User blog:Jamesgrout/Top 5 Worst and Best Amazing World of Gumball Season 4 Episodes

If you still haven't, please read the versions for seasons 1-3 on my blog page.

Season 4 of Gumball was very interesting, it seems to be highly popular, and I can definitely see why but it still had some of the shows worst episodes. To me, the season started out pretty weakly but picked up from there and got better gradually, that's on average and with still some of the best episodes of the season near the beginning and some of the worst near the end. It was interesting even if you didn't quite love it as much as me, because it had so much going on, story arcs, episodes with direct continuations, the shows first 1 & a half two parters, I would say season 4 is best summed up as, all time high points, all time low points and just about everything in between.

What was the case for me in a notable amount of times in season 4 was the little things making a big difference, mostly bad ones. As I'm always saying, I had always thought Gumball was established as a feel good show with a really fun rebellious but good hearted protagonist, and it was already changing in season 3, becoming more negative and dramatic, and I didn't like it at all. At this point, you can just call me Unikitty from The Lego Movie XD. So, just small moments in episodes were derailing them sadly, however enjoyable the episodes were otherwise, and I could never understand why this would ever be needed, nor do I want to, as usual examples will be saved for the intermission to avoid giving anything away. Anyway, what are these so-called worst episodes and all time low points? I'll tell you:

Top 5 Worst
Gumballs aim becomes to get slapped on the butt by Tobias, well even Tobias is better than this let alone Gumball. His attempts to get his butt to collide with Tobias' hand are unpleasantly cringe inducing and basically everything that happens is just uncomfortable to watch, including the amount of time the two were trapped on the roof with no food. Then what Gumball says after he finally gets that slap; both cover what's wrong with what Tobias was doing in the first place, bearing in mind that is the episode's premise setup, and at the same time makes Gumball's aim become pointless in the end anyway, after all the discomfort.
 * #5 Worst: The Slap-

No, humour and running gags comes after premise and main character supportability. Firstly, the kids being trapped inside the huge crate the whole episode to come out horribly traumatized at the end is as horrible as a prospect for me, personally. Secondly, this episode premise comes from the worst of what was wrong with Richard in the early seasons, remember how bad that was? And makes us have to focus on him the whole time as the main character trying to rectify as mistake which if he was even a half decent dad, he never would or should have made in the first place.
 * #4 Worst: The Return-

Gumball was never like this before, not that I noticed, he was even once unselfish on Alan's behalf, in 'The Storm', remember when he tried to encourage Alan to beat him up? For Carmen to see he still had that much passion for her. Why did they have to flanderize his personality clash with Alan this much? My spirits were dropped like boulders seeing him try to stab Alan in the beginning, I had no idea what show I was watching and enjoying so much before. It's only really the beginning and end that puts this episode on my list, but first impressions and leaving impressions are the most important ones, and anyway, everything else leads up to the end. Gumball and Darwin bury their selves in their own shame after hearing why Alan really ditched them, but they didn't know, and how could they have? At this point, I can see just why Gumball is always so opposed to Alan when he is involved.
 * #3 Worst: The Traitor-

This one is obviously a very strong acquired taste and I am aware, and all it is to me is just non stop embarrassment. It is awkward in only bad ways and the innuendos are sickeningly cringe inducing and all of it is happening because of Darwin, what was Darwin gaining from showing his best friend how predictable he had become? He could have just not have done what he was doing if he had cared it was obviously upsetting him.
 * #2 Worst: The Hug-

And they had to do a sequel episode... I'll admit, it actually wasn't as bad as I thought given what it is, but how much can you want to try and get out of just plain awkward interactions? This became the first episode I couldn't finish the first time, since 'The Dress' but that one was only at the end. This was the point I really began to feel I should just give up on this show soon, what it seemed to have become or be becoming from a once feel good delight.

Dishonourable mentions:
 * 'The Roots': it did always look pretty crammed in that bowl for Darwin, sure all he'd want is a spacy one but I preferred when he seemed happy with his life not mentioning that. The episode also suggests the Wattersons take pride in things like emotional blackmail, this is one of the little things making big differences for the worse I mentioned earlier. This is just easier to watch than, say, Gumball trying to get a slap on the butt from Tobias, to me this is trash, but it's the luckiest trash there is.
 * 'The Apprentice': This one is just a plot hole, Gumball has already proven himself to Patrick, we didn't need to know how much he could just mess things up for Patrick.
 * 'The Scam': Gumball is turned into Mr. Krabbs. It was great to see Darwin and Carries feelings for each other return, but it would have been great if it wasn't in a episode with Gumball made the villain.


 * And #1 Worst is:

...

Jamie continuously inflicting such brutal torture on everybody at school and getting no punishment for it, funnily enough, is not pleasant to watch, and this is another episode premise spawned from a plot hole. In 'The Coach', Coach turns out to be Jamie's mum and Jamie confirms that because of this, she can no longer bully anybody, whatever exactly her actual words were, you know those feel good vibes I keep talking about, there they are. This is just one of my biggest problems with some new episodes, they set up things like that and I think I'm in for some positive events and fun feel good adventures, then every now and then they shoot them down right before my eyes and give us trash like this instead. Jamie literally throws a fart at Sarah, Darwin is baffled and I am much worse, seeing what this show has reduced itself to, when has there been fart humour in TAWOG before? The scene of Gumball and Darwin imagining their married life with Jamie, them as the women and Jamie as the man, this, the idea and the way they show it makes me queasy, it's disturbing and doesn't work.
 * The Girlfriend-

Since I started watching the show I couldn't help but notice, Gumball occasionally gets detentions, it's not normally known why but mostly for damage he didn't mean for to happen, but Jamie is the real bully and have we ever seen her in a detention? No. Why is this the case? Is this what school was like for Ben? Is that what it's like nowadays, do teachers not care about bullying? Because this isn't how I remember things, when people bullied me at school, and this might sound crazy, but the teachers actually punished them, they got detentions, doesn't that sound great? I'll admit, I was a bit of a snitch, but sometimes the teachers caught them their selves and acted accordingly. I'm being serious here now, if bullies don't get detentions anymore, something needs to be done, could you go to the school board and take a stand and get the word heard, make it clear that just ignoring bullies isn't enough, school staff need to be prepared to catch and deal with bullies properly, detentions, suspension etc. I'm not expecting you to do that for the whole world, just what you can, at least your own local schools. We can't stop bullying from ever happening again, there'll always be bullies, but we can take a stand to make it so that when people do bully, school staff will properly give them what's coming to them.

Back to this episode, the thing about it is that it isn't necessarily the most insulting episode, or the least watchable, it's just the one with the least that is good to it, i.e. in 'The Hug', Darwin at least gets what he deserves at the end. In this one, Jamie may apologize to Gumball but not for everything she did, this, therefore, isn't good enough, what's more, she punches Darwin afterwards and he wakes up in the nurses office, and Jamie gets no due comeuppance. At best, it's a plot hole and a story about a hateable character bullying and never getting punished for it, at worst, it is vile, it is spirit crushing and it goes against everything I'd ever like about the show.

Intermission
There were also 2 more episodes from season 4 I haven't watch and won't be; 'The Advice', I saw it referenced another of my most hated episodes 'The Club' and couldn't bring myself, and subsequently only heard bad things about it anyway, and 'The Nest'. The Watterson kids shouldn't have wanted a puppy in the first place as I said in my season 3 worst and best blog, dogs shouldn't get along with cats, and rabbits shouldn't either. I'm glad they say goodbye to that turtle and it's confirmed as her last appearance, but I'm still not happy we ever met her in the first place so I just can't watch it.

An example of why I thought the season started out weakly is 'The Others', I do see where they're coming from, but I don't think this realistic situation is fitting for Gumball, i.e. Anais: "some, believe it or not, with more interesting lives than you", then why has he been the protagonist for 3 seasons plus? I don't blame Gumball for trying to take back the center spotlight. Whichever way I look at it, it's just too mean spirited for me.

An example of a little thing making a big difference for the worse is 'The Parasite', Gumball says he's the only one who should be allowed to, what, take credit for other peoples work, steal their food. I always saw the good in Gumball before, sure, he's had a fair few bad days but I never noticed him doing anything like the above before, to be clear, this is a big difference for the worse because Gumballs character was one of the biggest things I always used to like so much about this show.

With how bad all of those episodes were, and how the negative the show was really becoming at this point, this was where my perspective was changing and I was really feeling giving up on what I always believed in about it, but I had to stick it out. I waited too long for Gumball and Penny to kiss and I put so much time into watching and following it. It couldn't end like this, I had to see it through, and thank goodness I did because I found many still good episodes and they brought my faith in the show right back, managing to be as good as the shows best as it once was, if not even better, and my favorites are...:

Top 5 Best
Billy is promoted straight from #5 worst as was in season 3 to #5 best, he was really funny in this episode with all his insults, and otherwise, there was nothing really wrong with this episode. The moral is great, no one has everything to make them happy and I'm really satisfied that Billy becomes Gumballs friend. With all the things changing about the show I haven't been happy with, one thing that always did stay in tact is their skill in making up for things, in this case of course, 'The Egg'.
 * #5 Best: The Pest-

I just want to quickly mention while on the topic of satisfying new friendships, 'The Gift', I never could have guessed Masami would have the revelation she did even when the show was in its feel good period, the ending just kind of ruined it a bit by leaving it unfinished, we don't see them explain the misunderstanding to the police so they can get off the hook.

Sometimes, Tobias is annoying, sometimes, he's a good love to hate character. This one is a wonderfully light and harmless set up and when the imaginary weapons come in to play, really fun, action packed and beautifully over the top, and this is how you do it so the antagonist gets what's coming to them in the end. In this case, they're at the butt of some irony which makes it even better.
 * #4 Best: The Points-

Well where do I start with this one? Well before I do, this doesn't include what happens in 'The Rerun' as that is season 5. All the fourth wall breaks, the height the risk and danger is raised to by Robs remote, hence the name 'disaster', Gumball and Penny's talk that just sounds like an argument because of the language, so much love for this XD. Everything that happens in this episode is dramatic done well by TAWOG, either that or just really funny and/or engaging, then of course, Gumballs ultimate sacrifice for all his friends and loved one and the cliff hanger, this episode put me on the edge of my seat Gravity Falls style. I don't think the vibes have ever been this powerful in Gumball before.
 * #3 Best: The Disaster-

Louis became another of my favourite characters with this episode, how he works off of each Watterson. The story is great and fun and causes some wonderful and hilarious confusion as Gumball becomes legally Nicole's uncle and all. It's so funny when Louis asks Nicole for a shirt just so he could tear it to keep the running gag going. Then there's the first appearance of Frankie Watterson and their resolution in the end with the "we are family" dance. The scene in the hall itself at the end is great and amusing too, especially when Gumball knocks Frankie and his fall, as everything does there, "happens in it's own time".
 * #2 Best: The Signature-

Honorable mentions:
 * 'The Love' and 'The Night': I think this show has always done short skit package episodes well, I loved both of these ones but they each had at least 1 skit that wasn't so good, in The Love, Sussie's parents' part and in The Night, Larry's part.
 * 'The Signal': The ultimate in fourth wall breaking from Gumball, arguably even more so than Sussie's dream from 'The Night', I just felt certain others had more to offer.
 * 'The Fury': good story, good character development from Nicole, good new character, but same thing, not as much to offer.
 * 'The Blame': I'd love to have put this one in my top 5 best, with Billy, the song and all of the books and video games referenced, but I couldn't, Gumball just wasn't at his best, taking credit for Darwin's idea, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't where the entire song came from.
 * 'The Origins': As the only 2 parter 100% in season 4, it was just too hard to compare, but I love as much as my other favourite episodes from season 4.
 * 'The Compilation': Weird Like You and Me is definitely the best TAWOG song, but the rest was overshadowed by it, especially considering that that turtle pops up again. And, the next episode straight after it is 'The Scam', this is the point that I ask, how do people with differences that big even work on the same show?
 * 'The Romantic' and 'The Misunderstandings': The recurring theme of Penny getting the worst of Gumball's trying to hard became overplayed with these two, but it's always great to see Gumball and Penny back on the scene and both were really funny, and showed that Gumball is always able to make Penny laugh.


 * And #1 Best is:

...

Here is where we see the best of the shows action packing. Where did this come from? It is seriously amusing, engaging and fun, and it was refreshingly unusual that Gumball was the only one who could tell the hijackers were their parents in disguise, and seeing Darwin think highly of Gumball enough to suggest him the one to confer with the "hijackers". Like Gumball said, it was probably the most cool or exciting thing they'd ever done being involved in such a heist and speed chase, and it was just as exciting for the viewers. Rob is hilarious from beginning to end in the episode, and a great and worthy nemesis all-round, with this episode and The Disaster, he became my favourite character barring Gumball and Penny. Gumball and Robs fight finishing up on moving plane wings, I don't think it could have been topped it off any better.
 * The Bus:

This is the episode that restored my hope that the show could just be restoring its former glory, I was refreshed and delighted, and then the next episode I saw that was on was 'The Scam'... it's a shame such a beautiful diamond has to get stuck in the midst so much trash, why can't there just be more like this? So it wasn't looking as good as I thought it was but still, this episode brightened things right up for me, each next episode could be really good, really bad, or anything in between but I'll have no way of guessing beforehand. But either way, I don't have to give up on what I always believed about this show after all if they're still capable of making episodes this good, and with the show then confirmed to end after the 6th season, I'll now be just fine to see it through to the end with hopes of seeing more episodes like this.