I’m not sure it is possible to miss “the point of a show” (if there even needs to be such a thing) more than you have here in this review.

You begin by trying to pigeonhole a program that goes out of its way to wear its many pop-cultural references on its sleeve and defy the concept of “supposed to be” anything. Why do we need every show to fit into neat little categories in the first place? I find this line of thinking decidedly uninteresting and limited.

From here on your opinions are your own, and that is fine. You do not find much of this season funny. Alright. But chances are plenty of folks have and will. And I can only speak for myself, but I think there are few shows (to say nothing of animated shows) which have worked harder to create a continuity that stretches entire *generations* of characters than this one. It seems like even the background characters probably have backstories.

And to sum up an entire piece of criticism with “by now you should know if the show is for you or not” is just lazy writing. It weakens everything you have written before it by suggesting that regardless of what you just argued, the reader will already have made up their mind. Then why write the piece in the first place?

It does have continuity, although it is rarely linear. There are episodes that happen at the same time as other episodes. The cliffhangers that are unresolved are throw away jokes, but quite often get picked up and developed later on, just not immediately. It isn’t a show like the Simpsons. They go out of their way to do things that even comic books rarely do. They don’t just hit the reset button at the end of the episode. The stories don’t necessarily connect from week to week … but if something happens, there is no pretending it didn’t. This is especially true of season finales. They often seem like a cliche’d cliffhanger … but when they come back, they don’t just dismiss the cliffhanger and return to the status quo. Brock was gone for half a season, after season 3′s finale, and even then he wasn’t back in his old job.

It’s a show that doesn’t try to be conventional, and doesn’t try to be broadly appealing. Instead it is unique, and loved all the more by those who do like it. It’s the definition of a niche show … and like some other Adult Swim programs, like Moral Orel, it transcends to more than just a comedy show you can watch in no particular order (like Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Simpsons, etc).