User blog comment:Jamesgrout/Top 5 Worst and Best Amazing World of Gumball Season 4 Episodes/@comment-30307603-20170318220042

Now, first, I must preface this by saying that Season 4 is my favorite season of the show thus far. I find to have a lot of episodes that I really enjoy, and I personally felt I left the overwhelming majority of the episodes satisfied with not too many qualms.

While I will concur with you and say this season isn't as "feely-good" as Season 1, I still believe that this season is far more pleasant-feeling than Season 2. Seasons 3 through 5 honestly feels like they hit a nice balance between the light and the dark aspects, and it makes the show more enjoyable in turn. Season 2, while started out fine, did go through a phase in which nearly everyone was an unpleasant and insufferable jerk, especially Gumball. Season 4 fares better in characterization; Gumball, for example, is now an egotistical and sightly irrational but well-meaning and friendly kid.

Moving on, I disagree with most of your stances on the bad episodes. Admittedly, I wasn't too fond of "The Slap" either when the synopsis initially leaked; however, the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it. I found that "The Slap" was an episode about pushing the boundaries in terms of innuendos, and I felt it did it successfully. The majority of the jokes didn't miss a beat with me. If I ever decide to redo my own "Best Season 4 episodes" blog post, "The Slap" has earned its place on the list. Although, it does come down to whether you like the kind of humor the episode presents; i find if you don't like that kind of innuendo humor, you're not going to like the episode. The same kind of thing applies to "The Hug", but not to the same extent.

"The Traitor" is another episode I enjoyed; yes, Gumball is kind of a jerk to Alan, but it makes sense. Gumball has always had a dislike towards Alan of sorts (he only sucked it up in "The Storm" because he felt guilty for what he did), and it comes down to one of Gumball's flaws: his ego. He's not trying to be a bad person or anything, but seeing Alan so effortlessly come across nice guy while he has to put legitimate effort into it bugs him. It makes sense why Gumball would want "expose" him. However, unlike "The Saint", Gumball actually ends up doing a noble thing and saving Alan's mother. Whether or not your a fan of the trait, you have to admit it's a very nice sense of evolution for the character.

I feel like I'm the only person who loved "The Roots". While I do agree that they could have done without the line suggesting that the Wattersons are okay with emotional manipulation and that t would have been nice to see Darwin get a bigger bowl in the end, overall I find it to be a very strong episode. It really emphasized how much Darwin means to the family, and I found their attempts to help Darwin "Feel at home" very akin to a family trying to be overly-politically correct, which only made me laugh even more.

I also really loved "The Scam" as well; putting aside the Darwin/Carrie moments, I got a really "fun" atmosphere out of it, with 3 friends going around and pranking others for candy. I do feel like Gumball's jerkiness in this episode is very entertaining; he just comes across as so hammy in this episode that it's hard not to like him.

Now, the hate for "The Girlfriend" is something I've never understood. While it's far from the best, it's not as bad as people claim it to be. I felt as if this episode and "The Advice" both existed to push the boundaries on what could be done with the cartoon violence. While I feel that "The Advice" executed it much better and was a much stronger episode, I do feel "The Girlfriend" has some good jokes going for it.

Also, the only mention to "The Club" in "The Advice" is Darwin's position on his swimming team.

I agree with most of your favorites, and I've typed a long enough comment as is, so I'll just end it here.