Series Thoughts: Dead End: Paranormal Park (Season 1)

• Released: June 16, 2022
  
• Creator: Hamish Steele
  
• Total amount of seasons: 1
• Seasons watched: 1
• Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis

A boy named Barney, his friend Norma and his talking pug (who happens to be possessed by a demon king) work at an amusement park filled to the brim with mysteries and paranormal happenings. They are determined to get to the bottom of all of it.

My Thoughts

 Per usual, this Series Thoughts contains spoilers.

I haven't seen a lot of hype on Twitter or Tumblr about this series, despite it honestly looking quite interesting to me and probably being up the alleys of a lot of people I follow. The visuals aren't spectacular, but as someone who loves the idea of haunted/paranormal amusement parks as a setting and it having some likable characters who also happen to to be neat representations of minorities, it peaked my interest.

I will say, however, that good representation does not a good show make. Just because a show has great and/or a lot of representation of minorities does not automatically make it a fantastic show. The representation in and of itself can be very good, but remember that there's also stuff like plot/characters/arcs/visuals/etc. to judge. 

And while I will say I really liked Dead End, it didn't quite capture me as much as I'd hoped. It's still good, a solid 7 out of 10 and I absolutely do recommend it if you like mystery shows such as Gravity Falls or just want to see some neat and very casual representation. But it's not fantastic, either.

First, let's tackle the good elements: the characters are honestly very likable, at least the ones on the side of good. I loved getting to know Barney, Norma, the other park employees, and heck even Courtney (a demon trapped on Earth who longs to go back to hell) and Pugsley (whom I thought would be annoying but is honestly quite charming) are really fun. It also has a lot of interesting mysteries and concepts, which were executed rather well most of the time. Plus, the demons and other creatures we meet look pretty cool as well.

But it also has some negatives. I didn't connect that much with any of the characters outside of Barney and Norma (don't get me wrong, I like the characters, but I just didn't feel as close to them as I'd hoped). The whole subplot about the demon lord possessing Pugsley coming back for the finale as a major threat only for him to be on the heroes side felt a bit forced. He's a demon lord, he's been evil for literally forever. For him to suddenly turn like this because he's been stuck inside a dog for a few weeks feels really random and out of nowhere.

And other character arcs, such as Courtney realizing she does prefer being with the kids over being in hell after all, and Barney's parents coming around to him, just feel rushed or not fully realized. We didn't even get to see Barney's parents change their mind or anything. In episode seven or so they had an argument with Barney and angrily left, but in the finale they without anything really prompting it apologize. Why not have a scene from their POV to see them come around? Because right now it felt pretty random. It's good that they become more accepting and loving towards their trans son and won't enable his grandma's transphobia anymore, but it just came out of nowhere.

It also seems like episodes nine and ten didn't really know what they wanted to do as there are three main villains who keep switching allegiances to whatever suits them. At first it seems that the ghost of Pauline is going to be the main villain. Then the demon lord. Then, for only a brief moment, the demon lord's sister. Then we go back to Pauline being set up as the big bad again? Like, the idea of having multiple villains isn't bad, but the fact that they keep going back and forth on their allegiances within the span of forty minutes is a bit much.

The animation is also not fantastic. Like, it's not bad and as stilted as some rigged shows I've seen, but it's also not really up to the modern standards set by other rigged cartoons these days. Maybe they didn't have a big enough budget to work with to make it look as flashy and move as smoothly as I'd hoped, but it just doesn't look fantastic. The art style is all fine and good, and it looks neat in stills. I just hoped that the animation would've been a little bit more outstanding and more up to par with other rigged shows, such as the later seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The animation isn't bad at all, don't get me wrong! But it just looks very standard and nothing about it really stands out.

Overall this definitely is a good show and does stick the landing! I do recommend you watch it, just keep in mind that it isn't Gravity Falls-levels of great when it comes to the mystery and character arcs. But it does have a neat plot going on and I do hope that they can improve in future seasons, should those be green-lit! Should those be made, I'd be happy to watch them!