Weight Watchers is an RPG.

Think about it. As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers’ points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you’ve used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up — by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren’t apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I’ll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!

Even the Weight Watchers web tool is amazingly gamelike. It has the poke-around-and-see-what-happens elegance you see in really good RPG game screens. Accidentally snack on a candy bar and ruin your meal plan for the day? No worries: Just go into the database and see what spells — whoops, I mean foods — you can still use with your remaining points.

Quick! Do a save throw for hot dogs!!

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I dunno who started this whole thing, but after the success of the likes of Pimp Juice (legitimately supposed to taste kind of good — check out the ratings on BevNet) and whatnot, now we have the newly released Crunk!!! Citrus and, inevitably, Drank.

Admittedly, I’ve never even tried any of these things — but when something supposedly contains ingredients like the mystical “Ashwaganda” and enchanting “Horny Goat Weed,” you know it’s on.

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The basic premise of Chowder involves the main character, a chubby and always hungry cat-ish kid, working as a disaster-prone apprentice of Mung Daal, a caterer in the bustling psychedelic metropolis of Marzipan City (the food-name gimmick isn’t as precious as it sounds…promise…). A large and engaging cast of characters and intricate, unpredictable screwball plotlines are the show’s other, um, essential ingredients.

Admittedly, with its bright, happy colors, food fixation, stoner humor, and overall fuzzy amiability, it’s kind of a hippie show. But then again, I’m kind of a hippie. So, keep that in mind.

Clever, weird, inventive, and unpretentious, Chowder builds and improves on the greatness of Spongebob Squarepants’s first few seasons the same way that show streamlined the bizarre brilliance of Kricfalusi-era Ren and Stimpy. Sharp, charming characterization; a colorful, surprising, fully-realized world; an artistic style that combines Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry with three generations of kids cartoon animation; a loopy, funky soundtrack that epitomizes the warm goofiness of the show; a welcome attention to detail; and knowing shout-outs to random counter-culture touchstones like Katamari Damacy make for the best show about food on television besides Top Chef.

Chowder airs on Thursdays, I believe. Also, the show’s creator, C.H. Greenblatt, has a nice little blog.

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