"Family Shatters" came and went with a whimper. A lot of people didn't care for it and I don't blame them, but all in all, I do think this series was an improvement over Zero in nearly every way.

I do think it was held back by its insistence on being non-canonical and being too reliant on sitcom tropes; had it remained a side series focused more on the everyday bullshit of Viper and Shatter Squad both before and after RvB: Zero, maybe even being an official Season 19 in the process, I think it would have fared better with fans who at the end of the day, were just looking for reasons to like these characters. Tropey gimmicks don't do that, slice-of-life character studies do. There are exceptions in both cases, but spoiler alert, this list mostly follows that path of logic.

That said, Family Shatters did still give me plenty of reasons to like these characters. Most of the cast is improved here compared to Zero, or at worst, on par with Zero. There are plenty of jokes that land and plenty of scenarios where you really feel like you get to know the cast beyond their shallow archetypes.

There are also plenty of times where Family Shatters doesn't do this.

Its episodic nature and its lack of concern for canon mean that every week offers something completely different. So rather than reviewing the series as a whole, I found it best to rank the episodes individually.

For further insight into how I think about them, my weekly reviews on each episode's discussion page are mostly up-to-date, but for the TL;DR versions, here you go.

D TIER - Really don't understand what they were trying to go for here.

• #11 - "Episode 3: "Walk and Talk"

The stuff between Zero and Phase was solid enough but the episode's strange gimmick and absurdly-fast pacing, coupled with the fact that Shatter Squad was really talking about nothing most of the time, made it hard for the episode to really resonate with me beyond a confused shrug. This might have worked as part of a bigger episode, but not as the main draw for it.

C TIER: Nothing really happened, did it?

• #10 - Episode 1: "Shatter Squad Needs a Pet"

I don't even think this episode is bad but compared to everything else that followed it, I find it hard to remember anything worthwhile beyond the tropes they were trying to lampoon. The most I can say I recalled about the way the characters behaved was that Phase is a cat person. It was a decent first impression for what the show was going for, it certainly didn't overwhelm you, but if the rest of the series had maintained the same momentum, it probably would have just been mediocre.

• #9 - Episode 4: "Beach Episode"

I get it. Budget cuts are a bitch and this episode was trying to stick it to Rooster Teeth. This is pretty much the only reason why it's higher than the premiere. But even if they didn't have the resources for a bigger episode, that doesn't mean the actual script had to be so... barren. Beyond the odd blink-and-you-miss-it character moment, a majority of the episode is devoted to listing out episode tropes in a very Jax-esque way without any real creative angle to it. Instead of talking about what Shatter Squad would do at a beach, they talk about what any other show's characters would do at a beach. This doesn't help us learn more about Shatter Squad. The only reason this ranks higher is because of the ending, which is petty in all the right ways. Props for pulling that off.

• #8 - Episode 10: "Special Guestmas"

Really only as high as it is because it featured classic characters we all like. The fact that they acknowledged Sarge, Lopez and Santa without sodomizing their characters the way the previous season did is already a plus, even if it's an insignificant non-canon episode. And it was nice to see them again. But the episode wasn't especially funny and again, the premise was too tropey, focusing so much on the "special guest" angle that the episode had less time to have the characters naturally bounce off of each other. And the episode has the gall to acknowledge it's anticlimactic without actively doing anything to fix that glaring flaw? What a waste.

B TIER - Points for trying, these could go somewhere cool.

• #7 - Episode 5: "Freaky Friday"

The premise might be excessively tropey and Raymond's contributions do not help with letting that slide, but at the end of the day, this episode allows the duo of Phase and East to shine more than the gimmick they're tied to. That said, it's still too short for the whole story to feel like there was anything to attach ourselves to. Had this episode been allowed to explore its characters being attached to this premise for longer, it would have probably been one of the best ones. I can see the potential this episode offers as far as new things to learn about the cast; Phase and East being legitimately different personalities, them actually having to struggle with coexisting, Raymond specifically being able to tell them apart, this is good stuff; if only it wasn't so brief.

• #6 - Episode 6: "The One With the Escape Room"

Like the previous one, this episode also struggles with making the most of its ideas with its short time frame. The concept of Shatter Squad solving an escape room is funny but the execution leaves a lot to be desired because one, the episode is too short, and two, too much of the episode is spent on fourth-wall trope humor instead of letting the characters vibe in a more natural way. If at least one of those two things were polished up, this also could have been one of the greats.

• #6 - Episode 11: "Hard Boiled"

This one was surprisingly fun. Not at all Red vs. Blue, and definitely an underwhelming finale, but still an amusing detour that gives us a little bit more meat to West, a character who otherwise really doesn't get a lot of attention in this series. That combined with the cute character moments between the film noir gimmick make this objectively good, but the fact that said gimmick is mostly just noise because it doesn't feature the real versions of the cast keeps this from being something I'd want to see more of in the future.

A TIER - Oh shit, these are good?

• #4 - Episode 9: "Buzz:Kill"

Stupidly simple and yet oh-so-appropriate for Red vs. Blue. All this episode is is a bunch of military nitwits trying and failing to kill a wasp, but it's charming from start to finish and for the most part, gives us exactly what we'd expect from these characters if they were in this kind of a situation, right down to the gratuitous kung-fu explosion combat sequences. Not exactly an eye-opening character study, and that along with my personal preference for episodes that are easier to pretend are canon keep this from being higher up, but make no mistake, this is still a lot of fun.

• #3 - Episode 2: "Night of the Living Dad"

Axel's my favorite Shatter Squad member and I'm so glad this episode gave me more reasons for that opinion to be validated. Everything he does here is an absolute treat that represents his positive qualities and flaws perfectly. He's the lame dad, let him be the lame dad, let his lame dad things be the center of conflict between him and the rest of the squad, let that conflict bring out the best in the other characters too (sans One who's still bland as cardboard), and let Shatter Squad's emphasis on action bring out over-the-top sequences that separate them from the Reds and Blues' way of doing things. The episode ends kind of abruptly which is why it's not any higher, but I still love what this brought to the table regardless.

S TIER - The Golden Standard for Shatter Squad, inject this into my veins.

• #2 - Episode 7: "Phase's Reputation"

Despite my personal distaste for Family Shatters episodes that have no possible way of being canon to the show, I still have to acknowledge that this episode does what every episode should: uses jokes as an opportunity for the audience to learn more about the characters. This type of setup has been done to death so this isn't getting any points for originality, and none of the jokes here are absolute gut-busters, but every instance where a rumor about Phase is juxtaposed by her chill pastimes just makes me smile. I want to learn more about this character who clearly has a lot of mystery to them, and this episode provided us with just that. Outside of the annoyingly '90s "My X's Y's Z's cousin told me..." running gag, I have nothing negative to say here. Have our characters sit around and talk about each other more often. It leads to good things.

• #1 - Episode 8: "The Unbearable Lightness of Zero"

This episode single-handedly made me like Zero as a character, and it only makes his first season all the more annoying because his portrayal should have been exactly like what it is here. Zero's pretentious and childish personality is the perfect anchor for villainous comedy, because he behaves in a way that's impossible to take seriously, and it's used to full effect here as Zero's presented as a guy who's so up his own ass that it's unironically hysterical now that the writers made it clear this was done on purpose. Every joke lands, both on Viper's side and on Shatter Squad's side. The premise revolving around Zero's daily schedule blends perfectly with the military setting of RvB instead of being a wacky sitcom gimmick. Everything is in service to the characters, so even if Zero's the central focus, everyone gets something memorable here, even One. And it's so seamlessly integrated into the middle of RvB:Z's plot that it might as well be canon in my eyes, because nothing here contradicts Shatter Squad's first story. If anything, this episode actively enhances it. It's a shame that not every episode could have been like this one, but at the very least, we got this single diamond in the rough that makes me confident about Shatter Squad's staying power if they keep up this kind of momentum.

For those who sat through all of this series, which episodes did you like most and least? I'd like to hear thoughts from every fan who sat through the mediocre to get to the good stuff... even if their definitions for such are different from mine.