Ginger Snaps Review

Ginger Snaps is an unusual cartoon, not because it's a show aimed at a mature audience, but it's a show from the ABC Network. Now for those not in the know, ABC is one of the major television networks in the United States, alongside NBC, CBS, Fox, etc.

What is unusual is that ABC is owned by the Disney company. While Disney is no stanger to producing content above the PG rating mark, to most people, Disney is associated with family-friendly content. So it is a surprise that ABC, ergo Disney, would have a cartoon like Ginger Snaps.

And unless I'm mistaken, this is also ABC's first attempt of making an animated series for mature audiences. When you think of cartoons for older audiences, you'd think The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers, which are all under Fox. Or Metalocaplypse, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Rick & Morty from Adult Swim. South Park from Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom, that also owns Nickelodeon and MTV. So I don't really recall ABC having an adult cartoon previously, let alone Disney.

The premise of Ginger Snaps is simply about Callista and her group of girl scouts selling cookies at their local school and neighborhood. Except this is done mafia-style. Imagine something like the cast of The Sopranos or Breaking Bad de-aged to little girls and instead of selling drugs, it's cookies. But everything else on mafia-themed shows and movies is intact in Ginger Snaps, with dark comedy thrown in for good measure.

And I was laughing all the way to the bank. I'm not a fan of dark comedies, but it's so well-written that even someone like me would laugh at it.  It doesn't stop there though. At 9 episodes with roughly 9 minutes each, Ginger Snaps has an ongoing arch thst does tend to get serious at times, but remain deeply interesting.

The mature rating in Ginger Snaps is due mainly to several sexual references found within the show. For the most part, despite all that, Ginger Snaps is mainly more within the content you would often see in Fox's lineup like Family Guy. So it tends to lean more in the TV-14 or PG-13 ratiing.

Now I hear it is the networks themselves that decide how to rate the shows instead of some review rating body or what have you. So ABC and Disney chose to give this a MA rating because it features school girls talking smack with sexual references and a bit of violence thrown in. It may seem obvious, but consider that in America, the stigmatism that cartoons are meant for kids still lingers, even with shows like South Park. So ABC and Disney wouldn't want to get complaints because people didn't get the memo that Ginger Snaps is absolutely NOT a cartoon made for children.

And for all those reasons not only is Ginger Snaps not airing on TV except on ABC's Video-On-Demand service, the show also doesn't get any kind of marketing or hype and the episodes are uploaded quietly. I haven't even heard of Ginger Snaps until just last week. It's kind of weird for ABC and Disney to wanting to make this series and have it out there, but also keep it niche and not get too popular so as to not stain their family-friendly reputation. Which is a shame becaue the show really is great and you should do yourself a favor and watch it. I guarantee you'll have a blast and hoping for a Season 2. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give ABC's Ginger Snaps, a 4 out of 5.