User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: Gumball Wiki Individual Appeals: Part I.5

I'm 17! And what better way to demonstrate my newfound sense of refined ambition and improvement than destroying a 212-day contribution streak and failing to deliver the requested article on time? Uh...

So, yeah, I've been insanely busy. I could outline all of that for the sake of credibility, but I'd like to think my ethos is generally secure enough to not demand that and bore your mind even further from this article. That said, the outcome is that I'm releasing half of this article today and the other half (hopefully) on Saturday. They'll be a bit shorter compared to last week's massive article, but at least it's not an assault on the eyes for once.

Long story short: this is Gumball Wiki Individual Appeals: Part I.5. Apparently Romans didn't know what decimals were, so we're stuck with that in place of anything more elegant.

Let's go.

Guy: "The Compilation"
"It's not that I find the episode to be bad, but it is painfully mediocre, and save Nobody's A Nobody (which is one of best songs in the series, in my opinion), Tobias's phone review, and the small fourth wall break, it's probably my least favorite episode from the season.

"'The Compilation' suffers from being terribly mundane. Outside of the aforementioned portions, nothing sticks out as being memorable. It either consists of one-off visual gags with no real punchline (the brothers' overly long handshake and the fire hydrant gag come to mind) or long rambles that deliver a punchline that is frankly unsatisfying (Richard's butter stick and the disappointing joke about the awful 'The Grieving').

"'The Compilation' is structured very similarly to 'The Uploads.' However, 'The Uploads' succeeds because (for me, at least), it manages to deliver some comedy that evolves past overly long visual gags. Each joke in 'The Uploads' is meaningful and is well-structured. The same cannot be said for 'The Compilation.' When I watch the episode, I really do get the feeling it was a last-minute rush job made for the case of showcasing the awesome Nobody's a Nobody (not unlikely given its production code is GB440, as in the last episode of the season production-code-wise).



"Now, one could argue that many episodes are built like 'The Compilation.' Said episodes have one memorable moment that defines the episode ('The Job,' 'The Money,' 'The Fury,' 'The Choices,' 'The Weirdo'). The big difference between these episodes and 'The Compilation' is that those episodes have substance beyond their big jaw-dropping climaxes. These episodes have something to say, and the episodes are written with an idea of how to weave the climax and the rest of the episode together. The same cannot be said about 'The Compilation'; it feels haphazard. Even comparing 'The Compilation' to other clip-show episodes ('The Love,' 'The Night,' 'The Uploads'), the episodes aren't focused on trying to deliver some big climax and mange to remain consistently funny.

"I will say it again: I do not think 'The Compilation' is awful. However, the episode gives off this air of apathy that makes it feel forgettable.

"Seriously, 'The Grieving' was awful and the writers had so much comedic potential. Such a wasted joke."

I think there's two major hindrances to "The Compilation." First of all, there's the obvious fact that, yes, it's an inferior version of "The Uploads," but more than that, secondly, it really suffers in the department of structure. Did "The Uploads" have a strong structure? No, but that the episode was actually framed with a sense of progression - succumbing to the deeper and more vacuous excesses of Elmore Stream-It - at least offers up a distinctly Gumball flair to the proceedings, basically with Gumball and Darwin doing a commentary track. That's already, like, the plot of most episodes of the show; it's really just cutting out the middleman.



Cut out the middleman of a middlemanless episode, and you get "The Compilation," framed as nothing more than, well, a video compilation, and not a particularly unified one. At the same time, though, there's not necessarily anything wrong with that - the objective is, as a compilation, to present as many varied scenes as possible and to generally incorporate every angle of the show's humor into a single episode. Obviously, there's going to be some winners and some losers, but that's to be expected from a skit-based episode - it's basically just the writers being free to throw random ideas at the wall and see if they stick, which adds a nice vibe of unpredictability. "The Uploads" radiates the same vibe, but "The Compilation" needs all of its scenes to stand on their own two feet in the absence of Gumball and Darwin serving as audience surrogates.

First of all, I will admit that no, the segments based around overly-long jokes aren't the best. Doing something designed to drag out while not growing tiresome is incredibly difficult, and neither the handshake or dog bits worked particularly successful. I could go into detail about why, but, I mean, that doesn't really do much in terms of me trying to defend this episode, so let's just move right along to what works better.



On the positives, while Richard's ButterSmear doesn't quite rival his calculator review from "The Uploads," it's not the limpest premise either. What it's functioning as is satire for every Kickstarter/crowd-funding project made by people who have no business doing anything of the sort. Yes, while it does fall back on Richard's character being obsessed with food, there's at least some way that it's framed to make it more fleshed out. I mean, the near-pretentiousness of it all really drives the point home - Richard believes in the nonexistent potential of his idea, and here, he's pushing it relentlessly. Even though it's through the lens of a stick with butter on it, all of that sounds... depressingly familiar, to say the least.

And for the record, I think that "The Grieving" got proper treatment from the show. I'm of the mindset that meticulously deconstructing everything bad in a work of media is too easy of a joke, so why even bother? This is the show's way of just letting it sit there and rot in front of us, and I think it's for the better - giving the bit any more recognition is already awkward enough.



I'll also say that it's a bit mean-spirited to smack around something a fan made to celebrate the show on the show itself, however... bad. Think about how the writers spoofed fanart in "The Catfish" - it's certainly mocking, but it never deliberately casts the work in a bad light, serving instead as good-natured ribbing. Besides, they wouldn't want to offend the frighteningly large portion of the fanbase that thinks that "The Grieving" is riveting storytelling, if not a real episode, now would they?

That's why we exist! Free from "corporation" and "morality," we get to mock the crap out of it and have a jolly old time.

I think my point is that sure, I don't think it's a great episode by any definition of the term "great," but to call it mediocre, and even the worst episode of Season 4 (I read Discord, I just don't... use it), is an overstatement. Situated between "The Fury" and "The Disaster," it's the admirable sort of breather episode that doesn't get the credit it deserves.

AstheAA: "The Picnic" (Regarding Character Pairings)


"Overall for me this episode was pretty bland, the story is pretty weak and mainly predictable. One of the main problems imo were, Gumball AND Darwin have to work together, the plot could've been better if only one of them were the main character. If there was also a better reason they had to go through it, the story could have been better, Maybe because Gumball lets say, trips over a rock or something like that. I know this episode is from the FIRST season but still, I wish it was better. It could've also worked if Gumball got paired up with a different character, like Tobias."

Yes, I've already talked about "The Picnic." But, in this case, I'm going to look at it regarding a singular idea: would "The Picnic" be better with a different pairing?

The issue is, of course, that this is a Season 1 episode, and it's working with the characters at their least developed. I mean, Gumball and Darwin were some of the sharpest-written characters at the time, and even then, they were pretty rough. Trying to give a member of the Season 1 supporting cast any sizable amount of screentime only resulted in disasters, so I don't see how passing the baton to Tobias would be an improvement.



Tragically, though, I can't just chicken out of any deeper discussion by virtue of "the show's principles" or whatever, so let's go and pretend that all of the characters were as tightly-written as they are now - suddenly, there's no real issue. The problem with Darwin in "The Picnic" is that his hesitance gives way to almost-immediate compliance, meaning that it's less about a Gumball-Darwin dynamic and more just Gumball waltzing around being an idiot, even if the episode tries to cover that up. If he were at his current iteration, though, with a decent amount of grit that would allow for some enjoyable condescension, Darwin would work perfectly.

Conversely, what Tobias would do is bring a level of competition, which wouldn't help the episode much. If anything, it would slow down the premise even more, with both being mutually destructive towards each other. The issue with "The Picnic" is that there's already too much, and compounding onto that works about as well as adding fennel to anything - we don't want more.



Of course, improving the characters also creates the whole contradiction of, "If Gumball and co. were improved, would the episode's scenario even happen?" Well... no. That's one of the reasons Season 1 is so frustrating - you can't even propose "What ifs" because every episode is designed distinctly with that iteration of the characters in mind - an episode like "The Picnic" wouldn't even work at all otherwise.

But you also proposed the point of one of the characters going renegade, which I think that would critically off-balance the episode. Even if Gumball and Darwin border on the insufferable, they still exist to mutually commentate on their lack of progress; removing that seemingly minor layer results in an episode like "The Robot," which suffers from a lack of that sense in favor of torturing Gumball with everybody else none the wiser of his pain. Obviously, the dynamic between Gumball and Darwin is flawed, but their interplay helps the episode extract as much humor as it can from an otherwise barebones affair, which is the best we could hope for coming out of an episode like "The Picnic."

I think the moral of the story is that "The Picnic" is hard to make better than it already is, so we're just kind of stuck with it. It just... exists, and we have to acknowledge that it is what it is.

It's "The Picnic."

Katapultman: "The Castle"
"It's an episode that builds off of Richard's capability as a parent. At that time, we didn't know how capable he was as a parent (not to say that we haven't seen him as a father.) So this episode really cemented a first idea of that notion, and it was handled a bit haphazardly. I mean, playing it off for comedy is alright, but here it just sets a bad precedent for Richard as a genuine caretaker, even though that plays into his character quite well, it clashes with one of the newer episodes - 'The Deal,' where it wants us to believe the complete opposite of what 'The Castle' brought forth. Other than that problem, the comedy was alright, and the ending was flashy enough for Nicole's tastes."

UGH, you. It's not like I, uh, explicitly asked you... just endure the professionalism, Matt.



I think of "The Castle" in the same way that I see "The Promise." They're both episodes that work to build up to something, but deliberately decide to screw up the formula, and subsequently a positive, satisfying outcome, at the viewer's expense. Sure, you could argue that there is a victory at the end of the day, but it's not in the hands of Richard or the kids, regardless of the diligence with which they tried; rather, Nicole walks in, scares the crap out of them, and restores the status quo by virtue of the power of her presence alone. All of the building up, all of the progress Richard's character made, basically the entirety of the episode... it doesn't mean anything. If nothing else, that's super ballsy.

Because of that, I can't really look at the episode as one that's bent on portraying meaningful character development. This isn't like "The Authority," which works in something particularly revelatory in a lighthearted way; there's nothing to be taken away. "The Castle" is just a character study, working with how the characters work on a fundamental level to create simple, effective storytelling, albeit with that delightfully warped, almost nihilistic Season 2 perspective. Sure, it's not the bleakest episode ever, which makes it seem to exist in a moral gray area instead of defying it outright, but it's not any less effective at what it's trying to accomplish.



That being said, I also don't think "The Castle" operates at the expense of making Richard look like a good character. He comes out of it on top; it's just that the show doesn't let him properly demonstrate that. It's actually sort of like the opposite of "The Deal," where the resolution is the only part pulling the whole thing through, and I think "The Castle" works a lot better. This isn't an episode that drags - even if it leads to a fake-out of a conclusion, it doesn't skip a beat getting to that point, nor take too long to get to the point. (Honestly, as I've already talked about, I would've liked to see more of the first portion of the episode.)

When it comes to "The Castle," I suppose it all comes to a matter of expectations. If you want meaningful development, you'll bound to be disappointed, but it does everything you'd want a Season 2 episode to do and then some, so I can't complain.

This Saturday, I'll hopefully be able to extinguish the rest of "Individual Appeals," discussing suggestions from Russ, Marvin, and Kaiju before the flames reemerge. Again, I'm sorry that the stars didn't quite align in terms of getting everything out on time, but I didn't want to rush everything out in a lesser quality so... just level with me for a few days.

It's also worth noting that this shouldn't affect the planned number of articles, instead technically increasing the count up to 9, so consider it a freebie if that serves to hide my lethargy, which it... probably won't. We can pretend. In the meantime, you can look at last week's article. It's a bit longer.

Toodle-oo.