User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: Individual Appeals: Part II/@comment-30307603-20170316212242/@comment-31194372-20170316232643

Alright, so...

The Gripes: I'm honestly just impressed by how well the show addressed the concept considering how fallible it is. I get that Gumball and Darwin's griping can get kind of grating, but at the very least, it's intentionally done and doesn't drag on for far too long a la "The Hero" (yes, I am working on it. Don't worry). Other than that, though, it's pretty smooth sailing in my opinion.

The Fridge: At the very least, I do think that there was good intent behind Nicole however out-of-hand the situation ended up getting. I thought the ending did a good job of countering some of the episode's issues by being relatively heartfelt and showing that Nicole had a softer side (considering how ruthless the episode set her up).

The Limit: It's not an emotional episode, but it still relates to character development which was a nice twist. The ending could've been much better, but it's at least consistent with Gumball throughout the season.

The Ex: I still stand by Tina being a single-purpose character. Even if the show sought to see her "embracing her femininity," that would only fulfill one episode, and a rather predictable one. The show has already kind of neglected Tina's character development by reverting her back to being a no-strings-attached bully, so it's pretty unlikely that there are any further intentions with the character, and I'm fine with that. It clears room for more innovative approaches and characters.

The End: I swear that I'm the only person that enjoys both halves of the episode equally. The first half is all fine and dandy, sure, but I thought that Richard was actually kind of enjoyable by Season 1 standards, and considering that we knew the ending from the start was going to be a cop-out, the literal mooning (while a lame joke by later standards) was a fun surprise.

The Sock: All I know is that the show really has to use Mr. Small for more than just side roles. I honestly found "The Advice" to be pretty lackluster (and excessively dark in a painfully overt way), but I have faith that the writers can plug him into another great episode at some point.

The Downer / The Countdown: Just great episodes. I can't complain too much either.

I don't even know why I write these long comments because nobody's ever going to respond by sheer virtue of how inconvenient they are to type, but I'm doing it anyway!