User blog comment:ThatGuy456/A Guy's Thoughts: Season 5 Review/@comment-31194372-20171120064126/@comment-30307603-20171121030742

Very well.

The Dark Comedy

It is honestly amazing how effective this show is able to pull off dark humor considering most adult-oriented animation fails to comprehend what makes this style of humor and resorts to tasteless shock humor (prime example being Family Guy, which is a very...special show...). I suppose it has something to do with the cartoon's British roots and how black comedy has been normalized into the country's comedic sensibilities, but regardless, to see such a child-friendly show understand the basics to the style and produce jokes that are actually funny is great to see.

The Visuals

Interesting that you mention the "The Choices" and how the change in film quality during the montage represents Nicole and Richard coming to peace with their lives. Another instance of the visuals being used as a metaphor is "The Weirdo"; the crayon drawings and the simplistic character designs represents the simplistic lifestyle that Sussie leads. Likewise, "The Test" uses the 4:3 ratio and grainy quality to represent the decline in the show's quality, both literally (Tobias regressing the show into an old American sitcom) and metaphorically (a genuine decline in writing quality, a deterioration in the comedy). Admittedly, both are slightly more obvious than the use of visuals in "The Choices", but it's still a cool thing to see.

The Variety

-"The Copycats". "The Console". "The News". "The Puppets". No other show would incorporate such radical ideas, and to see Season 5 dabble such different ideas has been quite a treat even if there were some failures along the way. On the bright side, experimentation has taught us that turning your characters into soulless puppets to deliver a crowd-pleasing version of a complicated and nuanced issue because it is cool does not make for good entertainment.

-Don't worry. I have my fair share of holding low-key episodes to a high regard that most people would not. If it has not been obvious by now, I love "The Stories" and hold to a disproportionately high regard to the point I deem it a "Top Ten" episode for the season.

-We are all still mourning of what "The News" could have been had Mr. Bocquelet vetoed everyone's opinions.

The Cast - Addressing "The Deal", I suppose that is a fair counter. However, an episode primarily being about a character's development has not stopped the show allowing supplemental characters from having personality in the past. Despite "The Shell" being about Penny overcoming her insecurities and low self-esteem, Gumball and Patrick still had a strong influence on the episode's narrative. Heck, even the rest of the nuclear Watterson family, characters that did not have too much of an impact on the story, were given a chance to inject their own personalities.

The Topical Humor

- Don't get me wrong; I find to be "The Uncle" to be the stronger episode overall. It is funnier and has a more interesting narrative. However, if we are exclusively talking about topical humor, than "The Line" does it better. There are a fair number of duds, but gags such as the nerd fight or the movie review actually use the references to supplement the joke and make a point rather than just spout references. Keep in mind I have no knowledge of anything Star Wars and have my share of fond memories with Mario. "The Uncle" is at its best when its focusing on its elements, where as the weaker "The Line" is able to get something meaningful out of the references.

- The difference between the gag in "The Sorcerer" and episodes such as "The Detective", "The Vision", and "The News" is that the punchline just does warrant the numerous number of seconds dedicated to them. I guess it was a bit unfair of me to say the show is about fast-paced humor when gems such as "The Detective" and "The Vision" exist, but all of these long jokes about pop cultural idols have no real meat to make the wait worth it.

- Oh, come on. I only mentioned Season 4 in terms of its quality four times and they are scattered all over the place.

- Hopefully this milestone marks to the start of even more great things.