Over the Garden Wall review
I'm not sure such a production really benefits from a serious review or commentary, it's a fine animation, but I should offer that the reception to this series seems to actually be sensational—not exactly unlike past trends seen with 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' or 'Rick and Morty'. As with those, this also suffers from repetitive assertions about how there are nuggets of 'adult stuff' inside an otherwise innocent cartoon, usually said pre-emptively by someone in their late 20's to early 30's, reviving some sort of defiant trope which was only ever really authentic with the likes of 'Tom and Jerry' and 'Ren and Stimpy' (before it became a reliable genre in itself).
All that is really 'defiant' in Over the Garden Wall is the updated crowd pleasers; 'blink and you'll miss it' media references which may require 'repeat viewings' alongside the off-kilter, blunt introspections of the protagonist, anxious and unrooted in nature.
That this has somehow garnered such acclaim is really more interesting as an observation of the audience itself. Only an arrested development and lack of primary experience could generate such a response. I suspect that this widespread reception is only possible when many are isolated from the bases of life actually portrayed in the series, within the realm of 'The Unknown': children and family, property ownership, local community, the countryside, a big world beyond one's own knowledge...
For an audience with no direct access to any of these, perhaps this series becomes a form of (secondary) emotional content; the kitsch portrayal of life's defining boundaries simply become a backdrop to viewers adrift in an environment totally bereft of everything depicted, but nonetheless are still able to make bittersweet relation to the cast.