"animated"

2005 · 3 Seasons · Nickelodeon · Animated Fantasy / Adventure

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of those rare shows that fully earns its reputation as an all-time great. Across 61 episodes, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko built a world that feels lived-in and layered, populated it with characters who grow in ways that would be impressive in any medium, and told a war story with the emotional complexity of prestige drama while never forgetting that it was also supposed to be fun. Zuko's arc from villain to hero stands as one of the finest character transformations in television history, animated or otherwise. A handful of filler episodes in the first season and some childish humor are the only real blemishes on a show that gets better with every rewatch and continues to find new audiences nearly two decades after it first aired.

2014 · 1 Season · Cartoon Network · Animation, Fantasy, Mystery

Over the Garden Wall is a nearly perfect piece of animated storytelling. In just ten episodes totaling under two hours, it builds a haunting fairy-tale world, develops genuine emotional depth between its two leads, and delivers a narrative that rewards multiple viewings with new layers of meaning. The folk-inspired soundtrack by The Blasting Company is extraordinary, the visual design evokes classic illustration traditions, and the story knows exactly when to end. Minor quibbles about humor that occasionally falls flat or episodes that feel more atmospheric than substantive barely register against the cumulative power of the whole. This is the rare show that does everything it sets out to do and never overstays its welcome.

2024 · 1 Season · Disney+ · Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

X-Men '97 pulls off something that revival series almost never manage: it honors the original while standing confidently on its own. The animation is a massive upgrade, the storytelling carries genuine emotional stakes, and the show isn't afraid to push beloved characters into uncomfortable territory. A handful of rushed character arcs and the occasional fan-service nod that lands with a thud are the only real stumbles. This is the rare continuation that makes both longtime fans and newcomers understand why these characters mattered in the first place.

2023 · 1 Season · Netflix · Animation, Action, Drama

Blue Eye Samurai is a stunning achievement in adult animation, combining gorgeous hand-crafted visual design with a revenge narrative that hits hard and rarely lets up. The fight choreography alone would justify a watch, but the layered exploration of identity, belonging, and the cost of vengeance elevates this far beyond a simple action series. Some character choices lack consistency and the show occasionally leans too heavily on graphic content, but these are minor blemishes on an otherwise exceptional first season. For anyone who's ever wished animated storytelling for adults would aim higher, this is proof that it can.

2018 · 3 Seasons · ABC Kids · Animated Comedy

Bluey achieves something remarkable by being simultaneously a perfect preschool show and deeply moving television for adults, with its seven-minute episodes delivering more emotional truth about family life than most hour-long dramas manage.

2014 · 6 Seasons · Netflix · Animated Tragicomedy

BoJack Horseman is one of the most emotionally ambitious animated series ever produced, a show that used talking animals and Hollywood satire as cover for a deeply serious exploration of depression, addiction, and the limits of self-awareness. Its six seasons built something that very few comedies attempt and even fewer pull off: a long-form character study where the laughs and the devastation feel equally earned. The first season requires patience, and the subject matter can be hard to sit with. But the show's refusal to offer easy answers or redemptive arcs for its deeply flawed characters is exactly what makes it resonate so powerfully with the people who stick with it.

2010 · 10 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animation, Fantasy, Comedy

Adventure Time started as a goofy cartoon about a boy and his magic dog and slowly revealed itself as one of the most ambitious animated narratives ever attempted. Its willingness to tackle loneliness, identity, trauma, and love within a candy-colored post-apocalyptic world earned it a place in animation history. The middle seasons drag with filler and the mythology can feel impenetrable to latecomers, but the highs are extraordinary. This is a show that grew up alongside its audience, and the emotional payoff of that journey is something few series in any medium have matched.

2023 · 1 Season · Max · Animation, Sci-Fi, Drama

Scavengers Reign is one of the most visually original animated series to arrive in the streaming era, building an alien world so richly detailed that the planet itself becomes the show's most compelling character. Its commitment to showing rather than telling makes for an immersive, almost hypnotic viewing experience. Character depth doesn't always match the worldbuilding, and the deliberate pacing will lose viewers who need more narrative momentum, but nothing else on television looks or feels like this. Its cancellation after one season means the story remains unfinished, which stings, but what exists is remarkable enough to stand on its own.

2007 · 4 Seasons · Disney Channel · Animation, Comedy, Musical

Phineas and Ferb turned a simple summer vacation premise into one of the smartest and most consistently entertaining animated comedies of its generation. Its songs are absurdly catchy, its humor works on multiple levels, and the Perry and Doofenshmirtz dynamic is one of the best comedic pairings in animation history. The formula gets repetitive if you binge too many episodes back to back, and the show never really evolves beyond its established structure. But within that structure, it operates at a level of craft and wit that most children's shows can only dream of reaching.

1999 · 11 Seasons · Fox / Comedy Central / Hulu · Animated Sci-Fi Comedy

Futurama carved out a unique space in animated comedy by combining sharp science fiction concepts with the kind of emotional storytelling that can leave you emotionally wrecked by a 22-minute cartoon. Its original run on Fox remains one of the best stretches of animated television ever produced, packed with clever writing, memorable characters, and a handful of episodes that rank among the most emotionally devastating in the medium. The multiple cancellations and revivals have created an uneven viewing experience across its full run, but even the weaker stretches contain enough spark to remind you why the show keeps getting brought back. Few comedies have ever balanced brains and heart this well.

1997 · 28 Seasons · Comedy Central · Animated Sitcom / Satire

South Park remains one of the boldest comedies on television, willing to say things no other show would consider and often finding something true in the process. Its fast production turnaround lets it engage with the world in near real-time, and when the satire connects, nothing else on TV comes close to its combination of absurdity and insight. The crude animation and relentless vulgarity will always limit its audience, and the show's increased political focus has divided even its most devoted fans. But across nearly three decades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have built something that no other animated series has attempted on this scale, a comedy that refuses to leave anything off-limits.

2019 · 5 Seasons · Max · Animation, Comedy, Action

Harley Quinn is the rare comic book adaptation that found its voice early and kept refining it across five seasons. Its Harley is chaotic, violent, vulnerable, and laugh-out-loud funny, and the show built an entire Gotham around her that feels more alive than most live-action versions. The Harley and Ivy relationship gives the series an emotional core that grounds even its most absurd moments. Later seasons don't quite reach the heights of the second and third, and the violence occasionally tips from darkly comic into gratuitous. But as a complete package, this is one of the most entertaining and emotionally satisfying animated shows DC has produced.

1999 · 16 Seasons · Nickelodeon · Animation, Comedy

SpongeBob SquarePants produced one of the greatest runs in animated television history during its first three seasons, establishing characters and comedy that became permanently embedded in pop culture. The decline after creator Stephen Hillenburg stepped back is real and well-documented, with several middle seasons delivering mean-spirited, creatively bankrupt episodes that bear little resemblance to what came before. Later seasons recovered some ground but never fully recaptured the original magic. At its best, nothing in animated comedy touches it. The problem is that its best represents only a fraction of what the show eventually became.

2010 · 8 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animation, Comedy, Fantasy

Regular Show took the simplest possible premise and turned it into something brilliantly unpredictable. Two slackers try to avoid work, and somehow every episode escalates into cosmic chaos, supernatural threats, or interdimensional warfare. The 80s and 90s nostalgia gives it a warm, specific personality, the character relationships feel genuine, and the humor lands with remarkable consistency across eight seasons. Some episodes blur together due to a repetitive structure, and the final season's space setting divided fans, but the show's ability to find real emotion inside absurd situations makes it one of Cartoon Network's finest achievements.

1992 · 5 Seasons · Fox Kids · Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

X-Men: The Animated Series brought Marvel's mutants to a massive audience with a level of narrative ambition that Saturday morning cartoons rarely attempted. Its willingness to adapt complex comic book storylines, tackle themes of prejudice and identity, and treat its audience as capable of following serialized drama set a standard that superhero animation measured itself against for years. The final season's production collapse is painful, and the animation never matched the quality of the writing throughout the run. But the storytelling confidence and emotional weight of its best arcs, from the Dark Phoenix Saga to the Sentinel conflicts, represent something truly special in the history of animated television.

2019 · 4 Seasons · Netflix · Animation, Sci-Fi, Anthology

Love, Death & Robots is animated science fiction at its most ambitious and its most inconsistent. When an episode connects, combining a compelling story with a distinctive animation style, the results can be breathtaking. When it doesn't, you're left with a technically impressive but emotionally hollow exercise. The anthology format means both experiences are inevitable, often within the same volume. Four seasons in, the show remains the best showcase for the range and potential of adult animation on any streaming platform, even if it has never quite achieved the consistency that would make it a masterpiece.

2013 · 5 Seasons · Cartoon Network · Animated Fantasy

Steven Universe broke new ground for children's animation through its music, emotional intelligence, and inclusive storytelling, though uneven pacing and a rushed conclusion keep it from reaching the heights its best episodes promise.

1997 · 13 Seasons · Fox · Animated Comedy

King of the Hill remains one of television's finest comedies about ordinary American life, finding extraordinary humor in mundane situations through patience, observation, and genuine affection for its characters, even as later seasons dilute what made the early years special.

1989 · 37 Seasons · Fox · Animated Sitcom / Satire

The Simpsons produced what many consider the greatest run of comedic television ever made, with its first eight or nine seasons operating at a level of wit, heart, and cultural sharpness that changed the medium forever. Everything that came after has been a long, slow coast downhill, and that's both the show's tragedy and an unfair standard few programs could ever meet. Modern episodes aren't unwatchable, but they're a faint echo of what this show once was. The golden age alone earns its place among the all-time greats, and that body of work continues to influence every animated comedy that followed.

1994 · 5 Seasons · Fox Kids · Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

Spider-Man: The Animated Series brought the web-slinger to television with ambitious multi-episode arcs, strong voice performances, and a willingness to tackle the character's deeper themes of responsibility and sacrifice. For many fans, it remains the definitive animated version of Peter Parker. Heavy censorship from the Fox network crippled the action sequences, the animation relied too much on recycled footage, and the CGI cityscapes have aged poorly. These limitations hold it back from matching the best of its era. But the storytelling ambition and the emotional core of Peter Parker's journey give the series a lasting appeal that technical shortcomings can't entirely diminish.

2024 · 2 Seasons · Amazon Prime Video · Animation, Musical, Comedy

Hazbin Hotel is a show bursting with creative ambition and musical talent, brought down by a pacing problem it hasn't fully solved. The character designs are memorable, the songs range from catchy to flat-out impressive, and the premise of a rehabilitation hotel in Hell offers endless comedic and dramatic potential. But cramming major character arcs into single episodes leaves emotional beats feeling like plot checkboxes rather than earned moments. There's a great show in here fighting to get out, and when individual scenes click, the energy is undeniable. It just needs more room to breathe.

2005 · 22 Seasons · Fox / TBS · Animated Sitcom

American Dad! spent its early years trying to escape its creator's shadow, and somewhere around season four it succeeded completely. Roger's limitless personas became the engine for the show's best episodes, the Smith family dynamics found a groove that balanced absurdity with genuine emotional stakes, and the writing pivoted away from topical political humor toward something much stranger and more rewarding. The TBS years gave the creative team freedom that produced some of the show's strongest work, even if the lower budget occasionally showed. Twenty-two seasons in, consistency is the main issue, with a growing gap between the episodes that land and the ones that feel like they're coasting.

2009 · 14 Seasons · FX · Animated Comedy

Archer delivers some of the sharpest dialogue and most inventive comedy in adult animation during its peak years, but three seasons of dream sequences and diminishing returns in its later run prevent it from sustaining the brilliance of its early promise.

2013 · 8 Seasons · Adult Swim · Animated Sci-Fi Comedy

Rick and Morty at its best is inventive, emotionally complex science fiction comedy that uses infinite universes as a playground for ideas no other show would attempt. Its first three seasons delivered a rare combination of absurdist humor and genuine philosophical weight, wrapped in animation that pushed the boundaries of what the medium could do on television. The show's later seasons lost some of that magic, and the behind-the-scenes upheaval following co-creator Justin Roiland's departure created a visible fault line in the fan community. What remains is still smarter and more ambitious than most animated comedies, but the gap between its peaks and its recent output is impossible to ignore.

1999 · 24 Seasons · Fox · Animated Sitcom

Twenty-four seasons in, Family Guy occupies a strange spot in television. Its best years produced some of the funniest animated comedy of the 2000s, with a willingness to go places other shows wouldn't touch. The worst stretches leaned so hard on the cutaway format and shock value that entire episodes felt like a string of loosely connected sketches held together by nothing. The show has survived cancellation, cultural shifts, and a fanbase that can't seem to agree on whether it's still worth watching, which might be the most Family Guy thing about it.