User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Detective

Oddly enough, after five seasons, if there's one character that the show has still struggled with, it's Anais. Think about it.

Gumball's the protagonist. Easy. Darwin's the emotive sidekick. Richard is the goofy, lovable comic relief who delivers offhanded jokes when the show calls upon it. And Nicole is, as always, the butt-kicking mother with a lot of care but an ever-shortening fuse. Where does that leave Anais, then?

Generally speaking, with very little. The show has certainly used her amazingly when the spotlight is directly on her - think "The Friend" or even "The Copycats" - but if she's part of the supporting cast, then she does little at all aside from an eye-roll or ignored objections. She's not fundamentally flawed, but the show is always reluctant to use her because of how she operates in the family: since Season 1, she's been "the smart one," and while she's definitely softened into more than just a frustrated smart aleck, it's severely limited the extent of what she can do. Or so one would think...

Perhaps that's why "The Detective" is such an exciting episode in my opinion: Anais is the head honcho once, without Gumball or Darwin holding her back, and she owns it.

The Actual Start of the Article
The episode starts with a simple mystery - where did Daisy the Donkey go? - and Anais makes it her job to get to the bottom of it. She investigates as if a "quality subscription television mysteriously mumbly southern detective," narrating her thoughts and progress as she examines the scenes of the crime and deduces what happened mere hours before. She slowly but surely uncovers Daisy's disappearance to be the work of Gumball and Darwin who, in the midst of a sugar high, accidentally destroyed her, and believes that Gumball ran off to dispose of the body.

Knowing this, Anais corners Darwin, who elaborates and tells her of Gumball's whereabouts. She finds him hiding in a basement and discovers that it wasn't him who had Daisy - in fact, he was the one frantically trying to flee the scene. Darwin had played her, and he knew everything all along. There's an interesting reversal in the pair's roles - Gumball balks out and steps aside, and Darwin is fully responsible for the crimes the two committed, going so far as to frame Gumball, no less - and it makes for an interesting twist in the formula.

Back to the story, though: Anais discovers that Darwin disposed of Daisy in the trash, and that the garbage truck had since driven away with her. Anais rushes to retrieve her on tricycle, but all hope seems lost. Suddenly, the family car slams into the side of the truck, knocking its contents free, and the gang rescues her. With that, the episode draws itself to a close, and Anais can sleep soundly once more.

Analysis
There's a lot of reasons why the episode works as well as it does, and with all of those components working at full throttle, "The Detective" is a glorious spectacle to behold.

First of all: the episode's complete eye candy. TAWOG loves its trippy visuals, but "The Detective" fully integrated them, contributing to the whole episode's stylistic flair instead of presenting itself as some sort of climax. All of those surreal visuals, like the cereal high tainting Gumball's bloodstream and that amazing shot of his eye enlarging (still one of my favorite shots of the series for some reason), or the images that Anais cycles through while peddling towards the garbage truck (among others) give the ordeal a mature complexity. Above all, though, they simply make the episode feel fresh and distinctive.



The way the camera conducts itself, too, really adds to the feel of the episode. It's all the small moments - how the camera shifts focus from Anais to the broken window in the beginning; that shot of her standing in the bathroom doorway which zooms out, showing Richard struggling to hold his bladder; how particularly intense moments (the flashbacks and Anais' encounter with Gumball in the basement) have a shaky vantage point to add tension - that make the episode feel cinematic and heavy, adding to the already delightful juxtaposition of the banality of the task and how Anais conducts her search. It's just interesting how the episode comes across more as a drama than a cartoon in how it presents itself.

More importantly, though,"The Detective" embraces a comprehensive narrative structure that's almost unprecedented for a show like Gumball. That's why so many people don't think so highly of it: the way the episode tells its story is very slow-paced and methodical. There's no non sequiturs or cartoonish antics - it's a story that works at its own speed to envelop you in the proceedings and keep you on the edge of your seat in its delicate calculation.



I know why a lot of people would hate it - "What is this?! In my show?! Get back to the pratfalls and the silly faces or I'm ditching my cable!" - but for me, that makes it all the more exciting. It's the show taking a jab far out of its comfort zone, and for an episode bound to be forgotten, might I add! Sandwiched between the lovable juvenility of "The Slap" and the insanity of "The Fury," it happily does its own thing, and I have to admire that. (Some people complained about the ending, but I think it's a flawless finish, with a subdued but sweet ending for an equally subdued episode.)

Lastly, Anais is redeemed. Don't get me wrong, I've always liked the character, and I think she's one of the most interesting character's in the show's line-up; it's just that, again, the show never knows what to do with her, and she's usually tucked aside as a second-hand Darwin, piling on to that classic Gumball disapproval with an even blunter (albeit more comprehensive) impact. The great thing about "The Detective," though? Or... um... one of the many great things about "The Detective," though? Gumball and Darwin are pushed aside. They don't interfere with her; she interferes with them, and even if they do serve as obstacles, at least they're obstacles she can overcome.



She hasn't been utilized this well since "The Remote" - an episode that flawlessly put her forth as one of the most intricate characters in the series. That's not to say she hasn't had solid spotlights since then, but the jokes never quite reached that level, always fizzling down to "I want friends" or "Everyone is dumb except me," which certainly lead to their own wells of jokes, but not with the same impact. More importantly: any show could've pulled such episodes off, if not with a little less pizzazz. Of all episodes, "The Detective" is one that no character short of Anais could've managed, and it's one that utilized her at her fullest potential. Are there the easy jokes of Anais being considerably young to be dealing with her task so meticulously? Yes, but they add another layer of intelligence to the whole affair and keep it from becoming too dramatic.

Heck, I don't think any other cartoon could've pulled it off. I may be giving it too much credit, as I'm wont to do in lazily making a point, but TAWOG's so willing to take immense risks that I can't think of any other cartoon that would make a riff on True Detective (of all shows!) work out so beautifully.

Looking Back / On Ending the Series Early
If anybody's curious about why the series is ending slightly prematurely, I wrote about it over here. I didn't want to drag this down with any exercises in self-pity, so I'm going to tuck it away here as to not burden the casual reader. Long story short, though, waning interest on both ends and desires to pursue other interests are the main reasons.

There is, in fact, a planned ending to this string of articles, and it's currently underway, but with no planned release date. It'll be discussing "The Curse," and I'm bringing in a special guest to help out, so keep your eyes peeled for whenever it gets posted.

Either way, thanks to everyone who's been reading along, behind the shadows or not, with some special shout-outs to Game, Zoe, Marvin, and, of course, Guy, who's been a trooper for the past 19 weeks straight. (I don't know how he does it.)

The series will be returning at some point in September with an all-new revival of "Individual Appeals" specific to this site. Other than that, I've got an exciting project going on with Guy that should be coming out at some point in the near future, and if Season 5 ends soon enough (it's hard to tell as always), I'll be sure to slap together some arbitrary list about the best and worst episodes.

In the meantime, I'll get back to whatever maintenance work I can find and mindlessly pluck away at. Toodles.