball like Rigby, Mordecai is a lot more... impulsive. He tends to throw himself into situations because of his own shortsightedness, but what makes him likable is that often times, Mordecai either has understandable/sympathetic motivations, or he genuinely wants to do something good for others. In the aforementioned Picking Up Margaret, although he didn't consider how exactly he would pick up Margaret, he still had a pure intention to do a favor for her by dropping her off at the airport, and I typically admire characters that provide a positive aura. There's only one exception to this whole "understandable motivations" things that I'll get into later down the line, but let's just say it involves the show's absolute worst aspect.

Skips is a character that was enigmatic from the moment the show began, seeing as he knows exactly everything about everything and has experience in places where a typical character on this show wouldn't have any experience in. This ultimately meant that Skips was hiding something and when the show finally revealed to us who Skips really is with episodes like Skips vs. Technology, Skips' Strike, Skips' Story, and so on, that is when I realized that Skips is incredibly three-dimensional. That isn't to say that the rest of the cast isn't three-dimensional, but Skips is obviously the most out of all of them since he was a character that's been revealed to go through countless tragic losses, and watching him pull through moments such as losing the love of his life was honestly heartbreaking to see. As a result, I find myself often times sympathizing with Skips even though I already know that his development happened prior to the present, if you know what I mean. It's honestly f how this show already had a well-developed character, but instead decided to show how Skips even got to the current point anyways, and that's what honestly makes him great.
I'd dedicate a paragraph to Pops (oops I did it anyways), but all you need to know is that he's a genuine sweetheart, but can get rough when he needs to. I mean, the entire last third of the show is Pops realizing that he can't always be soft with others and has to do what's contrary to his nature for the greater good (even though this isn't fully true if you know exactly how this series ends), but there are moments like Country Club, and especially Really Real Wrestling where it's shown that while kind, he's the complete opposite of weak and can willingly fight. I honestly satisfying to know that Pops, despite being the literal embodiment of good, has a tough side, and that is another reason why I absolutely adore Think Positive, since that episode has him in a position of power. I also love how sometimes he may have a passive aggressive attitude (like in Rap it Up) or may say hurtful things with a positive demeanor like when he called Rigby terrible at charades in Jinx. Pops pretty much has all the groundwork for being an easily likeable character.

As for Muscle Man, I absolutely love how abrasive he is, and his iconic "MY MOM" jokes are ones I always find myself smirking at, but what ultimately sells them for me is everyone's reactions to them. But the best part about Muscle Man is how, although he is definitely abrasive, he is also someone that is... caring. I think that's ultimately the pinnacle of Muscle Man since he: shares a genuine bromance with Hi-Five Ghost the same way Mordecai and Rigby have a bromance, constantly reinforces how much he loves his co-workers, and most of all, we see how much he loves his girlfriend and will do literally anything to keep her happy, even if it means avoiding her (it's the one reason why I can't give The Longest Weekend all the flack in the world). The fact that such a bulky character carries an abrasive demeanor but also show gratitude and compassion is great, since even when Muscle Man is irritating, it's mostly for the sake of jokes that do actually land. So when this show does produce an episode like Trucker Hall of Fame, which reveals how Muscle Man truly feels about his dad, you know for sure I'm going to sympathize wit him and want him to win. On the topics of jokes, I do love Muscle Man's pranks because they actually managed to craft a melodramatic, yet funny backstory behind them and all of the pranks tend to be really over-the-top yet harmless, so I never found myself ever thinking Muscle Man is going too far. He's the kind of character that's set up to be annoying, but somehow never is. Instead, like the rest of the cast, he is pretty damn likeable. I wish I could say anything about Hi-Five Ghost, but I can't because he's mostly just "there", though I do admire his loyalty like how in Under the Hood, he was willing to get fired if Muscle Man was going to be fired, it's a little touch that gives me a positive impression of his character.

This show also has really fun side characters too, like Death, who's the perfect blend of comedic and terrifying, the Guardians of Eternal Youth, who're literal floating babies that, despite carrying deep booming voices, can act like literal infants, the Death-kwon-do Sensei, who usually provides a lot of great lines and engaging fighting scenes (The Baby Ducks also exist for the same reason and they're great too), Don, Colonel Rawls, etc. My point is that the side characters are also colorful, but my favorite of them is probably Thomas. Introduced in the fourth season, he mostly existed for the sake of being the butt of jokes, but when episodes centered around them, they were usually the peak of this character. Like Skips, there was some form of mystery, as if Thomas was hiding something and wouldn't want anyone to know. I feel as though Thomas Strikes Back was a setup or even a foreshadowing of The Real Thomas because the former revealed that Thomas has immaculate stealth and deceit skills (which, at the time, he may have potentially used on the park crew themselves) and the latter of which fully confirmed that any suspicions that I have, and the anagnorisis in The Real Thomas is this episode's biggest strength as all it did was turn the tides really quickly. I'd explain why, but that'd involve spoilers, wouldn't it? All you need to know is that what they did with Thomas as a character was extremely clever and follows the show's traditional methods of "calm before the storm". I'll leave it at that and leave your imagination to fill in the rest of the gaps : )

tl;dr version:: This show's array of characters are extremely memorable and easy to like solely for the fact that each of them have unique attributes that bring out the best of them comedically and as... well... actual characters. Over the course of the series, we see numerous characters grow which cements them as more than comedic setpieces, but that's a topic for another paragraph. All I'm saying is, great characters... they're the gateway for the show's funniest moments and the show's more hard-hitting moments. Side characters are tons of fun too because they all have unique quirks and designs. That is all.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW: Let's cut right to the chase: If you couldn't tell already, I consider Regular Show one of the funniest shows of all time. No kidding, a majority of episodes, especially early on, rely on throwing a thousand jokes at you and many of the set ups and punchlines are unique to this show and this show only. What do I mean? I mentioned in my history section that my parents loved this show more than the rest of my family, and that's simply because this show has so many jokes that'll fly over children's heads. In Fuzzy Dice, for example, this whole scene happens (twitter.com/RegShowOOC/status/… ), and the show is packed with moments like this. I mean, in Party Pete, Muscle Man literally says that he wants "guests with breasts" and there was literal TEABAGGING, so you can tell this show pulled no punches with its comedy or depictions of things. Some episodes can even be complete satires, like Win That Prize, which is one big jab at the TV industry, and Cat Videos, which is a big jab at said genre of videos. OH, lest we forget Firework Run, which didn't even try to hide the fact that it was a jab at Mexican drug cartels. Chicken wings in this show are pretty much treated like alcohol too, so my only question is: Do you see how much unadulterated shit they got past the censors? It's literally an "adults" show in disguise as a children's one, and that's what ultimately makes so much of the humor work.

If we're also going by what makes Regular Show so unique, it would be this show's obvious influence from the 80s. You're guaranteed to find at least one reference to something from the 1980s in every single episode, but the most noticeable thing is this show's usage of songs from the 80s, and admittedly, it's a fresh change of pace from the bubbly samey soundtracks you hear in every other show. I mean, that's why an episode like Broken Alarm from SpongeBob was a surprise to me, because it somehow featured a rendition of Powerhouse, and it's the exact same thing here. I'd also argue that it's a great way to reintroduce timeless tracks to the current generation, because I find myself listening to songs like Hangin' Tough (this played in High Score) and I Ran So Far Away (it played in my favorite short, Fun Run). If that wasn't enough, entire episodes can be one big reference to 80s media, like how Weekend at Benson's alludes to
   Another thing I find absolutely surprising about Regular Show is this show's ability to tell heavy stories. I've been holding off on saying this in this review for so long, but I promise it'll tie up any earlier points I made about this series together, mainly the ones about characters developing: I think it was brilliant how this show used its comedy to make you like these characters, and then took said characters one step further by giving them more depth than they initially had.
  For this reason alone, I declare Season 7 my favorite season of the show. It's not a particularly funny season, although it does contain some really funny ones like Cat Videos and The Button, but this is a season that mainly aims to develop every character imaginable. Gary's Synthesizer reveals to us that Gary, a side character that I didn't mention in my list of fun side characters because I associate him with the Guardians of Eternal Youth, is materialistic and is the king of a planet called Synthos. You may be asking why this should matter to anyone, but this is literal worldbuilding seeing as though beyond this point, we don't really see Gary much and he wasn't fully-fledged before this episode. I also mentioned in my characters section that Benson grew an understanding with Mordecai and Rigby, but I think it more-so grew with Rigby prior to this episode, it's clear that Benson took more issues with Rigby than Mordecai (evidenced by Muscle Mentor and Wall Buddy), and this episode... had them both work together, it's literally carried by their character dynamics, and throughout the ep, they both learn more about each other which culminates into both of them nearly deciding to quit their jobs together, which is something I don't think anyone would expect out of this show. I didn't even expect them to take their developed relation one step further in Hello China, where although Benson was slightly irked by Rigby's presence, but ultimately trusted what he was doing, and trust was one thing Benson lacked with Rigby in literally any season prior. How about the episode The Parkie Awards? It's as if a Simpsons episode found its way into the show since this one has a big heart and demonstrates just how much like a family the park crew feels. I also adore how this season gave Benson a love interest in Pam I Am since Benson's relationship with women was only teased at in Weekend at Benson's and The Christmas Special, so it was genuinely satisfying to see Benson find true love. On top of that, Benson was revealed to have an interest in cooking as shown in Chili Cook-Off, and it's little touches like this that make a character so much more lovable to me. Hell, we even got the first true episode to focus on Muscle Man's relationship with Hi-Five Ghost in Struck by Lightning, which was legitimately tragic and heartwarming episode that showed how much these two characters care for each other, and it finally gave Hi-Five Ghost a good deal of screentime (I mean, we did get The Postcard, but it didn't Wow me like this ep).

But that's not all this season has: It has literal arcs. For starters, this season began with an arc about a Dome being placed over the park, which was a brilliant way to transition to this season's next series where it takes place in outer space, and this was foreshadowed in The Dome Experiment Special when Maellard said that the reason for doing the experiment in the first place was "to see how the park would survive in an apocalypse". The best part about this dome arc is how it was the segue for events such as Benson getting a girlfriend, and the button in the ep The Button actually being a button that sends the dome to space in the series finale, and even setting up Pop's strange powers and origin story in the episode Pops' Favorite Planet, but the true shining arc of this season is Rigby's graduation arc.
Thanks to this arc, Rigby is my second favorite character in the whole show. As far back as Lift With Your Back, I could tell that he was changing, but The Eileen Plan is really where it got going. Rigby feeling like a failure is something completely contrary to his character in say, an episode like Rigby's Body, where he was clearly arrogant throughout most of it and does almost nothing to help himself, but in his whole graduation arc, we see Rigby put genuine efforts into what he does and it all culminates into the grand season finale Rigby's Graduation Day Special, which I cannot praise enough. Rigby's speech in this episode had me tear up because seeing him evolve from being a lazy oaf to a mature and responsible person was absolutely beautiful to see, and it still feels like the same character in the end. My point here is that this season strayed away from the show's traditional formula, but it worked out perfectly because if you do genuinely care about the characters and want to see them grow and change, then you would be sticking around for this season.
  Even if this season may not be for you, season 8 should. This season is relatively small but what it does is bring in the best of the early seasons and the best of season 7. It has characters develop, mainly Pops, it has episodes that're heavily comedy-centered such as No Train, No Gain and Ugly Moons, but still has story-based episodes like the final stretch of this season and interspliced episodes such as The Ice Tape and Space Escape, but these still have elements from prior episodes by having high energy action sequences and insane climaxes, which were noticeably lacking in the seventh season. So overall, I guess that means that this show made the transition to being partially serialized perfectly, as the show didn't lose its identity, gave characters a lot more depth, was poignant at numerous points, and still has its humorous moments. Is there anything this show is missing at all? It has everything I could have asked for and it's why I consider it a flawless show. Seriously, the good episodes give me Classic Simpsons vibes, they're THAT level of top-tier.

I wish I could wrap up this review right here, but there's one aspect of this show I've deliberately ignored, and it's time I talk about because believe it or not, this show does have One. Fatal. Flaw. Take a wild fucking guess what it is.

The Love Triangle + Season 6 in general: You fucking guessed it. It's the one thing that literally every show of the 2010s is obliged to have. I mean... Adventure Time had one, Steven Universe had one, The Legend of Korra had one, Gravity Falls had one, Star vs. The Forces of Evil was pretty much Love Triangle: The Show, and I'm sure there are some others ones that I haven't seen or are overlooked that do have one, but this show fell victim to the same shit that every other show has had, and it frustrates me to no end. Romance was never meant to be this show's strong suit because it was treated like a joke in the earlier seasons, with episodes like Do Me a Solid,It's Time, and even Cruisin' if you want to count that, but I noticed how the blueprints for garbage romance episodes were present as far back as Yes Dude Yes, the first episode of the series I truly hate. Despite having one or two good moments, it was a Le Misunderstanding plot... and it introduced C.J., a character I will tear to shreds later down the line, who had a horrible performance in the climax. The climax of this episode felt like it came from a drama, and I think that's the best way to sum up every single love triangle ep. Following up on Yes Dude Yes, we have Steak Me Amadeus, which was jawdroppingly bad. It felt unlike any other season 4 episode, and was a conglomerate of two separate stories, neither of which get enough screen-time to be fully-fledged. There's a story about the Amadeus dollars and there's a story about Margaret and Mordecai going on a date, and I hate how this episode constantly changes its focus. The worst part about it is how they randomly brought back the antagonists from Fuzzy Dice just for the sake of more cheap drama, and it lead to one of the worst scenes in the show... when Margaret revealed her acceptance letter. She has explicitly stated prior to this episode that she was going to her dream school, so I have no clue why they decided to shove it in here of all moments. It felt like it was only revealed here to make shit artificially worse, as if the script simply demanded it, and it made the season end on such a shitty note.

As for season 5 romance episodes, you need to know is that they were excruciatingly boring. Play Date was fucking Dead At Eight yet again except removing anything that made that episode good, and I Like You Hi is another derivative episode (fucking Butt Dial 2) and is probably the most boring episode of the series... actually that honor goes to Real Date because does this episode have anything remarkable at all? However, I will say that Dodge This needs a lot more hate. Why the actual fuck did they decide that THIS EPISODE ABOVE ALL ELSE needed to have Mordecai and CJ's bullshit interrupt an otherwise fun episode? I actually liked two scenes in this episode, yet the climax halts anything involving dodgeball except superficially having this council being associated with dodgeball for some reason... and... once again... WHY IS THIS HERE? This should've been saved for a later episode, but I guess we need to have another instance of two plots clashing together. Oh yeah, great ending. Really fucking good ending you had right there. As if you didn't waste my time enough.

  Then we move onto season 6 and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you're kidding me. Did you know I gave 13/28 of the season 6 episodes a Meh and below? The good episodes in this season may be really good, but the ones that're Meh and below mostly consist of the steaming pile known as the love triangle bullshit. To start off, I absolutely despise Merry Christmas Mordecai (AKA the worst of Dodge This but for 11 minutes), it started off innocently enough but then turned into a literal cringefest, with two character avoiding each other for no good reason instead of talking things out, and when they do talk things out, it leads to a misunderstanding from a third party, which was CJ, and the following episode, Sad Sax, is the ending of Merry Christmas Mordecai on loop, with Mordecai constantly throwing himself into situations that will CLEARLY MAKE CJ MISINTERPRET THEM FOR 11 MINUTES. I think now's the time to rag on CJ because I seriously dislike this character and I'm glad she's nowhere to be seen after this season. Like Margaret, she has absolutely nothing noteworthy to her and can jump from being mentally stable to a fucking psychopath in a moment's notice, and this is especially egregious in 1000th Chopper Flight Party, where she nearly KILLS everyone onboard Frank's helicopter and sees no consequences for her actions. I hate how possessive she is of Mordecai and will instantly assume that, because he's in Margaret's vicinity, is cheating on her. Speaking of Mordecai, this character went from being an impulsive decision maker that meant well, to a complete fucking loser dumbass that did shit like kiss Margaret in Merry Christmas Mordecai, constantly place himself in scenarios that can easily be misinterpreted in Sad Sax, and best of all, getting on his soap box in the last 3 minutes of Dumped at the Altar for no reason. Surprisingly, I found myself liking a majority of Dumped at the Altar, but those last three minutes are the worst scene in the show. I don't know how stupid you would have to be to interrupt a wedding to give a speech about your love life to a literal room filled with strangers, but "stupid" is NOT what I associate Mordecai with. Oh yeah, there's also the embarrassment that is Not Great Double Date which is extremely dull and has nothing noteworthy. In the end though, at least I can say that season 7 did tie up all this bullshit in what I consider the most mature Regular Show episode, Just Friends, which felt like it was actively poking fun at Steak Me Amadeus and Merry Christmas Mordecai because it kept forcing both Margaret and Mordecai into awkward situations with both of them having each other's exact thoughts, so I guess that's one other thing season 7 did right. Oh yeah, it gave Margaret an episode that I genuinely loved, Local News Legend, since it focused on her news job instead of her being a character Mordecai wants to fuck, so that's two things season 7 did right. I'm done here.

tl;dr version for both the previous section and this one: This show is hilarious, you can pick out an episode at random and you're mostly guaranteed to laugh a lot because this show gets so much shit past the censors. It has its own unique style by having homages to media from the 80s or even including media from the 80s through songs. The show took a turn in season 7 but not to a point where it felt as though the series lost its identity; if you're someone that genuinely liked the characters, then this season does its job at expanding on them while still including episodes with a great amount of comedy, and even storytelling eps themselves can sprinkle in humor. Unfortunately, there was a rough patch on the way to s7-8 with S6 having so much love triangle bullshit that turned the show into a pathetic drama for several episodes but thankfully ditched it by season 6 finale. This show is nearly flawless, but fuck that love triangle.

Oh yeah free season ranking because why not (I know that, statistically, seasons 1-2 should be at the top, but S7-8 are what I think of when I hear "Regular Show" nowadays + those seasons have incredible highs)

7 > 8 > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 >>> 6 > 5

CONCLUSION: Finally, after this long ass review, I come to my conclusion. So uh, Regular Show's pretty fucking incredible for most of it. I'm disappointed in the fact that the series isn't 75% Masterful or higher because the absolute best of Regular Show is among my favorite things in all of animation. I adore this show's cast, I love its references to the 80s, the jokes are all perfect and can kill me no matter how many times I watch them, I think this show did a phenomenal job at becoming more serious and serialized but still retaining the show's core... just, get rid of that love triangle bullshit and you'd have yourself a flawless series. Initially, I thought that a show like Courage the Cowardly Dog would be my favorite Cartoon Network series, but for now, I think the honor goes to Regular Show since I have a bigger attachment to it, and if we're talking overall, I think Regular Show was a series that, although it was in a slump for a little, ultimately got better as it went on (in a sense, that is), since its final two seasons are spotless with two exceptions. I see no reason not to call this show MASTERFUL and it's easily one of CN's crowning jewels. It has a secure place in my top 7 favorite shows ever made.... or top 5. I dunno, I just have to redo my Simpsons scorecards first.