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| Friday, July 29, 2011 10:44 AM |
| (Last updated on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 10:50 AM) | | On the Viewer - Phineas and Ferb |
 by Fëanor |
I'm not going to try to review all the episodes of this show that I've seen, because that would be insane, but I did just want it noted here, for posterity, that Phineas and Ferb is easily one of my favorite television programs of all time. The titular characters are young brothers who have an older, teenage sister named Candace who longs to get them into trouble. Their kind and understanding mother was once a pop star but now spends her days shopping and baking treats for her children and their friends. Their father is from England, he's a bit absent-minded, and he takes particular enjoyment in incredibly boring things. They also have a pet platypus named Perry. Each episode of the show covers one day of a very long summer, and each day the boys build some kind of impossibly amazing, fun, and dangerous invention, while Candace tries to get them in trouble with their mother for doing so. But a strange series of coincidences always conspires to keep the mother from seeing the insane things the boys do (even though they would be happy to show her), and Candace never succeeds. The boys try their best to do right by Candace anyway, and her boyfriend Jeremy and best friend Stacy are always there to console and distract her.
The interesting thing is that while all that is going on, there's always a separate but ultimately connected subplot involving Perry the platypus. Because, as it turns out, Perry is also secretly Agent P, a super spy for a government organization that employs only animal agents, and he is constantly foiling the latest evil scheme of a rather pathetic mad scientist named Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Heinz's brother is the popular Mayor of the town, beloved by all, while no one has ever liked Heinz, including his strict and distant parents. In fact, Heinz's only real friend is his arch enemy, Agent P. Heinz is constantly constructing bizarre "-inators" with which he hopes to take over the entire tri-state area, or at the very least annoy his brother. But the machines are always destroyed by Agent P before they can realize their purpose.
This description may make the show sound strange and repetitive, but it's in fact a wondrous hymn to invention, creativity, and fun. It's brilliant, joyous, hilarious, and cleverly self-aware and self-referential. Even the songs are great (pretty much every episode has a wacky, catchy, funny musical number). There's a large cast of characters, and every one of them is lovable in his or her own way, Phineas probably most of all. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is wonderful, but Phineas is pretty much the perfect human: smart, caring, funny, always upbeat, always thinking the best of everyone, always willing to help, always there with a great new idea, never willing to give up. Phineas and Ferb teaches great values, but never gets preachy and never takes itself too seriously. I can't think of another TV show that's more consistently watchable and entertaining.
But hey... where's Perry? |
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