User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Picnic/@comment-30307603-20170302223223/@comment-31194372-20170303012950

I don't think "The Picnic" is that good but I also don't think it was a complete crapshoot. I just think it's the best episode to come out of the formula of Gumball and Darwin being inept at doing anything because the forest motif allowed for another layer of jokes. Episodes like "The Genius" and I would argue "The Spoon" suck because there's a lack of common sense in the characters on top of just a general layer of mundanity and predictability in what's happening. This episode at least acts more unpredictably in terms of what's going to happen next.

Yeah, Season 1 isn't nearly on the same level as the rest of the series, but it still has its moments. It definitely picked up towards the end to a point where I think that "The Helmet" is actually a standout episode for the series. I will interject in saying that I personally thought that "The Mystery" was terrible (I only really liked the scene with Penny- the rest was dull and meandering the whole time) and that "The Quest" was really boring. On a similar note, I've always been really unimpressed with how the show uses Tina because there's not any variance. I think it was smart for the show to pretty much drop her because she's both a pain to animate and fairly one-dimensional to the point where there's not much more you can prod at for material.