Over the past few days I’ve prepped a few list’s and reviews for the films ‘Tully’ and ‘Sorry to Bother You’ but in the process I’ve fallen in love with this gem of a show called Gravity Falls. I watched the entire first season (20 episodes) in like 2 days!
IN addition to a list later on today, I decided it would be fun to take a whirl at ranking the first season episodes of Gravity Falls. I didn’t write anything yesterday so I needed to make up for that anyway, so here is some information to before I dive in.
Gravity Falls aired from 2012-2016 on DisneyXD, with 40 episodes in total spanning 2 seasons. Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch, who is credited as writing a total of 6 episodes of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and creating the children’s show Fish Hooks prior to the start of GF, neither of which even compare to it in terms of quality. Alex Hirsch based many of the characters off people in his family, namely the 2 protagonist twin siblings Dipper and Mabel. As a twin himself, he used his own childhood memories with his sister Ariel as an influence on the relationship shenanigans for Dipper and Mabel. The primary caregiver during the show Grunkle (Great Uncle) Stan is also based on his actual grandfather, the primary setting, Gravity Falls, Ore is based on real life town Boring, Ore & The Mystery Shack is a fictionalized version of a real life ‘tourist trap’ called the Oregon Vortex that he visited during college.
Now for some stuff you can’t find of imdb trivia page:
What makes GF so great and unique is the perfect combination of real life influence and adoration/inspiration of pop culture, from some of the more stand-out influences like Twin Peaks, X-Files, and The Goonies most notably, but also classics like The Simpsons and Doctor Who (and I suspect even some aspects of Spongebob Squarepants and Southpark) and even stories from HP Lovecraft . In my opinion, Gravity Falls contains the smoothest blend of spooky and occult horror vibes with family friendly humor and easily defined moral lesson and the with an adult undercurrent (notably, several references and commentaries on things like existential dread, toxic masculinity, the illuminati, and even sexuality), every episode has a lesson and is told in a unique way. In other words, this show runs the gambit on entertainment for everyone!
If you aren’t familiar with Gravity Falls, the plot centers around a pair of twins, Dipper (who you later find out isn’t actually named Dipper, just a nickname), and Mabel aged 12 and born 5 minutes part, Mabel being the elder.
Dipper and Mabel’s parents ship them off to stay with their Great Uncle Stan in his tourist trap where they work (seemingly for free) and get into shenanigans in the nearby woods and town.
In addition to Grunkle Stan, the Mystery Shack employs two young adult employees that often hang out with the kids and get involved in the shenanigans. Soos (early 20’s) is kind of man-child but blindly supports Dipper in his endeavors and consistently makes tough situations worse with his clumsiness. Wendy (15) is the resident ‘cool kid on the block’ and love interest of Dipper. Grunkle Stan is sort of a self righteous, greed ball,but proves to have a heart of gold and fierce loyalty when push comes to shove. Anyway, those are the main characters and a pretty decent starting point.
Here are the first 20 episodes ranked: I’ll try to avoid any major spoilers.
20- Episode 13 ‘Boss Mabel’
In this mid season episode, Mabel and Grunkle Stan switch places for 72 hours, leaving Mabel in charge of the Mystery Shack and Stan get’s to go off and do his own thing. Essentially, Mabel thinks she would make a better boss than Stan and he puts her to the task only to reveal that it’s harder to be in charge than you think. Nothing super entertaining about this episode and the lesson is a bit under developed.
19- Episode 8 ‘Irrational Treasure’
Mabel has trouble dealing with her town bully, ‘pacifica northwest’, a rich, snobby, know it all who hoards her families relationship to the towns history over everyone’s head, only to find out that everything is not what it seems.
This episode has some of the least humor of the entire season and kind of gets lost in wildness of the season.
18- Episode 12 ‘Summerween’
This one is also kind of a mess compared to some of the stronger episodes. One of the most zany of premises but a pretty weak narrative and cliche’ moral lesson “there’s no fun in growing up too fast, enjoy your childhood while it lasts’ ect.
17- Episode 2 ‘The Legend of the Gobblewonker
I think this episode get’s more hate than it deserves but it is kind of forgettable compared to some of the other ‘wild/exotic/fictional monster themed episodes’ and kind of reeks of the show still coming into itself.
16- Episode 15 ‘The Deep End’
This episode was pretty hilarious when I originally watched it, but after reflection and comparison it doesn’t have as much of an impact on the evolution of the characters or plot (aside from Mabel having her first kiss). All in all, the 3rd quarter of the season was kind of a low point, with some of the weakest episodes of all 20.
15- Episode 17- ‘Boyz Crazy’
If I were judging off the A story-line, this episode would be at least 5 or 6 positions higher, but the B story plot is incredibly weak and holds down the episode. This episode is a hilarious commentary on Boy Bands and teen obsession but the whole ‘shitty boyfriend’ side arch falls flat.
14- Episode 6- ‘Dipper VS Manliness’
I zoned in and out a few times during this episode, not gonna lie, but it was definitely one of the weakest ‘Dipper learns to accept his flaws’ arch. And there are about 12 of them out of 20 episodes.
13- Episode 14-‘Bottomless Pit’
The ‘characters tell stories within the context of the episode’ premise is a bit tired, but this is a major highlight for Soos’s character arch over the season, and has a pretty unique wrap around ending.
12- Episode 4- ‘The Hand that Rocks the Mabel’
This is the first episode with an actual character antagonist and also the introduction to Lil’ Gideon, the major villain of Season 1 (and I suspect parts of season 2 as well). It is also a major episode in both Mabel and Dipper’s growth as characters and relationship with each other, but isn’t quite as funny as I feel it could have been.
11- Episode 5- ‘The Inconveniencing’
The first noticable ‘Twin Peaksy’ episode and the introduction of Dipper’s crush on the much too older Wendy. This episode takes a little too long to get going, but has a pretty fun ending!
10- Episode 18- ‘The Land Before Swine’
Really fun monster episode, great pacing, and great development in Grunkle Stans slow humanization arch as well as a really sweet episode for the Soos/Dipper bromance. Also, tons of cute pig!
9- Episode 3- ‘Headhunters’
I love the pop culture references and the general fun-ness of this episode. It didn’t have anything major to say about the characters or but it was really fun, and was also the first episode in which the kids worked WITH Grunkle Stan to solve the problem. In general,a really offbeat and goofy take on the Murder Mystery genre.
8- Episode 16- ‘Carpet Diem’
If you haven’t noticed the major story-telling trend of GF yet, here it is: Telling a story we’ve all seen before, but making it more interesting. Gravity Falls loves showing us things we’ve seen before, but by adding in some offbeat humor, and telling the moral of the story between the lenses of two, very different, twin siblings, we’re able to see to see how the differences we all share don’t effect that the problems and solutions we experience aren’t all that different. This episode is super wacky, but very heartwarming.
7- Episode 7- ‘Double Dipper’
Remember earlier when I said that ‘Dipper vs Manliness’ was a weak ‘Dipper learns to accept his flaws’ arch, well this is much better. In this episode, Dipper comes to terms with his affections for Wendy and experiences how much more difficult things can be when you are too hard on yourself. It’s also just a really funny episode, taken right of the mind of the likes of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon.
6- Episode 1- ‘Tourist Trapped’
One of the strongest Pilot episodes I’ve seen in a really long time. Alex Hirsch is able to make a super captivating story and include all the exposition we need all in 20 minutes time, which is sadly not the case for most pilots (who sacrifice one for the other). In this Pilot episode, we not only learn why Dipper and Mabel have found themselves in Gravity Falls, Ore, but also a definitive amount of who they are fundamentally as people and how they relate to each other as twins/siblings/best friends.
5- Episode 20- ‘Gideon Rises’
Although it’s a pretty solid conclusion with a worthy cliffhanger, the season finale pales in comparison to the first half of it’s 2 part story arch, and therefore, backwards from whats to be expected. essentially, episode 19 introduces the most interesting character (and antagonist) of the series and is also super crazy and well written, and then the finale feels like a deflation of sorts.
I do really enjoy this episode though, or it wouldn’t have cracked the top 5.
4- Episode 10- ‘Fight Fighters’
This episode is essentially glorified mid-season filler in the shape of video game nostalgia and I loved every minute of it. It also goes through the beats of all the successful episodes of the season and does them well. Dipper learns a lesson, Mabel does funny shenanigans, the 2 arches collide towards the end, includes tons of pop culture references and quirky jokes. Nothing mind blowing but the shows creator just having fun.
3- Episode 11- ‘Little Dipper’
Before I wrote this I took a peek at some other rankings of GF and apparently I like this episode waaaay more than everyone else. I think it’s probably one of the best Mabel and Dipper friendship episodes and also the funniest Lil’ Gideon episode.
2- Episode 19- ‘Dreamscaperers’
Part 1 of the season finale is by far the furthest Alex Hirsch has gone in the dark/mature content and it really worked. I loved the introduction to Cipher Bill and there are tons of season long pay-offs that get addressed (notably Dippers insecurities about being picked on by Grunkle Stan, and a lot of stuff about the lore of the supernatural stuff in Gravity Falls). This episode is one of the smartest episodes in terms of writing for sure.
1- Episode 9- ‘The Time Traveler’s Pig’
In terms of narrative, this episode is super wacky and smartly written. The relationship between Dipper and Mabel takes a huge spike up as well as the ‘Dipper in in unrequited love for Wendy’ arch. Essentially, all in all,a mid-season pay off for a lot of the issues Dipper had been dealing with up to that point, and also the introduction of Waddles, Mabel’s pet pig.
Bonus points for the masterful voice work from Justin Roiland and being a super fun take on TIME TRAVEL! (one of my personal favorite sci-fi concepts).
Even though there are a few weaker episodes, this first season of Gravity Falls is pretty consistently good. Alex Hirsch has given us all a great blend of wit and silly humor, pretty solid character growth with season long arches as well as funny iterations of numerous sci-fi and horror tropes. I would say that the 2nd quarter/middle of the season was definitely the strongest as well as the last few episodes. I’m really looking forward to season 2 though, I hear it’s even better than the first. Stay tuned for a complete ranking of the series in the coming week or 2!
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