User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: Gumball Wiki Individual Appeals: Part I

Season 3, baby. That's three too many in my opinion, but at some point, they just don't stop happening, and you accept that this is what you do now, alright?

Considering it's been so long since I've written about the show, I thought the perfect solution to snap me back into that mindset of thinking about the show was to take on another round of "Individual Appeals," in which I ask anybody available to tell me what episodes they hate and work as hard as I can to defend them.

Of course, there's still that whole "servicing the community" thing going on, but I think it's worth admitting that creating an article with active members of this particular community - that is, the Wiki itself - is a bit more daunting. I can't just shy away under the pretense of "Welp, they just wound up on some random discussion thread and I'll probably never see them again," so I have to work extra hard to satisfy all of you. Which is hard. Just... infinitely more hard.

On top of that, I took the challenge of being willing to tackle any episode, regardless of my opinion of them, so while I won't try to hide how I feel about a lot of them - that is to say, I view them in about the same, if not lower, prestige - surely there's some silver lining to it all, right?

Either way, the pressure is on, so without further ado, let's just get this over with! I'm so... excited? Yeah, excited. Excited!

"The Awkwardness"
"Unnecessary sequel to an already "meh" episode IMHO."

Before I tackle "The Awkwardness" itself, I'm going to very briefly discuss "The Hug," especially since your opinion of the latter is directly related to your assessment of the former. Most specifically, it's related to how you feel about cringe comedy, which is just about the most polarizing style I can think of. It's rooted in the near-sadism of watching a crash-and-burn, and while I will say that I particularly enjoy it, it's definitely not everybody's cup of tea, and I can't do much to change that.

In defending "The Awkwardness," though, I definitely think it's worth noting how much of a marked improvement it is over "The Hug." While I personally like "The Hug" a bit more for its sheer originality, which instantly makes "The Awkwardness" feel reheated, "The Awkwardness" is just objectively better. (Or... at least as objective as something which is wholly subjective can be.)



If I could single out one large issue with "The Hug," ignoring the fact that it was based in, again, cringe comedy (and again, depending on your tastes), it was the lack of a strong plot. Instead, the episode is basically just an unbridled cavalcade of increasingly uncomfortable gags until both Gumball and Hot Dog Guy get so fed up that they get on the offensive. In "The Awkwardness," though, the episode actually snaps out of the simplicity of the former's set-up and features a more action-packed climax that puts both characters to the test - they have to work together. What a twist.

There's also the fact that this episode is filled with great jokes and moments. The whole thing starts with a catchy rap dedicated to ketchup, which is just the right amount of joyful silliness to start the episode off on the right foot, and the good fortunes continue to carry over to every possible precaution our two heroes take to avoid one another and their subsequent coping methods, especially Gumball's attempted escape to his "happy place," which, uh... doesn't work out as one would hope. And yes, it should go without saying, but the entire chase sequence through the mall was an enjoyable rush of adrenaline.



Ulitmately, though, "The Awkwardness" works for me, especially as a sequel episode, by actually trying to amp up the formula. I think of it in the same way as "The Traitor" improved upon "The Saint," where instead of delving entirely in Alan's suspect altruism, "The Traitor" becomes a medical drama. Sure, "The Awkwardness" doesn't quite pull something that unexpected, but it finds a new comedic outlook on Gumball and Hot Dog Guy's dynamic, and it actually works. Compared, too, to the long line of sequel episodes that stuck with their predecessor's plots too much or refused to readjust, "The Awkwardness" comes out of everything a delightful triumph.

"The Disaster / The Rerun"
"Aside from my universally-known reason why, I also feel like Gumball does not need this whole overarching plot nonsense."



Okay, I have to admit something too: I'm honestly not the biggest fan of "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" either. As much as I wish I could pretend I loved them, I just didn't. It's entirely my fault - I'm just not that huge of a fan of double features, because as much tension as they build up, there's not that nice sense of immediacy to it all - but even so, I can't deny how perfect the episodes are as a whole for what they were trying to accomplish.

(Keep in mind, I'm going to just use "The Rerun" as a blanket term for "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" combined because I couldn't tell you the difference between them for the life of me in trying to dissect them individually.)

First of all, "The Rerun" perfectly reinvented Rob's character. For once, he's actually a legitimate threat, going beyond criminality and into straight-up destroying the entire structure of the show. Even if "The Bus" showed him to be worthy of attention, it didn't secure his villainy to the same extent as him exercising godlike powers over everyone and everything, creating legitimate unease. The dude's not messing around.



There's also that it's pretty much the apex of the show's meta-awareness. Don't get me wrong, I do think that episodes like "The Signal" are far more enjoyable, but that's wholly a preferential thing when it comes to how the jokes are presented (in the case of "The Signal," without even the slightest hint of seriousness). But "The Rerun" really ups the ante by forcing its characters to acknowledge that their existence may not be real - directly from Rob and indirectly by Gumball, and without a slither of humor to suggest that either character can just ignore it and move on. That realization sinks.

I could keep on talking about this and that, but that's not the point. (If you really want more, go read the opinion of somebody who cares about the episode more than I do.) There's only one question that's being asked here: "Was this really necessary for the show to do?"

Well, no. But all of the show's character development, fourth wall breaks, and insane style-swapping sequences aren't necessary either. "The Rerun" demonstrates that the show is actively trying to challenge itself by forcing it to adapt to a different dimension of narrative, and whether or not you really want to chalk it down as successful or not is entirely subjective. What's not subjective, though, is that the amount of care put into TAWOG is undeniable, and that even almost five seasons in, the writers were still finding new ways to keep the show fresh and provide changes to the formula.



As anyone whose watched any other non-serialized cartoon in the past few years would know, there's nothing more threatening to a show's longevity than creative burnout, and watching so many other shows that follow the same general approach to storytelling as TAWOG (that is to say they don't value long-winded story-telling so much as capturing individual moments more often than not) run dangerously low on fumes (or just glide along with no life in them at all) makes TAWOG look all the better.

I could go on and on nitpicking why I don't care for the episode, but I can't outright say that the episode is bad. "The Rerun" is the show being unafraid to push itself to the limits and experiment, and without that sort of spirit being so crucial to how the show conducts itself, who knows where the show would be? At the very least, "The Rerun" is pretty much the pinnacle of a show being unafraid to take things to new extremes, and even if I don't think it's the epitome of the show, it certainly epitomizes why I love it so.

Glass: "The Puppy"
"I just... really don't like its brand of humor. There's nothing funny to me about how creepy or weird the not-puppy is, and while the Awesome Store joke is funny, it gets less so when it's drilled into your head a thousand times over. We get it, Richard's stupid and doesn't know how to distinguish something shady from something not shady. 'The Nest' was a much better way of handling the character - it actually did something original with it, and had a decent way of making it funny."

It's difficult to look at "The Puppy" as an episode without factoring in how you feel about Evil Turtle, who, in my opinion, was one of the worst ideas for the show to undertake. For a character that does pretty much one thing - biting everybody - perhaps it's tragically ironic that the character lacks any bite at all, instead being a black hole of comedy for other characters to react off of, to varying degrees of success.

What I see "The Puppy" as, though, was the show playing the long-game. Yes, there were a few rough patches in simply kicking off the character, but I feel like "The Nest," in all of its pitch-perfect conception, was the root of the idea for the character, but the show had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was... a bit dicey.

And you know what the strange thing is? Aside from Evil Turtle, it's pretty hard to pinpoint any other legitimate problem spots in the episode. Sure, you can complain that Richard comes out of "The Puppy" looking pretty dopey, but (A) how else would the episode actually kick off and (B) when isn't he? Likewise, the Awesome Store is brought up a lot, but that's also a case of the show trying to play the long-game as well; it wants us to know that this place will be important in the series (which it has indeed proven to be), and starting off with "The Puppy" is a nice way to sort of ease us into understanding what secrets it may hold.



To the episode's credit, though, there were still a lot of good moments in spite of that reptilian rapscallion. (I feel smart.) Plus, even if Evil Turtle isn't that exciting of a plot device, she does quite a good job of providing all of the Wattersons something to do. Darwin and Anais, especially, escape the episode looking pretty good. For once, Darwin actually gets some gumption and slaps around Evil Turtle, practically saving Gumball's life in the process (it's always nice to see the character's breaking point), while Anais serves as the voice of reason over proceedings, but contributes in doing so. Without her, the episode would just be four characters going crazy, but she adds a nicely grounded sense of "I'm just trying to deal with this as best I can," keeping the episode better contained.

Even from the perspective of structure - "Oooh, look at Matt and his obsession with struct-" shut up - the episode hits all the right notes. It starts off looking like another lovably comedic day in the life, but there's always tension building throughout the whole thing - never at the expense of solid jokes, mind you - before presenting a compelling climax as a sort of release of all of that pent-up, underlying energy. The ending, too, in demonstrating Evil Turtle's near-immortality, did a great job of establishing the character as a constant obstacle, a label she dutifully follows through with throughout the rest of the season. (Whether or not you lament that fact or not is irrelevant; the show set it up spectacularly.)

When it comes to an episode like "The Puppy," you just have to be able to look at the small things, and even if that's not the most ideal way to properly enjoy an episode, you can at least appreciate what it did right instead of dwell in what it did wrong. (That's pretty much the point of all of these articles condensed in one sentence, by the way.)

Normalhuman: "The Diet"
"I consider 'The Diet' to be one of the most boring episodes of Gumball, and the weakest one in Season 5 so far. Fat jokes are often lazy, unpleasant and uncreative, and those basically made up the first half of the episode. The second half revolved around Richard being buff and a jerk, and that was it. That was the only joke. Also, what was up with the social media criticism? I'd say the episode felt like it belonged in Season 1, but damn, it barely even belonged in Gumball."

I realize now that claiming that I would willingly defend every episode possible was probably a grave mistake, but who else is willing to defend it... to an immeasurably small extent, of course?

Look, I'm not going to act like "The Diet" was good - I'm willing to forecast it for the bottom five out of the whole series, assuming Season 6 won't be a train wreck. (It, uh, won't be, right? Ben?) Yes, this was an episode so questionable that, in reviewing it, I left an ellipses count at the end... so the odds of me finding a way to defend it seems... improbable, to say the least. Trying to defend the episode seems so ridiculously difficult for me to do that I actually rewatched the episode (I usually don't, which is probably bad practice), so thanks for the unnecessary sadism, Normie. You prick.



I think we can all universally agree that the latter half of the episode was an uncomfortable failure at social commentary with a bit too much body horror to stomach, but I thought the first half of the episode, if not cancelling out later misfortunes, was enjoyable enough in its own right. Don't get me wrong, the joke is easy, but at least the show didn't skate along by virtue of its simplicity, using some fun synth rock, montages, and surprisingly decent jokes.

First of all, the beginning of the episode does a good job with all of its fake-outs. Even if Richard's "diet" is instead a conglomerate of diets equating to way too much food, it's a cute reveal, as was all of the food hidden around the house in unsuspecting places. (Special shout-out to the matryoshka corn dog banana.) There was also the idea of Richard being so driven by food that Gumball and Darwin were able to forcefully make him work out in his pursuit of it.

In addition, there's a lot of really great dialogue snippets that work to undermine the show or make a joke about how the show and its characters perceive everything. For instance:
 * This is a new low.
 * Meh, feels like a very familiar low.


 * Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
 * and : We use food to trick Dad into exercising!
 * Huh, that never usually works.

There's also that, at the scene with the news report, the bottom scrolling test simply reads "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" and later, "NO FIRE! NO FIRE! NO FIRE! NO FIRE!" Which is so dumb that it kills me and thus warrants mention.

All of those jokes provide a fun bit of self-awareness to the episode, and it's an extra wrinkle that makes "The Diet" all the more easy to digest. There's a bit of wryness to the humor, especially in Gumball and Darwin's characters here, that makes them a lot more enjoyable, although it doesn't quite balance out Richard's, uh, being Richard. This is by no means a win for the series, but it's not completely without merit, either (even if it would've helped to have a bit more).

Fenton: "The Catfish"
"I didn't hate it (The only episode I really 'hated' was 'The Girlfriend,' and you're already making one on that), but it was boring and generally unfunny. Even the chase scene didn't have that usual 'Gumball-flair' that the show usually has."

I think the biggest flaw with "The Catfish," as with a lot of recent episodes, was a lack of focus on where the joke should go.

Okay, so that's not completely true: the whole episode was a long-winded excuse to make a joke about literal "catfishing." Very... subtle, show. I feel like an idiot for not catching on, but that doesn't make the joke any more profound. (Sorry, I'll have to stop bashing on the episode, it's counter-productive.)

While I do agree with your reception that "The Catfish" wasn't the greatest episode ever, I think you're not giving it enough credit, namely in calling it "boring," "generally unfunny," and lacking in a distinctly Gumball-flair.



Just to make sure we're all on the same page: this is a very low-aiming episode, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As I've said countless times, episodes don't have to be leaning towards something mind-blowing to be strong, and it's smart that the writers are able to understand that not every episode has to pull at the extremes. That's not to say "The Catfish" was a lazy episode, either; it had one objective - illustrate the rocky status of Granny Jojo and Louie's relationship - and found a way to discuss it from an interesting angle. Out of all of the show's recent efforts to modernize the show and provide some level of social commentary - "The Diet," and "The Worst," for instance - "The Catfish" escapes the least scathed because there's some ingenuity in getting the message across.

I don't think the set-up was brilliant, per se, and I'm not going to give the show that super-flattering praise of "Oh my God, guys, they're so brave to tackle such a serious topic as spousal abuse like that" - the episode wasn't trying to explore that concept too broadly so much as serve as a simple but effective character study. Even if the episode takes an angle leaning towards parody, there's still a lot of nuance in examining Louie and Granny Jojo; it's not all sunshine and rainbows, no matter how much both parties may try to be hiding that, and it takes Gumball and Darwin to properly unearth that reality.

At the same time, "The Catfish" never comes across as too preachy either, as was an issue with those other two episodes I just brought up. There's never a sense that the episode is trying to make a statement, and even if there's nothing wrong with the show doing so, that restraint is definitely critical to the episode's success. It's just an enjoyable episode that you don't have to think too deeply about, even if that's... what I'm doing right now. Moving right along...



In terms of the episode not having a Gumball-flair, while there's not any super successful bits, everything is enjoyably in line with the show nonetheless. For instance, there's the montage of Gumball trying to go through his day, but with constant interference from Louie texting him. What the bit does is take an overdone concept - "Oh, look, old people never shut up!" - and give it some new context and comedic weight by means of the sheer multitude and scope of Louie's interference, eventually causing Gumball's phone to straight-up kill itself. The climax functions very similarly, taking the form of increasingly more bizarre visual gags in Gumball and Darwin attempting to defend not-Muriel. (The icing on top is the reversal of throwing a snake to throwing a dove holding an olive branch, which was, to put it simply for once, perfect.)

All-in-all, "The Catfish" is simply a midseason episode that does what it wanted to do without compromising the show's quality under the burden of serious intent. For that much, I can appreciate it.

(Oh, and Fenton, feel free to clue me in on your issues with "The Girlfriend," I actually have no idea where to go off of with that episode specifically.)

Attawog: "The Kiss"
"That made me feel pretty awkward."

Alright, "The Kiss." There's a lot of awkward things in "The Kiss." I'm assuming we're just saying the whole thing was net-awkward, which I can at least understand - it's an episode that leans on being uncomfortable without fully committing to cringe comedy a la "The Hug."

I look at it as an episode that was feeling out the boundaries in the same way that most of Season 1 was rooted in that. Obviously, there's some successes and some failures to come with that, but "The Kiss" definitely went the extra mile in testing those limits, featuring some surreal imagery (again, as far as Season 1 was willing to take it) and, at once, both effective and admirably-restrained gross-out.



I think that's where the episode's success lies: whereas episodes like "The Picnic" or "The Genius" just go off on their on accord, ruining themselves in the process, "The Kiss" worked within some acknowledged confines. It feels very regulated and honed-in on what it was trying to do instead of just piling onto its jokes tirelessly. There's actually a sense of progression, too, to how Gumball's fears are addressed: first, Darwin tries to help him find his happy place, but when that fails and Gumball starts to hallucinate, he does the exact opposite, overloading Gumball with as much deteriorating stimuli as possible to force him to forget. Weird message aside - sure, let's traumatize the poor guy even more, that'll help this one, very minor issue dissipate at the expense of five drastically worse alternatives! - the episode evolves in the same way that a lot of Season 1's better outings do, even if not to the same levels of success.

Do I think "The Kiss" is a secretly good episode? Well, no. But I also don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be, and it borders on the underrated, which is all I could ask for.

Next week's article will include episode suggestions courtesy of Russ, Guy, AaditS, Kaiju, and anybody else who wants to give me more episodes to work through. Seriously, I'll take up as many suggestions as you can provide - simply comment on the designated thread, or heck, just write it down in the comments here, I don't care. I want to get as many people involved as possible. Just be sure to submit by September 10th to give myself adequate time. (And if you do get involved, though, please be thorough. There's been a lot of really bad feedback I've gotten for the project that I simply couldn't use, and I hate that.)

Also, to those of you whose responses I did tackle, tell me how I did in the comments! It's always good to check if I'm being effective or not, to better understand what particular issues people have with episodes, and because I'm a soulless waste of a person who depends on comments and magical Internet numbers to give himself some illusory sense of worth.

I'll be seeing you next week. Or, if you popped by simply because I took on one of your choices, consider hanging out more. It's pretty cool. And leave comments.

You can also check out the last article, a collaboration with C.R. Martin discussing "The Curse," right over HERE. Or, if you're only in it for me, first of all, get better taste, but second of all, I've got a pretty decent article on "The Detective" right HERE.