User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: Individual Appeals: Part II

For the first half of this article from last week (and some fun context), CLICK HERE.

Introduction
First of all, I would like to say that this was definitely one of the most difficult articles I've ever written. The big issue is that I unwisely chose to carry over all of the hefty arguments to this week, meaning there's a lot more to try to take down. As fun as it is to try to debate with an argument containing true backbone, at the same time, it's a lot more difficult, and specificity leaves little room to address anything outside of the point. That being said, challenges are always appreciated, so let's just get through this.

/u/ChristopherMartin92: "The Fridge"
"Misleading name aside (the godd-mn fridge/chart is never brought up again outside of the first act), The Fridge goes against what we know about Nicole. Why would a loving, if not somewhat unhinged, mother go to such extreme lengths to get her son to amount to something meaningful? Why throw him into these dangerous situations? Isn't there a better means of encouraging him? Also, did we really have to see Darwin smacking him repeatedly in the face with a dodgeball? And there's also the scattershot pacing (again, why the hell should we care about the fridge), which goes from point A to point B without much warrant.

"The Star Wars references were nice, as was the last act, but that's like adding sprinkles on a pile of sh-t."

It always seems like whenever Nicole pushes it a bit too far, people tend to get worked up, which is unfortunate, because I think it usually works out fine. A sense of rage has always been part of her character, though I totally get why people hate it to this kind of extent - in this episode, she presents Gumball with an unwarranted and extreme sense of tough love by, among other things, making him almost get struck by lightning and ditching him in the middle of the desert to fend for himself.

I understand the argument completely, but I don't think it's counter-intuitive to Nicole's character. I think the whole episode is just based on the idea of blowing a simple plot device - the fridge - wholly out of proportion, and Nicole was the most reliable character for the necessary role. Is Nicole a terrible mother in this episode? Yes, and it's incredibly difficult to argue against that, but it serves a purpose.

At the very least, Gumball actually served as the voice of reason throughout the episode, which is so rare for Season 2 (in which he was almost perpetually the catalyst for conflict) that I feel the need to point it out. There needs to be some acknowledgement when a character goes too far, so I thought that Gumball fulfilled his obligation perfectly and consistently.

Further, I don't think the pacing was that bad: this was an episode that can be easily divided into three acts. First, there's the introduction of the fridge concept to instigate the episode, with Nicole's awareness of Gumball's incompetence becoming the focus. The next act involves Nicole trying to make Gumball the winner, all while the effects of the chart distort the rest of the family - Darwin becomes aggressive and Richard breaks down. In protest, Gumball points it out to Nicole and demands the chart be torn down, thus launching the final act: the paintball war scene.

I don't see how the episode's pacing is any worse than any other episode. The standard seems to be an introduction, a bloated middle section, and a resolution - that can all be clearly discerned from "The Fridge." If you're concerned with the middle section feeling disjointed, that's only because it attempted to load up on as many jokes possible to wear down Gumball without too much sequential rhyme or reason.

Going off of that, I think that while the chart doesn't really do much directly following the introduction, it all goes back to its effect on the characters. The way that the characters around Nicole and Gumball behave is all bent due to the power of the chart: it's only upon the chart's devaluing that the internal conflict can close.

(That being said, the mating call running gag was delightful. I'm a fan of jokes that start of as unrelated but actually secure a purpose later in the episode, e.g. Anais in "The Copycats." I know I already called the joke out last week, but it's that good of an example of quality writing.)

/u/TheCoolKat1995: "The Limit"
"Some of the Season 2 episodes where Gumball was flanderized into an enormous a--hole and didn't get any sort of comeuppance, because the writers seemed to think everyone being mean to each other made the series funnier that season."

This is a bit different because there's not that grand of an argument against "The Limit" so much as general Season 2 complaints, but I feel like it's worth tackling anyway, especially because /u/TheCoolKat1995 and /u/Lrj_ brought up a lot of interesting points. First of all: the episode itself.

"The Limit" is another one of those episodes where people like to call out Nicole as out-of-character, but at least in this case, there's justification to it. The whole objective is to try to teach the characters a lesson, with the kids (and Richard) being excessively petty in their attempts to get chocolate at the grocery store and, in the process, pushing Nicole over the namesake limit. It's cruel, yes, but there was no other way to really pursue the episode without making the kids act out as insufferably as possible.

That's what I think the episode's success was: it was able to clearly demonstrate that Gumball, Darwin, Anais, and Richard were in the wrong. It's an incredibly important distinction and one that the show proved incredibly inept at doing throughout much of the season. Tragically, the consequence of turning every character into antagonists against one another is that there's nobody to root for - to quote Kat, "It's a mistake a lot of series make actually, but a show comprised of petty, unrepentant jerks ultimately isn't sustainable, it's part of the reason why Spongebob and Seth McFarlane's comedies quickly devolved into bad shows."

Granted, I don't think it's that terrible, but that's only because this episode had an intention in making the characters jerks. Other shows seem to enforce that behavior out of a lack of understanding as to how the characters should function (especially in regards to modern Spongebob - I can't vouch for Family Guy, though it looks pretty rough). At least in Season 2 the characters were fully fleshed-out and served specific purposes, though that doesn't mean that they were made to be inherently likable. As I mentioned when discussing "The Dream," the love-it-or-hate-it factor of Season 2 stems from one's tolerance of unexaggerated cynicism. I don't mind it because it allows for more realistic characters, but at the same time, I can get why it's so frustrating. At its core, the most important thing about characters are their likability, and when that factor is lacking, we're just watching a ton of terrible people doing terrible things. Who would consider that a valid form of entertainment?

Further, /u/Lrj_ added that, in line with British comedy (which the show stems from), "The focus is on the flaws of the protagonists, not on those around them. Allows for more interesting and relatable scenarios, more believable characters. But if you don't get it right, then the characters just come off as a--holes."

There was so much of this issue in Season 2 that it's ridiculous and can be really off-putting, and this episode was a prime example. The one thing that I didn't care for in the episode at all was the complete marginalization of the lesson attempting to be taught. There are times when undermining a feel-good moment work ("The Bros" and "The Gift" stand out as prime examples for the shock value alone), but negating legitimate emotional impact definitely hindered "The Limit." There's no reason for the lesson to even exist if we know that none of the characters, aside from Nicole and Richard, were changed at all from the experience. If anything, the fact that only those two was affected makes the whole thing worse - the kids made them more immune to their whims, after all. And thus the a--holery prevails.

At the very least, I think that one of the episode's smartest moves was to make Richard the true victim of Nicole's fury. Sure, the kids are the true catalysts to this particular instance, but it was Richard's inability to be a proper parent that ultimately pushed the proceedings too far. It's an interesting twist to say the least and I appreciated that the episode almost sought to delve deeper into how the family functions and comment on Richard's general incompetence. Throughout Season 1, episodes seemed to straddle along the idea that Richard was a terrible parent and that it was cool regardless, but here they're finally acknowledging it as a serious issue. It was an important step for the show to evolve.

/u/funwiththoughts: "The Ex"
Alright. I have a lot of material to work through, so I'm going to take it in chunks.

"The whole thing felt like I was watching a mirror universe where the characters all had their personalities flipped. In past episodes, Gumball has always been head over heels for Penny and usually can't even be bothered to remember Rob's name. Now all of a sudden Gumball spends a whole episode obsessed with Rob and basically ignoring Penny. It makes no sense."

Yes, the Penny neglect is an issue I've been hearing a lot of, but it's in line with the episode's main conceit. The entire first half is based on mocking the cliches of a teen movie breakup, with Gumball pigeonholed as the woeful victim. Meanwhile, this leaves Penny as the character attempting to support Gumball through the "breakup," and I assume the joke is that she was forcefully relegated into the position (without particularly wanting it). Her entire existence serves merely to amplify Gumball's unhealthy obsession with Rob to a point of Gumball completely ignoring the object of his affection, and while it serves that purpose fine, it only really makes their relationship look worse, with the attempt at making it up to Penny in the end existing entirely out of a necessary sense of reassurance (but while not registering that much).

In a similar vein, there was an interesting argument between Guy and Valer on this post that I think warrants a mention. Basically, Valer argued that Gumball's fawning over Rob comes less from affection and more from the character's immense desire to be involved in everything. It's a decent point, especially considering that the same principles apply as in "The Others," (which I'll be discussing next week if all goes well,) and I think that the writers may have been attempting to conjure up something along those lines, but Gumball probably acted out a bit beyond that (if not for the sake of carrying breakup cliches).

"They also didn't even try to come up with a sensible reason for Rob to hate Banana Joe. The reason why Rob being Gumball's nemesis worked so well in the first place was because it made so much sense. Gumball and Darwin went out of their way to rescue Molly from The Void without even noticing that he was trapped too. Of course he would hate them and want to get back at them. Later, Rob realizes that Gumball isn't as bad a person as he thought, and he decides not to kill Gumball when he has the chance, but he also knows by this point that he's in a TV show and that being Gumball's enemy is the only thing that makes him an interesting enough character to keep around, so naturally he thinks he has to keep being the villain for Gumball to foil in the future even though his heart's not really in it anymore. Now he decides to try to kill Banana Joe instead because... why exactly? They don't even attempt to come up with a sensible answer."

I agree that there's no legitimate reason. I think the reason Banana Joe was chosen was more because he was an interesting enough character to work with, as well as being criminally underused as of late. Molly definitely makes more sense from a continuity standpoint, but if even the show is willing to point out how dull of a character she is repeatedly, I doubt the writers have enough confidence to make her a decent enough foil. They could really only play into the card of her being oblivious, which wouldn't work as well.

"And then the ending... whose idea was that? Rob calls Gumball the most selfish and inconsiderate person he's ever met, even though Gumball risked his own life to save Rob after Rob had wrecked his car, made his brother hate him, ruined his parents' marriage, nearly killed his girlfriend twice, tried to trap him in the Void, and tried to prevent him from ever having been born, because he accidentally turned his phone's light on at an inopportune time?! I know Rob is the villain, but come on! It seemed like the episode was just made as an excuse to reverse Rob's change of heart at the end of The Rerun, which is a shame because that could have set up a very interesting plot line if they showed how Rob being the villain out of necessity instead of genuine hatred would impact the way they fought, especially since Gumball would have no recollection of what happened and might not even realize that Rob no longer actually hated him."

Here's the real issue of the episode: it exists solely to warrant more delving into the concept of Rob as a villain. Here's my thinking: everything for Rob after "The Rerun" was a lose-lose situation. Either the writers had to undo everything they accomplished in "The Rerun" or, conversely, never bring up Rob again, and as much as I think resurrecting Rob wasn't the ideal solution, I don't blame the writers for wanting to keep the storyline going. The biggest issue is that the situation has peaked - conflict between Rob and Gumball won't ever reach that level again, meaning any subsequent episode would be okay at best.

This is the same issue with Tina after "The Fight." Admittedly, I don't think the character was that great at sustaining plots in the first place, but "The Fight" was just a nail-in-the-coffin for the character. Once the sympathy card has been played, there's no way to really continue using the character any further, which is especially true for Tina, where the climatic revelation of "I'm not actually mean" undermines her entire existence in the series as a bully. Once robbed of that position, the character can't be used meaningfully again. I think the writers saw that and didn't want to give up on Rob either, but the issue is the fact that "The Rerun" was, by design, the resolution to the Rob storyline. Continuing after that is just enormously petty.

With that being said, this episode was really the only original way of reopening the plot. Granted, I don't think that it was a particularly good move for the series, but this was probably the best way possible to reintroduce the character, and I found the general idea of applying movie cliches to at least reflect some thought into the proceedings.

Guy: "The Gripes"
''"The Watterson brothers are too whiny for the first act, and after the first minute, their repetitive moans get irritating fast. In addition, I find that they push the "town is too gullible" gag for way to long for it to be entertaining. It goes on for on and on and there is no punchline to it outside of "HA! Look at the townspeople being too generous!" The climax and the conclusion was good, though, as well as the Richard and Anais sub plot.''

"Admittedly, it's a mild dislike, but everyone took most of the ones I dislike, so to stay original, I figured I would submit this."

I'm always surprised at how underrated "The Gripes" is. I guess it's in line with Gumball and Darwin being mopey and irritating, but it's actually some nice, pointed commentary on privilege, at least until it spirals out of control. I get that the brothers' whining probably got tedious, but I thought that there were enough different ways to show their gripe that the joke was kept enjoyable. More importantly, though, it serves as build-up to when everything comes crashing down.

I actually found the overly - generous townspeople fine because it served to corner Gumball and Darwin. The fact that these characters have established a sense of sympathy only helps to fuel their intensity when they find out they were 'lied to.' The proper balance between both facets (the build-up and the payoff) is debatable, but I think that it worked out exceptionally: the more Gumball and Darwin blindly set themselves up, the worse it would come back to bite them.



Either way, I do agree that the Richard-Anais sub-plot was the most enjoyable aspect of the episode. You'd think that the writers would employ the pairing more often, but this was really the only time they showcased it. There was just a nice dynamic between the characters and it was well-paced, with Anais having her patience tested while trying (and failing until the end) to explain sarcasm to Richard. The fact that he successfully employs it at the end, though to an adverse effect due to the tenseness of the situation, was a smart moment. (Bonus points to the "High-five!" sound effect, of course.)

I also agree that the conclusion was smart, but for me, it's because it downplayed the potential moral message behind the episode. It makes sense, really: the episode starts off under the guise of attempting to teach us a lesson, but that viewpoint gets immediately lost once the climax kicks in, so instead of reverting to teach a lesson at the end, the Wattersons just have to subdue the crowd enough to reach a proper ending.

Admittedly, "The Gripes" isn't a classic episode (or all that memorable to most other people), but I think that it at least explores its subject matter in an interesting way without being too preachy and while deploying a lot of strong ideas along the way.

PhoenixKenny: Multiple Episodes
Alright, so Zoe (are we tight enough to call you Zoe? Probably not. I'm still doing it anyway. Talk about being a renegade... I'm so sorry) sent me a nice handful of episodes that she doesn't think too highly of, so we're going to take them one by one.

"The End"
"Has been spoiled by many people multiple times. Don't like fake doomsday plots in general."

Let's be fair: we don't watch Season 1 for the plot. [INSERT LAZY JOKE AS EASY METHOD OF GETTING BANNED] It's more about taking generic prompts and seeing what direction they take, and this is a prime example of that. There's no denying that the end of the world is a particularly stale plot, but I thought that the way the premise was executed was at least interesting and a surprisingly good outing for so early in the series.

I personally think, for example, that this was one of the few Season 1 episodes to properly show the Wattersons and their respective places in the family. Gumball is the leading man (however dopey he may be), Darwin is the sidekick that gets one good line every once in a while, Anais and Nicole are trying to rationalize the situation, and Richard is hyperactive in his belief in the kids' fears. I don't necessarily think that the Season 1 characterizations were particularly good - adequate is probably a better word to describe them - but I thought that, for once, all of the characters were actually understood to an extent.

Further, I thought a lot of the jokes thrown in worked particularly well. For one thing, the timer as an overarching plot device allowed for the episode to be paced nicely, however weirdly inconsistent the jumps in time ended up being. In addition, the noncompliant self check-out aisle is probably one of Season 1's finest moments. It's a simple joke, sure, but it's very representative of how the show conducts humor even now by taking some mundane, tedious activity and making it an impediment to progress. By making the device almost sentient and condescending, it took a lot of delightfully unexpected turns.

Ultimately, I felt this was a strong episode for Season 1. Yes, I get that the plot is contrived, but that's just in line with Season 1 in general. It's all about how far the premise can be carried, and "The End" was able to elevate everything by imbuing the idea with the spirit of the show.

"The Sock"
"Gumball and Darwin being dumb and gullible as hell. Character(s) being made dumber than usual for the sake of the plot are one of my biggest pet peeves. Forced stupidity ≠ good comedy. Also applies to my dislike of "The Spoon."

First of all, I also hate "The Spoon," though I'll delve more deeply into that a bit further down the line. On the contrary, though, I think that "The Sock" is one of the finest outings for the fledgling show. I think the big difference between the two is that "The Spoon" casts the characters as not only idiots, but as lacking a fundamental understanding of the fundamental dichotomy between "good guys" and "bad guys," which is a concept so simple that it's essentially an innate behavior. Here, the confusion comes more from the increasing convolution of Mr. Small's messages, so I think that the whole premise works much better.

I get that Gumball and Darwin are still lacking some common sense in this episode, but it works because it's not their fault entirely. The joke is the internal conflicts caused by otherwise simple lessons interfering with one another, and it works. Sure, it can get a bit predictable after a while, but the sheer volume of ways that they misinterpreted the messages and the refinement of Mr. Small's lessons from "Be honest" to "Just shut up" was enjoyable.

Further, I think this episode was a nice prototype/proof-of-concept for the episodes that would come to define Season 2, with a lot of emphasis on interaction with side-characters. Those episodes tend to be a mixed bag (though I usually enjoy them more often than not), but this was a particularly strong outing in the genre because the supporting character actually had an effect on the situation and progressed the episode (unlike, say, "The Promise," where the focus is more on Gumball and Darwin).

Also: shout-out to the window joke. There's something about Rocky jumping out of the window for no reason at all aside from continuity that's just ingenious.

"The Countdown"
"Don't like time-travel plots in general (although I admit the on-screen timer as a means of time travel was pretty clever.)" "The Countdown" has to be one of my favorite episodes out of the series. This should be interesting to tackle.

Once again, I understand how cliched time travel plots are, but to the show's credit, they made it as unique as possible - something that so few shows manage to do successfully. First of all, yes, the on-screen timer was brilliant. It's amazing how the show is able to beat the everlasting crap out of the fourth wall without looking too desperate for attention, and I think the timer is a great example of that. It's a simple enough gag, but the ways that Gumball and Darwin perceive it - for instance, being shocked that it continually hangs over them as well as the time discrepancies - are a thing of beauty.

Then, the episode takes it up a notch, with Gumball and Darwin accidentally freezing time, making for a great twist, especially in regards to the nonchalance in which they perceive it. After that, though, the episode's climax takes the cake, with the two manipulating the timer to try to end up in the classroom at just the right time, unleashing a series of paradoxes and misfortunes in the process. Heck, there's even a joke about if the Nazis won WWII. That should sell you on the episode immediately.

If how I'm talking about this episode sounds kind of weird, I think it's because this is one of those rare episodes that keeps topping itself. There's never really a dull moment, and right when a joke starts to turn stale, a new angle is pursued to enliven the experience even more. If your sole issue is just the fact that it's not original, then I legitimately don't know how else to defend the episode. It takes a generic prompt and creates the best episode possible - that requires arguably the same amount of skill as forging a new concept altogether.

"The Downer"
"Overhyped and frankly disappointing. (There were lo'ts of people who were expecting some kind of a huge and epic plot involving the Void.)"

I sort of agree about "The Downer" being a bit overrated, but that doesn't make it a bad episode. Also, because I wasn't as active a fan when the episode was leaked (I think it was along with the last few episodes, though my memory may be a bit foggy), I wasn't a part of the whole Void conspiracy. I don't know how much that initial disappointment impedes on your appreciation of the episode, but it was just baseless speculation. Don't let that hinder how you feel about the episode.

Either way, there's only one real complaint I have about the episode: the ending suffers the same issues as "The Limit" in the sense that a meaningful message is completely overturned in favor of some reveal that completely undoes the impact. It's the one weak point in the episode: this is an episode about depression, which they literally liken to being alone in the world, but they completely ruin that message by showing that it's all in Gumball's head and that his qualms actually had an adverse effect on the world around him. (At the very least, it was better than Spongebob could muster up with the same premise .)

Once you get over that, though, the concept is fascinating. Few shows are daring enough to tackle a topic like depression this head-on, so TAWOG already gets bonus points for that alone, but the sheer darkness of the episode is perhaps one of its strongest features. It's an episode dedicated to Gumball coping with his loneliness, and while it starts out innocuous, by the time the shadows start to leak into the episode, the show demonstrates a more sinister and deep hold on the subject.

If there's another complaint I can see people having (though not one that you specifically mentioned), it would be the ease at which the conflict is resolved. Look, I've had depression and it does suck. Further, I can understand some people arguing that the episode is unrepresentative of the severity of depression based off of how simply Gumball is alleviated of it. At the end of the day, though, this is a kid's cartoon, and the job was done more than just serviceably.

Also, please leak the original storyboards Ben

Alright. Now we can move on. This is the new longest blog post on this site. My poor keyboard and early onset arthritis.

Sidebar: to /u/supersinger9000 and /u/SirSurreal69 for suggesting "The Genius" and /u/SaraBellum42 for suggesting "The Diet": I'm sorry I couldn't argue against y'all! I could be smug, but I'll admit that there are things that I can't do: namely defend that which is indefensible. You guys probably think, "Hey, he has terrible taste, I bet he likes 'The Genius.'" I don't, and I apologize for otherwise being a disappointment.

Also, as much as I would've loved to include /u/jowijo, I didn't have enough to work with! If you send me some complaints about "The Mothers," I'll work it in for the next article.

Either way, thanks to everybody for participating! Next week, we'll be returning to the tried-and-true formula with "The Others." I'll catch you then.

For last week's article where I tackled even more user suggestions, CLICK HERE.

(For my personal blog full of comprehensive reviews, CLICK HERE.)