User blog:Mattalamode/A Season 5 Retrospective Review: The Problem Child

Season 5. Oh, Season 5. Sometimes admirable, other times tedious... it's the show's equivalent of a mid-life crisis. Admittedly, there's a negative connotation with the term, but hear me out: Season 5 is the show's broadest effort to experiment with what it's already established, whether for the better or for the worse. The show's reached a point of security and comfort, so now it became Season 5's duty to make sure it doesn't get too comfortable with itself by expanding outwards.



So why the "problem child" label? Well... it's not always the smoothest ride. This is the show at its shakiest and its most inconsistent. (You could argue for Season 1, but it at least had a cohesive mentality it was following through with, however unrefined.) Largely contributing to that is that simple indecision about what to do and what the show should chase after, and the result is sometimes great, sometimes less-than-great... but darn it, if it isn't an interesting season to try to dissect...

For the sake of vaguely keeping the post in order, I've organized it into categories pertaining to characters, storytelling, and humor, so without further ado... Season 5.

(Also, if you have a short attention span, simply read the sections in bold in addition to "Concessions and Conclusions." This is a lot of information, and I understand that, but those areas emphasize my larger points for the intimidated.)

The Characters
For the most part, Season 5 picks up after Seasons 3 and 4 with the show's cast, which is alright, though as always, the glaring issues persist. Gumball remains the leading man, and rightfully so - he's a freeing character with enough malleability to support any broad array of premises and behavior - but he continues to swallow up the bulk of the show's focus, unnecessarily dwarfing other characters in the process.



For instance, Darwin's always been a character that the show has struggled with, and in Season 5, his use remains as dubious as ever. His necessity stems from his utilization as the show's moral compass, keeping Gumball in line, but issues arise in his repeated denial of this role, leaving him feeling either superfluous or hollow. Notice Darwin-oriented episodes like "The Matchmaker" that use him exclusively as a plot device without any control over the situation, instead relegating the episode's progression entirely to his brother (and Carrie, who sort of subs in for Darwin), or how episodes like "The Stars" disregard that moral compass role entirely, prompting a pesky, easily-fixable imbalance. These are all issues that could easily be remedied, and that makes things all the more trying.

Even in episodes where he doesn't take as much of a commanding role, the show takes pleasure in depriving him of any significance for the sake of the joke - see "The Box" and "The Ex" - and as nice as it is that the show is at least cognizant of its shortcomings with his utilization, pointing fingers and laughing without actually doing anything to change it only aggravates the issue.



The show also struggled with utilizing all of the Wattersons in general. Oddly enough, Nicole struggled to have much of a presence (aside from some of the season's more successful efforts, of course), while Richard repeatedly rose to the challenge as the show's go-to parent. I can at least see why, considering his comedic energy is far more infectious and fine-tuned to accommodate for the kids (whereas Nicole frequently foils them as the condemnatory authority figure), but he's one of the show's simplest characters, leading to repetitive, derivative plot points at best or grotesque travesties at worst. Perhaps it's telling that Nicole left the greatest impression out of the two in spite of having half the screen-time. (Meanwhile, for better or for worse, Anais just sort of exists.)

On the other hand, the show successfully found exciting ways to deploy its supporting cast by exploring their capacity to evolve. A lot of episodes bring to mind Season 2 and its desire to explore other characters more meaningfully while giving our core duo somebody with a different energy to bounce off of; while Season 5's character-specific episodes frequently isolated Gumball and Darwin in one way or another, it was still nice to see the show's desire to explore its eclectic cast.



There were, of course, some expected duds - "The Slide," for instance, never quite hits its stride in raising Rocky high before beating him back down - but for the most part, the show did its best when it dragged in familiar faces. "The Stories" takes Molly, one of the show's most one-dimensional characters, and joyously pounds in its self-awareness of how one-dimensional she is with a nice touch of optimism; "The Uncle" deconstructs Ocho's underlying insanity by casting him as an antagonizing, sadistic puppet-master that repeatedly tortures an all-too-eager Gumball with little disregard for his well-being; "The Petals" explores Leslie's narcissistic sense of vanity by robbing him of his self-professed beauty. It's exciting to see all of the show's untapped potential find such delightful utilization where even the most perpetually-ignored characters enjoy an episode in the spotlight.

'''In other words, Season 5 succeeded in exploring its periphery, though at the expense of buckling down on its core. I'd argue, however, that the good outweighs the bad.'''

The Storytelling
Hot off of the show's most narratively-driven season finale/premiere, perhaps it's a bit odd that Season 5 dialed back on its overarching story arcs. While this did allow the season to enjoy a nice amount of variability and joyful meaninglessness as Seasons 2 and 3, it also led to a lack of a central focus.

First of all, it's worth addressing the Rob story arc, which is arguably the show's most important. It's... not doing so well. Part of the issue arises from "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" ending his character's utilization too well; there's nothing more to be desired out of him, and he's had his peak. "The Ex," however, annoyingly reconjures the character in the most awkward way possible, and unless Rob is somehow able to step it up, "The Ex" shows a frustrating, "The Apprentice"-level refusal to simply let the show move on.

The show also struggled with a lot of its more "important" story arcs, too. However great of a peak "The Matchmaker" was for Carrie, the show mysteriously failed to explore her much beyond that, aside from the slight nod here and there that she's in a relationship. Likewise, Penny isn't given nearly enough to do; she's as bland as they come, sure (booooo, fight me), but her chemistry with Gumball rarely goes explored.



On the other hand, a lot of the show's other, smaller arcs did quite well. With Alan's arc having little more room to really expand in terms of his altruism, the show hilariously veers into the character's sociopathic tendencies with "The Vision" by selling him as an aspiring dictator with eerie Nazi undertones. "The Catfish," while slightly less successful, similarly expresses that understanding of elevation by turning Louie into a captive in his own marriage, while "The Outside" turns Frankie's penchant sleaziness into unfulfilled cries for mercy, all while the Wattersons ignorantly torture him with misplaced intention.

'''Once again, the periphery is lovably built upon, but the show's larger arcs receive less treatment. Look, complaining about how an episodic series fails to build upon its preexisting narratives is a bit pathetic... that's all I've got. Moving on.'''

The Humor


I think the one scene that epitomized Season 5's largest problems is the now-infamous SJW scene from "The Best." You know the one - Gumball takes after "Ramblr" and adopts an insanely sensitive worldview questionably bent on political-correctness to take down Carmen, launching forth a battle sequence, but it backfires when Carmen preaches on forgiveness.

One of my largest issues with the scene is just how easy of a joke it is - there's a sense of fatigue, but beyond that, the desire to seek attention, which has been detrimental to a lot of the show's subtlety. By all means, good on the writers for so openly attacking SJWs and their discrepancies, but if they were going to do something so tactical, why not dig a little deeper? The scene pulls punches and refuses to look beyond surface level, and the result is a meaningless, easy joke that exists to get noticed.



That's all good and well - I can acknowledge that the show isn't always going to do everything perfectly - but people cling to this stuff and make it popular, which primes the show to do it more and cater instead of guiding itself, and the show, consequently, loses some of its established identity in the process. There's also that the segment was painfully misconstrued, leading people to make broad assertions based on it being taken out of context and causing many tohave unfair expectations and perceptions about what the show is actually trying to achieve in the first place. (Don't even get me started on "The Nuisance...")

The show also struggled with maintaining its comedic identity in general. TAWOG prays on subtlety and incision, and so many times throughout the season, that mentality came painfully loose. Some episodes leaned too heavily on referential humor while not giving enough time to what other elements made them work - "The Uncle" and "The Line," most glaringly - while others buckled down on blunt, crowdpleasing satire that lacked any interest beyond fulfilling a checklist - "The Worst," most notably, and the aforementioned scene from "The Best." Tragically, though, such episodes are what gives TAWOG the most virality and 'respect,' which encourages more of it and less of the show's keen eye for underlying nuances.



'''It's worth pointing out that a lot of these more contentious changes seem concurrent with an interview a while back where Ben Bocquelet discussed an increased "Americanization" of the show's humor. There's a long and arduous debate over British versus American humor that I'm happily to launch for the masochists in the room, but this suggests a frustrating gentrification of how the show conducts itself for the sake of producing a more appealing product that appeals to more people. Sometimes it works - episodes like "The Vase" reflect a mastery of the increased darkness of the show - but sometimes it doesn't - the introduction of gross-out, meanwhile, ends up too reliant on lazy shock value to work. The general result, though, is that TAWOG occasionally feels less TAWOG-esque than it should.'''

Concessions and Conclusions
At the same time, as easy as it is for me to go off into screams about this and that... that doesn't mean it was necessarily bad. Sure, it was burdened by an arguably diluted but objectively more focused outlook, but it's not as if the show reached an inescapable state of tedium. Episodes like "The Copycats" demonstrated TAWOG's razor-sharp ability to produce compelling, meta-aware narratives; "The Choices" shows a mastery of emotional poignancy and teary-eyed sentimentality; "The Puppets," like it or not, demonstrates admirably bold risk-taking, even almost 200 episodes into the series.

There are also episodes that simply demonstrate the show at its best and its most simplistic, such as "The Vase" and "The List." As low-key as they are, they exist to remind us that the show isn't just going for glory and that there's still impeccable care put into the simplest premises, with full knowledge that such episodes will never command the same amount of praise as higher-profile adventures. Basically, they remind us that the show is still a labor of love which, at the end of the day, is all you could possibly want.

Ultimately, Season 5 did exactly what it wanted to do, and we more than less just sort of have to understand that this is what the show wants to do and what it deems important, whether or not that leaves us feeling irritated or not. As much as I've complained about it, TAWOG remains one of the most conceptually-daring, lovably exciting shows out there, and I can't wait to see what the show is able to pull off in its final season.

Final Grades
SEASON HIGHS: "The Choices," "The Copycats," "The Singing," "The Petals," "The Matchmaker," "The Vision," "The Fuss," "The List," "The Vase," "The News"

SEASON LOWS: "The Worst," "The Diet," "The Slide," "The Cycle," "The Boredom"

(For reviews of the show from "The Code" onwards, go and check out my personal blog RIGHT HERE! I promise that they aren't usually this long...)

FINAL GRADE: B. While not the show's greatest season, by any means, Season 5 is an enjoyable ride nonetheless. I may have awkwardly established myself as a bit of a detractor, but it's all out of a place of affection, and TAWOG continues to be its own thing, full of excitement and unpredictability.

As always, feel free to contest my claims in the comments - I fully accept that I present a very specific outlook when it comes to Season 5 (and the show in general, at times), so feel free to disagree. I live for that.

On a more sentimental note, it's been amazing getting to know all of you guys over the past year! To think that I popped in and became one of the show's biggest fans and most controversial critic... that's a lot. Thanks for tolerating my prickishness to some degree, and here's to one more successful year of one of the greatest shows on television. Huzzah!