User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Season 5 Retrospective Review: The Problem Child/@comment-9300845-20171109033333/@comment-31194372-20171109062005

Alright. Let's do this. Characters

As I said, one of the reasons Season 2 worked so well is that it took advantage of having such a unique and exciting cast, especially in sticking them in such a painful contrast to Gumball and Darwin's combativeness. Season 5 did incredibly well, in that regard. and even with our main duo playing more subdued roles, that simply allowed the show to take more diverse routes. (Contrast the difference in character interactions between "The Stories" and "The Petals," for instance. Now do it with "The Boombox" and "The Promise" and notice how much less burdened Season 5 is with its characterizations.)

The issue with Richard was less that he was getting overly-repetitive roles - if anything, the show's been particularly creative in exploring how to use him - but it's simply minimized the amount of time spent with Nicole (though, as a plus, he did activate Anais having more roles in the main cast rotation, which is always a good thing; if only she had any larger roles outside of "The Guy..."). My fatigue was probably more on the part of deprivation from others than coasting along off of him, if that means anything.

Also, since you've brought it up: why the heck has the show so scarcely done episodes that simply involve the family and their inner dynamic? Outside of "The Fuss" and arguably "The Nuisance," they've been frustratingly scarce.

Storytelling

My issue with "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" is that classic, convoluted Matt argument of them being too great for their own good, but I stand by it: they mark a monumental end to something, so bringing Rob back in "The Ex," no matter what precedes it, means the episode won't work very well. The shift back to a comedic approach for Rob, too, serves to dull a lot of his character's nuance, too... I like what the episode's trying to do, but it messes a lot up.

Other than that, perhaps Season 5 is supposed to be a sort of breather, though I still don't quite see the point in that. The past season was really the first time that the show tried to assemble more complex storytelling, and even there, it didn't burden the season as a whole particularly much. I fail to see how Season 5 couldn't follow up in doing something similarly, or at the very least, I wouldn't mind seeing that which has already been established being integrated as opposed to wasted.

Humor

Yeah... to be fair, I probably shouldn't go to Kaiju expecting validity, but "Americanization" is an interesting little something to think about nonetheless, at least as a label that fits Season 5 disturbingly well.

And for the record, I don't have a problem with the show trying to do some socio-political satire - "The Gripes" and "The Vision," for instance, are prototypical examples of how adept the show is when it's at peak form - but at the same time, the show needs to scrub out that mentality that they have some moral obligation to deliver us this message, which prompts soulless and checklist-oriented episodes. I like that this sort of subject matter allows the show to theoretically show how incisive it can be, which is one of its better traits - that sheer fearlessness to rip something apart in front of us - but the show needs to do so in a meaningful way for it to really work.

Concessions and Conclusions

Even if I consider Season 5 a moderately-successful experiment and nothing more, being able to declare it an "experiment" is leagues and bounds better than calling it a tired retread. Things didn't always work out, clearly, but it's great that the show continues to be as ballsy as it is, and it's great that the show hasn't backed down.

Always great to see your comments, Zoe!