RJ Writing Ink’s Response to the Premiere of Regular Show: the Lost Tapes
Regular Show, our glorious kings, thank you for returning to us after all these days!
In 2010, Cartoon Network began what many fans now regard as its rennassiance era. And while Adventure Time was the show that showed the way, there was another cartoon that was just as important for the channel’s success in the 2010s: Regular Show. Created by a former creative director on The Misadventures of Flapjack by the name of J.G. Quintel, Regular Show is an animated sitcom about Mordecai and Rigby, two twenty-something slacker best friends working as groundskeepers at a park. Their days, though, are often derailed when whatever problem their facing spirals into something crazy, extreme, and often supernatural. Between its surreal nature, memorable characters, and blatant pop culture references (especially regarding the 80s), Regular Show proved to be an instant success, running for a good eight seasons and getting its own movie before wrapping up in a one-hour finale in 2017. And that felt like the end of that.
As for myself, I wasn’t an immediate fan of Regular Show when I randomly came across it while watching Cartoon Network. But I’m glad that I stuck around, because it came into my life at just the right time. I was in my late teens, only a few years younger than Mordecai and Rigby, so I wound up emotionally connecting with the characters. I saw how getting older didn’t mean I had to stop being a kid at heart, and more importantly, it solidified my belief that cartoons can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of how old they are. I consider the series finale to be one of the best I’ve ever seen on TV, and promised myself that I would support Quintel on whatever he would do next. But then his next show, Close Enough, got the rug pulled out from under it on HBO Max, and he went dark. Until the day came when we learned that Regular Show would be getting a revival, Regular Show: the Lost Tapes. And now, that revival is well underway on Cartoon Network.
Jolly Good Show, Pops!
I wasn’t able to watch the premiere of The Lost Tapes live due to my day job. Thanks to the magic of DVR, though, that wasn’t really an issue, as I got to happily watch it afterwards. And not only did that first segment feel like absolute magic, it also serves as the perfect framing device to set up why this revival is called The Lost Tapes.
The revival opens on the familiar setting of the park sometime after the events of the series finale, but before the gang reunites after the big timeskip. Everything is nice and peaceful, no chaos to be found anywhere. However, it then immediately transitions to the Afterlife, now home to the jolly man himself, Pops. Having sacrificed himself to save the universe from being reset, he is now living his best afterlife in Heaven as we get a montage to the sound of “Mr. Blue Sky” of him enjoying himself alongside many of the deceased cast members of the show.
I won’t lie to you: I wasn’t expecting The Lost Tapes to start like this, but I am so glad that it did. Getting to see Pops again got me super emotional as I remembered all the good times I had watching the show back in the day. Getting to see him enjoy eternity with character’s we’ve seen throughout the show’s run was even better. But the icing on the cake had to be watching Pops relive his lifestory through a VHS tape containing all the events of his show.
That VHS tape, in fact, is an important plot point. It’s revealed that when people die and go to Heaven, they get a tape with all their memories on it. The fact that Pops watches it repeatedly feels like a commentary on nostalgia and holding onto the past, but then again, does it matter at this point? Pops is dead. Barring reincarnation being a thing, he’s free to be as nostalgic as he wants. Or he would, if his tape didn’t break.
The rest of this opening segment revolves around Pops trying to fix his memory tape, not wanting to forget about his friends. In the process, though, he comes into conflict with a mysterious guy called Mr. Jampft(?), who is trying to persuade people to give up their tapes in favor of uploading them onto some kind of streaming service. Pops is reluctant to go along with this, and he is right to feel this way, as this group is destroying the tapes in the process.
I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it feels like this is Quintel commenting on how streaming has felt in recent years. It’s easy to find what you want to watch on a streaming service, but if they want to remove something from their platform, you can’t do anything about it. Case in point, Quintel’s next show, Close Enough, got pulled from HBO Max. Now the only way to watch is through piracy or third-party sites, and that has to be frustrating for him.
Regular Show: the Lost Tapes feels like we never left
It’s already been said by various YouTubers I follow, but it seems that this opening segment for The Lost Tapes serves as the setup for an overarching story for the entire season. A story that’s set to culminate in an episode called “The Ultimate Format War.” I don’t know how it will play out, but if it’s anything like the Format Wars from the original show, I know it’s going to be good. In the meantime, though, Pops isn’t able to fix his memory tape. However, he does find a box filled with new ones we haven’t seen before. They’re literally lost tapes! Taking them home with him, Pops pops the first one in as we get one of the best transitions to an episode ever as the familiar title card for Regular Show drops, taking us into the actual show.
This was absolutely perfect, in my opinion. It managed to set up this anthology series without stepping on the already perfect series finale. It explains why we’re only now seeing these new adventures. And best of all, it seems that Pops is going to be facing some sort of big adventure in the afterlife. I’m a little concerned at how a bunch of the episodes are being released every weekday, but I’m too excited to care that much. I’m just glad that Regular Show is back for a while, and aim to savor it!
