There's a lot of shows people like on Cartoon Network that I've sat through many episodes and just couldn't do it. Gumball is a good example of that, so is Uncle Grandpa and things like Kids Next Door from back in the day that they're apparently bringing back now.
I'm not disparaging anyone's taste, but for me these shows were empty of heart, their writing was quite typical of throwaway "Saturday Morning Cartoon" dreck (which isn't to say it's a Saturday morning cartoon, but that when people remember fondly how rad Saturday Mornings used to be for cartoons as children they forget how much garbage was sandwiched in between the good shows. I think Kids Next Door would have been such a throwaway show imo). Lots of sight gags and physical humour, but lacking that next tier - actual character drama that is funny but simultaneously says something meaningful.
Steven Universe is a show whose inspirations are so firmly rooted in reality that you can almost see the real people that made these characters possible. When you see the drama between Lars and Renaldo, that externalized attack by Lars - that Renaldo would care what people think if he knew what they said about him behind his back - was alarmingly truthful, it clearly spoke to a real experience someone must have had or heard about. Not that anything supernatural was connected to it, but the pain of trying to be someone you're not merely to try not to look 'uncool' in the eyes of society around you. The same goes for Connie, who says to Steven if he really wanted to stop being friends she would stop and go back to having no friends again, if only he said it to her face. These are powerful character driven moments that are earned throughout the shows episodes, and is something the writers deserved to have so effectively delivered because you know it's coming from a real place. How many GAFers can't relate to growing up lonely, head in their books, having few friends and holding on tightly to the ones they did have? Connie is smart, accomplished and a truly loyal friend... but she also has strict parents and her bookworm-ish nature by default sets her apart from other kids. That's real life unfortunately, but it also means the show has a captivating undercurrent that is as mesmerizing as it is astonishingly well written.
And there are countless characters from Sadie to Greg who are similarly well fleshed out, through carefully inserted character moments that really maximize the usefulness of eleven minutes of air time.
To me, that's why Steven Universe is not just the best show on Cartoon Network right now, but also one of the better shows the channel has ever had after one season. It's playing in the big leagues now as far as I'm concerned.
