User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Curse (feat. C. R. Martin)

Hey, so I hope everybody's summer is going off without a hitch. Maybe it's over. It's probably over. I wrote this intro in July, okay? I've had this particular article brewing for what I can only describe as way too long, but it's finally done and we can celebrate that.

While the previous collaborations I worked on took the form of debates, since the whole theme of this particular installment of "A Second Opinion" was more based on examining underrated episodes, I had to try to find another format entirely. What it ended up becoming was less about people arguing and more about people collectively praising.

This is going to be one of the most casual articles I've done. Like, imagine two dudes just sitting around and chatting about an episode - that's pretty much what this is. There's not disagreement so much as discussion about what made an episode work as it did.

Well, the special guest - and the one who decided on the episode worth discussing - is C. R. Martin, a very nice individual who's been around the reviewing circuit for a while and is, who I consider out of my incredibly limited periphery of reviewers on Youtube, one of the leading reviewers of the show on Youtube. I'll let him introduce himself. Segue.

C.R. Martin: Setting the Stage
Greetings and salutations, one and all. I am The One and Only C. R. Martin. You might recognize me for my presence on YouTube as an animation critic who’s ventured into different territories, though you might also recognize me as an (as of the time of writing) inactive member of this very wiki. My bread and butter is of course The Amazing World of Gumball, a show that I am steadfastly enamored with since its inception six years ago and have since considered my definitive favorite animated series of the present-day generation.

Before moving on to the article proper, let me just say what a pleasure it is to be here today, and thank you, Matt, for having me here. It truly is an honor. I could explain the details as to how this collaboration came to fruition, but I doubt that’s what these articles are about. What I can say is that Matt was the one who approached me about this collab, and he and I agreed to "The Curse" as our topic of interest for this article after I suggested it to him.

My reason for choosing this particular episode is that even since its initial airdate, I’ve held it in a higher esteem than other people seem to. It could be mistaken as naïve favoritism towards the show on my part, but rest assured it is not. I mean, it might have been since I was young, unversed and lacked the critical perspective I have now, but I feel I can coherently state my case as to why this is a diamond in the rough in a season widely considered uncharacteristic of the series later in its lifespan.



"The Curse" is a fascinating thing, especially as someone who's followed the show since its beginning. I've noticed, at least from my own observation, that initially the episode was praised as one of the better outings in its first season, but those feelings changed as the show matured and it's gone to one of its worse episodes.

I personally understand why this sentiment exists; the demographic (well, the periphery demographic, anyway) is quite sensitive in regards to mean-spiritedness towards characters that are undeserving of it. It might have something to do with The Mysterious Mr. Enter's clout in the animation community. His word is often taken as gospel, and naturally his feelings about mean-spirited humor become his audience's feelings, too.

But there are a few factors that make "The Curse" an aversion of the typical flaws in mean-spirited humor.

1. The source of the supposed meanness towards Gumball is not a fellow character who has it out for him. For all he or the viewers may know, everything that happens to him is strictly a sequence of unfortunate events and nothing more.

2. His misfortunes are so far removed from the norm that they become easier to accept; it is VERY unlikely for such a specific and brutal chain of events to happen to anyone in real life, unless they tip over a salt shaker, come across a stray black cat, walk underneath an open ladder, step on a cracked floor or open an umbrella indoors all at once.



This last point is strictly from my observation alone (I'm not sure if others share a similar view), but "The Curse" is also a precursor to the show's subsequent meta-awareness. If you look at it closely, this episode plays around with common storytelling tropes much like later episodes do. In this case, these tropes are superstition-based situations and just plain unfortunate strokes of bad luck. My reasoning behind this is that the Watterson kids call Gumball's ill luck into question and come up with their own crazy theories behind why he's as unlucky as he is. Darwin's theory is especially notable because he directly refers to Gumball's fortune as... well, fortune, and that it is somehow a quantifiable, if unseeable object. That is the type of humor that would feel right at home in the show's later seasons.

All-in-all, I know that the reception for this episode is mixed at best and poor at worst, but if there's one thing to take away from it, it's that it has paved the way for Gumball's brighter spots, much like how an episode like "The Hero" (which I still despise to this day), as you've stated, has paved the way for an episode like "The Choices." Personally, I still find it a bright spot, season one problems aside.

Matt: On Getting it Right
I generally agree. The weird thing about "The Curse," though, is that it follows the very principles of other Season 1 episodes, most notably "The Picnic," and somehow makes them successful.

If it hasn't been made clear previously, I don't think "The Picnic" is as bad of an episode as people make it out to be, but that doesn't make it good by any means, either. My main issue is that it feeds into the most glaring issue with its season: the universe being unabashedly cruel for no reason at all. In that regard, "The Picnic" and "The Curse" are on the exact same level.

The success of the latter, though, lay in an incredibly important twist in the formula: Gumball isn't playing into it. In fact, he's actively trying to deny the universe its victory instead of taking every opportunity to welcome it. Sure, the episode starts out as the expected trial of errors, but Gumball doesn't ever misstep out of idiocy so much as act as a perfectly rational character trying his best, which the universe isn't allowing. It reaches the point where events happen wholly to spite Gumball in ways that are entirely unforeseeable and thus inescapable. I mean, the poor guy gets struck by freaking lightning inside of a gym. That's, like, advanced stuff.

As such, the episode ends up being more similar to series highs like "The Saint" than series lows like, again, "The Picnic." At some point, you just detach yourself from the mortality of it all because it's that insane. It's such a fine line, but against all odds, the show pulled it off before it even knew what it wanted to fundamentally be.



Speaking of the show's fundamentals, I feel the need to talk about the episode's ending, which I consider to be the strongest of its season. Basically, the gang scavenges all of the luck they have (having been purged of Gumball's misfortunes) in hopes of getting Daisyland tickets. By magic, it works, and the tickets fly in through the window... and straight into a fan, shredding them to pieces. Darwin then delivers one final zinger: "Yay, I wished for snow!"

The success of the ending is in the abruptness that it embraces. It's something that's become a cornerstone of the show, and "The Curse" is one of the few episodes to actually pull off something so snappy this early in the series. It doesn't aim to be a happy resolution, or heck, even a resolution. It exists to deny us, and the characters (except Darwin), satisfaction or closure. Even if the show's characters aren't quite cynical, the nature of the show is, and it's a huge leap closer to getting to the point the show is at now. (I mean, compare it to, say, "The Colossus." It's impressive how well the endings mirror one another.)

You might say I'm being pedantic, but that's the point of these articles. Like, you can just leave, man. Go. Wait, no, don't go

C.R. Martin: As a Precursor
Haha, don’t worry. I won’t be going anywhere. Not yet.

It’s interesting that you say this episode is also a precursor to the show’s increasingly-jaded perspective, and I can’t help but concur with your observations there, Matt.

But I feel that it isn’t limited to just the ending of the episode. Pay attention to the other characters’ reactions towards Gumball in his battered, disheveled state. Notice how they seem to be either taking this in stride, or are flat-out indifferent to it. In particular, pay attention to Principal Brown’s detachment—or maybe it’s just obliviousness?—to Gumball’s circumstances. And given the nature of Elmore, aside from certain cases, its inhabitants seem to think that otherwise extraordinary happenings are…well, ordinary, and are accustomed to it. In all fairness, if I were an Elmorean myself, I too would be well-acquainted enough with its idiosyncrasies to the point of numbness.

Upon closer inspection at this facet, my guess is that the complaints about overt mean-spiritedness are lobbied not only at Gumball’s misadventures, but the characters as well for their indifference. That’s all fine and dandy, and justifiable, but while, say, Principal Brown does set in motion the climax of the episode, that is the only real purpose he has in the episode.

Secondary characters like him are less characters and more segues from one point to another. Rather unfortunate, I know, and it’s the closest thing to a complaint that I have about the episode, but it is what it is. Liberties have to be taken in order for a plot to function properly, even if it means using secondary characters in an inconsequential way.

I’d also like to add that even though this episode is one of season one’s more successful attempts at a cynical brand of humor, it most definitely is not the first. The entirety of the season has, to a degree, experimented with it, albeit with very mixed outcomes. On one hand, episodes like "The Responsible" and "The Car" are entertaining in their jadedness for the same reason that "The Curse" is; the sheer distinction between fiction and reality, in both the progression of their respective plots and resolutions.



On the other, the likes of "The Laziest" and "The Robot" could have worked with better care, but don’t because of genuinely infuriating moments—Larry’s string of misfortunes in the former, and Gumball crying himself to sleep in his own backyard in the latter. As a matter of fact, they’re not simply infuriating, they’re just unnecessary. They’re so removed from the setup and tone of their respective episodes, and they may only take up a fraction of the run time, but they impact the episodes so much that it’s hard to ignore them.

To me, that’s another reason why "The Curse" is the success it is; there isn’t a single tonally jarring scene to get in the way of what it wants to accomplish. It is a through-and-through, over-the-top, Final Destination-esque thrashing of our beloved blue cat, and it knows it perfectly well. There’s actual consistency here, which is more than what can be said for majority of season one. It accomplishes the goal it’s set out for itself without any emotional manipulation to dictate how you should feel towards these misfortunes. Unlike a certain episode in the following season.

THEDAYIHAVETOWATCHTHEHEROAGAINISTHEDAYILOSEALLMYSANITY

Ahem, sorry. I just…phew, I detest that episode, but that’s a different story for another day. A story I’m reluctant on telling, and a day I hope comes much, much later…

Matt: As a Success
Woah, just take it easy, man. It wasn't that bad.

To be fair about "The Curse's" downfalls, you have to cut it some slack for, y'know, being a Season 1 episode. Generally, trying to spread out sympathy among characters resulted in unmitigated disasters (I'm thinking particularly of "The Party" and the whole Rachel problem... [ wink ]), and at least having everyone turned against Gumball (or simply indifferent) allowed the episode to stay focused to its basic premise. It doesn't hinder, because at the end of the day, this episode is all about Gumball and how unfairly he perceives the world, a fact further accentuated by how little the world cares about him. Besides, what good would any sympathy do but to smear the point in further to a point of complete malice?

Similarly, I can see that there's strands of cynicism scattered across Season 1, even as soon as the first episode where Gumball and Darwin quickly resorted to begging on the street, but those episodes counter it by making the characters oblivious to what we, as an audience, can sense in it. The characters aren't vain, at least not intentionally, and they shrug off when things get out of hand. Here, though, Gumball actually does something different, so I think "The Curse" as a sort of prototype for Season 2 rings fairly true.



And on the note of consistency, it's interesting how well "The Curse" conducts itself. Season 1 episodes usually have a sort of stop-milk-go mentality where, instead of full-fledged plots, it halts, milks a situation beyond dry, and pushes forth to the next scene with very little actual progression. (That's not to say current episodes, like "The Console" even, don't do that, but Season 1 was glaring in that there was a lot less effort to hide it and a lot more effort to indulge in being an incubus to comedy.) Here, though the show is indulgent, it actually has a story to tell, with strong build-up and an action-packed climax, and it tells it swimmingly.

I might be looking at it a bit too much, but I don't think that "The Curse" was a matter of all the stars magically aligning in the same way that I'd say "The Sock" was a successful entry from the season. Here, every element just feels recognized, like the writers actually knew what they had in mind and a set way to properly execute it, no doubt aided by it being one of the later episodes in the season and having had the chance to naturally find their footing. I mean, there were so many ways the episode could go wrong - it's literally dedicated to beating the crap out of Gumball, for God's sake - yet it didn't, and for once, it was by virtue of doing what it sought out to accomplish.

C.R. Martin (Conclusion)
Thanks once again for having me here, Matt. It was a pleasure being here and to step outside of my comfort zone. Granted, I’m a writer myself, albeit an aspiring one, but this is the first instance I’ve ever written in this format.

Perhaps one of these days, I can get you and even ThatGuy to step out of your comfort zones and join me in a video? Nudgenudgewinkwink hehehehehe.

Matt (Conclusion)
Oh, Martin, you flatter me. And you did good! Maybe we'll be seeing your name around here again at some point, who knows? I mean, I know, but you're not supposed to for the sake of preserving that illusion.

I'm also obligated to plug his Discord server, so here's the invite link if you're interested! You can also subscribe to his channel or follow him on Twitter, which I personally endorse as pretty good ideas.

And yes, I will be returning with Season 3 of "A Second Opinion" on September 7th. I'm kicking off the series with a re-launch of the "Individual Appeals" I did a while back HERE and HERE. It was an exhausting but fun experiment, and I'm looking forward to doing it again on the Gumball Wiki exclusively. Basically, give me your input, and you'll get a way-too-elaborate response to your qualms, however petty. I'll be sure to link that as soon as I get it all set up.

Lastly, to those drawn here by C. R. Martin himself: Hi, I'm Matt. I write analysis about episodes on this site as well as reviews (and other stuff in general) OVER HERE. You can also follow me on Twitter if you're hardcore enough.

I also recently did an article with Guy - another killer writer y'all should be cognizant of - wherein we duked it out over Season 1, which you can check out HERE.

(And a note for commenting: Fandom can be kind of crappy about it. I suggest typing comments somewhere else, then pasting them - in the case that the site declines it for some reason, you won't have to type all of it up again. If the problem persists, log in incognitio. Thank me later.)

In the meantime, stay cool and hydrated. Keep your electronics away from water. I hate outros. See you next month.