I was trying to find a way to say the same thing but you worded it way better than I could.
I think this series was definitely something that influenced young me towards leftism for the reasons you described. It was the first series I read where the adults were all shown to be faking their way through life and all the bureaucrats had no idea how to run the system. Contrast it to a real lib book like Harry Potter where the solution at the end is Harry becomes a good cop to fix all the problems.
Isn't there a through line about sectarianism, maybe?
spoiler
When the members of the VFD turn on each other for, what I vaguely remember, a pretty petty reason. (Wait, was it petty? Or was it a split caused because some of them made a WMD level biological weapon stored in a tea pot?)
But some people joined it because they believed it was about starting various fires around the world.
Damn, I wonder if that was in the Netflix series or if I just completely missed that part of the description of the VFD after the kids find out about it...
Regardless, a lot of depth and a good mystery to spin out over the course of a series.
Lots of shades of gray and materialist understandings of human behavior, often pitched from the initial black/white worldview and spun out into something more complex and deep.
Also, I really enjoyed the joke of an entire cheer leading squad chanting "You can't beat a dead horse".
deleted by creator
I was trying to find a way to say the same thing but you worded it way better than I could.
I think this series was definitely something that influenced young me towards leftism for the reasons you described. It was the first series I read where the adults were all shown to be faking their way through life and all the bureaucrats had no idea how to run the system. Contrast it to a real lib book like Harry Potter where the solution at the end is Harry becomes a good cop to fix all the problems.
deleted by creator
Jerome Squalor is right there with him
Never read the books but did watch the series...
Isn't there a through line about sectarianism, maybe?
spoiler
When the members of the VFD turn on each other for, what I vaguely remember, a pretty petty reason. (Wait, was it petty? Or was it a split caused because some of them made a WMD level biological weapon stored in a tea pot?)
deleted by creator
spoiler
Damn, I wonder if that was in the Netflix series or if I just completely missed that part of the description of the VFD after the kids find out about it...
Thanks for the breakdown!
Regardless, a lot of depth and a good mystery to spin out over the course of a series.
Lots of shades of gray and materialist understandings of human behavior, often pitched from the initial black/white worldview and spun out into something more complex and deep.
Also, I really enjoyed the joke of an entire cheer leading squad chanting "You can't beat a dead horse".
Oh yeah, I thought it was a hoot!
I've also been a bit of a fan of Patrick Warburton since the short lived live action "Tick" series and this show scratched that itch.
Highly underrated series, although the Amazon reboot was also good.