We are living in the golden age of adult animation. Or so everyone says. The splashy phrase was first bandied about in 2017 by publications who pointed towards the neverending run of The Simpsons and to the small but rabid fanbase growing around Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty as evidence that adult-targeted cartoons were on track for astronomical success.
Three years later and there’s little doubt we’re living the prophecy as far as American cartoons are concerned. As streaming wars rage on, Netflix, Amazon and others like them are throwing millions of dollars into a format that had up until recently been relegated to three-hour blocks on a network’s graveyard shift.
This month, the critically lauded FX series Archer released its 11th season. Just last week Netflix offloaded its latest offering, the puerile gym-teacher saga Hoops, with spy-comedy Q-Force set to follow close behind. We live in a time where a cartoon about a talking bronco – that’ll be BoJack Horseman – is spoken about in the same breath as iconic cult comedies Peep Show and Veep. But how did we arrive at this so-called golden age? And what comes after?
