User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Dream/@comment-30307603-20170223231048/@comment-31194372-20170224000427

I mean, I kind of accepted that it would be reeeally hard to sell you on this episode, but at least I tried.

I think the main reason I like Season 2 Gumball so much is because he's so unlikeable, as weird as that sounds. As much as I think Season 3 changes were necessary for the series to grow, the characterization just feels more subdued. Basically, I liked him in Season 2 because he had a voice. So many other shows have the protagonist basically mediating everything, but in this case, he was the issue that other characters had to navigate around. It just goes against convention, and whether or not you think that's good is definitely going to affect how you feel about a lot of Season 2.

That's why our thoughts are so distinct: I don't mind seeing Gumball acting in such a way, and you hate it. There's just different levels of tolerance. I've been thinking about how to respond to your comment for so long, but it just keeps circling back to subjectivity, so I'll leave it at that.

Also: I just can't get into "The Night." I don't know why, I just can't. Half of it worked for me while the other half just didn't. I might elaborate more on that later, but for now I'll just put that out there.

Either way, next week's gonna be interesting. I chose "The Picnic" because, while I don't really like it particularly much, everybody else hates it with a burning passion. I probably set myself up for failure, but I don't have anything to lose, so why not?