User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Candidate/@comment-30307603-20180311231757/@comment-31194372-20180312035341

Agreed with everything you're saying. Gumball episodes succeed the most when they get to do something conceptually-daring while still being wary of retaining the characters; this is a show, after all, where concept and character are about equally as important. "The Candidate" actually understands this and manages that nigh-impossible balancing act of being particularly incisive without degrading anybody involved. (Except Clare, but... let's be fair, there's not much to her anyway.) Sure, the show slots its characters to fit specific archetypes, but they all make sense to the characters assigned to them; the show is so smooth that they can apply without projecting.

I can see how Gumball's arrogance could be a bit unforgiving, though I think there's at least a nice, redemptive bit of catharsis in the fact that his idiocy is actually acknowledged by his peers–as in when they put him in the wooden prison-y thing that I'm too tired to remember the name of–as well as Darwin's ultimate victory in the end, which is so rare that it commands some level of recognition in how he's inarguably triumphant.

Lastly, thank you! I'm wary to trot "A Second Opinion" back out, so hopefully we won't get another hot mess that calls upon it. Onwards to the next chapter!