Review: “Milo Murphy’s Law” is a fitting “Phineas and Ferb” successor for this moment of TV animation
In recent years, we’ve been witnessing a steady rise in cartoons that aim to tell stories going beyond an episode that resets as soon as the credits roll. This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon — shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and the original Teen Titans were more serialized than most cartoons that aired alongside them — but with the advent of streaming and binge-watching came a new trend of more continuity-based and at times dramatic animated series aimed at all age groups, bringing more attention to the potential of the medium beyond entertaining kids for 15–30 minutes. The long-running animated series Phineas and Ferb premiered over a decade ago, just before the trend caught on, and ended right in the middle of it, when shows like Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil were steadily growing in popularity. Of course, the show was an enormous success for Disney, with funny characters in outlandish situations set to catchy songs (care of Danny Jacob). Every aspect worked in its favor, and the show came to a close after more than 200 episodes over a span of nearly eight years. But for all the show’s acclaim and popularity, it ended in a time where episodic cartoons were starting to fall by the wayside in terms of grabbing the attention of an older audience in addition to their younger viewers. So how could the elements that made the show a hit be translated into a moment in television animation markedly different from when it premiered?
Well, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh found an answer, and you’d better believe it involves time travelers, sewer dwellers, and a teacher with some ambiguously vampiric tendencies.
Where Phineas and Ferb had a set formula (albeit one that was broken as often as it was adhered to), each individual episode of Milo Murphy’s Law has a somewhat looser structure, which was a good call in giving the show a distinct identity from its predecessor. It’s left behind the beat-for-beat format in favor of larger story arcs, though even episodes that play into them often do so without alienating viewers who haven’t been watching in order. Phineas and Ferb’s setting and comedic tone are carried over, but they’re applied to a new and unique cast that includes possibly some of the funniest characters in any currently running series. Though his voice takes some getting used to when placed over the image of a middle schooler, of course Weird Al is hilarious as the title character, who is ever-chipper and optimistic despite how things always seem to go wrong around him. Sabrina Carpenter complements her character Melissa’s intensity with a wry delivery that makes her a particularly memorable supporting character (especially since she happens to be a fictional teenage girl, so her writing could have quite easily been botched). Another favorite of mine is Cavendish (voiced by co-creator Marsh), a sometimes uptight and flippantly chiding time traveler whose frustration at his mundane assignment is something of a commentary on the show’s silliness in comparison to the more serious plot threads of certain other animated Disney Channel series.
But said silliness gives Murphy an advantage in cementing a focus on comedy that makes it all the more satisfying when the overarching story kicks into gear. If the follow-up to Phineas and Ferb is going to head toward a humanity-saving arc, it requires an element of ridiculousness to keep anyone from taking it too seriously. So once the show has established its own identity and starts getting into its larger storyline, the life-or-death conflict that faces our heroes is still outlandish and fitting with the world that’s been introduced. Where the running gags in Phineas rarely amounted to much more than just that, on Murphy, the writers use them (and even some seemingly throwaway gags) to the plot’s advantage in some unexpected ways that reward the viewer’s attention, and the characters are so likable that you still feel for them even as you laugh at the specifics of the peril they find themselves in.
The entire series is a smart balance of the fun and humor of Phineas and Ferb and the higher stakes storylines of fellow Disney series Gravity Falls, Star vs., and the rebooted DuckTales. Season two premieres January 5, and while its status as a crossover with its parent series will certainly help with advertising, Milo Murphy’s Law has already more than proven that it can easily stand on its own.
Season one is available in its entirety on DisneyNOW, so if you haven’t already, I suggest you take the weekend to treat yourself to some good-natured hilarity with an extra incentive to keep you coming back.
A junior at Hollins University whose penchant for Disney led into a love for all things film. Amateur film critic and aspiring screenwriter/director. View all posts by Mary McKeon
Originally published at miseensense.wordpress.com on January 3, 2019.
