Pretty good one, Bob. Though I slightly disagree with you. Sometimes dark and/or gritty is the way to go. Take Battlestar Galactica, for example. The original was a product of its time; very campy and goofy. Even though it dealt with the near-total destruction of humanity, for a show with such a bleak premise, it hardly ever took itself seriously.
Fast froward to Ron Moore's 2003 reboot, which was a 180 degree shift in tone. It was so deadly-serious to the point of cramming-in overt topical references to 9/11, the occupation of Iraq and Abu-Ghraib. It was a decent show, but good god I swear I felt like I wanted to slit my wrists after watching an episode, as it made me feel that depressed.
Still, I don't think the show would have been half as well-received had it been even a little more lighthearted or retained some of its more fanciful elements. Personally, I would have liked a happy medium...something like Babylon 5, which had moments of levity to break-up the more tense portions. But that's just me.
I'm also glad that you at least gave a more reasoned explanation of why you hate the Transformers movies besides "Michael Bay is a douchebag who makes movies for douchebags." So I'll give you credit for that. Still, I have to call you out as a hypocrite. Why? Because you finally come out and admit that the Transformers franchise is first and foremost based on a toy, in spite of your prior assertion that anyone who says that it's nothing more than that is an idiot. And it also undermines your whole "You can make a good movie out of anything," argument. Yes, the focus on Shia LeBeouf's character might have seemed silly, but you still need a human character that the audience can relate to initially. I had the feeling that the second movie would have focused more on the Transformers themselves as the Sam character had served his purpose as our introduction to them. But unfortunately as we know now, the writers' strike sort of sabotaged those plans (I can't exactly fault Michael Bay here, either. Hey, the economy was a wreck and he wanted to keep the people he had under him employed. No, ROTF wasn't good, but I have to at least give the guy credit for providing jobs to people in a bad time.) I personally didn't mind that they tried to "darken" them up a bit and thus make them more acceptable for an older audience. I had the feeling that if they had tried to do the movies in the same manner as the old cartoon show, it would have been completely insipid and unwatchable.
I'm wondering what you think, then of the new Thundercats series, as that also seems to be going for a "grim & gritty" reboot of its own. Do you disapprove of that as well? Because I've always thought that if there was an 80's cartoon show that was ever in need of some serious retooling, it was that one, as I always thought it was incredibly silly and goofy...especially today (time has not been kind to it). This new one on the other hand, looks to be setting itself up as a kind of Game of Thrones for the younger set, which I'm all for. I'll be hoping you do a Big Picture segment on that some time before the new show premieres.