SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 Overview

Well, people were right. Season 8 was definitely an improvement over previous post-move seasons. The average score it got was 6.5, which is actually less than I was expecting (I was expecting at least a 7), but I did like this Season more than I liked the other seasons I reviewed. In fact, I like it about as much as I like Season 1. Mind you that’s still a lot less than I like Seasons 2 and 3, but it’s something.

Season 8 was an improvement in just about every aspect. Most of the characters have improved, the humor has improved, the writing has improved, and it’s more consistent than other post-movie seasons. One of the main things pre-movie has over post-movie, in my opinion, is consistency. It’s not that post-movie can’t be as good as pre-movie, it’s that it so often just… isn’t. And it’s really frustrating to see great episodes like Krusty Towers or Single Cell Anniversary surrounded by mediocre to just plain shitty episodes. It’s perfectly normal for even the best shows to have weaker episodes. It happens. I get it. Not every episode can be amazing no matter how talented the writers are. Of course they’re going to drop the ball every now and then. What’s important is for the show to have consistency with good episodes, for the weaker episodes to be the exception. That’s not how it is with post-movie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show as inconsistent as post-movie SpongeBob is. It’s kind of incredible how quickly it can go from great to mediocre to awful. It’s such a mixed bag that I can never decide if I feel positively about it or negatively. Even looking at post-movie as a whole and not episode by episode, there are so many aspects of it that I like and so many that I dislike. I love that they developed the relationship between Mr. Krabs and Plankton so much more, I adore what they’ve done with Karen, and I like that they’re generally more experimental and weird, even if it doesn’t always work in their favor. However, they clearly don’t have a good grasp on some of the characters, the writing tends to be lazy, the humor can be really mean-spirited, and the animation tends to be stiff.

But like I said, Season 8 is an improvement, mainly because it has more consistency. It does still stumble a lot, but for the most part it’s solid. There are a lot of funny, interesting, and well-written episodes. It’s a relief to see after the incredibly forgettable Season 5, the roller coaster that is Season 6 (which I still think it the most exemplary post-movie season, it’s pretty much the definition of “inconsistent”), and the very “meh” Season 7. And then there’s Season 4.

Okay, I need to say something about Season 4, and I’ll do it here because where else can I do it? I don’t think I was very fair to Season 4. Reading my old Season 4 reviews honestly makes me cringe because they’re so unnecessarily harsh (also, I think I’ve much improved as a reviewer since then, so there’s that too). A lot of the episodes that I was really critical of I’ve now come to appreciate a lot more, and while I still stand by some of what I said and I don’t think Season 4 comes to close to greatness overall, it is better than I gave it credit for. My post-movie bias is clear in those old reviews, but the thing is, I don’t think Season 4 ever really had a chance with me. It was at a disadvantage from the beginning, more so than any other post-movie season, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s the first post-movie season, so it’s before I got used to post-movies style and certain aspects of it. I got more lenient with later seasons, and some things stopped bothering me altogether (remember when I used to despise Scientist Sandy? Now I don’t mind it at all). Another thing is that Season 4 is the season that made me quit watching this show. I watched most of it as a kid and hated it so much that it turned me off what was my favorite show at the time. Now I’m not even sure why I had such an aversion to Season 4, let alone one strong enough to get me to quit on the show, but that doesn’t matter now. When I think about Season 4, all I can think about is how much it disappointed me and how it kept me away from this show for so long. It makes it hard for me to like Season 4 at all even though, objectively, it is a decent season and didn’t deserve as much vitrol as I gave it.

However, as embarrassing as those old reviews can be to read, I don’t regret them either. My reviews were never meant to be taken as recommendations or as representations of post-movie, I was doing them more for me than for anyone else (though I am glad that people are apparently enjoying them). This project was about my journey through post-movie, about rediscovering something I’d given up on and figuring out for myself what I liked and disliked about it. I wouldn’t change what I’ve written because it would feel dishonest, and I always try to be as honest as possible in my reviews. I kind of like that my Season 4 reviews are indicative of how much my opinions have grown and changed.

So, with that off my chest, back to Season 8. This season was kind of validating for me, because the majority of my complaints about post-movie were centered on the characters, and Season 8 fixed a lot of the problems I had with them. Well, okay, maybe it didn’t fix them completely, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but it is a good start. I actually found most of the characters consistently enjoyable, which is a good feeling after so many seasons where I liked one or two and had varying opinions of the others depending on the episode.

It’s pretty funny to me to think that back when I first started reviewing post-movie I thought Squidward and Mr. Krabs were mostly fine and I had a hard time liking SpongeBob in most episodes. Now it’s the other way around. I like SpongeBob again. He occasionally lapses back into being too oblivious or stupid, but it’s a lot more rare, and even when it does happen it’s not as annoying as it used to be (thought I’m not sure if that’s a sign of improvement or of me growing accustomed to it and therefore becoming more lenient). Anyway, I’m glad I can actually enjoy SpongeBob as a character again. I’m glad that he’s a lot closer to his sweet, funny, lovable self. I really disliked disliking him, if that makes sense.

Squidward actually didn’t appear in Season 8 as often as he usually does in a season, at least not in major roles. I’m actually okay with that, though, because Squidward has lost nearly all of his charm for me. I don’t like him much in recent seasons. It honestly pains me to type that, because even though I’ve mentioned before that Squidward is my favorite I don’t think I’ve ever really expanded much on my incredibly dorky admiration for this character which would probably be infinitely more embarrassing than my crush on Plankton. I still think of him as my favorite, because I choose to rank characters based on what they’re like when they’re at their best, but if I was to rank them based on what they’re like at this point in the show, Squidward would be waaaaay down on my list. And I hate that. I hate disliking Squidward even more than I hated disliking SpongeBob. I still want to like Squidward in post-movie, but it’s so hard to do when he’s become so unpleasant. That’s really the only word to describe him now. He’s just fucking unpleasant. The only emotions he ever shows anymore are anger, depression, and bitterness, and I know that these have always been part of Squidward’s character, but he was capable of having other emotions too. He had other qualities to balance him out. There’s no balance anymore, he’s just… uuuuugh. I’m probably exaggerating a little, he’s not always that bad, and how much I dislike the changes made to him probably has a lot to do with how much I liked him originally (something similar probably happened with SpongeBob as well). He does still have some good lines occasionally, and some episodes at the end of Season 8 did seem like they were at least trying to improve his character a little bit. I liked him in Squiditis, Hello Bikini Bottom, Chum Fricassee, and It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!, but those episodes have become exceptions. That’s not good. It should not be an exception for me to be able to enjoy or even tolerate my favorite character. It sucks, because I still want to like Squidward. I still want him to be able to make me laugh without fail. I still want him to be the one that I identify with to a point that’s actually kind of uncomfortable. I still want him to be the one who always seems to say what I’m thinking. I still want him to be the one who captures my interest more than anyone else on the show. I still want him to be the one my eyes are immediately drawn to because the simple fact that he’s present makes the episode that much better.

I should really stop talking about Squidward now because I just realized how utterly insane I sound. But I think I’ve made my point. While most characters have been improving lately, Squidward is deteriorating. Those few episodes I mentioned earlier portray him fairly well, but it’s not enough.

Patrick had his ups and downs for this season. In general I think I’d say he’s gotten a little better? I don’t know, Patrick didn’t actually leave much of an impression on me this season. It seemed like whenever he appeared in an episode it was to be a plot-device, or he was just kind of there and didn’t really contribute anything. I do have this vague feeling that I enjoyed Patrick a bit more than I did in other seasons, but maybe that’s because he had less opportunities to be annoying since he was mostly sidelined this season. Yeah, I don’t know, there’s never that much to say about Patrick, is there? I hate how every time I talk about Patrick it somehow ends up sounding like I want him to die in a ditch or something but I swear I don’t.

Mr. Krabs, thankfully, was much improved in Season 8 after two seasons of him being pretty terrible. It’s nice, because I love Mr. Krabs and wasn’t at all happy with the decline of his character in Seasons 6 and 7. Can I just take this opportunity to say that I think Mr. Krabs deserves much more credit then he gets? Seriously, he’s hilarious when he’s at his best, I don’t know why this goes unnoticed so often. Anyway, back to his representation in Season 8. I liked that Krabs seemed to be getting a lot of his humor back, and he also showed hints of his paternal side again.

Oh hey, Sandy actually had a good number of appearances this season! I’ve been asking for more Sandy since, what, Season 5? I’m glad it finally happened, and I liked most of her appearances in this season. I think this is Sandy’s best season since Season 2. That’s partly because this is the most appearances she’s had since Season 2, but also because, well, it just was a good season for her. She rarely felt like she was only a plot-device, she was allowed to be a character. She was allowed to show off her brainy side, her heroic side, her Texan side, and her athletic side. She was allowed to be funny, helpful, interesting, quirky, bad ass. She was allowed to be Sandy. I think Sandy had a lot to do with my enjoyment of Season 8. I’d missed her so much, I’m so happy she was given a decent amount of appereances. Not all of them were great, but a lot of them were, and at least she was given a chance to shine. Besides, this show is such a sausage fest, it would be nice if the few female characters it does have were given more development and bigger roles.

Is it me or did Plankton not get as many appearances this season as he did in other post-movie seasons? I mean, he still got more than he did in any pre-movie season, but it felt like less than other seasons. It’s probably for the best, since in Season 7 Plankton episodes started getting stale and derivative. The fact that they slowed down a little with Plankton episodes meant that the ones we did get had a bit more creativity and energy put into them, and it also meant that other characters (namely Sandy) got more attention. Anyway, for what we did get of Plankton, I really liked him, mostly because he felt like a villain again. I’ve always been satisfied with Plankton’s post-movie portrayal, especially compared to other characters, but there was something a little bit off about him. He had been starting to get too sympathetic. I mean, Plankton has always been pretty pathetic, it’s partly what makes him so funny, and I’m not against the writers trying to make us feel sorry for him, I’m all for sympathetic villains. The problem is I’m not sure if they were trying to make us feel sorry for him or not. I felt weird about pitying him and siding with him because I don’t think it’s what they were going for. It connects to how their portrayal of Mr. Krabs was getting too monstrous as well. Plankton was starting to seem like the lesser of two evils, which he’s not supposed to. Krabs isn’t exactly a saint, he is supposed to have a skewed sense of morality and he can make mistakes, again this is partly what made Krabs such a good character. But despite his flaws, he is ultimately a good person, or at the very least a better person than Plankton. Similarly, Plankton is allowed to have a few redeeming qualities, but he is ultimately supposed to be a villain. You know, the kind that delights in the pain and misery of others, enjoys manipulating others for his/her own ends, is exceptionally cruel and bitter, and has unrealistic goals of world domination. That’s who Plankton is, and I love him for it, but he’s not the sort of character I want to condone or side with. I didn’t like how Krabs and Plankton’s roles were kind of flipped around in post-movie. It didn’t feel right. Now it seems like Plankton is starting to become more like himself again, more diabolical and sadistic and villainous while still being funny and faceplam-worthy. Oh Plankton, never change.

In Season 7 I noticed that the writers seemed to be trying to develop Gary’s character a bit more and give him a bigger role on the show. I was expecting this to continue in Season 8, but it kind of didn’t. Episodes where Gary had a big role were few, and most of them were pretty standard Gary episodes. I don’t mind because though I like Gary there really isn’t that much you can do with him, but I was a little surprised since they seemed to put so much effort into getting Gary more involved in the show in Season 7. Well, anyway, Gary was… Gary. As usual there isn’t anything to complain about where he’s concerned because seriously how the fuck can you screw up Gary’s character? But at the same time, there aren’t that many compliments that can be given to him. He’s cute and I like having him around, and that’s kind of all I can say.

Now for minor characters. Karen got to star in her own episode, and it was a pretty good one, so that’s cool. I’m really glad Karen has gotten so much more development in post-movie, not just because she ended up being an amazing character, but because, well, remember what I said about this show being a sausage fest? Yeah. At least one female character has received more attention and development, and even though in a lot of ways Karen is really stereotypical, I think she’s a great character. She’s hilarious, she’s interesting, she’s entertaining, and she’s pretty faceted for a minor character. I could go on and on about Karen but I won’t because this post is already really long, but let it be known that Karen is probably my favorite character in post-movie. I actually like her much better in post-movie than I do in pre-movie, which I guess isn’t saying much because she didn’t have much presence in pre-movie, but still. She’s the only character who has actually improved, and that’s pretty cool. My love for her might have something to do with the fact that her humor and attitude are reminiscent of what Squidward used to be, but I don’t think that’s entirely the reason. They share similarities, but I don’t think of Karen as “the new Squidward”. She feels like a unique character on her own.

Oh yeah, I said I was going to stop talking about Karen, didn’t I? My bad. On to other minor characters. I really liked Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy’s appearances, and Pearl was more enjoyable than she usually is. You know, I actually don’t hate Pearl as much as I make it seem like I do. I don’t like her, but I don’t think she’s completely horrible and I think she has a few redeeming qualities. She can be sensible and willful, which are qualities I like, and she can be kind of funny. I think she has the potential to be a decent character if only they’d have her show these qualities more often instead of having her be just a walking teen stereotype. Anyway, Mrs. Puff was all right in her appearances, I liked how they really pushed her to her limits in Demolition Doofus, but I’m still not totally happy with her post-movie portrayal. Man Ray’s one appearance was disappointing, and did the Flying Dutchman appear at all? Oh, that’s right, he appeared in Ghoul Fools. Which was also disappointing. Hm. I don’t think Larry appeared did he? I guess this season was okay for minor characters, at least a couple of them were good. I’m sad that there was no Squilliam, though.

This is definitely way too long now and I’m starting to run out of steam anyway, so let’s wrap this up. I like Season 8. It’s not perfect, far from it, but it definitely feels like an improvement. Most of the characters are seeming more like themselves again and the writing in general has gotten better. I hope this continues in Season 9.

Season Rating: 6.5/10

Best Episode: Frozen Face-Off and It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!

Worst Episode: Squidward’s School For Grown-Ups and House Sittin’ For Sandy (I barely remember these episodes…)

Keep an eye out for my next post, which will be either tomorrow or the day after. It’ll be an important one.

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (The Good Krabby Name/Move It or Lose It/Hello Bikini Bottom)

It begins with Krabs taking pictures of everyone in Bikini Bottom who hasn’t been to the Krusty Krab, which is a little creepy, but let’s not dwell on that. Later he pulls SpongeBob and Squidward into his office and tells them that they need to bring in new customers with advertising. So SpongeBob goes out to advertise (Squidward has no fucks to give as usual) and is later joined by Patrick. And that’s pretty much the majority of the episode. SpongeBob and Patrick find silly and often dangerous ways of advertising that are surprisingly successful, until finally they manage to piss people off when one of their methods goes awry. Well, more awry than their previous ones, I guess. Anyway, angry customers storm the Krusty Krab and of course it ends up destroyed. Can that place ever catch a break?

This episode has an okay premise. It does feel a bit familiar, but it’s original enough. Can’t say I really enjoyed it much, though. I found it rather dull. There are a few funny bits, but nothing that really stands out. Except maybe that one brilliant scene between Mr. Krabs and the last customer needed that looked oddly suggestive. Y’all know what I’m talking about.

I did find it kind of amusing that despite their terrible methods of advertising the Bikini Bottomites couldn’t help being drawn to the Krusty Krab. And Plankton’s cameo was kind of funny too. However, I don’t think the episode as a whole has much worth writing home about.

Rating: 4/10

A notice is put up in between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket, saying that the restaurants are too close together. Apparently there’s a law about restaurants needing to be a hundred feet from each other, and the Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket are ninety-nine feet from each other. If one of them doesn’t move, one of them will get plowed. Mr. Krab and Plankton are both too stubborn to move, so they start gathering signatures for petitions to let their restaurant be the one to stay. At first it appears that Krabs is winning, but SpongeBob overhears Plankton crying and feels bad, so he lets slip some ideas for how Plankton can get more signatures. Basically Plankton pays people for them, and he ends up getting more, so the Krusty Krab has to be plowed. And by “plowed” I mean it gets pushed one foot away from the Chum Bucket, meeting the requirements.

I was hoping to like this episode more than I did, since I really like it when characters are pitted against each other for an episode. But like its partner, this episode was pretty forgettable. I like it a little more than I liked its partner, but not much more. The ending was really predictable, and I was kind of annoyed at how the whole plot basically came about because of poor communication (the man who left them the notice wasn’t clear about what he meant when he said one of them would be getting plowed). I don’t know, I’m not a fan of plots that rely on characters not being able to communicate properly and tell each other what they actually mean, and while this definitely wasn’t as annoying as most plots like this can be (if anything, it’s probably one of the better examples of this type of plot), I still couldn’t help rolling my eyes a little at the ending’s “reveal”.

I liked how excited Plankton was about the Krusty Krab being plowed, it reminded of the movie, when we was way too excited about Mr. Krabs being executed. I love that Plankton is actually starting to feel like a villain again.

Rating: 5.5/10

Squidward is practicing his clarinet (this is one of those episodes where he’s randomly able to play it well) and is heard by SpongeBob, who tries to join him with his ukelele. Squidward is unhappy about the intrusion, but they’re heard by a fish named Colonel Carper, who says he wants them to form a band with him as their manager. Squidward doesn’t like the idea of working with SpongeBob, but he does so anyway for the possibility of becoming famous. SpongeBob, bless his heart, doesn’t care about the money and fame and is just happy to be in a band with his friend. Mr. Krabs overhears CC talking about how much money they’ll make (a lot of overhearing happens at the beginning of this episode) and he forcefully makes himself band manager, despite CC’s warnings that managing a band is harder than it look. Most of this is explained through song. From there, a lot happens and I don’t want to spend too much time on it, but here’s what you need to know: Mr. Krabs is a terrible band manager, SpongeBob and Squidward are obviously both hoping to get different things out of their band, CC is an asshole but to be fair Krabs did deserve a lot of what CC did to him, and the band eventually fails because, as mentioned earlier, Mr. Krabs is a terrible band manager. After a particularly bad concert experience Krabs, Squidward and SpongeBob (and Patrick who was their roadie, but he doesn’t have much of a purpose in the narrative, really) end up stranded far from home thanks to a flat tire on their tour bus. Squidward decides he’s had enough and gives up on the band. SpongeBob tries to stop him, but Squidward begins walking home on his own. Then we get another song, this time an emotional duet between Squidward and SpongeBob which culminates in the two of them rejoining and playing their instruments together. What happens after this is a bit confusing, but basically the band still ends up failing.

Okay, so I thought this special was really funny. Like, probably one of the funnier post-movie episodes. I found Mr. Krabs especially hilarious, though I’m not entirely sure why since he didn’t have that many lines that were particularly clever or even particularly memorable, I just remember laughing because of him a lot. I think it was mostly his deliveries and facial expressions that made me laugh. Colonel Carper was a pretty funny character too, in a wow-what-an-obnoxious-asshole kind of way, and the fact that he’s voiced by Andy Samberg earns him some extra points in my books. Squidward and SpongeBob both had their fair share of funny moments too.

My only problem with the episode is unfortunately one that’s hard to ignore. I didn’t like the story. No, that’s not it. I liked the story, or I wanted to anyway, but I didn’t like what the story focused on. Wait. No. I can explain this, I swear.

I really liked the portions of the story that focused on SpongeBob and Squidward, and it seemed like that should have been the heart of the episode, but it took a backseat to Krabs’ conflict with Colonel Carper. And yeah, I found most of the stuff with Krabs and CC funny, but I was much more interested in what was happening with SpongeBob and Squidward. I liked that they were both clearly looking for something different out of their partnership, but Squidward eventually comes around to SpongeBob’s way of thinking. And hey, remember that thing Squidward used to do sometimes where he didn’t hate SpongeBob’s guts? HE DOES IT AGAIN IN HELLO BIKINI BOTTOM. It’s small and fleeting, but it’s something. And that’s all I really wanted, just something, however small and short-lived it may be, to show that Squidward’s heart isn’t made completely out of stone. Unfortunately that plotline seemed more like an afterthought. I wish it had been the main plot and that the Krabs-CC plotline was more secondary. It would have made the episode feel a lot more balanced and increased its replay value.

The music in the episode is pretty decent. The ukelele and clarinet combo actually did sound quite nice, and the song sung at the beginning is fun, though it does go on for way too long. The duet SpongeBob and Squidward sing at the end is nice, but I kind of ruined it for myself when this thought entered my mind about halfway through it: “Wow, I wonder how many slash fics were inspired by this scene?” That was all I could think about afterwards. Fandoms have polluted my mind.

I don’t know why, but I laughed really hard at the first line SpongeBob sings in the duet: “Squidward, you must look inward!” I have no idea why this lyric is so funny to me, it probably shouldn’t be. I just think it’s such a clever rhyme and I really wasn’t expecting it when I heard it.

Overall, it’s a good episode, and a good way to end the season.

Rating: 7.5/10

Wait… am I really done with Season 8 already? Didn’t I start Season 4, like, two days ago?!

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Treats!/For Here or To Go/It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!)

SpongeBob buys Gary some new treats called Snail Bites, which Gary finds so delicious that he finishes the entire box in one evening. Gary is desperate for more Snail Bites and won’t leave SpongeBob alone until he buys some, but they’re sold out at the pet store. They go to the factory where they’re made to see if they can get a box there, but the factory is closing down because Snail Bites sold so quickly that they ran out of ingredients…? How does that make sense? Is it so hard to get more ingredients? What was in those Snail Bites, dragon blood?! Anyway, Gary still insists on having more Snail Bites (hm, maybe the ingredient in them is crack), so he makes SpongeBob search every pet store in the ocean for them. And they still don’t find any. They return home and Gary still isn’t satisfied. SpongeBob explains his dilemma to Patrick, who tells him he should be firm with Gary and say no. So SpongeBob firmly tells Gary no. Gary accepts this answer and stops demanding Snail Bites. Kay.

Well, if there’s one thing that can be said about this episode, it’s that it’s cute. Real cute. It’s like a goldmine of cuteness. That montage of Gary performing tricks that get more and more impossible elaborate to earn treats? That was cute. Gary’s sad reaction to the box of Snail Bites being emptied? That was cute. Those pictures of when SpongeBob first got Gary? Those were cute. That one shot of Patrick at the end where he’s pretending to be Gary? I don’t even think of Patrick as cute ordinarily but that shit was adorable.

Aside from that, um, there’s not much to this episode. Some jokes were a little funny, but I found the plot a bit stupid because… dude, just say no to your pet. And since when does SpongeBob have an issue with disciplining Gary anyway? I don’t remember him ever being that much of a pushover when it comes to his pet. I guess it was pretty cute how far he was willing to go to make his pet happy, but it just seemed a little stupid to me. I don’t really like how it ended either, it was much too easy.

I find it a little funny when people call Gary inconsiderate or unreasonable in this episode. Guys. Seriously? He’s a cat. I mean, technically he’s a snail, but you know what I mean. He’s a cat for all intents and purposes, no matter how smart he is. You can’t really hold him to the same standards as other characters who are essentially people despite not being human. That said… yeah, Gary is a bit annoying in this episode, isn’t he? The constant meowing… ugh. I wouldn’t mind it that much normally, but hearing it constantly in quick succession like that gets grating fast.

So, I guess I didn’t enjoy this episode as much as most fans seem to. Aside from all of the cuteness, there isn’t much else about it that I thought was worth seeing, and I’m probably not going to rewatch this episode just for its cuteness factor.

Rating: 6/10

Mr. Krabs holds a contest where people need to guess the number of sesame seeds in a jar, and if they guess right they win a free Krabby Patty. I’m not really sure why Krabs would want to hold this contest. Publicity? Anyway, Plankton wants to guess, but of course Krabs won’t let him. So Plankton calls a lawyer of sorts and Krabs is forced to let him guess. Plankton uses science to guess the correct number of seeds like a boss and Krabs is forced to give him a free Patty. He stalls for time as long as he can, but eventually he has to give it to him. Before doing so, he makes up a new rule for the contest: Plankton has to eat the Patty on the premises. Plankton swallows it whole and then runs back to the Chum Bucket to have Karen cut his stomach open and take the Patty out. The next day it appears that Plankton is selling Krabby Patties, but his customers soon leave the restaurant in disgust. It turns out that when Karen analyzed the formula she didn’t take into account that the Patty she analyzed had been swimming in Plankton’s stomach acid. Yuck.

I liked this episode. I thought it was funny and it was at least somewhat creative. Though I’m still not sure why Mr. Krabs was holding the contest to begin with, it seems like a weird move for him. I’m also not sure why, instead of going out of his way to stall Plankton getting the Patty, Krabs didn’t just tell SpongeBob to make the Patty wrong or taint it in some way. No one would have had to know and there would be no worries about Plankton getting the formula. Oh well, it’s still a funny episode. A little slow and low-energy, and not very memorable, but funny.

I wasn’t grossed out by the ending, unlike most people. It’s not like we actually see Plankton’s stomach being cut open anyway. Even if we did I probably still wouldn’t have cared because I tend not to be grossed up by gore when it’s animated anyway. Besides, I love how Plankton just walks in and says “Yo Karen I need you to cut my stomach open” and Karen’s just like “lol sure thing, honey *slice*” and they don’t even use anesthesia or anything, they just do it right away like it’s nothing. That is so metal.

Ever notice that Plankton seems to have more success (however brief) when he doesn’t try to outright steal a Patty?

Rating: 6.5/10

Here we have the first Christmas special this show has had since Christmas Who? all the way back in its second season. And it’s entirely in claymation, and if the idea of a claymation SpongeBob episode isn’t the raddest shit you’ve ever heard you can get right off of my blog, thanks (jk plz stay). So, it begins with a song sequence in which SpongeBob briefly visits all of his friends in Bikini Bottom to see how they’re preparing for Christmas. It’s basically a way of showing off the claymation sets (which are wonderful) and the claymation characters (which are wonderful and adorable). At the end of this sequence, we see Plankton in the Chum Bucket, who is angered by the fact that he gets coal every single Christmas. Karen tells him that he probably wouldn’t get coal all the time if he wasn’t the biggest jerk in Bikini Bottom, but Plankton is way ahead of her. His plan is to give everyone in Bikini Bottom fruitcake laced with “Jerktonium”, a chemical that makes people act like jerks when ingested. He thinks that if everyone in Bikini Bottom starts behaving like jerks, he’ll look better by comparison. He tries giving some of his Jerktonium fruitcake to SpongeBob, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on him no matter how much of it he eats. It does, however, have an effect on everyone else in town, and they all start acting horribly as a result. Since SpongeBob isn’t affected, Plankton builds a robot that looks like him and programs it to wreak havoc around town (I love how the robot has to be wound up like a toy). The next day, SpongeBob is concerned about how everyone is behaving, so he goes to visit Sandy to see if she can help him get everyone back into the Christmas spirit before Santa comes. Unfortunately Sandy has also become a jerk and is unwilling to help him, but when SpongeBob accidentally drops her piece of fruitcake in her analyzer, they discovers the Jerktonium inside it. The analyzer also tells them how to cure the Bikini Bottomites of their behavior. The cure is a song. They sing it to the town and everyone goes back to normal. That’s when Santa shows up, and he reprimands everyone for being jerks, complimenting Plankton for being a saint in comparison. He also tells SpongeBob that he was the worst of all, but of course the robot is really the one to blame. Speaking of which, the robot shows up and SpongeBob defeats it… really easily. So, Plankton gets coal for Christmas and everyone else gets gifts. The end.

This episode was one of the things that convinced me to give post-movie another chance. I was curious about it because I found out that it was done in claymation, and because it was the first official Christmas special since Christmas Who?. Despite my hatred for post-movie at the time, I really wanted to see it.

And I loved it. It had me from the moment we saw Squidward stringing lights on his house to read “Go Away” (even though I know this episode isn’t meant to have any connection to Christmas Who?, I like to think Squidward is still bitter toward Santa about what happened in that episode). I was pretty blown away by it since at the time I hadn’t seen any other post-movie episodes that I liked. Even now that I have, this episode still blows me away a bit every time I watch it.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a few flaws to be found with it, but it won’t lower my score because A) the good outweighs the bad if you ask me and B) lol since when does my rating system make any sense whatsoever. But I do think I should mention the not-so-good things about this episode, it’s only fair. And since they’re mostly nitpicks I’m just going to list them:

• Patchy. I’m sorry, but I will never like Patchy. At least his scenes are brief and can easily be skipped over, but still… Patchy.
• The ending is pretty anticlimactic. The SpongeBob robot is defeated way too easily.
• We don’t actually get to see Gary, we only see his shell.
• If Santa can see everything, how did he miss the fact that Plankton laced the fruitcake with Jerktonium? And how did he miss the fact that the evil robot SpongeBob is not the real SpongeBob? Honestly this show’s Santa isn’t very good at his job. Squidward actually did his job better in Christmas Who?.
• I don’t like the implication that SpongeBob is stupid. I’m talking about the scene where they analyze the fruitcake and Sandy says that SpongeBob’s immunity to Jerktonium is to due to a combination of his “tiny brain and big heart”. It had already been said by Karen earlier that SpongeBob’s immunity was due to his innocence, could they not have left it at that? Did they really have to throw in low intelligence as a factor as well? Ugh, I hate it when they make SpongeBob out to be stupid. Maybe it’s just me, but I never saw SpongeBob as stupid. I saw him as naive, childlike, and weird, but still smart. I would have preferred if his immunity had simply been because of his innocence and “big heart”, no need to imply that he’s an idiot.
• This definitely feels like the cheapest of my nitpicks, but why does SpongeBob not wear a helmet when he goes to Sandy’s treedome? At first I thought it was because putting a helmet on the claymation version of him would have been too difficult, but later they put a helmet on Sandy when they leave her treedome…
• Never mine, this one is the cheapest of my nitpicks. When the analyzer shows the cure for Jerktonium, it prints out a song. As a musician, I couldn’t help pausing the episode to look at the notes to see if they actually do match the song. They don’t. The staff doesn’t even have the right number of lines and spaces.

Now that that’s out of the way, I can talk about what I actually liked about this episode. Did I mention how much I love the claymation? It’s a really nice tribute to other claymation Christmas specials, and since I grew up watching those this episode made me feel really nostalgic. They really did an amazing job with it. To be honest I actually like the way the Chum Bucket looks more in this episode than in regularly animated episodes. I like how the outside of it looks slightly rusty, as if it’s neglected and in need of repair (which it is), and I liked the gloomier, more desolate look of the inside of it, it’s seems more suitable for Plankton’s character and for what the Chum Bucket is.

Getting away from how it’s animated, this is just a really good episode. The story is a little cheesy, but it’s executed well enough that I didn’t really care, and it’s at least creative. Plus, to be fair, all Christmas specials are a little cheesy. The jokes are pretty funny as well, and while I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see Gary, I liked that all of the other main characters were at least in the episode briefly, and they were all great. The songs are fantastic as well. They’re both really catchy, especially Don’t Be a Jerk, It’s Christmas. Speaking of those songs, I found it a little funny that Squidward wasn’t affected by the cure because he didn’t seem affected by the Jerktonium either. I’m guessing it was for the opposite reason of SpongeBob, that he’s already a jerk so he can’t be made jerkier. Or maybe he didn’t eat any of the fruitcake because he’s such a misanthrope that he didn’t even get any.

Although I’ll always prefer Christmas Who?, It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! has a special place in my heart. I love that both Christmas specials have punctuation in their titles, so naming them back-to-back like that in the middle of a sentence looks really weird. Anyway, It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! is funny, heartwarming, entertaining, and I love how nostalgic it is about old claymation Christmas specials. Plus, it’s partly responsible for me giving post-movie another chance, and for this whole project.

Rating: 13/10 (fucking rating systems, how do they work?)

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Face Freeze!/Glove World R.I.P.)

SpongeBob and Patrick are amusing themselves by making silly faces, when Mr. Krabs warns them that if they keep making faces like that, their faces will freeze that way forever. Wanting to test this theory, they dare each other to hold their goofy faces for as long as possible. As a result, their faces really do freeze that way. Afraid to show his frozen face to Krabs, SpongeBob and Patrick visit Sandy to see if she can fix their faces. She massages their faces to relax the muscles, but that doesn’t work as planned. It just looks like their faces melted. So, SpongeBob must go to work with his face looking like a pancake and he does his best to hide it from Mr. Krabs. Unfortunately Mr. Krabs eventually sees his face, as well as Patrick’s, and he gets angry. Angry enough to make a face that looks like the one that greets you when you go to Hell. And his face freezes that way because of reasons. Then Squidward sees everyone’s frozen faces and laughs so hard that his face freezes too. Um, wasn’t it established earlier that you need to make the face for a long time in order for it to freeze that way? Or at least longer than two seconds? If it takes this short a time for faces to freeze, why aren’t people’s faces freezing all the time?

Well, it’s obvious where the inspiration for this episode came from. As kids, we all heard from adults that if we keep making faces they’ll freeze that way. Well, I didn’t, because I didn’t really make faces as a kid. And even if I did I don’t think my parents would have told me that, I think they would have just told me to stop. But still, I know it’s apparently a common thing for kids to hear. It’s a pretty good idea, I guess. It reminds me of episodes like Sailor Mouth or Hooky, where Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob against doing something stupid and then he does the stupid thing anyway, so he has to be scared out of doing it. It’s nice to see another episode like this, mostly because it’s nice to see Krabs acting paternal again.

A lot of people find this episode disturbing and scary because of the faces. I don’t. I joked about being scared by Krabs’ face at the end, but I really wasn’t. I don’t think these faces are scary, I think they’re ugly. They’re just… not pleasant to look at. I guess that’s the idea, but it does cut back the episode’s replay value a lot. It’s hard for me to want to watch something that I don’t like looking at. And it is possible to have “ugly” imagery that’s still enjoyable to look at, but I just don’t really like looking at most of the images in Face Freeze!. They’re a little too Ren-and-Stimpy-esque, and I’ve never liked the Ren and Stimpy aesthetic to begin with.

Still, I am glad I saw the episode at least once, there were a couple of things that made it worthwhile. It might even be worth watching a couple more times. Some of the dialogue was funny (Sandy in particular had some great lines) and I like how Mr. Krabs sort of goes back to his father-figure persona again, it’s nice to see.

Rating: 6.5/10

This title card made it seem like the episode was going to be much less light-hearted than it was.

SpongeBob and Patrick are saddened to find out that Glove World is going to be closed down because it’s outrageously unsafe, so they decide to spend one last day at the park, all the while wondering why they would close it down. Eventually they realize how unsafe it is, and they decide that they should save the park by fixing all of its problems. They are successful and soon Glove World is good as new. Just kidding, they fail spectacularly, as one would expect. So now the only way to save Glove World is to chain themselves to the gate so that it can’t be demolished. Hell yeah, fight the power! Anyway, the guy who owns Glove World tells them that the reason Glove World is closing is because they’re opening Glove Universe, a bigger and better theme park. Oops.

I don’t like this episode. I know it’s a pretty well-liked episode among fans, but I didn’t enjoy it. Sorry. Not that I hate it, far from it, but I definitely don’t think it’s one of the better post-movie episodes, or even one of the better Season 8 episodes, like most people seem to.

I just didn’t find it that funny. I can barely remember any jokes from the episode and the ones I can remember were annoying gags. The story seemed kind of all over the place, and I guess I couldn’t help being a bit disappointed because the title card made it seem like it was going to be at least a little dark. Or maybe not “dark” per se, but not as silly and light-hearted as this.

I did like the sort of bittersweet ending, though. I’m big on nostalgia, so I know I’d be upset if one of my favorite places to go was being closed down. This episode is pretty relatable in that sense, and I like that the ending isn’t a cheesy one that has them saving Glove World. It just closes, which is sad, but the opening of Glove Universe at least eases the pain a bit. Though I wonder why they had to build an entire new theme park. Could they not have used that money to repair and improve Glove World?

Anyway, aside from the ending and the relatable plot, I didn’t enjoy this one much. It’s not bad, just not my kind of episode.

Rating: 5.5/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Karen 2.0/Inspongeiac)

Okay, so it starts with Karen making dinner for Plankton, and he gets mad at her when it’s not what he asked for. lol gender roles. Karen tells him that her memory is full, which is why she forgot what he wanted, and Plankton tells her that he’ll soon have her memory problem solved. It turns out he’s making himself a new computer wife that he calls Karen 2, she has the latest software and more memory. And more curves. Seriously, this computer is probably hotter than I am. But that’s not what’s important here, what’s important is that Plankton is replacing his wife for a newer model without a second thought. Poor Karen! Plankton, you’re an asshole. Anyway, Karen is understandably upset and she begins attacking Plankton with her laser. Karen 2 shuts her down before she can hurt Plankton, and they dump Karen in a box on the side of the road. Ouch. She’s found by Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob and, thinking they just got a free computer, they take her back to the Krusty Krab and boot her up. Karen immediately starts crying about Plankton dumping her. SpongeBob is worried that this is a scheme and that Karen’s loyalties still lie with Plankton, but Karen angrily declares that she never wants to see Plankton again, which is apparently enough to convince SpongeBob and Krabs, so they give her a job at the Krusty Krab. The next day at work, Karen obviously still isn’t over Plankton, and of course Plankton chooses that day to break into the Krusty Krab with Karen 2. Plankton is hurt to see Karen working at the Krusty Krab, and Karen and Karen 2 begin to argue when they see each  other, culminating in a fight between them. During the fight, Karen 2 accidentally runs over Plankton. Karen is horrified while Karen 2 doesn’t seem to care, which infuriates Karen enough that she destroys Karen 2 with one punch. Karen makes sure Plankton is okay and Plankton realizes how wrong he was to replace her. Then Karen’s power runs out for some reason, so Plankton repairs her by using one of Karen 2’s parts, and he and Karen return to the Chum Bucket, happily reunited.

I was initially excited to see a Karen episode, as I’m always happy to see more Karen, but the more I heard about it the more skeptical I became. Specifically, I was skeptical of the plot itself. I tend to get nervous when shows portray female characters fighting, especially when that fight is over a male, because it so often becomes a big sexist mess of LOL WIMMINS ARE CRAZY AMIRITE. And I know that Karen is a computer, but she’s a sentient, personified computer who is deliberately depicted as female, so I think I’m justified in being concerned about gender roles and misogyny regarding her.

However, this really wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I always dislike saying that because it makes me think of that scene in Avatar where Toph is defending Zuko by saying that he could have turned out a lot worse considering his messed up family, to which Katara sarcastically replies that they should give him a medal, the “not as much of a jerk as you could have been” award. I love that quote because it touches on something that I think a lot of people forget. “Not as bad as it could have been” is not the same thing as “good”. But on the other hand, when you’re expecting something bad and you get “not as bad as it could have been”, you can’t help feeling more optimistic about the thing in question. Considering how a plot like this in most shows would make me want to tear my hair out and this one didn’t, it’s kind of hard for me to not feel positive about this episode.

The fight between Karen and Karen 2 is the scene that I’m mostly referring to when I say it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I mean, at least they weren’t fighting in mud or jello or something, right? The fight is short too, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t entertaining. I liked the computer-related insults they were throwing at each other, and I like to think that when they actually started fighting it was more about who’s technology was better and less about Plankton, it makes it easier for me to stomach. Although Karen does call Karen 2 a home-wrecker, and Karen 2 calls her a sorry excuse for a housewife so, um, not sure what to do with that. The beginning made me rather uncomfortable too, but I think that’s mostly because of how callous it is.

About that ending. I found it a bit contrived that Plankton had a change of heart so suddenly. I mean, he was perfectly fine with dismantling Karen and leaving her in a box on the side of the road earlier, what made him change his mind? Did seeing her work with his enemies make him jealous, so he realized how much he loves her? Did seeing how she still loved him and was still willing to defend him after everything he put her through make him realize that he could never really replace her? Why did he change his mind so suddenly? I know that the reason it seemed so sudden is just the time limit, but it actually made me think that this episode might have made a good special. It would have been interesting to see how Plankton was getting along with Karen 2, maybe they could have shown how he was more compatible with the original Karen, so his change of heart at the end would make more sense. I also find it a bit strange that Karen forgot her anger toward Plankton so quickly. I guess he makes up for what he did by repairing her, but that was afterwards. Considering how callously he dumped her it’s a little weird to see her suddenly forget all of that when she saw him hurt. Also, wasn’t she perfectly willing to vaporize him with a laser before? I guess that was the heat of the moment. Whatever, I don’t even care that much because the ending is still really sweet. I don’t know what it is about Plankton/Karen, but somehow they always manage to make me melt, and I don’t even like romance.

To wrap up this confusing review, I liked this episode despite the fact that it made me slightly uncomfortable now and then. I thought it was funny and interesting, there weren’t as many “lol wimmins” jokes as I was expecting, and the ending, though flawed, is really heartwarming. Besides, I think this episode has earned a Not As Uncomfortable As It Could Have Been award.

Rating: 7.5/10

Creepy title card. I like it.

SpongeBob is at work and Mr. Krabs gets mad at him for using too much mustard on the Krabby Patties, as well as other stupid, trivial mistakes. He asks SpongeBob if he’s been getting enough sleep and SpongeBob tells him that he went to bed a few minutes later than usual the night before, so Krabs think that SpongeBob is an insomniac and he sends SpongeBob home to get some sleep. Unfortunately SpongeBob has a really hard time getting to sleep (even after Patrick’s “help”), which leads to a weird scene where he begins hallucinating from the lack of sleep. When he finally makes it to work the next day, he’s in worse shape than ever, and tries to sleep in a barrel of mustard. Krabs pulls him out and asks what’s wrong with him, and SpongeBob confesses that he couldn’t beat his insomnia. He starts to cry and Krabs discovers that he cries exactly the right amount of mustard that he wants on the Patties. Kay.

This episode is an interesting idea, but I wish the beginning wasn’t so contrived. It was really strange for Mr. Krabs to care so much about how SpongeBob cooks the Patties, and the whole sequence felt like a forced plot point to drive the episode forward.

Oh, and Mr. Krabs. God damn it, man, I was starting to like you again! Okay, so it’s only one episode, but I really didn’t like how heartless and crazy he was being in this episode. I can see him being paranoid about how much mustard SpongeBob is using, that’s actually pretty in character, but would he really care about how SpongeBob flips the patties? Or about him going to bed two minutes later than usual?

Well, at least this episode does have an interesting plot, even if it is extremely forced in some parts. The scene where Patrick tries to help SpongeBob get to sleep and fails miserably is pretty funny, but I did find it tiresome after a while (pun not intended). I liked SpongeBob’s weird dream sequence because, well, I like weird dream sequences. It’s an okay episode, I guess. It could have been better, but it’s passable.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Free Samples/Home Sweet Rubble)

Plankton gives away free samples to attract customers to the Chum Bucket, but the samples make everyone sick and cause everyone to hate him and his restaurant. More than they already do, that is. So, Plankton comes up with a new plan: give away free samples of chum disguised as Krabby Patties to ruin Mr. Krabs’ business. That… that’s bloody brilliant. That’s the best plan Plankton has ever come up with. And this is the same guy who tried to ruin Krabs’ restaurant by turning it into a fucking ice rink. Anyway, the plan works and everyone hates Krabs and the Krusty Krab, though he and SpongeBob are unsure why. SpongeBob suggests that they give away free samples to attract customers again, but of course it doesn’t work, thanks to Plankton. Then SpongeBob decides to sell the Patties as a new recipe even though they’re just regular Krabby Patties. What the fuck, that’s brilliant too. God, I love it when characters are smart and do smart things please make this happen more often writers of anything ever. The “new” Patties are a success and Krabs’ business is saved.

I really like that this is a Plankton episode that has him trying to ruin the Krusty Krab in a new way, and like I said, it’s actually a really smart plan. I mean, Plankton has always been a genius, but he also has always been really incompetent and rather idiotic for someone so smart, if that makes sense. He so often overlooks the obvious and makes everything more complicated than it needs to be. I guess that’s partly what we love about him, but it’s pretty cool to see a plan of his that makes sense and is sly and subtle. SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs never even find out that Plankton was behind everything, which is also interesting.

Beyond that, there isn’t that much to say about this episode. It’s pretty unique for a Plankton episode and it’s a little funny sometimes, but I also found it a bit dull, and it doesn’t stand out that much from other episodes.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob’s home is rotting and falling apart, so he calls his friends for help. Patrick, Sandy and Mr. Krabs all show up willing to help. Squidward shows up not willing to help, but they make him help anyway by tying his limbs around the house to hold it together. Are we sure that Squidward isn’t Mr. Fantastic? Anyway, Patrick, Sandy and Mr. Krabs all offer to help rebuild SpongeBob’s house, but they don’t listen to his input and basically build it the way they would want their homes to be. The result is a hot mess. Also, they somehow forgot to untie Squidward and when he starts to unravel the whole thing falls apart. Gary hands SpongeBob a can and SpongeBob thinks he wants to be fed since he had forgotten to feed Gary that morning. It’s actually a can of fully-furnished pineapple. SpongeBob opens the can and just like that he has a new house exactly like his old one. Still a better resolution than Dear Vikings.

Judging by this episode’s title, I was sort of expecting it to be a rip-off of Home Sweet Pineapple. Luckily that’s not what it was, though I do wish this episode had a different title, I’m afraid I’m going to confuse it with Home Sweet Pineapple now. I found it pretty funny that SpongeBob says in this episode “Well, it’s no home sweet pineapple, but I guess it could be worse.” I see what you did there, writers.

Actually, SpongeBob’s quote is a good description of how I feel about this episode. It’s no Home Sweet Pineapple, but it could be worse. I wish I liked Home Sweet Rubble more than I do, as I really like a lot of aspects of it, but something holds it back from being a great episode for me. I can’t place my finger on what that something is, though.

I like the fact that this is a group episode and the idea of everyone working together. The jokes were mostly hit-and-miss for me, I think I’m one of few people who didn’t like the office joke with Patrick. I thought it dragged too much and it felt really out of place not just in the episode but in the show in general. I don’t know, it seemed more like the kind of joke that Family Guy would do, not SpongeBob. It just didn’t seem to fit.

Seeing SpongeBob’s house fall apart was kind of heartbreaking for some reason. I’ve gotten attached to his pineapple house, but it’s not like we’ve never seen it or other staple settings of the show destroyed and it never bothered me before. Maybe it’s because when settings get destroyed on this show it’s usually in such a quick, silly way, but here we see his house fall apart slowly, so it’s more poignant to me. It’s more than seeing it fall apart, really, we see it rotting. It’s almost hard to watch. I actually don’t mean any of this in a bad way, I think it’s interesting that I can get this emotional over a pineapple house of all things.

I don’t know why I don’t like this episode more than I do. Objectively I think it’s a really good episode, but for some reason I don’t like it as much as I feel I should, and I can’t figure out why that is.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Are You Happy Now?/Planet of the Jellyfish)

Haha, oh boy. This episode.

Okay, so it begins with SpongeBob looking through a book and giggling. Squidward asks him what he’s giggling about and he tells Squidward that the book is full of his happiest memories. He asks Squidward what his happiest memory is, and Squidward says he doesn’t have one. SpongeBob is saddened to hear this, and though he tries to act like he doesn’t care, it quickly becomes apparent that Squidward is extremely depressed to realize he can’t think of any happy memories. SpongeBob offers to help him find one and Squidward accepts. SpongeBob keeps trying to create a happy memory for Squidward and the attempts all end in failure. Eventually Squidward gives up on finding a happy memory, falling into a deep depression and not leaving his house for weeks. Here’s where we get the ~controversial~ suicide jokes. There’s one where it looks like Squidward is going to stick his head in the oven but he’s actually just taking some brownies out of it, and there’s another one where it looks like he’s going to hang himself but he’s actually just hanging a birdcage. Anyway, SpongeBob wants to cheer Squidward up, so he kidnaps him (he tried to contact Squidward and all of his attempts were rejected) and brings him to the Krusty Krab, where he has prepared a surprise party for him. Except no one he invited could make it, so he filled the restaurant with paper mache copies of himself. Oh, SpongeBob, honey, what were you thinking? Squidward goes bonkers upon seeing the copies, yells at SpongeBob that he doesn’t want a happiest memory, and destroys the copies. And then he declares that this is his happiest memory. What.

So, this is one of few episodes past Season 4 that I watched before starting this project. Months before, in fact. I came across it on YouTube and the title caught my interest, as did the thumbnail, which just so happened to be the scene where Squidward is preparing a noose – sorry, I mean hanging a birdcage. Though at the time I still had the belief that all episodes after the movie were crap, I couldn’t help being curious. A SpongeBob character hanging himself, with a title like “Are You Happy Now?”? What the hell? I had to watch it. And boy did I hate it. I thought it had to be the worst episode ever. Now that I’ve seen episodes like Gone I can only laugh at how naive I was, but I’ve harbored a dislike for this episode for a really long time, even though it has decreased significantly over time.

Watching it again now, I don’t hate it. At all. I kind of like it. Sort of. Maybe. I don’t know. What is it even.

It’s funny how polarizing this episode is, and people’s like or dislike for the episode seems to be mostly hinged on the suicide jokes, which I’ll get to later. Here’s the thing about this episode: it’s really depressing. Probably the most depressing episode of the show. Here’s the thing about me: I LOVE DEPRESSING SHIT. I’m not kidding. I eat that stuff up. 98% of my favorite books are dark, grim, horrifying sobfests where tons of people die and there are no truly happy endings. I didn’t like the ending of Deathly Hallows because I thought it was too happy. I swear I’m not a sadist, it’s just that when it comes to fiction I prefer stuff that makes me want to curl into a ball and cry forever because it feels like all happiness has been destroyed. I swear I’m normal.

To be clear, I like depressing stories that are actually intended to be depressing. If something that’s supposed to be making me feel happy is making me feel sad, that doesn’t work. That’s why I have such a complicated relationship with One Coarse Meal (which is often compared to this episode given the similar themes). It could so easily have been my favorite episode ever, but the weirdly not-dark tone matched with the really dark subject matter ended up just seeming tasteless. Not that dark stories can’t be humorous, but the tone should always match. One Coarse Meal was strange because it should have been a dark episode, but it’s kind of not. It’s weirdly… normal. Just another SpongeBob episode with a twist. I think the normalcy of it is what stopped me from liking it. If you’re going to use dark themes in your stories, go right ahead, I’ll love you for it. But treat them like something dark.

There’s also an issue of whether or not dark topics are even appropriate for SpongeBob, which is intended for children and generally has a light, happy tone, which is sort of why it’s attracted such a large audience. People don’t like seeing something so depressing in a show that’s supposed to make them feel happy. I don’t have a problem with it personally. Yes, SpongeBob should be a happy show and despite my tendency to gravitate towards darker themes and tones I can appreciate happy things. But I think the occasional dark episode, even in something as “innocent” (that word is in quotations for a reason) as SpongeBob, is fine. It makes me appreciate the show more, in fact. It’s like how Futurama has a lot of episodes that are really sombre even though it’s a comedy. I love their more sombre episodes, and I’m not against SpongeBob having sombre episodes too. Besides, it’s not exactly new territory for this show. Pre-movie had episodes that were really morbid as well. Of course there is a slight difference because Futurama is an adult show and SpongeBob is for children, and either way there should be a line drawn somewhere, but that line is really blurry because it depends so much on context, execution and framing, and also on people’s personal tastes.

I’ve already written so much and I haven’t even talked much about Are You Happy Now?. What I appreciate about this episode when not watching it through everything-post-movie-sucks goggles is that its tone is very consistent and appropriate. It has bits of humor here and there, but they don’t really distract from the tone. I really like that. Then there’s those suicide jokes which… I don’t even know how to talk about these. Are suicide jokes insensitive? Yes, but let’s be real, we all make them. How many times have you said things like “kill me now” when talking about something you dislike? How many times have you said things like “I’d rather shoot myself than do that”? One time in high school, I told my friend I would rather jump out the window (we were on the top floor) than stay in class. My point is, that while our intention is not to make fun of suicide, which is something that really should not be made fun of, we do all make jokes about it. When we say these things, we don’t think of them as jokes about suicide, just ways of expressing dislike and annoyance, but technically we are joking about wanting to kill ourselves. Nobody sees it this way because of how innocent and trivial the context is, though. Obviously my friend didn’t honestly think I was going to jump out the window to get out of class, she knew I was being hyperbolic and didn’t take my words literally. But if I talked to her about my struggles with depression and then started saying things that connote suicide, she wouldn’t take that as a joke and I probably wouldn’t mean it as a joke, because why would I joke about that in that context? Context is everything. Not just when it comes to jokes about suicide, but jokes about any dark or sensitive topic.

I think that’s why people are bothered by the suicide jokes in this episode. Because really, this show has had jokes that allude to suicide before, and most of them involved Squidward, interestingly. Remember Band Geeks, when he nearly got impaled by some drumsticks and said “Too bad that didn’t kill me”? Or Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV when he wondered if a fall from a certain height would be enough to kill him? Those lines make you laugh, don’t they? They make me laugh too. Because we’re not actually worried about Squidward, we know it’s sarcasm and hyperbole to express his annoyance. I bet most people didn’t even think of them as jokes about suicide. In Are You Happy Now?, the suicide jokes stand out a lot more, not only because they’re a lot more explicit, but because of the context. Squidward is extremely depressed in this episode. For all we know, he could have been contemplating suicide, so it’s a lot more disturbing when we see jokes about it. The jokes don’t bother me as much as they once did, perhaps because I’ve now realized why they bothered me to begin with, and I’m able to see that it was really just the context that bothered me, not the subject itself (I feel similarly about One Coarse Meal now, for the record). I guess what I’m trying to say is that I totally get why people dislike these jokes, but I can’t bring myself to be too bothered by them anymore.

As a side note, I know some people thought these jokes were funny, and that’s fine. I don’t think less of them for laughing. Humor is subjective, especially this kind of humor. What’s funny to me could be offensive to someone else and vice versa. I’m positive that I’ve laughed at jokes that other people would be offended by, so it would be hypocritical of me to judge someone for laughing at these jokes. Everything I’ve said about humor so far is entirely subjective. It’s not fact, it’s just my opinion, and this whole what’s-okay-to-laugh-at-and-what-isn’t discussion is really complex and I can’t cover everything, so please don’t jump down my throat.

So far I’ve been very unclear about what my actual feelings for this episode are, but here’s something that I can express very clearly: I don’t like the ending. I don’t think anybody liked the ending of this episode, but I think I dislike it for a slightly different reason than everyone else. I think most people wanted this episode to have a Band Geeks-esque ending, where something wonderful happens for Squidward that he can call his happiest memory. That would have been nice, but I think I would have preferred something more subtle and bittersweet, like if Squidward didn’t necessarily receive a happy memory but found something worthwhile about his life anyway, or if he realized that it’s not too late for him to find some form of happiness. I didn’t like that his happiest memory at the end of the episode was destroying a bunch of SpongeBob statues in a fit a madness. It implies that Squidward completely hates SpongeBob which is really not true and is probably the one thing that I’ll never be able to just “get used to” about post-movie because his deep-down affection for SpongeBob was like my favorite thing in pre-movie and I can’t stand the fact that it’s gone uuuuuuuugh. So yeah. That bothered me. But I was also bothered by the party SpongeBob set up for Squidward. SpongeBob is naive about a lot of things, especially when it comes to his relationships with other characters, but he’s not an idiot. He knows Squidward. He knows what Squidward likes and what his passions are. I highly doubt he would think that Squidward’s perfect party would be one with a bunch of paper mache statues of himself. The ending makes SpongeBob seem oblivious to the interests of his friends, which is simply not true. It’s especially weird since his attempts at finding Squidward a happy memory earlier in the episode were good ones that actually did match Squidward’s interests, but SpongeBob really dropped the ball in the ending.

Oh, and I guess I should say something about that “He’s so handsome!” line that people always complain about. I really don’t have much of an issue with that line, to be honest. It’s a random and stupid line to end the episode with, yes, but I don’t care much about the implications of it. It is odd that so many post-movie quotes seem to imply that SpongeBob has a crush on Squidward and I do wonder why the writers would suddenly go that direction (if that is there intention, I’m not sure if it is), but I don’t give a shit about the sexualities of these characters and neither should you. Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to think that it’s an issue with sexuality that makes people dislike this line, it’s probably just because SpongeBob was never intended to have a crush on Squidward and people don’t like the change to their dynamic. Well, again, I can’t take much issue with this fact because firstly SpongeBob having a crush on Squidward is the least of my worries when it comes to the change in their dynamic and secondly, whether or not SpongeBob had a crush on Squidward in pre-movie is probably up to interpretation, just like whether or not he has a crush on Sandy is up to interpretation. (I bet the SquidBob shippers were thrilled about the “He’s so handsome!” line.)

I should say something about the characters in this episode too. I’ve been complaining a lot lately about how Squidward comes off as legitimately depressed rather than just curmudgeonly in a lot of post-movie episode, so it’s kind of funny that I don’t have much of a problem with an episode that centers around him being depressed. Somehow it fits in this episode, probably because his depression, for the most part, isn’t being played for laughs and is instead used to get us to sympathize with him. It’s successful. One line that hit me really hard was at the end of the episode, when Squidward said he doesn’t want a happiest memory. That line has always stood out to me. Squidward has fallen so deep into his depression that he doesn’t even want to be brought out of it. That’s… I don’t know what that is. I can’t even tell if the line was supposed to be a joke or not, but it deeply disturbs me, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether or not I decide to view that line as a joke. SpongeBob was extremely sweet in this episode, I loved how earnestly he was trying to help Squidward… minus the ending, that is, but I already talked about that. Gary is also in the second half a lot and he was really cute. That’s it. That’s all I can say about Gary.

Okay, so this post is over 2000 words and I’m not even done reviewing the first episode of the pair yet, so let’s wrap this up.

This is a really loaded episode. I knew when I started this project that when I got to this episode I would have a lot to say about it, but I didn’t expect to say this much. There’s just so much to talk about with this episode, so many discussions that can be opened up. I even managed to talk about shipping, for crying out loud. I kind of like this episode for that fact alone. It’s interesting. There’s a lot to talk about and I like talking about it.

This episode is depressing, controversial, and borders on insensitive (for some it crosses the line entirely), and that’s what I like about it. It’s fascinating, even if I’m not sure if I can call it “good”. I’m not even sure if “like” is the right word to describe my feelings toward it. I don’t even know what to rate it.

What is this episode even.

Rating: 8/10

SpongeBob and Patrick are jellyfishing, unaware that a giant jellyfish monster in creating miniature jellyfish that kidnap people in gelatin cocoons and make zombie-like clones of them that are devoid of emotion or personality. What the shit. This is awesome. The monster clones Patrick, and Zombie-Patrick insists on giving a mini monster jellyfish to everyone in Bikini Bottom. By the next day, most of the town has been replaced with a zombie clone, SpongeBob being one of the few that hasn’t been turned. At first he’s oblivious to what has happened to the town, but soon begins to suspect something. He discovers the gelatin cocoons with the real Bikini Bottomites in them in the freezer of the Krusty Krab, as well as the original monster/alien/whatever. Frightened, SpongeBob tries to escape from the zombified Bikini Bottomites, who are trying to turn him into a clone. Or they’re trying to devour him. I don’t know, either way it’s awesome. While running from the clones, he’s kidnapped by Sandy, who hasn’t been turned yet. Sandy thinks he’s one of the clones and wants to question him, but after testing him she realizes that he’s not a clone. The two of them come up with a plan to defeat the clones (SpongeBob realizes that mayonnaise is there weakness as they all seemed to have an aversion to it at the Krusty Krab) and exit Sandy’s treedome disguised as clones. They make it to the Krusty Krab and their disguises are found out, but they manage to spray all of the clones with mayonnaise which looks really dirty, or maybe I’m just too perverted. It’s probably the latter. Oh yeah, and when they get sprayed with the mayo they explode and the real person they were cloned from is freed from their cocoons. Eventually, Sandy and SpongeBob make their way to the giant jellyfish monster and defeat it, saving the town.

Oh my God, why is this not a special?! That’s really the only complaint I have about this episode. It’s too short. And this story really feels like it could be expanded into twenty-two minutes easily. It’s fine as an eleven minute episode too, a lot happens but it’s paced really well so it doesn’t feel too jam-packed. But it also feels rushed thanks to the time limit. I wish it could have spent more time with each scene.

I also find it odd that we never found out where the giant jellyfish monster came from. It’s just there. I think we can assume it’s an alien, but why would aliens try to take over Bikini Bottom of all places? They know that there are humans above water, right? You’d think that would be their priority. I’m over-thinking this, aren’t I?

I love how the jellyfish clones looked, though. Those eyes, man. They look so creepy, especially Mr. Krabs.

But as creepy as they look, I also think they look weirdly cute? Look, I wasn’t kidding when I said I have a weird definition of cute. Also I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to see Plankton as a clone. Just imagine how cute that would have looked! Please tell me there’s fan art of this.

Since I practically wrote a novel on Are You Happy Now?, I want to keep this review short. Conveniently there isn’t that much I have to say about this episode anyway. I really loved it, though. It’s exciting, it’s creepy, it’s a great throwback to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and while it’s not heavy on humor because the focus is mostly its (awesome) story, the few jokes it does have are really funny. The only thing that could have improved it is if it had been longer.

Rating: 9.5/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (Restraining SpongeBob/Fiasco!)

The episode starts with SpongeBob annoying Squidward. What else is new? At some point SpongeBob inadvertently causes an accident that I won’t bother explaining (but it makes the toenail scene look like child’s play) and Squidward loses his shit. Later, he returns from…. somewhere seeming surprisingly calm. Somehow a calm Squidward is more ominous than a crazy Squidward. The reason he’s so calm is because he’s filed a restraining order against SpongeBob, and he must now stay fifteen feet away from Squidward at all times and isn’t allowed to talk to him. This makes work difficult, so Mr. Krabs hires Patrick to pick up the slack. Patrick annoys Squidward even more than SpongeBob did, and the episode ends with Squidward removing SpongeBob from the restraining order and placing it on Patrick instead.

This plot has been begging to be done for years. It’s one of those episodes that make me wonder why it took this long for it to exist, it just seems like such an obvious plot. I didn’t like it as much as I was hoping I would, unfortunately. I don’t dislike it exactly, but I thought it was lacking.

That little montage with Patrick following Squidward around was hilarious, but Patrick was acting rather oddly in this episode. Calling him out of character might be going a bit far, but he was definitely… strange. And rather creepy.

I also got some laughs out of the scene where SpongeBob is trying to get the food to Squidward without violating the restraining order and it fails spectacularly. Though I did find it weird that SpongeBob wasn’t more upset about the restraining order. He surprisingly seemed okay with it. This is the same guy who cried when Squidward refused to visit his house, right? Okay, comparing it to that is probably not a good idea considering how flanderized and creepy SpongeBob was in Squid’s Visit, but it still surprised me that he didn’t care about the restraining order at all. I mean, someone that he considers one his best friends is making it illegal for him to talk to him, and he just shrugs it off? I guess it’s good that he took it so well, but I was expecting a bigger reaction from him.

Overall, this episode is pretty amusing, but something about it seemed really off to me, and I can’t shake off the feeling. Maybe it was that the story took a backseat to the humor in this episode, but it felt like it should have been the other way around. This episode feels like it should be more story-based, but it was more based around gags. It just doesn’t fit.

Rating: 6/10

A strange customer at the Krusty Krab is making a mess of his meal. When he leaves, Squidward looks at his left behind plate and recognizes the mess on it as a work of art by a famous artist known as “Fiasco”. The Krusty Krab becomes the display site for the work of art and Plankton, unaware that the messy plate is art, sees it as a perfect sample of the Krabby Patty formula. He steals the plate and is chased all over Bikini Bottom by the police, which confuses him because the police usually don’t get involved in his formula theft attempts. Eventually he loses the cops and makes his way to SpongeBob’s house. He breaks in, holds SpongeBob and Gary hostage with a spoon for some reason, and demands that SpongeBob help him escape the cops. SpongeBob explains to him that the plate he stole was a work of art and that is why the cops are chasing him. Patrick comes in complaining about all of the noise, and he eats the art. Apparently Patrick eating things is a plot-device now. Then Squidward comes in to complain about the noise, and he brings the cops with him. The cops arrest Plankton, and they also arrest Squidward for some reason. I don’t get it either.

Well, at least this episode has some creativity to it, and it was pretty funny. I liked the chase scene and I really loved the scene where Plankton is holding SpongeBob and Gary hostage. I just love it when Plankton tries to be threatening. It’s like watching a Chihuahua try to stand up to a dog that’s so much bigger than it, I can’t help finding it really funny and cute, especially when the attempts at being threatening somehow work.

There’s a pointless scene at the beginning where SpongeBob is presenting an idea for a Krusty Krab commercial to Mr. Krabs that seems like filler, but it’s actually really funny and charming so I can’t take much issue with it. It’s filler, but it’s good filler. Showing the storyboards after the commercial was kind of a nice bit of meta humor too.

The pacing was a bit awkward and Season 7-esque, and the ending is pretty dumb, but I liked the episode overall. I thought it was fun and fairly creative, but it’s not very memorable.

Rating: 7/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom/Bubble Buddy Returns)

Mr. Krabs spots a giant bean growing in Sandy’s treedome and is curious about it, so he asks for a tour of her treedome. During the tour, Sandy tells him that she enlarged the bean with some growth serum, and Mr. Krabs wants to use the serum on a Krabby Patty to make an unlimited supply. He calls SpongeBob and asks him to bring a Patty, and with Sandy’s guidance they pour a few drops of the serum onto the Patty. Nothing appears to happen, so while Sandy goes to the little squirrel’s room (her words, not mine, gotta love puns) Krabs pours the whole bottle on the patty. It still doesn’t seem to work, but on their way back to the Krusty Krab the Patty starts to grow. It keeps growing in the restaurant, eventually consuming it and then going on to consume the rest of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob and Patrick run to Sandy’s house, thinking that she must have a solution, and of course she does. She tells SpongeBob that her artificial intelligence cube told her her he needs to “make direct contact” with the Krabby Patty, which basically means he needs to absorb it. Yeah… we’ll get to that cube. Anyway, SpongeBob absorbs the Patty and Bikini Bottom is saved. But… would the Patty just keep growing inside him? Or was it done growing by the time he absorbed it? Whatever.

This episode reminds me a lot of Whelk Attack. It’s another parody of old, cheesy monster movies, specifically The Blob in this case. This one is weaker than Whelk Attack, though. The story isn’t put together as well, and it’s perhaps a bit too similar to Whelk Attack, particularly the second half. But I do want more episodes like this, where some sort of epidemic comes to Bikini Bottom, so I do appreciate this episode for that fact.

I was rather pleased at the beginning of this episode, when it seemed like this was going to be a Sandy-Krabs episode, which we’ve never seen before. Unfortunately that got forgotten pretty quickly and the episode returns to the usual dynamics. In fact, Krab just disappeared during the second half, which I found odd. Since he was the cause of the giant Krabby Patty, I kind of thought he would be more involved in the solution. Okay, fine, he didn’t just disappear for no reason, he got consumed by the Patty, but I still found it strange that he wasn’t at least mentioned in the second half. We see him again at the very end, but it doesn’t amount to anything. Am I the only one who finds it weird that Krabs isn’t more involved in the story?

And Sandy’s cube thing. Just… what. What was the point? When Sandy showed Krabs the cube at the beginning of the episode, I thought it was just a throwaway joke and forgot about it until it was brought up again. She describes it as a Rubik’s Cube that can solve itself, it sounded like a joke. Turns out it was a plot point, but… why? Couldn’t the characters have figured out what to do without the cube? Sandy figures things out all the time. Why add in the cube? It’s really baffling.

Anyway, this episode does have a few funny and entertaining bits, and I liked the idea, but it’s too weirdly put-together and it comes off as somewhat of a poor man’s Whelk Attack.

Rating: 6/10

SpongeBob gets a letter from Bubble Buddy (yes, that Bubble Buddy) asking him if he can watch Bubble Buddy’s son, Shiny, for the day. Well, “ask” isn’t the right word, as it implies that SpongeBob had a choice. Bubble Buddy sends the letter to SpongeBob’s house with Shiny, so it’s not like SpongeBob can say no. It doesn’t matter anyway because SpongeBob is perfectly happy to watch Shiny, but personally I’d be pissed if someone ambushed me into watching their kid. Anyway, SpongeBob needs to keep Shiny away from sharp/pointy objects that could potentially pop him, but Shiny keeps wandering off to dangerous areas and ruining people’s day (like father like son?). And people wonder why I don’t like kids. Anyway, that’s basically the whole episode. Shiny wanders off, SpongeBob rescues him and scolds him, rinse and repeat until Bubble Buddy shows up at the end to pick up Shiny.

So, this is the first episode to directly reference a previous episode and can be considered a “sequel” of sorts to said episode. The closest thing we’ve ever had to this before was Prehibernation Week and Survival of the Idiots, which are sort of related but not directly. Bubble Buddy Returns actually is directly related to a previous episode (it even references the fact that Bubble Buddy owes Mr. Krabs money!), though why it’s called “Bubble Buddy Returns” when it mostly features his son is beyond me. Bubble Buddy is only in the episode for, like, two minutes total.

I was really skeptical about this episode at first. Not because I thought it would ruin a “classic” or anything like that (I don’t even like the original Bubble Buddy episode that much, honestly), but because the idea of a direct sequel to an episode was off-putting for me. This show has never had continuity (besides small, indirect references to other episodes that would probably fly over the casual fan’s head) and I actually like that. It gives the writers more freedom, and it’s a lot easier to pretend episodes that I don’t like don’t exist when they don’t have any lasting effect on the show or characters. It’s also nice for newcomers to the show. They don’t have to start from the beginning of the show to understand what’s going on. I like that each episode is its own separate entity.

So, I had reservations about this episode the moment I saw the title of it. I didn’t like the idea of a direct sequel to an episode, I kept wondering what it meant for the show, whether there was some weird timeline to it after all. Now that I think about it, I have wished for one-time characters to reappear before (though Bubble Buddy would not have been one of choices), which would require some reference to previous episodes, and Friend or Foe actually did provide some continuity to the show. Krabs and Plankton’s relationship had been hinted about before then, so it wasn’t exactly a new addition, just expanding on something that was already there, but still, that episode did have a lasting effect on the Krabs-Plankton dynamic, it wasn’t just a one-shot thing. So, I suppose a little bit of continuity is okay to an extent, but I still wouldn’t want a concrete timeline to the show. This episode actually doesn’t do much for continuity anyway. It’s a sequel, sure, but it could also exist on its own. You wouldn’t need to watch the original episode to understand this one.

All that being said, good God this episode is boring. It was easy to forget my hang-ups about direct sequels to episodes when the sequel in question was putting me to sleep. It’s way too repetitive, the only interesting thing to happen in the episode was the ending when SpongeBob accidentally popped Shiny. Is it bad that I was kind of relieved when he got popped? It probably is.

I just thought of something. If Bubble Buddy has a son… does that mean Bubble Buddy has had sex? How can bubbles have sex anyway? Can they… can they pop each other when they put it in? Ugh, why am I thinking about bubble sex this much?! I’m too dirty-minded for my own good.  Shiny was probably the result of bubble-blowing, just like Bubble Buddy was. Though that also raises some questions. Was Bubble Buddy “born” when SpongeBob blew him? Oh dear, I shouldn’t use the word “blow” or participles of it when I’ve just been talking about bubble sex. I don’t even know where I’m going with this anymore. Never mind.

To sum up, I’m still on the fence about direct sequels to episodes, and this episode is a bore. Luckily I’m not a big fan of the original episode, so I’m not too disappointed by this one.

Rating: 2.5/10

SpongeBob Reviews: Season 8 (The Way of the Sponge/Bubble Troubles)

SpongeBob goes to visit Sandy and sees a… something in her Treedome. That thing is “Fuzzy Acorns”, Sandy’s Karate sensei who has come to test her abilities and see whether or not she is worthy of the “blacker” belt, which is apparently a rank above the black belt that she already has. What kind of animal is Fuzzy Acorns supposed to be? I can’t figure it out and I can’t find the information anywhere. Eh, it doesn’t matter I guess. SpongeBob wants to earn a belt too, so Fuzzy (who came up with such a cute name like that for a bad ass Karate master, Hagrid?) puts him through a series of tests, all of which SpongeBob fails. Unimpressed, Fuzzy schedules a fight between Sandy and SpongeBob to take place the next day. SpongeBob spends the rest of the day and night training, and the next day is too exhausted to fight. Sandy beats him easily, and Fuzzy tells SpongeBob he isn’t worthy of a Karate belt. To make matters worse, he takes Sandy’s black belt as well for wasting his time with an unworthy student. Dejected, SpongeBob leaves to go to work, and Sandy berates Fuzzy for being so mean to SpongeBob.  Fuzzy dismisses her words and says that he’s hungry. Sandy takes him to the Krusty Krab, hoping that he’ll be impressed with SpongeBob’s skills there. After watching SpongeBob prepare and serve food like some kind of ninja chef (I know it sounds silly but I really don’t know how else to describe it, also it is pretty silly), Fuzzy starts to think that he may have judged SpongeBob too quickly. He tries to attack SpongeBob to see him in action, and SpongeBob unknowingly defeats him through sheer luck. Fuzzy decides that SpongeBob does deserve a black belt after all, and that Sandy deserves her blacker belt.

For some reason Fuzzy’s (that name still sounds far too cute) voice really bothered me. Every time he opened his mouth to say something, it took me out of the episode. I think it’s because the voice didn’t seem to match how the character was designed or his personality, or maybe the voice actor just isn’t that good. Whatever it was, it was really distracting.  I don’t even dislike Fuzzy as a character, I actually think he’s one of the better one-time characters that we’ve seen post-movie, and perhaps pre-movie as well, but his voice was so off-putting. I’m probably the only one who feels this way, though.

Getting past his voice, I do think Fuzzy is a fairly good character. He’s not great, but he serves his purpose well. He’s dignified and imposing but can also get in some moments of humor that don’t feel forced. His arrogance and bullying nature make him hard to like as a person, but easy to like as a character since he’s supposed to be antagonistic (yes, there is a big difference between liking someone as a character and liking someone as a person). What I find kind of cool about Fuzzy is that he actually learns his lesson at the end of the episode and apologizes for his behavior. I can’t think of any other one-time antagonists on the show who have done this, usually they’re pretty one-note (though admittedly in an entertaining way) and don’t really learn anything in the end, Fuzzy actually has something resembling a character arc, and once again it doesn’t feel forced. Hm, the more I think about it, Fuzzy is a pretty great one-time character. I actually could see him appearing in more episodes, unlike most one-time characters. Too bad about that voice.

I also really loved Sandy in this episode. I will never understand why so many people in this fandom hate Sandy. Next to SpongeBob, I think she’s the most likable character on the show, as well as one of the best overall. This episode demonstrates why she’s so likable. She’s extremely kind and she believes in SpongeBob so much, despite all of his failures. She encourages him and stands up for him when Fuzzy treats him badly. I also like that she was hesitant to fight SpongeBob when she saw how exhausted SpongeBob was. I mean, it only lasts a second because she’s under pressure from Fuzzy (and it would disrupt the pace of the episode if they dwelled on this too much), but I liked that they slipped that line in. It shows that she cares about her friend’s well-being and values fair play.

SpongeBob was pretty good too, though there isn’t as much to say about him. You definitely feel for him when he’s denied his Karate belt and his tenacity is admirable, but besides that he’s just kind of there. Funny, since I think he is supposed to be the focus of the episode, but since Fuzzy is the one with the arc the focus shifts to him.

The humor is the weakest part of the episode, but it’s not even that weak. None of the jokes are really worth writing home about, but they are amusing and I got a giggle here and there. I especially liked that bit of meta humor where Sandy is monologue-ing her plan to bringing Fuzzy to the Krusty Krab and Fuzzy asks her who she’s talking to.

If it’s not clear yet, I loved this episode. I thought it was pretty fantastic. It’s entertaining, it’s well-paced, it’s a decent story with really good execution, and the character were great.

Rating: 8.5/10

That title card looks very much like a scene from Pre-hibernation Week.

The first three minutes of this episode are dull and drag for way too long. Plus there’s a weird part with a bonsai tree that makes me pretty certain Squidward is taking drugs. All you need to know is that SpongeBob and Patrick get bored of blowing regular bubbles and instead start blowing hot sauce bubbles. They go to visit Sandy and find her fixing the oxygen tank connected to her treedome. Apparently she’s running low on oxygen. SpongeBob blows some hot sauce bubbles at the tank and as we all know hot sauce is equivalent to acid in the world of cartoons, so the oxygen tank melts. Sandy only has a few minutes of oxygen left in her suit, so she must go to the surface in her submarine and replenish her air supply. SpongeBob opens the door of the submarine and water rushes in. Nice going, genius. The lack of oxygen is making Sandy woozy, so she tells SpongeBob that he has to drive the submarine to the surface for her. Um, have you seen SpongeBob drive? Actually, SpongeBob drives it quite well until Sandy, who is basically drunk from the lack of oxygen, grabs the wheel from SpongeBob and crashes the submarine into the Krusty Krab. Now the gang must find air for Sandy (who has removed her helmet and smashed it on the ground) before she dies. They give her some air bubbles and have Pearl, who technically is also an air-breather, share her air with Sandy. However, SpongeBob knows he has to get Sandy more air from the surface, so using an oxygen tank (seriously?) as a jetpack, he reaches the surface, blows a bubble full of air, and brings it back down to Sandy’s treedome.

The beginning of this episode really does drag for too long. It shouldn’t take three minutes to tell me that SpongeBob and Patrick are blowing hot sauce bubbles.

Things do start to pick up once they get to Sandy’s house, though. I was a little disappointed that the episode didn’t take place on the surface as I had expected it to, but it was amusing nonetheless. Weird, but amusing. The methods they found of giving Sandy air were actually pretty creative, and I liked how they acknowledged that Pearl is actually a mammal and needs to breathe air too. Kind of a random, trivial thing to like, I know, but I just like it when they acknowledge little facts like that. It makes me wonder what side Pearl would have been on if she’d been part of the land vs water debate in Pressure. Also, I kind of want to see an episode where Sandy and Pearl bond over being air-breathers now. What.

Seeing Sandy drunk from the lack of air was actually pretty funny and weirdly adorable (I don’t know I have a weird definition of adorable okay), and it’s rare that we see her in a vulnerable position like this, so it was kind of refreshing. I mean, I love my tough, bad ass, heroic Sandy, but I also like to see something different now and then, and Sandy in a vulnerable position is different. She spends so much time saving everyone else, it’s nice to see them return the favor for once.

Patrick was also really funny in this episode. It feels weird to say that since my last review included a rant on how Patrick isn’t as funny as he used to be and I definitely still stand by that rant. But… he was funny in this one. I hope this isn’t just a fluke.

The story-telling and pacing are a bit shaky, but I thought it was a fairly entertaining episode. It’s really strange, but also fun and an interesting idea for an episode.

Rating: 7/10