Steven Universe

Our Review

Rebecca Sugar’s masterpiece — the most emotionally intelligent animated series ever made. Steven, the half-human half-Gem son of a deceased alien rebel leader, lives in Beach City with the Crystal Gems (Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl) — his mother’s old war-comrades-turned-found-family — and the show grows up with him: what starts as a monster-of-the-week beach-comber becomes, across 160 episodes, a profound meditation on grief, identity, trauma, and love — queer, found, and otherwise — that treats its young audience with total respect.

The Gems’ history maps emotional truth onto sci-fi structure with unmatched elegance (Fusion as intimacy, the corrupted Gems as PTSD). The songs — “Stronger Than You,” “Here Comes a Thought,” “Love Like You” — are genuinely great. Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding was the first same-sex wedding on a kids’ cartoon network. The finest thing Cartoon Network ever produced.

Verdict: Essential. Believe in Steven.