I thought that nothing could possibly top Rick and Morty, but I have never been so wrong. For me, Gravity Falls is the best series of all time. And it is not for kids. There will be spoilers, so if you have not watched it yet, stop reading right now.
It is charming, it is witty, it is funny and it is also shockingly scary. Nothing is coeicidance and it contains indefinite number of hidden meanings. This is what I personally love. To come back and discover more and more layers and plot twists one missed for the first time of watching.
I loved the show from the beginning. Even though first series is light, mysterious and funny, it also works wery well psychologically. Since the beginning it is so much more than normal cheesy Disney show.
What comes in the next series is however impossible to describe. We are actually witnessing the pure evil, the demon and the archetype of devil himself appearing as a cartoon character!!!! WTF???!! In a Disney show??? Seriously???!!! And when I say devil, I do not mean this funny thing from fairy-tales with the tale and fiddle who can be tricked by clever villiager and defeated easily and made fun of. Ehm. Not even close. The show actually presents picture of Satan in the deepest Christian sense with everything related to it. The tricster. The deal maker. The lord of chaos. Sneakily entering human minds and striving for power and control. Hiding himself in the symbol of Holy Trinity. OMG. Pretty dark and heavy staff suddenly appearing in Disney. Like in the last three episodes when Gravity Falls turn into the cartoon version of Hyeronymus Bosh's Inferno and Bill is having some Master and Margarite style party in his pyramide palace??? IN THE CARTOON SHOW????
But do not get me wrong here. I do not claim like a lot of other commentators that the show is satanic. These comments are retarded. Giving a name and form to something does not mean worshiping it. And the show makes it pretty clear that Bill Cipher is no good character. He is f++king scary! This show is genious! I finally feel like I am taken as a spectator seriously! Like come on - all these Disney villains. Really? We all know there is nothig that much dark about them. Just a bunch of poor broken power striving losers. But Bill? That is completely different level.
What I love about Gravity Falls is however how it all makes sense also psychologically. For example in the episode where Grunkle Stan teaches Dipper pickup lines and ends up trapped by woman-spider in her cave, all wrapped into her web. This is great analogy to the toxic manipulative relationships. It literally sends message - pretend you are something you are not, lie and cheat and you can become easy pray to way worse predator than you are. She will catch you in her nets and never let you go, use you, suck your blood and finally bite your head off.
Interesting was also the end of the show. Mabel was having really bad day. She was scared from turning thirteen, starting new school and mostly being left to face all of it alone, without Dipper. In her weak state she got a chance to act very selfish and what happened - she brought the hell on the Earth. Literally. Exactly like Jordan Peterson says in his book '10 Rules for Life'. This happens in reality too, we just can only feel it, not see it. After that she closed herself in the dream-world bubble where everything was nice, safe and perfect. Outside world in the meantime was falling apart. This one was pretty obvious, but I believe that it is even more complex. I believe that it was the conflict between Gruncle Stan and his brother which brought evil in Gravity Falls in the first place.
Ford Pines has made deal with Bill as a first one. And it was Grunkle Stan's resentment which almost ruined everything. They needed to erase evil from his mind in order to save Gravity Falls. This could be possible however only after the brothers swaped clothes - can this be parallel for using empathy? Resolving conflict healthily? Imagining being on the place of the other person? I believe so. In general, I think that the whole story demonstrates in pictures how old conflicts and resentments can be passed on children and cause chaos and distruction in their minds. Very much similar to apocalyptic scenes of Bill's rule. Suddenly it turnes to be way more real than just cartoonic spooks walking around. This is why I believe this show is the best show I have ever seen. It gives name to unspeakable. It gives form to undescribable. It shows face of real evil. It is playful and fun. It is full of black humor. It is genious.