Generic adult animated series

A terrible adult animated series (or, at least season 8-onwards)...

..vs. a good adult animated series.

Generic adult animated series is a common theme for the adult animated series these days. With the rising popularity of Family Guy, more creators and networks wanted to cash in on its success, only to make a corny show that would either be milked for eternity or be cancelled in less than one season.

Bad Examples of Adult Animation

1. Family Guy (season 8 onwards) (most infamous example)
2. The Simpsons (seasons 11-31) (depending on your view)
3. Brickleberry
4. Paradise PD
5. Farzar
6. The Red Ape Family
7. Our Cartoon President
8. Hoops
9. Fairfax
10. Good Vibes
11. The Prince
12. Chicago Party Aunt
13. Squidbillies (season 13)
14. JJ Villard's Fairy Tales
15. The Nutshack
16. Bless the Harts (depending on your view)
17. Bordertown
18. The Cleveland Show (season 1)
19. Santa Inc. (another infamous example)
20. Fugget About It
21. Mr. Pickles
22. American Dad! (seasons 11-13)
23. Fairview
24. Crash Canyon
25. Legends of Chamberlain Heights
26. Allen Gregory
27. HouseBroken
28. Glenn Martin, DDS
29. High Guardian Spice
30. Full English
31. Super Drags
32. La Familia del Barrio
33. High School USA!
34. King Star King
35. Lil' Bush
36. Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"
37. Cans Without Labels
38. Mother Up!
39. Pacific Heat
40. Teenage Euthanasia
41. South Park (Only the 20th season)
42. Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
43. The Boondocks (season 4)
44. Gen:LOCK (season 2)
45. Pupa
46. Berserk (2016)
47. Magical Girl Site
48. Magical Girl Friendship Squad
49. SMOSH Babies
50. The Slim Shady Show
51. Zombie College
52. Producing Parker
53. Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World
54. The Jellies
55. Life's a Zoo

Good Examples of Adult Animation

1. What If...?
2. Star Wars Visions
3. Final Space
4. Inside Job
5. Rick and Morty
6. Tear Along the Dotted Line
7. Clone High
8. Mission Hill
9. Moral Orel
10. The Boondocks (seasons 1-3)
11. BoJack Horseman
12. Undone
13. Archer (seasons 1-7 and 11 onwards)
14. The Venture Bros
15. Family Guy (seasons 1-7)
16. The Simpsons (seasons 1-10 and 32 onwards)
17. Solar Opposites
18. Love Death + Robots
19. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
20. Invincible
21. Trese
22. The Cleveland Show (seasons 2-4)
23. Bob's Burgers
24. South Park (Except for the 20th season)
25. The Midnight Gospel
26. Disenchantment
27. Futurama
28. Star Trek: Lower Decks (depending on your view)
29. Close Enough
30. Ugly Americans
31. Smiling Friends
32. The Boys Presents: Diabolical
33. The Legend of Vox Machina
34. DOTA: Dragon's Blood
35. Blood of Zeus
36. F Is for Family
37. Arcane
38. Ten-Year-Old Tom
39. Central Park
40. The Great North
41. Duncanville
42. Tuca and Bertie
43. Harley Quinn
44. Primal
45. Beavis and Butt-Head
46. Daria
47. American Dad! (seasons 1-10 and 14 onwards)
48. Castlevania
49. Moonbeam City
50. Lobo
51. King of the Hill
52. Hazbin Hotel
53. Helluva Boss
54. Todd McFarlane's Spawn
55. The Critic
56. Gen:LOCK (season 1)
57. Camp Camp
58. Squidbillies (seasons 1-12)
59. Samurai Jack (season 5)
60. Elfen Lied
61. Happy Tree Friends (Depending on your view)
62. M.K. 22
63. Les Kassos
64. Roger and his Humans (Roger et ses Humains)
65. Epic Time Leap (L'Epopée Temporelle)

Why This Theme Sucks

1. The problem is that ever since The Simpsons and South Park became popular more and more competitors tried to copy the same formula with different premises. Cops, camper managers, the workers of Christmas, and even the royal family of the United Kingdom and Trump's cabinet are the examples of this.
   • In fact, everybody thought that animation is for kids, which is not true since there are so many animated series that are way more mature than the adult ones.
   • Many of these animated series lack genres as most of them are basically sitcoms. While some of these cartoons do resort to using science fiction or fantasy, they usually hold on the sitcom formula. Because of this it causes these cartoons to suffer from a lack of variety and originality.
2. If this was made for adults, then there's no reason to make the jokes, the scenes, and the gags so childish as stated before.
3. They often have so much blood/gore, curse words, gross/offensive humor, filler, and bad morals rather than the story and the plot.
4. When it comes to jokes/gags, they can be very insulting or disrespectful. For example, Fairview makes a joke for the COVID party, which is a punch in the gut for COVID-19 victims, as this also works for some things like racism, suicide jokes, murder, abuse, rape, or even a reference to the Holocaust.
5. The characters have no personality and a lack of heart and soul in them.
   • Many of the characters especially those in long-running series get a lot of their dimension and likable qualities removed forcibly, turning such characters into unlikeable, one-dimensional, flanderized husks. Examples of such characters who fell victim to this include Brian from Family Guy and Roger from American Dad!.
6. Some of them have incredibly stupid concepts, such as how Fairview tries to rip off South Park by making it political, when South Park is more of a social satire, or how The Red Ape Family revolves entirely around NFTs, which already are a bad idea by themselves.
7. Most of the kind of show has a pretty bad animation style, can go from a very stiff animation and ugly character designs with the worst offender being Allen Gregory.
8. These kinds of shows follow a formula that has become completely stagnated and has caused the adult animation genre to undergo a massive amount of stagnation as a result as shown through these shows recycling plots from other shows and rehashing their own episodes to the point where it becomes cliched.
9. Due to how most of these cartoons are basically rehashes of old concepts that keep repeating their plots, themes, and jokes, it shows that the writers and the studios in charge of these cartoons are refusing to take risks with the apparent mindset that if they make an adult cartoon that does not do crude jokes, rely on current events, and does not act like a sitcom then the said cartoon will suck and fail to make any money for their studio.
10. Many of these shows become extremely mean-spirited in regards to the jokes and plots they produce.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Some of the shows can be approved.
2. Not all adult animated series are Family Guy-like sitcoms, there are some great shows with interesting concepts like Final Space, Arcane, Rick and Morty, Inside Job, Clone High, Harley Quinn, and Love Death + Robots.
   • Besides, even those that are sitcoms can also end up being good, such as Bob's Burgers and South Park, which are still great shows after 12 and 25 seasons respectively.

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