SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Frozen Face-Off/Squidward’s School For Grown-Ups/Oral Report)

Everyone in Bikini Bottom is competing in a sled race in the mountains for a prize of one million dollars. SpongeBob is riding a sled pulled by Gary, Patrick a sled pulled by gummy worms (guess how that works out), Squidward a sled pulled by a fancy imported worm (of course), Mr. Krabs a sled pulled by three ill-treated worms (guess how that works out), Plankton a sled pulled by a rocket-powered Karen (lulz) and Sandy a sled pulled by turbo-powered robotic worms. The race begins and Plankton and Sandy leave everyone in the dust thanks to their technology. Seriously, why don’t those two hang out more? Oh, I should probably mention that the Plankton riding the sled isn’t the real Plankton. It’s a robot. The real Plankton is using the sled race as a distraction to get everyone out of Bikini Bottom so he can sneak into the Krusty Krab undetected and get the formula. Sigh. Anyway, back to the race. Everyone runs into problems quickly. Of course Patrick’s sled can’t move at all, so he hitches a ride with SpongeBob, to Gary’s dismay. Squidward’s worm is so fancy that it insists on taking a tea break (I’m sorry but that is too funny I love this worm). Squidward tries to continue the race on foot, but falls through the ice and freezes. SpongeBob finds him and takes him along for the ride too. Sandy’s rocket sled crashes, so she gets a ride with SpongeBob as well. Mr. Krabs’ worms turn on him, so SpongeBob picks him up too. The group gets lost and they have to survive in the mountains as they try to find a way back to Bikini Bottom. From there, a lot happens. Like, a lot. They run into a monster that Krabs refers to as the Abominable Snow Mollusk; Krabs ditches the group to continue the race himself; they find Karen and she reveals Plankton’s plot to them; Gary becomes too tired to go further and everyone but Sandy freezes, forcing her to burn the sled for warmth; they make a new sled (out of themselves) and make it back to Bikini Bottom; they give chase to Plankton (who has managed to get the formula) and the episode ends with Plankton being eaten by the Abominable Snow Mollusk. Don’t worry, he’s fine, he just needs to wait for the ASM to shit him out. No, seriously.

I really loved this episode. It’s my favorite special since Christmas Who? (besides perhaps It’s a SpongeBob Christmas, but we’ll get to that one later).

First, let’s get the negatives out of the way so I can end this on a positive note. I didn’t like the Plankton plot. I was disappointed to learn that his only role in the episode was once again attempting to steal the formula. There was absolutely no point in including that plot. Scenes showing Plankton are few and far between at least, but it still would have been better if it had been cut entirely and Plankton had simply been participating in the race along with everyone else.

Another small complaint I have is that Squidward was frozen in a block of ice for most of the episode, meaning his dialogue and actions are extremely limited. It’s disappointing, I would have loved to have more of his snark in this episode.

The great thing about this episode is that it’s action-packed but also knows when to slow down and just let the characters breathe, it’s perfectly paced and put together. That is until the ending, which is when the episode kind of drops the ball. The ending isn’t bad per se, but they sort of dirupted the flow of the episode to get to the ending, and the whole sled-race thing was just… dropped. They find out the race was a ruse and then that’s it. We don’t even know what happened to the other participants of the race. Everything flows well up until the end, but the ending almost feels like it belongs to a different episode aside from a few references to the mountains and of course the ASM’s appearance.

Those are my only complaints, and they’re vastly over-shadowed by everything else, which was perfection. All of the main characters (and Karen, who at this point might as well be considered a main character) are involved in the story, including Gary, an extremely rare occurrence even in pre-movie and something I always love to see. I loved the banter between all of them, watching their different personalities work off each other is always a joy to see and their dialogue was pretty funny most of the time. And even when it wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny, it was always entertaining.

Sandy was the gem of this episode, which is saying a lot because everyone was pretty great. Her bad-ass-ness was actually able to shine in a way that didn’t feel contrived or like she was being treated like a plot-device. She was one of the main things that kept the story moving forward, but it felt natural. Her quick-thinking, resourcefulness, and bravery in this episode were admirable and she was a ton of fun to watch.

I also liked how protective SpongeBob was of Gary in this episode. I have a soft spot for pet bonding, and it was really sweet to see SpongeBob looking out for his pet.

And the Abominable Snow Mollusk… oh dude, the Abominable Snow Mollusk.

HE’S FUCKING CLAYMATION. I love claymation. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching a lot of claymation Christmas specials, but I’ve always had a soft spot for it. I’m not really sure why they decided to make the Snow Mollusk claymation when nothing else is, the cross-animation was a little awkward sometimes, but I don’t even care. Claymation rules, kay?

Honestly, the flaws I mentioned earlier don’t even bother me because there’s so much about Frozen Face-Off that I love that it overshadows what I don’t love. This episode actually beats Single Cell Anniversary as my favorite post-movie episode. Anyone who knows me knows that I love SCA with all my heart, so that’s quite a compliment. This special almost felt like a mini movie. In fact, it’s sort of what I’m hoping the second movie will be: a fun, action-packed adventure that gives all of the main characters a more or less equal amount of focus, not just two or three like the first movie.

Okay, enough gushing. Point is, I love this episode. A lot. I don’t care about its flaws, for me the good outweighs the bad by far.

Rating: 13/10 (Welcome to my rating system, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter)

The episode begins with SpongeBob and Patrick yelling at cars. I… I don’t know why, they’re just yelling at cars for some reason. Kay. Then a sea urchin attaches itself to Patrick’s face and they think that Patrick has managed to grow a beard in the last five seconds. Patrick thinks this means he has to start acting more mature, so he asks Squidward to teach him how. For the next few minutes Squidward and Patrick go around doing “mature” things (basically just Squidward’s hobbies) while SpongeBob tags along. SpongeBob keeps making a fool of himself so eventually Squidward and Patrick ditch him. Then they go to see an opera and SpongeBob is there, singing a sad song about how much he misses Patrick. The sea urchin on Patrick’s face leaves and they realize that it wasn’t a beard after all. Well, duh. Anyway, SpongeBob and Patrick are reunited.

This episode sort of reminds me of a mix between Grandma’s Kisses and Patrick SmartPants. Except it’s not as good as those episodes. I’m not even much of a fan of Patrick SmartPants, but it’s definitely better than this.

The episode did have a few snort-worthy jokes, but the plot is practically nonexistent. What exactly am I supposed to get invested in here? What is the point of this episode? What am I supposed to take away from watching this? I guess I’m supposed to care about Squidward and Patrick ditching SpongeBob, and I do feel bad for SpongeBob, but it only lasts a minute or two and then he and Patrick are friends again. Yeah, not exactly what I’d call tension. This episode didn’t feel like it had a purpose or any sort of coherence, it just meandered for eleven minutes.

Another thing that bothered me about this episode is how childish it makes SpongeBob and Patrick look. I know they’re supposed to be childlike and that Squidward thinks of them as immature, but it’s a bit ridiculous in this episode. SpongeBob asking Squidward to teach them how to play “grow up” is pretty stupid. And about that scene at the beginning where they’re yelling at cars for no reason. Just… why? The scene lasts for a full minute, too.

Like I said, some of the jokes were a little funny, and I guess there is kind of interesting idea behind this episode, but the execution kills it.

Rating: 2/10

SpongeBob is nervous because he has to give an oral presentation in Boating School, so he asks Patrick to listen to his speech for practice. Patrick only manages to make SpongeBob more nervous with his overly-harsh criticisms and training methods, so they go visit Sandy to see if she has any advice. Sandy tells SpongeBob that he’d be less nervous if he pictured everyone in their underwear. She gives him a pair of goggles that lets him see everyone is their underwear. I wouldn’t mind having something like that. Anyway, the day comes for SpongeBob to give his speech. The goggles start to malfunction and they make SpongeBob start to hallucinate that people’s underwear are talking to him. At least, I think it was because the goggles were malfunctioning. Why is underwear speaking to him? This is weird. So, SpongeBob starts to panic and he runs off. And he steals Mrs. Puff’s boat because why not? Of course he eventually crashes the boat and gets in trouble with the police. After giving his speech on boating safety (oh, the irony) to the police, they decide to let him off the hook. Instead they arrest Mrs. Puff because apparently she’s the one responsible for SpongeBob’s behavior. God, how many times has Mrs. Puff been arrested at this point?

This episode is a roller coaster.

I loved the first half. It’s a plot that I can relate to, since I always get nervous about oral presentations. I also always make some stupid joke about the word “oral”, but let’s not go there. The scene at Patrick’s house where he’s giving SpongeBob advice about his speech and being overly critical is really funny and based on that scene alone I thought this episode would end up being amazing.

Then the underwear goggles came in. Those were strange, but I’ve seen stranger things from this show. I actually thought the idea was kind of creative and I was curious about where they were going to take it.

Then the underwear started talking. That was just disturbing and rather awkward to watch. The episode lost me.

Finally there’s the ending, which I’m mixed on. I though SpongeBob giving his speech to the cops was kind of a funny idea and I probably would have liked the episode more if it had ended there, but unfortunately it didn’t. It ends with Mrs. Puff being arrested. This happens so much it’s practically a running gag. Or it’s a cliche. Take your pick. I’d call it a cliche since “running gag” implies that it’s funny, which I don’t think it is. It sort of was the first couple of times it happened, but now it’s simply gotten old and I actually feel rather bad for Mrs. Puff. “Running gag” also implies that it’s a gag and not a plot-device. Yeah, let’s face it. It’s a plot-device to resolve episodes quickly and easily.

In the end I’m not sure what to do with this episode. I do love the first half of it and I love the idea, but it falls apart in the second half. I guess I’d still say that I like the episode because I think the good outweighs the bad, but it could have been a lot better.

Rating: 6.5/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (A Friendly Game/Sentimental Sponge)

SpongeBob and Patrick want to play golf (apparently those two like golf now?) but it starts to rain. So, the two decide to make their own golf course in SpongeBob’s house. Squidward is trying to sleep but the noise from their construction is making it impossible. Squidward threatens them not to wake him up again so the two try to keep quiet as they begin their game. Things quickly get out of hand as the two start to take the game too seriously. They accidentally send their balls smashing through SpongeBob’s window and into Squidward’s house. SpongeBob wants to end the game, but Patrick insists that they continue playing, so they enter Squidward’s house and continue their game, destroying Squidward’s house in the process. And Squidward doesn’t wake up until the very end?! Jesus, he’s a heavy sleeper.

I liked the idea behind the episode and its simplicity. I liked how creative SpongeBob and Patrick got with their golf course. I liked how competitive SpongeBob and Patrick were getting over something so trivial, I love it when characters compete with each other. The jokes were mostly hit-and-miss. The story moved at a decent pace, it never felt too slow or too rushed. Already it looks like the story-telling is improving from Season 7, thank God.

What I don’t like about the episode is that it did feel slightly mean-spirited. Just a little bit. It’s nowhere near as bad as something like A Nightmare for Gary A Pal for Gary, and to be fair there are a lot of episodes that end with Squidward’s house being destroyed. There are also a lot of episodes that end with SpongeBob’s house being destroyed. And the Krusty Krab being destroyed. And the Chum Bucket being destroyed. And Bikini Bottom being destroyed. What is it with this show and destroying shit? Anyway, I think the difference here is that SpongeBob and Patrick destroyed his house from the inside while Squidward was sleeping, so they’re basically breaking and entering. And destroying. And they don’t even care. Pretty typical of post-movie SpongeBob and Patrick I guess, but they’ve been improving lately and this feels like a step backwards, which is probably why it bothers me as much as it does.

Oh well, it’s still a decent episode, but I think I would have liked it more if they’d kept the game in SpongeBob’s house and just made it about the competition between him and Patrick.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob is doing his spring cleaning and throwing out a bunch of his old junk. Patrick sees what he’s throwing out and scolds him for throwing away such valuable memories. SpongeBob takes this to heart and starts saving everything. Literally, everything. Eventually his house starts to overflow and his junk starts to spill onto Squidward’s lawn. Disgusted by the mess, Squidward calls the sanitation police. They threaten to condemn both SpongeBob’s house and Squidward’s house if the mess isn’t cleaned up. SpongeBob still doesn’t want to part with his junk, so Squidward suggests that he takes pictures of it all before throwing it away. They do so, but SpongeBob takes so many pictures that his house overflows once again.

Honestly, this is probably the most relatable episode for me since Procrastination. I’m a total pack rat, I can’t stand throwing anything away because almost everything holds sentimental value for me. I mean, I can throw things away if I know it’s useless to hold on to it and I definitely don’t let things go to extremes like they do in this episode. Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing me on Hoarders any time soon. I just have a really hard time throwing things away and there’s usually a short period of anxiety after I do so.

Of course, this episode really does go to extremes, but it’s SpongeBob, so it’s to be expected. SpongeBob’s unwillingness to let go of items that hold sentimental value is something I can relate to, which is why I can’t help liking this episode just a little bit. I know a lot of people dislike this episode for being gross and just not very funny, and they’re right, but I can’t bring myself to dislike this thing. Though I’m not in a hurry to watch it again, either.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Drive Thru/The Hot Shot)

Mr. Krabs is trying to fix a hole in the wall of the Krusty Krab when a customer comes along thinking it’s a drive-thru. So, Mr. Krans makes the hole in the wall bigger and makes it a drive-thru. The rest of the episode doesn’t really follow much of a story. It’s a lot like how most pre-movie episodes were done. Rather than having a traditional story, they have one simple scenario that the writers squeeze as many gags and jokes out of as possible. That’s what this episode does. Every problem one can possibly have at a drive-thru is shown here and made absurd in typical SpongeBob fashion. With every problem that comes up, Krabs finds some cheap solution for it, and the episode ends with the Krusty Krab being destroyed.

Of all the episodes I’ve seen so far, this one feels the most like a pre-movie episode. It’s funny, even most of the post-movie episodes that I love I don’t think would fit in with the pre-movie episodes. Pre-movie and post-movie just have very distinct styles. There are a few post-movie episodes like Krusty Towers, Krabs a la Mode and It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! that I think might be able to pass as pre-movie (I even think there are some pre-movie episodes that could pass as post-movie) but even so they wouldn’t quite fit. They could pass, but they’d stand out. Am I making sense? I don’t think I’m making sense. My point is, pre-movie and post-movie episodes feel very different from each other, sometimes it’s actually a little hard for me to think of them as part of the same show.

I think Drive Thru is the first post-movie episode that I not only think could pass for pre-movie, but actually fit in very well with the pre-movie episodes, excepting minor details like the slight changes in characters’ voices and animation. Not that this automatically makes Drive Thru a good episode. As mentioned before, there are pre-movie episodes that I dislike and my favorite post-movie episode, Single Cell Anniversary, definitely doesn’t match the pre-movie style.

Enough rambling, what my review is supposed to come down to is this: do I like Drive Thru? Yes. Yes I do. I like a lot. Some of it does come from the pre-movie-esque style of simple scenarios to build jokes and character development from, but even getting away from that, this episode is hilarious. The writers took full advantage of their set-up and fired off jokes one after the other, and nearly all of them worked. It’s a great example of what the writers are capable of when they’re really trying. And, you know, when they’re not being really mean and distasteful.

I can’t find anything to complain about with this episode. The only problem I do have is the Krusty Krab having wooden walls instead of glass ones, but that’s more of a nitpick and they needed to give it wooden walls for this episode to work, so I can’t be too bothered by it.

Rating: 10/10

A new student named Tony Fast Jr., the son of legendary race boat driver Tony Fast, arrives at Boating School. Impressed with his driving skills, Mrs. Puff has him teach SpongeBob how to drive. SpongeBob and Tony seem to hit it off, and SpongeBob even seems to benefit from Tony’s teaching. SpongeBob’s problem with driving has always been his nerves, but Tony is able to get SpongeBob to relax, which improves his driving. Things quickly get out of hand when Tony convinces SpongeBob to drive one of his dads cars, however. He gets SpongeBob to race against some people on the street and SpongeBob’s nerves get the better of him, which leads to disaster.

So, a Boating School episode. I’m usually not a huge fan of Boating School episodes, to be honest. Most of them don’t really hold my interest. There’s only one Boating School episode that I really love, and that’s No Free Rides, which is pure hilarity. (To be clear, I don’t count The Bully or Procrastination, both of which I love, as Boating School episodes.)

The Hot Shot, for the most part, is another typical Boating School episode for me. I don’t find it particularly funny or entertaining and most of it is on the bland side. However, I do like that this episode focuses a little more on exactly what SpongeBob’s problem with driving is. SpongeBob’s problem isn’t that he’s a bad student, he’s actually a great student, his problem is that his nerves always get the better of him. I like that this episode shows what he really is capable of when he’s relaxed and confident. I think it stands out a bit from other Boating School episodes for that reason.

Rating: 5/10

RWBY Reviews: Episode 16 (Black and White)

Blake tells Sun Wukon, the Faunus she met at the end of the last episode, of her history with the White Fang. She joined them as a young child, but quit when their methods got too violent. Now she keeps her identity as a Faunus and as a former White Fang member secret, but she still seems to want to believe the best of the White Fang. She refuses to believe that they committed the robberies they were accused of. She and Sun go to the White Fang’s hideout to find out for themselves while Ruby, Weiss and Yang continue to search for Blake. Oh, and then there’s Penny, a strange girl who has taken a liking to Ruby and insists on following her. ‘Cause that’s exactly what this show needed, more characters. Anyway, Blake finds out that the White Fang was behind the robberies after all, though under the direction of Roman Torchwick. Blake doesn’t like seeing the White Fang taking orders from a non-Faunus like Roman, so she attacks him. Sun helps her out, and what follows is a kind of lame action scene. I mean, it’s fun to watch, I suppose. It’s fast-paced and creative, the kind of stuff you expect from Monty… but it’s also painfully one-sided, which I also expect from Monty. I just don’t find it very interesting to see one character take down a whole group of supposedly skilled fighters by themselves without breaking a sweat. Fortunately, Blake and Sun then start fighting Roman himself, and this fight is a lot cooler. Roman is evenly matched with Blake and Sun, which makes for a much more interesting fight. Then Ruby and Penny show up and Penny starts kicking serious ass. Turns out she’s some kind of cyborg or android (we’ll find out, I guess?) and she easily fights off Roman and the White Fang. After that, Weiss and Yang show up. Weiss and Blake share a heartfelt moment that would have been a lot stronger had their relationship been developed more beforehand, but it’s still a nice moment. Weiss tells Blake that she doesn’t care about her past, and that next time Blake should come to her teammates for help. Shit, Weiss rules. Anyway, that concludes the first volume/season/whatever of RWBY.

So, I liked this episode. The actions scenes were kind of cool, we got a bit more insight on Blake and the White Fang, Roman is starting to become a pretty bad ass villain and the already bloated cast recieved two more characters that I’m not entirely sure how I feel about yet.

As an episode on its own, this one is pretty good. As a finale, however, it’s rather disappointing.

First of all, most of the final fight happens between characters we barely know. Why am I supposed to be invested in this? Blake hardly gets to do any fighting, Ruby is at the final fight but doesn’t fight herself, and Weiss and Yang don’t show up until it’s over. Shouldn’t the climax of your season involve all of your main characters? I want to see my sassy, bad ass Weiss in action, damn it.

Second and most importantly, this was not a satisfying ending. This is mainly because too much of the season was spent on secondary characters and subplots while the main characters were mostly ignored. How backwards is that? Ruby and Weiss got a fair amount of development, but Blake was largely ignored until the last two episodes, which is a bit too late to get us to care about her character. Yang didn’t get any development. So, is her development going to come in Season 2? Definitely too late.

I love this show and I love the characters, or at least I love some of them and want to love the others. The problem is, this show doesn’t give itself enough time to develop them properly. It has a lot of characters to juggle and it doesn’t do a very good job of it. It would have been better to keep this season focused on Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang and then develop secondary characters like Jaune in the next season. It also doesn’t develop its conflicts and plots very well. It hops from one to the next with no sense of fluidity, and the resolutions were often rather empty. They’re just too quick and too underdeveloped. I’m never given enough time to get properly invested in them. As soon as I start to get interested, the show moves on to something else. It’s very jumpy and disjointed.

Still, I found this series to be much better than I was expecting it to be. It wasn’t just over-the-top action and pretty animation (although I do still love the animation), it was actually more character-driven than I was expecting, I just wish it focused on the right characters. The world is a little confusing but interesting as well, and the end of this episode set up an intriguing plot for Season 2.

I look forward to Season 2, and hopefully it will have more focus and a better flow.

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Accidents Will Happen/The Other Patty)

All right, Season 8, let’s see what you’ve got!

Squidward twists his ankle at work and Mr. Krabs realizes that this means he’ll have to pay a fine to the OWS, so he begs Squidward not to call them. Squidward sees this as an opportunity to blackmail Krabs and agrees not to call them in exchange for Krabs pampering him while he recovers. So, that takes up a lot of the episode. Squidward forces Krabs to cater to his every whim and threatens to call the OWS when he refuses. In the end it doesn’t matter because SpongeBob calls the OWS. Squidward tells the OWS worker how he got injured, obviously lying to make himself sound more impressive. That’s when Krabs remembers that he has a surveillance camera and that the whole thing was caught on tape, so he can check to see if Squidward is telling the truth. Turns out what actually happened was that Squidward was sleeping on the job when he fell and injured his ankle. Mr. Krabs is furious and forces Squidward to pamper him for revenge.

This episode is reminiscent of Krusty Towers, with Squidward forcing Krabs to cater to his every ridiculous whim, but it’s not as good was Krusty Towers was. Krusty Towers had a better set-up and took advantage of its scenario a lot more. Accidents Will Happen feels like it’s lacking something, like the writers could have done more with it than they did. Squidward’s demands don’t go to ridiculous extremes the way they do in Krusty Towers. The worst he does is make Krabs run the cash register and have him remove barnacles from his back. That’s gross, but I don’t feel that it goes far enough. Because Squidward’s demands don’t go that far, the scenario feels weak and Krabs’ anger at the end isn’t as well-deserved as it should be. I think this might be the first time I’ve complained about the writers not taking their scenario far enough. They played it too safe with this one when it would have been funnier and more entertaining for them to go to extremes. You know, like what Krusty Towers did. Or even what Can you Spare a Dime? did.

Anyway, the episode isn’t that bad, I just think its lacking substance. It did at least keep my interest and I laughed at a few of the jokes. For some reason the fish at the beginning saying “Where’s the guy in the boat, man? WHERE’S THE GUY IN THE BOAT?” made me laugh especially hard. I don’t know, I think it’s just how panicked he sounded over something so random and trivial.

It’s a decent enough episode, but it could have been more than that.

Rating: 6.5/10

The episode begins with yet another failed Krabby Patty theft attempt from Plankton. As Plankton and Krabs are arguing, SpongeBob reminds them that they used to be best friends and asks them why they can’t make amends. Plankton and Krabs insist that making amends would be impossible and that they’re perfectly fine with hating each other for the rest of their lives. After that, SpongeBob and Plankton discover a new restaurant right across the street from the Krusty Krab. Plankton tastes a piece of the “Flabby Patty” and finds it delicious, so his new goal is to steal the Flabby Patty. SpongeBob runs to tell Mr. Krabs the news, but Krabs is confident that his loyal customers will stay. They don’t stay. So, now Krabs wants to find out the secret of the Flabby Patty too. SpongeBob suggests that he and Plankton work together, but Krabs and Plankton laugh at the idea. Both try to get the formula themselves and both fail miserably, so they finally agree that it would be best to work together. SpongeBob tells them they should apply for a job at the restaurant, which would guarantee them getting the formula. They do so and get the formula, but when they read it they discover that the formula is a recipe for friendship. It turns out SpongeBob was the one who opened the new restaurant, it was all a trick to reunite Plankton and Krabs. Plankton and Krabs aren’t happy about this, so they team up to kill SpongeBob. Just kidding, they team up to beat him up or something, I don’t know.

At first, I though this episode was going to be a rehashed Best Frenemies, but while it’s reminiscent of that episode it’s different enough that it doesn’t feel like blatant rip-off. Unlike Best Frenemies, the focus of this episode isn’t Krabs and Plankton trying to steal a formula, the focus is more on the relationship between Krabs and Plankton and on SpongeBob trying to reunite them. Ironically, even though The Other Patty sounds like the more character-oriented one, I think Best Frenemies has more entertaining interactions and does a better job of portraying the strange and slightly twisted relationship between Krabs and Plankton.

However, I actually thought The Other Patty was really funny. A lot of the dialogue had me laughing, especially Plankton’s reaction to reading the recipe at the end (“Sounds like a recipe for cannibalism!”). That’s what I think The Other Patty has over Best Frenemies: humor. Though I love Best Frenemies for its story and characters, I can’t honestly say that episode makes me laugh that much. It has its funny bits, sure, but its pretty low on humor for the most part. The Other Patty, however, had me laughing the whole time and it seemed more energized than Best Frenemies.

I just realized that most of this review has been comparing the episodes to similar Season 4 episodes. I don’t like doing that, so I’ll stop now.

Anyway, I think The Other Patty is a hilarious episode with decent story-telling and character development. The ending is a bit odd, but not enough to be too detrimental to the episode.

Rating: 8/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 7 Overview

I finally got this done almost a week after finishing Season 7. Totally on the ball here, clearly.

This overview was hard to write because I’m having difficulty thinking about this season as a whole. It feels really disjointed in my head, probably because I basically just watched an episode whenever I had time and then wrote the review whenever I had time, unlike previous seasons where I had a routine. Well, I did my best.

As usual, I calculated the average of my ratings, and what I came up with was 4.4.

That sounds about right. Although I think Season 4 got a lower score than Season 7 did, Season 7 is my least favorite season so far. Partly because it has my two least favorite episode ever in it, but mostly because it’s just a weak season overall. When I look back on it I’m left with an underwhelming sense of mediocrity. That’s really what most of the episodes in this season were: mediocre. Most had good premises, but thanks to sloppy story-telling and lazy writing they couldn’t rise above the “meh” category. Season 5 was similarly mediocre and forgettable, but Season 7 is slightly worse because of… well…

 

AAAH! BACK, DEMONS! BACK TO THE FIERY CHASM FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!

Um, sorry. Those episodes send me to weird places.

Anyway, even if I could get past those two abominations, it doesn’t make up for the near constant stream of mediocre episodes that was Season 7. Even some of the episodes that I liked probably can’t be considered technically “good”. I liked Someone’s in the Kitchen With Sandy, but more as a guilty pleasure. To be perfectly honest, it’s a pretty bad episode. I loved Squidward in Clarinetland, but only because I’m a fan of dark, weird, trippy imagery in animation. It’s not a very popular episode and I can see why, it’s not for everyone. I liked Enchanted Tiki Dreams, but more for the sentiment than for the strength of the story, characters, writing or humor. It’s a nice episode, but not something I’d go out of my way to watch again and for that reason I probably should have given it a lower score than I did. I loved Greasy Buffoons and I do consider that episode genuinely good, but I’m apparently in the minority there since most people dislike it.

Something noteworthy about this season is that it really upped the ante with dark episodes. One Coarse Meal, Sponge-Cano!, Whelk Attack, Squidward in Clarinetland, Back to the Past and a few other episodes had really dark elements to them. I love dark stories and dark humor, but unfortunately the writers rarely handled their dark themes well.  For example, legitimate suicide attempts brought on by psychological torment should not be played for laughs. I can’t emphasize this enough. You know, I probably would have liked One Coarse Meal if it had been handled differently, but the dark themes of that episode were turned into something really distasteful and sadistic. Other episodes either glanced over their dark elements or handled them in similarly distasteful ways, only a few actually pulled them off. It’s a shame, because I really am a fan of dark stuff and some of these episode could have been great, but it’s evident that the writers can’t always handle dark themes properly.

One good thing did come from the darker themes, though: darker animation and imagery. I’ve always been a fan of nightmarish imagery and creepy designs, and the animators pulled it off pretty well. One Coarse Meal, as much as I despise that episode, had a great nightmare sequence that was probably the most enjoyable part of the episode. Squidward in Clarinetland pretty much speaks for itself. Back to the Past had a great design for the enslaved Bikini Bottom, where everything looked cold and joyless. It was really effective for what the episode was trying to get across. I think Season 7 is the most visually interesting season (even most of its title cards had interesting designs) so far. Unfortunately, cool visuals don’t make up for bad writing and story-telling.

Time to talk about characters, starting with our porous hero. Excluding the abomination known as A Pal For Gary and a few other episodes, it seems like SpongeBob is starting to become more and more like his lovable pre-movie self. He’s becoming less oblivious, less stupid and less stalker-like and regaining the kind, innocent, quirky personality that I love.

Squidward still retains a lot of the personality traits that I’ve always loved in him, such as his sarcasm and his passion, but… seriously, dude, you need to lighten up. He’s still too hateful, too mean and too depressed to a point where it makes me uncomfortable. Like I’ve said before, grumpy and cynical is one thing, I love it when he’s grumpy and cynical, but we’ve crossed the line of moderation. He often acts as though there’s nothing good in his life, like his life isn’t even worth living. He hardly ever shows any signs of happiness, and when he does it’s usually at someone else’s expense, namely SpongeBob’s. Squidward is supposed to be a jerk, but he’s also supposed to have this thing called a heart. Please refer to Dying For Pie or Christmas Who? for examples, writers.

Patrick is more or less the same as he ever was, I don’t have much to say about him. He does seem to be meaner and more selfish than he used to be, as well as stupider (if that’s possible), but the changes made to his character aren’t that noticeable or bothersome to me, maybe because I’ve never been a huge fan of Patrick to begin with. I often see/hear people complaining that Patrick used to be a sophisticated idiot and now he’s just an idiot. Uh, what does that mean exactly? Can someone explain it to me in the comments or something? I really don’t notice much different about Patrick except that he’s less funny than he used to be.

Mr. Krabs… whoa. This was not a good season for him. One Coarse Meal had him at his absolute worst and I can’t see him ever being more unlikable than he was there. The Cent of Money didn’t do him any favors either. As I’ve mentioned before, I think Krabs should have a bit of a warped morality, it’s where a lot of his funnier lines come from and it helps make the show less black-and-white. I’m fine with him playing the role of the antagonist sometimes, one thing I like about this show is that every character can serve as both an antagonist and a protagonist depending on the episode. However, unlike Plankton, Krabs isn’t meant to be thought of as a villain. Despite his faults, he’s still supposed to be one of the “good guys”. Lately it seems like the writers have been trying to suck all of the likability out of Krabs. I’d find it more forgivable if he was at least making me laugh, but he hasn’t been making me laugh much lately. There have been a couple of episodes this season where I actually though Krabs was being portrayed decently, but they’re unfortunately overshadowed by episodes like One Coarse Meal. I still want to like Krabs, but the writers aren’t making it easy. Hopefully he’ll improve in the next seasons.

I think everyone knows by now that I not only adore Plankton, I also adore Plankton episodes. I often see/hear people complaining about the number of Plankton episodes there are post-movie. You’ll never hear that complaint from me for a couple of reasons. One, why would I not want to see more of Plankton and Karen, two characters that I love to death? Two, I’ve loved most of the Plankton episodes post-movie, I’ve found a lot of them funny, clever and creative (and a few were surprisingly heartwarming). I actually get excited for Plankton episodes. Three, Plankton and Karen (who I’ll get to later) are easily the best post-movie characters. Plankton is the only main character (excluding Gary) who’s been allowed to retain some depth and who hasn’t had any detrimental changes made to his character. Although I still consider Squidward my favorite character, I can’t call him the best post-movie character (but he’s definitely the best pre-movie character, let’s make no mistake about that). Squidward and other characters have lost much of the charm and depth that they used to have. Although a few of them seem to be recovering it, they haven’t quite reached their former glory. Plankton never lost his former glory. His character has undergone a few changes, but overall he’s still the incompetent but relentless evil genius we know and love. Unfortunately, the writers really dropped the ball when it came to Plankton episodes this season. Most of them were just ripoffs variations of former (and much better) Plankton episodes (most commonly Imitation Krabs for some reason, I guess the writers really like that episode?), and one of the few that wasn’t ended up being my least favorite episode so far. The Great Patty Caper at least was a good episode that didn’t copy any former ones, excluding perhaps its title, and Perfect Chemistry was a fun, unique episode, but the other Plankton episodes in this season were a huge disappointment. Come on, writers, I know you can do better than this. Anyway, at least Plankton himself was still great this season, especially in The Great Patty Caper and Perfect Chemistry, where he felt like a villain for the first time in a while.  I look forward to seeing what the writers will do with him in the seasons that follow.

Sandy had few appearances this season, but she did start appearing more often toward the end of it. She even got to star in the last episode of the season, Perfect Chemistry, alongside Plankton. Unfortunately, I’m starting to notice something troubling about how the writers are using Sandy’s character: I think they’re starting to use her as their safety net. The writers know that Sandy is the most competent character on the show, possessing incredible physical strength and great intellect to boot. It’s easy to have Sandy come in to save the day without anyone questioning it or having it seem suspicious. So, when the writers need to resolve an episode quickly and easily, they can just get Sandy to do it. I love Sandy and I love seeing her save the day, but it works a lot better if she was more involved in the antics beforehand rather than having her come out of left field with a solution. Perfect Chemistry had her involved in the antics, but her solution to the conflict at the end was way too contrived and anticlimactic. She’s starting to feel like more of a plot-device than a character. I’m happy to see more of her and I’m happy to see her be the hero of the episode, but I’d like it to be in ways that are less forced and contrived. At least Sandy still has her fun, likable personality and even her scientist side is starting to feel more natural.

Gary. What is there to say about Gary? He’s cute, he’s funny, he’s smart, he’s surprisingly bad ass, and there’s really no way to screw up his character. All he has to do is say “meow”. Understandably, Gary’s personality has never been quite as engaging or stood out as much as other characters, but it’s impressive that they’ve managed to give Gary as much of a personality as they did with such a limited vocabulary to work with. Even more impressive, they’ve stayed consistent with that personality, giving Gary a recognizable identity despite him not being the most interesting of characters. Gary’s role is simple: he’s SpongeBob’s pet. This makes Gary a very limited character. He doesn’t have much of a reason to interact with other characters and the only significant relationship he has is the one he has with SpongeBob. He also doesn’t have much of a reason to leave the pineapple, confining him to one setting the majority of the time. Lately, the writers have been experimenting with Gary a bit more, broadening his scope and giving him a bit more leeway. A few episodes this season, like Gary in Love and The Cent of Money, had Gary leaving the pineapple and interacting with new characters. It seems like the writers are trying to make Gary less limited and more involved in the show as a whole. I’m all for it. But there is one problem… Gary Abuse. Oh God, the Gary Abuse! As I’ve mentioned before, Gary Abuse is my least favorite type of character abuse. Seeing that cute little mollusk suffer is unbearable for me, and this season was rather heavy on Gary Abuse (A Pal For Gary, anyone?). I’m all for Gary having more of a role in the show, but if that means Gary Abuse, no thanks.

Now for the minor characters. What minor character even appeared this season? I can barely remember. Squilliam was in two episodes (three if you count his extremely brief cameo in Back to the Past) and he was as fabulous as ever. His appearances were the best, funniest parts of I Heart Dancing and Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful and he really made those episodes. As far as I can remember, Mrs. Puff only appeared in Summer Job. Yeah, that wasn’t a good episode, and Mrs. Puff wasn’t very good in it. Much like Squidward, her attitude has become too hateful. It’s less bothersome on her than it is on Squidward but it still grates on me. I believe Larry appeared briefly in a few episodes? He didn’t leave much of an impression, which probably means he was average. Then there’s Karen.

Oh, Karen. I’m glad that Karen appears at least briefly in nearly every Plankton episode, because I just adore what the writers have done with Karen. She’s the only character on the show who I think improved in post-movie. In pre-movie, Karen didn’t leave much of an impression. It wasn’t even until Season 3 that we were told her name and exactly what she was to Plankton, and that was also when they started giving her more of a personality instead of just having her be that computer in the background that would occasionally give Plankton advice. Post-movie is when Karen really started to take off, she became less of a gimmick and more like an actual character. She’s become more sarcastic, more pragmatic and more cynical. Now that I think about it, she’s sort of become another Squidward, hasn’t she? Well, lately Squidward hasn’t been a very good Squidward, Karen is actually becoming a better Squidward. Um, pretend that makes sense. My point is, I love how they’ve developed Karen’s character and I love the way she and Plankton work off of each other. She’s hilarious, entertaining, and surprisingly faceted for a minor character. But I’m not supposed to be gushing about Karen right now, I’m supposed to be talking about her representation in Season 7. As mentioned before, most of the Plankton episodes this season were bad, but Karen was probably the best part of the ones she appeared in. She even had one of her best lines yet in the worst episode yet. It’s nice to see that Karen can still do well even in bad episodes, but it would be even nicer to see her in good episodes again.

So, from a character standpoint, this season is a mixed bag. There’s still a lot that needs to be improved, but I think the writers are starting to get on the right track. Or maybe that’s just me being optimistic. We’ll see.

Overall, though, this season is nothing but a sea of mediocrity. Season 6 may have had more downs than Season 7, but it also (in my opinion) had more ups, and either way it was at least interesting. Season 7 isn’t. It’s bland, forgettable, and underwhelming. I like a lot of what it was trying to do, but it just didn’t deliver.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Seasons 8 and 9. Apparently they’re major improvements over Seasons 4-7 and I’ve even heard them called the “Silver Era” of the show. I’ve actually already seen two episodes from Season 8. One of them I hated, and the other I loved (it was actually partly why I decided to give post-movie another chance). I’ve also seen one episode from Season 9, which I hated. I’m not going to let that sway me, though. After all, my favorite season is Season 2, and it contains I’m With Stupid and Dumped, two episodes that I can’t stand. I’m looking forward to watching Seasons 8 and 9 and cleansing myself of the blandness of Season 7.

Season Rating: 4.4/10

Best Episode: Greasy Buffoons (haters gonna hate)

Worst episode: One Coarse Meal and A Pal For Gary

RWBY Reviews: Episode 15 (The Stray)

Well, things are starting to get serious.

Apparently the RWBY universe has a race of humans called “Faunus”, people with animal-like characteristics, such as animal ears or tails. Years ago there was a war (known as the Faunus War) in which the Faunus tried to gain equal rights through violence. The Faunus are now allowed to live among humans, but are still treated as second-class citizens by most people. The White Fang, a Faunus terrorist organization, are still using violent means to gain equal rights for the Faunus, and have been at war with the Shnee Dust Company (which belongs to Weiss’ family) for years. According to Weiss, the White Fang’s objective is the genocide of the human race. Blake says that the White Fang are misguided in their methods, but noble in their intentions. Weiss and Blake argue about this for most of the episode until Blake loses her temper and accidentally hints that she was a former member of the White Fang. Unable to face her teammates after that outburst, Blake leaves the room. As she’s walking alone, she removes the bow from her hair, revealing what looks like cat ears. So, Blake is a Faunus. Interesting. She meets another Faunus boy with a tail and has a chat with him (what this chat was about we’ll apparently find out next week). Meanwhile, Ruby, Yang and Weiss are searching for Blake, who never returned to their dorm.

This was worth waiting an extra week for. I’ve been complaining for a while about Blake not getting any character development, and now she’s finally getting it!

You know what’s funny? Before this show started and all I had to go on was the trailers, I thought Blake was going to be my favorite character. I loved her design and once I managed to get past the terrible dialogue and voice acting from her trailer, I thought her character seemed interesting. I liked that she was mysterious and had a kind of cold, quiet reserve but still had a sense of morality and righteousness. I was 90% positive that she would be my favorite. Then the show started and I found myself liking every character, but it quickly became apparent that certain characters were getting more development and were more interesting than others. Weiss claimed her spot as my favorite character and Blake got left behind. I sort of forgot about how much I liked her trailer. This episode reminded me why I took an interest in Blake to begin with. She’s mysterious and troubled, but she’s also sympathetic. Although Weiss remains my favorite, I’m glad that Blake is finally getting some character development and I can’t to see where it’s going to go.

Something else that’s interesting to note is that before Blake’s design was revealed and all we had of her was a silhouette, I thought her bow was a pair of cat ears. Very clever, Monty.