Why Over the Garden Wall is the perfect autumn watch

It’s the perfect time to watch all the spooky and autumn-inspired shows and movies. There is one show that perfectly captures that fall feeling: Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall. Here’s what makes it the quintessential fall watch.

The weather is cooler, the leaves are falling, and the sweaters are coming out. Fall is upon us! If you’re anything like me, you are looking for that perfect Autumn watch to settle in with a pumpkin spice latte with. Well, I have just the show for you: Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall.

Over the Garden Wall is an animated miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network in 2014. Though it has been out for a few years now and has a small, but fervent following on the internet, not everyone knows about this gem.

The show follows a teenage boy, Wirt (voiced by Elijah Wood), and his younger brother Greg who are lost in a mysterious forest. In the woods, they meet some strange and curious creatures and humans.

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The show’s imagery embodies fall.

In the series, there’s an annual harvest, pumpkin people, a mysterious forest, and falling leaves. Much of the show’s color palette is a Fall palette of yellows and browns. The scenery conjures up exactly what autumn feels like.

It is genuinely scary.

The antagonist of the show is a creature called The Beast. Throughout the series, Greg and Wirt are constantly told to beware of The Beast. The Beast is a figure lurking in the dark shadows of the woods waiting to strike. He’s manipulative and deceptive. It shows how subtlety can be even scarier than over-the-top jump scares.

The Beast is not the only terrifying thing in the show. Over the Garden Wall is filled with creepy imagery including the pumpkin people, an old woman named Auntie Whispers, and a possessed girl.

Despite the scares, it is a cozy watch.

Though there are some frightening happenings in Over the Garden Wall, there are also plenty of moments that make you feel like you are wrapped up in a cozy sweater.

The sequences are due mostly in part because of Greg, Wirt’s younger brother. Greg is innocent and full of curiosity and wonder. He is the essence of childhood. Seeing Greg telling “rock facts” using a rock with a painted face and treating everyone he meets with kindness, gives the audience a sense of warmth. The relationship between Greg and his brother Wirt, though rocky at times, also is “feels”-inducing as the two learn just how important they are to each other.

Over the Garden Wall is available to stream on Hulu.