User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Extras

Introduction
I'm back. In case you don't know what this is, you can see the last one here for a bit of context.

"The Extras" is a particularly interesting episode to tackle as it doesn't have the traditional, continuous plot of most episodes, instead subscribing to the school of "The Tape" and being done entirely through a series of vignettes. The two episodes differ, however, in this one's efforts to create new scenarios from new characters instead of elaborate on defined nuances. (We'll talk a bit more about that later.) As such, I'm going to tackle each vignette one by one and see what works and what doesn't. Then, I'll be able to be more reflective of the episode's overall quality. That being said, this post is going to be LOOOOONG.

The Actual Start of the Article
Right out the gate is an impressive little music number featuring background characters singing in protest to constantly being sidelined by Gumball and Darwin. Contrary to popular opinion, I think it's one of the show's better musical numbers because it's an interesting premise in and of itself, but it's also technically well-done. It's catchy, the lyrics are smartly written, and instead of going for something more blatantly comedic, the singing is passionate with a kind of fiery intensity which really benefited the sequence. There have been a lot of people to complain about how there's no context to any of the vignettes, and while I do think that's true to an extent, the song serves to validate it sufficiently enough. (Plus, compared to "The Compilation," I think we got enough leeway.)

The runners featuring the cut-outs from the crowd in "The Sweaters" fall kind of in the middle in terms of quality. I do appreciate there's a sense of progression to each one, with the characters getting more and more tired of their paper-based struggles before one of them figures out how to move and is ousted as different. At the same time, though, the joke - they're paper! How observational! - couldn't evolve, and after a while, the gag got a bit tired. The last two at least showed a different side, and taking a different approach definitely benefited, but it never really rose to become anything better.

The Elmore Hospital bit serves to set up another runner of sorts in the form of Drum Kit Guy, who appears coughing, causing rim shots in doing so. We'll see more of him later.

The Shape People bit never set itself up to be more than what it is. My main issue is just that the characters exist to do precisely one purpose- misinterpret everything, and there's nowhere else to really go with it (though I did find their appearance in "The Misunderstandings" very fitting and worthwhile, especially because their general purpose is in direct alignment with the episode's). It's largely forgettable, but it's brief.



The bit where the construction men discuss Steve's wig is a partial dud in that nothing interesting happens. We get some tame hair puns and nothing else. I'll pass. Don't get me wrong, I do greatly like the characters, and it's certainly interesting to see how they've gone through so many stages of development, from being generally short-tempered (per "The Knights") to confusedly amiable goofballs ("The Misunderstandings"), with this instance definitely leaning towards their more clumsy side. In this case, though, it lacks a real incentive to be there, resulting in some aimless wordplay.

I have the same sentiments for Bacon Man, though it benefits from being extra short. It's a bit that requires little set-up before revealing its intent, which definitely helps, because if it was any longer, the pay-off wouldn't be worth it. It's... not exactly worth it in the first place, though. (In addition, Drum Kit Guy reappears, though there's not any particular revelations to come from it.)

The bird mating dance worked exceptionally well by not setting out to do anything beyond its initial premise, with one bird trying to impress another through a fastidious mating dance. It worked because of how stupidly in-your-face the dancing bird was, at one point literally shoving his feathers into the other to show off his perfect form. The reveal of the bird he's trying to impress also being a dude, but with him still being intrigued by the dance, makes for a nice topper.



One of the better faring bits is a different take on "Are we there yet?" but with a much darker and more appreciated twist. There are two things I like about the ending: for one, Felicity's tonation never changes as to display her loathing of Billy throughout the sketch, ultimately  declaring cheerfully that she needs to lie down before hitting herself with a shovel. However, the best part is Drum Kit Guy walking by and the scene cutting before he can cough, so he is effectively marginalized. It works because it defies expectation, at least for me, so I got a good kick out of it. It's kind of like how they cut out the end line of "The Name." The writers are already acknowledging that the assumed ending is abrupt, so they undercut it by cutting off the cut-off. That probably sounded really dumb, so I'll just move on instead of making a proper recov-

The next part follows the spirits of the last in discussing the woes of adult life, with workers at Chanax Inc. wondering what they're doing with their lives before being presented with their weekly salary, which brings them back in. It's pointed, really, and benefits from the simplicity. There's nothing about it that's laugh-out-loud funny (the episode isn't too heavily focused on doing that so much as generating interesting premises), but it's a nice look at the reality of the characters in the show and the deconstruction of the idea that everything on this kind of show is magical. Because it's not.

For me, the Senior Citizen Dance-off was a half-win because it's mildly uninteresting. The set-up is fine and the ultimate punchlines land (with Louie calling Marvin a "magic talking fire hydrant" due to his poor vision, having formerly proclaimed, "You just got served, young man." to a trash can. The issue is just that there's so little to it.



And now, onto my favorite vignette out of the episode and one of my favorite moments in the whole series. The scene starts in a dimly-lit prison cell with some outlaws humming along, with more and more joining in and snapping along as it builds up. Then, one of them picks up a harmonica and just ruins the whole thing by blowing maniacally without any objective at all, destroying everything that was already going on for the viewer but not drawing any attention from the other prisoners. It works by establishing such a specific trope- prisoners humming and playing the harmonica out of boredom and general gloominess- and completely shattering it in the dumbest way possible. Sure, the show can go high-concept, which is almost always a surefire way to success, but it's important that they can execute material that's so dumb that it's funny.

The Win or Don't Win sketch is a lot of fun, with Gary proceeding to to completely overreact to winning the game and freak out. It doesn't try to set up to be anything it's not, so it works well. It's not aiming to be memorable so much as a quick laugh.

The ghost doing crunches was a nice reveal, especially with the set-up not making it so obvious, though it might have benefited from being a quick breather instead of another platform for Drum Kit Guy to rim-shot at. My issue is that, since the rim-shot joke was already elevated with the "Felicity and Billy" portion, the return to form was underwhelming. I think it would work better if this portion was placed in the other's position, contributing to a better build-up for the ultimate joke. Or, to follow the comedic Rule of Threes, they could've dropped the more underwhelming "Bacon Man" bit.



The Pepperonis segment sets itself up in the same satisfying way as the "Daisy the Donkey" bit in "The World"- it's charming and endearing before giving us some unexpected output. Doing a joke with a long set-up is something that's incredibly difficult to do and reliant on the reveal being worth the build-up (the best example I can think of is SNL's "Farewell, Mr. Bunting," which I won't link to. It's a masterpiece, but it's excessively dark), though instead of as big of a revelation as Daisy talking and freaking Anais out, it's more aimed at the nonstarter approach, with the two pizzas smushing their faces together after attempting a kiss, and honestly, it kind of works. I will argue that the formula was further perfected in the bit with The Robinsons in "The Love" by disregarding the death-cough  set-up and thus mocking an entire trope of film-making instead of a more generic romance sequence, but as it stands, it does what it set out to do.

Then, we end the episode with a reprisal of "Just Notice Us," bringing back all the characters with some nice callbacks: all the construction men now have hair metal wigs, The Pepperonis have their faces ruined, and so on. Further, the end result works well, with the extras' meticulous routine somehow neglecting the fact that the lyrics encourage Gumball and Darwin to turn around and notice them when, in fact, they are doing the routine in front of the pair, ruining the whole message behind the episode.

Analysis
First of all: on many occasions, I have let it be known that I'm not the biggest fan of episodes that end with all of the build-up amounting to absolutely nothing at all, but I feel that the ending in this particular instance was fitting. It has to do with the fact that the episode wasn't too heavily invested in telling a story so much as presenting us with a compilation of short scenes. There's no sense of betrayal in the episode dragging you along for 10 minutes before rendering everything pointless, like in "The Apprentice," which is an episode that I genuinely dislike. Instead, it serves to make all the extras realize their efforts were for naught- the implications that they went and planned a whole musical number with tight choreography just for one moment in the spotlight before being forced back into the blurry haze of the background, only to mess up the entire thing, is a strong idea, especially because we can pretty much confirm that they'll never have this kind of showcase again.

The biggest issue people seem to have with this episode, however, always comes back to an ongoing complaint along the lines of, "More like BORING World of Gumball, amirite? Just stick to Gumball and Darwin!" I don't get it. Isn't it important for the show to try new things instead of being safe? Granted, the content is pretty tame by the show's standards in terms of being "different", but it's important that they branch out and attempt new ideas like this. Instead of using the tried and true characters, such as the Wattersons, or the supporting characters we already know largely about, this and "The World" offers up a whole new palette to experiment with. It's healthy that the show isn't afraid to try new things instead of being constrained by the established nuances of specific characters.

For the show to be able to evolve, it has to be smart. So many shows nowadays fail by virtue of being too scared to stray too far from their core, and it harms their longevity as a result. Arguably the best example is The Big Bang Theory, but I would also like to bring up Modern Family, a show whose criminal offense is its inability to evolve, existing as a checklist comedy upon its initiation and never letting itself grow beyond filling in prerequisites to create the semblance of evolution. (It's not working.) To the uninitiated, think about it as if Sussie was the main and only character and imagine how derivative and painful everything would be. I don't want to see that kind of thing happen to a show like Gumball- a reason I hate episodes like "The Slide," where nothing new is attempted and the heartfelt moment is tacked on out of necessity.

Also, for the record, I thought a lot of the bits worked. (The only bit I would cut altogether is "Bacon Man.") Sure, it's compared unfavorably to "The Tape," but I think that the two episodes are really difficult to truly compare beyond the concept of character vignettes."The Tape" sought to elicit humor from the characters we already understood to help develop a better understanding of them on a more personal level by using a kind of home movie-esque vibe. Meanwhile, "The Extras" is just pure experimentation, and for the show to be able to improve over time, they have to learn to break the rules of conformity. If there were a couple of duds, it's only due to the fact that there was no firm rooting that the writers could deviate off of. They had to create a character, give it context, and then move along straight to the next one while still trying to keep the whole affair lively- that's incredibly hard to do and fails so frequently that it's a true testament to the abilities of the writers to give characters so much life, fully aware we will never see them again.

Thanks for reading. Next week I'll be, as per request, talking about "The Dream." Stay frosty.

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