User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Dream

Introduction
When I first devised the list of episodes that I would cover, I devised a few free spaces for user demands. So, in debt to ThatGuy456, here's "The Dream."

But first, the roadblock: my main issue is the fact that I had such a limited idea of why people don't like the episode, so I'm sure you'll enlighten me in the comments a bit more. Don't think I didn't make the effort to find out, though. I dug through the Wiki page, mind you, so thanks for your captivating commentary of "This episode sucks, also The Slap sucks." Heck, some poor guy asked what people liked about the episode and was met with a singular response:

"I personally hated it, so when it ends."

Thanks, guys. You're really making my job a lot easier. Like, some specificity would be nice. It's like if you just walked up to me, punched me in the groin, and ran off: you're not really making any point, are you? (That being said, don't punch me in the groin and launch a discussion on your motives. It was an analogy, and a really bad one at that.)

Alright, so now that I've checked off "Burn all the delicate bridges I've already established, which to be fair, is not that many, realistically two on a good day" from my checklist, let's dissect the episode.

The Actual Start of the Article
The gist is such: Gumball has a dream where Darwin kisses Penny, causing Gumball to become unreasonably angry at him (despite him not doing anything in real life, which he persists in pointing out), and eventually, he decides to help by having them dream together to try to rewrite his imaginary betrayal. After cycling through some dreams, they eventually get to the right one, but Darwin is pulled against his will towards Penny by the sheer power of the dream, ultimately kissing her. Well almost. At the last moment, Gumball imagines that Penny is actually Sussie, causing Darwin to freak out and wake up disgusted and angry. "It was just a dream," he retorts. We know it's a bit more than that.

Analysis
There's one issue that is so recurrent with Season 2 and almost every episode: Gumball is incredibly tedious and unable to understand situations from anybody else's perspective, serving himself and himself alone. And you know what? I like it.

I've already talked about Season 2 as a sort of reconstruction period for the show, so instead I'll just say this: Season 2 Gumball is my favorite iteration of the character, albeit slimly. My main issue with Hopkins-era Gumball is that he lacks a truly incisive punch. Grove-era Gumball (discounting Season 1) is well-defined and consistent instead of just being the slightly irrational nice guy and because of that, there's a much greater sense of realism. I will, however, say that his current personality shift is doing much more for the show, because as specific as Season 2 Gumball is, he vastly limited the amount of directions that could be taken. By making Gumball more generic, the show enabled more opportunity in taking different directions instead of having the titular hero just be smug the whole time. That, however, is an argument for another time.

Regardless, we still get Gumball refusing to accept Darwin's increasingly desperate attempts to apologize along with two attempts at straight-up murder (the best kind of murder) via throttling. Plus, after all that Darwin goes through, with him trying to rewrite Gumball's dream and ultimately being forced to kiss Sussie to give Gumball some closure, Gumball retorts he should relax because the situation at hand was "all a dream," circling back to the argument that Darwin put up in the first place (though in this case, it's Gumball making Darwin kiss Sussie rather than Darwin actively dreaming it up).

If that was a bit much and convoluted, here's the CliffsNotes version: Gumball is angry at Darwin for something Darwin didn't do, and by the end, Gumball intentionally makes Darwin angry for his own sense of closure. When you phrase it like that, it really is kind of indefensible, isn't it?

Further, Guy enlightened me on his issues with the episode, basically explaining that it was difficult to get behind Gumball's motives and citing episodes like "The Saint" as more effective by using a cartoonish exaggeration from which to funnel his rage. I do fully understand his argument- in both instances, Gumball is unapologetically irrational, but "The Saint" shows Gumball's torment through insane antics and measures. "The Dream" is stripped of that imaginative angle and the anger involved is much more grounded.

To demonstrate, here's a dichotomy of two jokes from both episodes. In "The Saint," Gumball sells Alan's parents to a clown to be turned into balloon animals in an attempt to cause Alan to snap. Meanwhile, in "The Dream," Gumball pours an entire canister of salt on Darwin's food. The former joke is so effective in that the conceit is so far detached from reality- hence, Gumball's anger is cartoonishly exaggerated to a point of absurdity. The latter, however slightly exaggerated, never really pushes into insane territory enough for us to acknowledge how utterly stupid Gumball is being. It's just him acting like a jerk.

The main issue here is the barometer at which you consider something funny regardless of its misconduct. If you only find it funny when the show pushes into surreal levels of sadism, then Gumball's actions in "The Dream" will just come across as unfunny and baseless because his actions can still be perceived as believable, or at least more so than in "The Saint." We just don't feel the obligation to root for him or how he paces the episode. Even if Gumball pushes Alan around way too much in "The Saint," there's a certain sense of being on the edge-of-your-seat at how much further Gumball's going to go. Here, that feeling just isn't there, so you just have to be able to find Gumball instinctively funny here, which I correctly assume the vast majority of you don't.

If your sole argument about the episode is that you hate Gumball for being petty, then I really can't try to elaborate on the contrary. It's all a matter of taste, and this episode is one of those episodes where taste is the bottom-line. If I may ask, though: how is Gumball worse here than in other episodes? I get the whole "attaching issues onto a nonexistent stimulant" argument, but I feel that if people don't enjoy the character, the only reason they would enjoy any Season 2 episode is in the quality of everything else in the episode being able to make up for it.

With that being thoroughly examined, though, this episode isn't even Gumball at his lowest. (That, my friends, would be "The Promise.") It's just another edition of him being what he was at the time. I will, however, say that I completely get why people hate this episode at it's core: Gumball is subjecting Darwin to full fury for an action that Darwin didn't even commit, though in his defense, he does openly admit to it:


 *  Dude! It was a dream! I didn't kiss Penny! It wasn't real!
 * I know... I just can't help hating you! You hurt my feelings!
 * You made your own feelings with your own brain! You're being irrational!
 * I KNOW!

It's a small touch, but it does come in stark contrast to Gumball's typical unawareness. If anything, it's the show admitting that they understand how pathetic of a character Gumball is capable of being, which is very. Of all the times Gumball acts irrational, this is him openly admitting it, and it is kind of satisfying. The episode, at the very least, clearly paints Gumball in the wrong in this situation- it's just that the show doesn't really work out an ending where he gets any comeuppance for being so far in the wrong. As much as I do find the Sussie reveal to legitimately hilarious, I can totally get why people would just loathe it- Gumball leaves the situation none-the-wiser. Even in episodes like "The Hero," Gumball eventually loops back around. That just... doesn't happen here. I honestly think it's fine, because it only helps to show how terrible of a person Gumball can be, but at the same time, it's a pretty lazy ending.



If you can't tell, I'm honestly kind of stuck. I just like the episode. There is, I will admit, some bias in the fact that this was one of the first episodes I saw, and it drew me into the series in the same ways that "The Job" and "The Money" did- by presenting something surreal and wonderful to look at. If I can't argue for Gumball, I can at least argue for how well the whole dream sequence is executed. All the dreams are properly fleshed-out and unique (while also being incredibly relevant to their respective characters, specifically Darwin's nakedness), and I liked how they all melded into one another to create something continuous. Each transition is inspired, in my opinion- I especially liked the complete abruptness of the two drowning in a car underwater due to discrepancies between real time and dream time.

I guess for some people the good just wasn't enough, though, and that's fine! Comedy is subjective. We all like different things. This is me admitting that sometimes I can't defend something with any level of objectivity. Hopefully next week I can put up a stronger argument.

That's all I have to contribute. Come back next week, where I'll be going all the way back to the dreaded first season to discuss "The Picnic." Apparently Ben Bocquelet himself called it "rubbish" once. This should be fun.

For the last installment regarding "The Extras," CLICK HERE.

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