Day 10: What The F@%k Is A Bubble Guppy?!

For a long time, we didn't have cable. And we really didn't want it because we truly believed that the basics were enough for us. We figured that cable TV was probably just full of more of the reality shows that we were so fond of making fun of and that, frankly, we didn't need that garbage in our lives. We had the news. We had  PBS. And most importantly, we had principals.

Ah, principals. You'd be amazed how fast they go away when you find yourself addicted to Mad Men and Breaking Bad but realize that your only option on a Sunday night is a dusty rerun of Antiques Roadshow. And then, if that wasn't reason enough, we found out that for the amount of money we paid to not have cable was actually more than it would cost to add an extra  300 channels to our lives. So principals be damned, we caved. Consumerism:1, Team Prentice: 0.

Anyway, due to an increase in options, my kids have ditched their usual morning tradition of Sesame Street in favor of something new. And different. And let's face it, downright creepy.

I don't know how many of you out there are parents and/or children's cartoon connoisseurs but I need help understanding exactly what it is that I'm looking at here.....

It is a show called Bubble Guppies. From what I can gather, it's about a gang of mutant mermaid pop stars who are led by a giant shape-shifting Goldfish and accompanied by a mermaid dog. If it sounds like a really cool, interesting show, then I must not have described it right. Did I mention that there is singing? So. Much. Singing. My kids love it but personally, if I'm ever captured and tortured for any reason, playing this show over and over would be a much more effective way of getting me to talk than waterboarding. It's awful. 

My first inclination after seeing this show for the first time was to immediately picture writers sitting around a table in a hot, windowless room dropping acid because honestly, who thinks of this stuff? What's funny is that I actually think a lot of thought goes into this show (what it lacks in plot or awesome it makes up with in educational value. Allegedly). There are probably teams of people researching the best way to incorporate educational value into a fun, colorful cartoon that kids will love and their parents will despise. Most likely with no drugs in sight.

But what can I say? It's relatively educational and basically the only thing the kids want to watch on TV and most of all, we did kind of bring this on ourselves. It's amazing the things you'll put up with just to have a little Don Draper in your life.