User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Candidate/@comment-26215750-20180312233639

''"Forgive me, for I have sinned, oh Matt, the review God. I plead to your holiness to spare me my life.." ''Yeah, yeah. Apologies for not posting on the blog, but well, you know my REASONS!

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the episode - copy/pasted from the Discord:

What I found remarkably interesting about "The Candidate" is that it utilised a ton of different topics and, from a narrative viewpoint, differed from many of the episodes by having two plots (eeeh, one of them has two scenes, but it keeps the conflict going and provides exposition.) The entire part of the episode where they were stuck in the room bickering and arguing while countless dangers closed in was, while addressed in a funny and lighthearted tone, quite unsettling and hinted greatly towards an incoming action sequence - one that is yet again, made with stellar animation, pace and jokes. Now on the topic of political satire. The reason why this episode worked with it astonishingly well is the fact that by isolating the characters in a room, you are literally BEGGING for a crazily hyperbolised political power structure to emerge. What made it unique though, as Matt said in his review, and something that I myself have said countless times again and again, was the sheer fact that they utilised their characters - characters that have almost all been individually built up for six seasons and THAT drove the comedy. The way all of the characters take on the roles of stereotypical portrayals of political parties (I assume) made way for a goldmine of jokes and themes - all incorporated on a ton of levels. Again, like I've always said, in my opinion, the characters drive the comedy in TAWoG - without them, the entire thing would be an asinine and half-baked attempt at political satire.(edited)

Overall, I'd say this episode is a shining example on why blending comedy, no matter the type, with well established and distinct characters, is almost always is a guaranteed success. I love this episode for the reason that it didn't rely on pesky visual allusions to certain political figures or controversies (like previous episodes have tried to do,) but that it just stayed true to its nature and delivered the best it could - an episode that knew its limits, kept its jokes, action and overall story well-paced and respected its audience, a feat few cartoons accomplish nowadays.