Kevin Johnson, The AV Club

Kevin Johnson

The AV Club

New Jersey, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • The AV Club
  • Den Of Geek

Past articles by Kevin:

Global conspiracy comedy Inside Job sabotages its own ambitions

Shion Takeuchi and Alex Hirsch take Gravity Falls’ penchant for mysteries and conspiracy to the adult animation realm → Read More

DuckTales’ series finale brings the family back together for one last epic adventure

DisneyXD's DuckTales ends with "The Last Adventure," a series finale that's beautiful, slick, twisty, and emotional in all the ways the reboot always has been. → Read More

Pacific Rim: The Black is a bleaker take on the franchise, and all the better for it

The Netflix anime series Pacific Rim: The Black spends a lot of time pushing back on the film franchise's frenetic use of explosions, battles, colors, and destruction for something richer, darker, and emotionally draining. → Read More

The appealing Snoopy Show may stretch viewers’ love for the iconic dog

The Snoopy Show generally eschews dark comedy and only dabbles in the more philosophical struggles of the ways life can be a dark, consistent drag, where small moments of joy or contentment can feel momentous, mostly depicted through Charlie Brown himself. → Read More

10 episodes of Animaniacs that are zany to the max—for better and worse

While Animaniacs could be sharp and clever, it could just as often be esoteric, dated, or just plain mean-spirited. → Read More

A strong The Owl House finale nevertheless exposes flaws that no magic can cover up

"Young Blood, Old Souls" inadvertently exposes the overall flaws of a show that still manages to present an enjoyable, tense, and intriguing finale. → Read More

The Owl House still doesn’t have a handle on its central trio

The Owl House doesn’t seem to know what to think of its central trio, and can’t quite muster up stories to explain them. → Read More

Close Enough takes "adulting is hard" from meme to snappy commentary

Close Enough shifts its point-of-view from Regular Show’s burnout-aesthetic of twentysomethings to the complex, hazy world of millennials “settling down”–i.e., living and surviving in your thirties. → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars asserts itself as a necessary element in the Star Wars universe

Ahsoka Tano is a Jedi. → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars composes its own dual of the fates

If there’s one core flaw to The Clone Wars, it’s the fact that this entire show has been limited and hamstrung to the events of the Star Wars films (and, to a certain extent, the events that occurred in canon shows and comics). A big part of that means that the show has to write around all of the major events that occurred in those other sources, but the other significant issue is that… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (sort of) brings the team back together for its final arc

From the start, “Old Friends Not Forgotten” signals noteable differences from the tone of the show as usual. There’s a dark green, basic LUCASARTS intro title card. On my screener, it looked specifically, intentionally, low-rez. The Star Wars: The Clone Wars logo appears, but instead of the bright yellow text, it’s in blood red. There’s no more nonsensical quote–just a very direct, very specific… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars fails to make its case for Ahsoka's post-Jedi predicament

Over on Twitter, I learned about a thing called “resets.” Resets are those annoying, wonky moments at the beginning of an episode, or the beginning of an act break after a commercial, where the characters re-iterate or re-state the plot, conflict, or goal as it is up until that point. If you binge a show created in the, well, pre-binge era, you’ll probably notice them a lot more, as the forgone… → Read More

DuckTales' third season finally does what it needed to do–relax and have fun

As much as I have been enjoying this current iteration of DuckTales, there was always something that was nagging at me, something about the show that felt off. There have been a number of epic, amazing episodes, with some fascinating, ballsy revelations, but the one thing that stuck in my craw the most? The absolute non-ending to “The Spear Of Selene!” which struck me more as a weird, panicky… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars runs in an action-packed, dialogue-inert circle

There’s a show on Netflix called Kulipari. It’s not particularly amazing–it’s a frog vs. scorpions tale but in the scope of a Game of Thrones/The Secret of N.I.M.H.-type epic–but one thing each season has is a two-three episode arc that involves an escape plan that goes horribly, hilariously wrong. They’re the best part of the cartoon, showing how insanely hard and crazy escaping from… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars ends its Bad Batch story arc with a big ol' bomb

Perhaps I provided too high a grade for the previous episode, but I also mentioned that this “Bad Batch” story arc had already played its limited hand by that third episode. Any conflict between the “regs” and the Clone Troop 99 was minimal and/or nonexistent, which left only the action and visuals to sell to its audience. I suppose I adjusted my expectations to what best to expect from this… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars follows a signal through harrowing highs and lackluster lows

Rex is, understandably, distraught after learning that Echo may be alive. It’s a pretty shocking reveal, and his emotional connection to that information leaves everyone around him worried that he may be too impassioned to make clear-eyed, focused decisions, especially considering this information may not be true. “A Distant Echo” mostly keeps the the question of whether Echo is alive or not… → Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars returns with the bad boys of clones

Star Wars seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern. The Force Awakens was generally liked but not well-loved; The Last Jedi proved to be quite divisive; The Rise of Skywalker was generally disliked but not loathed. The Mandalorian received mostly positive reviews, but if anyone here watched Star Wars Resistance, you’ll know that kind of reception was not quite the same (I actually did episodic… → Read More

Star Wars Resistance Season 2 Episode 18 Review: The Escape

Star Wars Resistance ends with a bombastic escape but ultimately fails to provide a reason for the entire series in the first place. → Read More

Star Wars Resistance Season 2 Episode 17 Review: Rebuilding the Resistance

The penultimate episode of Star Wars Resistance wants to inspire the need to fight, but doesn’t dig deep enough. → Read More

Star Wars Resistance Season 2 Episode 14 Review: The Mutiny

Any chance of a thrilling, all-out battle for control of the Colossus is rendered moot in an average episode of Star Wars Resistance. → Read More