The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The List

"I always thought I would go to college. Instead, I majored in shopping with coupons with a minor in tension headaches."
The last episode of Season 5... not one by choice, mind you, so much as a mistake on CN's part in regards to the episodes leaking, though their airing schedule isn't particularly great either... but still. It's like how "The Ollie" got leaked; we can't let that affect how we perceive the episode, even if it is a little tempting.

That doesn't mean "The List" is a disappointment by any means; it's probably one of the most straightforward and enjoyable episodes in the backhalf of the show's fifth season.

What makes it such a successful episode is its sheer simplicity, and how that allows for the show to contain, in 11 minutes, a near-all-encompassing array of great gags. Episodes like "The Compilation" exist wholly to do the same general idea, but the narrative tying into the jokes itself is crucial to such an episode's execution, and "The List" was such a creatively-freeing idea that it allowed the show to make whatever jokes it wanted - among them being holistic medicine, the illogic of charity marathons, and a journey across the world online - without ever interrupting the flow of the episode.

"Waiting for Gumball" Review

"We've run out of marzipan!"

For some reason, cartoon shorts are always hard for shows to pull off.

And generally speaking, it's easy to see why. Cartoons already have to work within the limitations of an 11-21 minute block to tell a cohesive narrative with a start, middle, and end, and they have to relish every second they can get. Rob them of a huge chunk of that time, and the chance for meaningful storytelling often ends up painfully incapacitated.

The extent to which "Waiting for Gumball" suffers, though, far exceeds that, thanks to a few more frustrating variables thrown into the mix. First and foremost, the entirety of "Waiting for Gumball" was the creation of Joe and Becky, the folks behind "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" whom you probably recognize from "The Puppets." As you probably know - assuming you read my stuff - one of my largest issues with the episode was its inability to bridge the gap properly between TAWOG's and DHMIS' sensibilities, with both ultimately being woefully watered down, trapping the episode in a mediocre in-between that teetered on the unnerving but without the ability to truly commit. "Waiting for Gumball" is that, but even more watered down; rid of the show's appeal, we only get that subdued DHMIS half, but without anything to really justify how dull it was, and the result was a weirdly unnecessary compromise.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The News

"News news news news, blah, blah, blah, filler, filler, filler. Which leads us to the most important question: what was the point of all that?"
First of all, "The News" is, by no means, a flawless episode. I know some people have said it is, that it's the pinnacle of the series, blah blah blah... but it's not. Even with the inevitable hits and misses, though, "The News" offered up something genuinely exciting, especially so late into this season: risk-taking. This is (or rather, was, but I'm trying not to let that frustrate me too much - save it for the "Quotes and Notes") a live-action fake news program masquerading as an episode of a children's cartoon. That's one of the most ambitious things the show's managed to pull off, throwing all caution in the wind at the chance to try something different. And, in all fairness, the show did a pretty great job at it.

Also, apologies in advance, this review will be a mess. Trying to cohesively discuss an episode centered around incorporating as many premises as possible is frustratingly difficult.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Puppets

"Is it me or was that kinda... underwhelming?"
Here's a quick disclaimer: I'm not all that invested in the abstract ambiguity that "The Puppets" dwells in, and that's a huge issue considering the fact that the excitement of the episode lies squarely in that aspect. I do think, though, that the episode's reliance on chasing the ambiguity was at the cost of the episode's overall enjoyment. In trying to bridge the gap between Don't Hug Me I'm Scared's off-the-hinge, sinister tones and TAWOG's delicate subtleties and overall energy, both sides took a compromise.

And yes, I'm fully aware that taking that stance is a bit mean to the episode, considering TAWOG willingly gave itself up to the creative brain forces of DHMIS - Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling, who were credited as head writers - but for all the work they do, the episode never quite feels comfortable with itself, and putting the two creative forces together wasn't quite a match made in heaven, if I may be so bold. Just... ride along for a second.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Petals

"Look, don't worry. True beauty is found on the inside - your personality." "Good-looking people don't need a personality! Personalities were invented by ugly people to make up for what they lack on the outside!"

Of all the episodes to come out of this batch, perhaps it's a bit odd to label the filler episode as the best, especially next to a controversy-hound, a reference fest, and a style-swapper, but "The Petals" succeeds in its incisiveness yet utter simplicity. Part social commentary, part gardening show, part psychological horror... it's got everything you could want. The best part, though, is how unassumingly the whole episode starts out before quickly gathering momentum and hitting as many ridiculous high notes as you could imagine.

The episode starts out with a simple idea: Leslie's beauty is fading, so Gumball and Darwin decide to do everything in their power to return the poor guy to his former glory. What we get, at least leading up to the tonal shift midway through the episode, is exactly that: a series of consistently successful and creative gags running the gamut from botany to social psychology. And it all makes sense, too. Leslie is designed to be a vain character, and being a flower is a major proponent of that. The idea of his eventual wilting is thus the perfect opportunity to play around with the character more while exploring how his mind operates, something we hadn't really gotten a proper glimpse of prior.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Nuisance

"Bet you guys feel really big, don't ya? Picking on the poor, defenseless billionaires."

"The Nuisance" is an incredibly difficult episode to talk about when it really, really shouldn't be, and I think everybody knows why. But to sum up the extent of the episode's issues with a singular sentence, the extent of which this review will simply hammer in very angrily:

I really wish they stuck to a less loud design choice because the sheer amount of unnecessary, misconstrued attention the episode is getting was inevitable when it really shouldn't have been.

In the same way that "The Best" will forever be immortalized for making fun of SJWs, "The Nuisance" will henceforth, for the rest of time, be the "Oh my God, they made a joke about Trump deporting the Wattersons :3" episode. The issue is that pigeonholing "The Nuisance" as some cold-blooded jab is both blatantly wrong and obstructs the point of the whole episode. For Christ's sake, this one is about freaking economics more than anything else.

Further, the angle the show is going for isn't guided by some political agenda, even if a bit of knife-twisting finds its way in. The whole message behind the episode is that the Wattersons are the Wattersons, and they play on their own terms. First, they're faced with pressures to conform or else face being moved across the country, the result of which is a horrific homogenization of their family as a poster 1960s suburban family with a few too many "How-dee-doodle-a-doos" in their lexicon.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Line

"Uh, I'll have you know that I am the president of the Stellar Odyssey Fan Club... Elmore chapter." "Really? I thought you'd be into, like... tea and stuff."
"The Line" is that it's basically just "The Uncle" but for Star Wars. I have never seen Star Wars. Thus, I am blatantly unqualified to be discussing this episode. Tune in tomorrow where we'll be disc- fine, I'll talk about it, but this is my choice.

But at the same time, my lack of an ability to grasp everything is a bit of a broader issue with the episode. There's nothing wrong with making a sly reference here and there, but just like, again, "The Uncle," "The Line" takes the position of jabbing at us and asking "Huh, did you get that one?! The Holiday Special?! The Cabornite?! Ooooh, Trash Compactor, that's a pun AND a gag!" There's nothing organic to the delivery, nor do enough of the jokes stand on their own two feet in the case that anybody in the audience (me) is left in the dark.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Deal

"You won't last five minutes in there."
Well, that was something. I don't know if I'm sufficiently able to objectively break down the episode, so I apologize for that in advance.

Before we get into all of that, though, the first half of the episode was great. It's nothing more than setting up the events of the second half - which I'll pedantically nitpick in a moment - but it goes all out in making the central joke, that Nicole doesn't give Richard enough credit for the work he does, a lot of fun. I mean, starting off with Nicole launching an aggressive rap about getting the small raise of "three cents on the dollar" and employee of the month is always promising. It's what the show does best - take something terribly mundane and turn it into something hilarious.

It's upon seeing her on top of the world that Richard gets set off, feeling all of his hard work is being neglected. He then goes on to try to prove that point in the typical Richard fashion which, by the way, doesn't make it any less great. (Among the highlights are Richard using the kids to mow his lawn by eating the grass and drying them off post-bath to heavy metal/Irish music.) Nicole shakes it off nonetheless, so Richard goes on strike.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Best

"She's just trying to help you be a better person." "Exactly, she's raising the bar! Which is totally unfair for someone like me who liked the bar exactly where it was."
"The Best" was an interesting episode, to say the least. It hit all the high notes, with some smart jokes and visual gags, but for some reason, it never really triumphed as a whole. That's not a bad thing, per se, and to call "The Best" bad is a huge overstatement, but it never became anything truly memorable, played out as you'd imagine, and was pleasing if not revelatory.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Worst

"What's happening?" "It's the glass ceiling Mom was talking about!" "What's that?" "The invisible barrier that stops anyone who's not an old, rich dude from getting the best jobs!"
There are three possible reactions I can imagine to come out of this line. You could laugh. You could "mmhmm." Or you could cringe internally. I took the third option.

No no no, I'm not sexist, don't you play that crap on me. But I think that quote pretty much sums up how you're going to perceive this episode - you're either gonna really dig it, see it as defiant to the expectations of society or something, or hate it.

I... hated it, I guess. Hate's a strong word. Basically, the episode's getting a C-. For "confused." "The Worst" is an episode where the show is trying to make a statement, but it just can't.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Heist (and the Gumbomb)

"Kapoosh?"
Okay, so yesterday was rough. I'm going to move right along, ignore that, and say that I really enjoyed this episode. (Also, I'll be talking about the Gumbomb in general at the bottom- double feature, yo.)

Realistically, "The Heist" is very similar to "The Box" in trying to take the same general format as "The Check," and while it once again falls short of that level of excellence, that doesn't mean this episode was bad. In fact, this is probably my favorite episode to come out of this week, believe that or not. For all of its complexities, it was probably one of the simpler episodes this week- it didn't try to push at anything new, instead offering more delightful takes on the Watterson family and how they think.

First of all, I'm going to say that I honestly didn't mind Richard's ignorance of the situation as a catalyst, at least partially because his helmet was the real issue. Even if he made some poor decisions, it wasn't out of his stupidity alone so much as a series of honest mistakes. The plot is set up so that it makes sense why Richard would use the sign to confuse the bank for a Joyful Burger and, with Larry at the helm of the bank, it makes sense that he wouldn't assume anything was wrong. Admittedly, there were some stupid twists, like Richard telling everybody to put their hands in the air because he believes it to be someone's birthday, but I at least like that Richard retains that joyous, loving character. It's just that the message is misconstrued.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Weirdo

"I think we've seen enough, thank you."
Let's get this out of the way so as to help deflect that which will follow: I'm cold-hearted, I'm cynical, I'm a terrible human being and a waste of the air supply. We good? Good. You ready for this? I don't think you are. Okay. We can do this. It'll be fine. All I have to say is that this episode was boring. And I get that everybody else thought this episode was phenomenal and y'all are all teary-eyed messes, but this episode just didn't work for me.

You don't know how long I debated just lying and saying that I loved this episode, because me finding this to be tedious is a solid dent in my reputation. After all, this is definitely my second most polarizing opinion for the show (the first shall, for the time being, remain undisclosed. It'll surface in time). It's much easier to just join the crowd of admirers, but I don't want to be dishonest. I already view the series with probably abnormally high prestige, so if I find that something doesn't work, there's actually a legitimate bone worth picking. So... let the ostracism begin.

A big part of the issue is that I just don't like Sussie as a character. There's nothing interesting about her. She's realistically one of the few links the show still has to Season 1 because of her unchanging nature in the show, and that can really drag stuff down.

The only times that I think Sussie was used successfully were in "The Night" (for the meta sequence) and "The Question," where she spurred an unexpectedly complex personal philosophy. Those occasions worked because a new angle was taken in understanding the character and exploring something different. Here, we get stuck in the inevitable rut of Sussie being Sussie, a character without anything to prod at, and a clear message that didn't warrant 11 minutes to understand.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Uncle

"How did this situation escalate so quickly?! I was literally two steps behind you!"
I'm going to preface this article by saying that, above all, I'm really just excited to see Ocho get another role in the spotlight. I always thought he was one of the more interesting characters, both in design and demeanor (however one-note he can be at times), and considering that he hasn't had a main role since Season 2 and only two speaking roles since then, this episode was long overdue.

The premise is that Gumball finds out that Ocho's uncle may or may not be Mario and he sets out to befriend Ocho and prove his worth for the sake of meeting him, though along the way, he endures trauma after trauma. That's what was most exciting about the episode- it was almost a reverse-Saint. Ocho keeps forcing Gumball to do terrible things or otherwise traumatizes him (as in the hazing prank, which literally gave Gumball PTSD), with Gumball nevertheless determined just to meet Mario, but when he finally does, it's the not exactly who Gumball envisioned. Whomp freaking whomp.

As much as I enjoyed the episode, though, I still found a few issues.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Menu

"I'll give you twenty bucks if you do it." "Wow, you've reached a whole new level of laziness. You've invented the reverse job."
Spoiler alert: this week gon' be gud.
I'm sure there's going to be a lot of mixed opinions about this episode because it really circles back to Richard's lack of constraint and obsession with food, but at the very least, it executes the formula in the greatest way possible. The premise itself of finding a secret menu item seems fairly tame and standard, but the show was able to elevate it with a lot of smart choices- something they couldn't figure out how to do for a lot of last week.

Again, the premise is simple. Richard hears of a secret menu item from Joyful Burger and sets out to obtain it. However, getting to the point of obtaining the wisely-named M'Guffin is what makes the episode truly stand out.

First of all, there's Richard's demand that the kids infiltrate Joyful Burger to find out about the legendary burger, but instead, we get a super-extended cut of Gumball and Darwin coming to dominate the industry as corrupt business moguls. (I mean, they literally have their hearts removed for the sake of business.) It's only when they contemplate in their mansion about how they got to where they are that they get thrown back into reality. You could easily argue that it's filler, but it's simply brilliant as it is, with the kids getting so distracted in their indulgent lifestyle to remember what they were set out to do in the first place.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Sorcerer

"But I brought all sorts of witching stuff! Eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat..." "They'll never let us back in the zoo after this..."
At the heart of this episode was another Internet joke- don't feed the trolls.

And man, even when the episode is fine, I get frustrated with stupid "Look, we use the Internet! This is a hip joke" plots. It's not even that it was executed that badly, it's just that the general idea just feels tired. Sure, the show can easily revitalize even the drollest of plots, I get that, but I feel like this episode, while fine, didn't really push hard enough to make this something distinct, instead feeling largely like yet another rendition of the same old joke.

Basically, Gumball realizes that he is completely talentless, despite several attempts to prove the contrary, but eventually, he becomes inspired upon seeing Mrs. Jötunheim using her witchery. After a fair bit of deliberation, she takes him in as an apprentice- kind of. Realistically, she takes advantage of Gumball's ignorance to make him to do chores, the classic anti-Karate Kid, but at the very least, it leads to a dope song.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Ex

"You used to hate this song." "...Not anymore."
Yo, so apparently a lot of people really didn't care for this episode, and I'm just going to flat-out say that I had no problems with it at all. (Maybe a few issues with Penny, but we'll get to that.)

Think about it: we just had "The Disaster/Rerun." If the show were to just revert back to another standard episode of Rob trying to ruin Gumball's life, there would be no progression and it would just feel abrupt and pointless. This episode serves as a cooldown, and if the show wants to go back to more Rob episodes, this is really the only way to do so. The last episodes served to show some resolution, so the show, to pursue the concept further, had to undo that.

Personally, I think it would've been most ideal to just drop Rob after that as a villain because if the future installments fail to raise the bar, this episode will only look like an excuse to go back to the formula. However, if the show keeps pushing the extent of Rob's power from here, then we're all golden.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Diet

"[Shudders] This is a new low." "Meh, feels like a very familar low."
This is the kind of episode where I feel the need to put an ellipses count at the bottom.That's how concerning this whole thing was. I have no idea how to feel about "The Diet." It was just... really disturbing and uncomfortable. I don't know if I really liked it or hated it, which is a sensation I haven't had in a long time and I really don't enjoy that.

Even from when the description to this episode was leaked, I thought it sounded terrible. It might as well have been ripped straight from Season 6 of SpongeBob, and honestly, this episode felt like that at points. It was just a mess.

At the very least, I thought the first half of the episode was fine. Richard eating multiple diets at the same time was a nice reveal, if not stupid (even by the character's standards). I also liked Gumball and Darwin failing to lock him in the shed, creating a very horror movie-esque scene, and then (of course) the montage of Richard working out, synth rock and crossfades included, was good fun. Unfortunately, the good news doesn't last long enough, because the show just nosedives into something. Something... weirder.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Grades

"It's a world of scheduled nap-times, optional pants, and food you don't need to chew." "You just described a retirement home."
Welcome to the third week of the Gumbomb folks. It's an interesting one to say the least.

I had incredibly low hopes for this episode, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be really, really good. I mean, the plot is so overdone, but whereas episodes like "The Sorcerer" fail to elevate their tripe storyline, this one raised the bar.

So yeah. The premise is that, because Gumball bombed a test when he was in kindergarten, his GPA is a point too low and he's forced to repeat it.

I will say that I immensely enjoyed the scenes of Gumball in the kindergarten because they shine so true. He's essentially being tortured because of his inhibitions as these kids stuff garbage through his mouth or cover him in glitter. The whole thing is both stupidly comedic and terrifyingly accurate at the same time. However, once Gumball removes the inhibitions that mentally block him, the episode gets interesting.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Stars

"Okay, what do you want to say?" "'I left this hairdresser a sad, broken man.'" "Dad, you went in a sad broken man."
It seems that this episode has proven to be quite divisive. A lot of people have admitted to greatly enjoying it, while a good buddy of mine is, I assume, preparing to metaphorically piss all over it, for a lack of better terms. So, with that being said, what did I think?
Well, it was fine. I feel like it's been a bit overhyped at this point, either for being amazing or terrible, so when I go into the episode with much more defined expectations, I only get underwhelmed. That being said, I can still recognize this episode as good- just nothing too special.

The whole premise is that Richard is angry at Larry for giving him a bad haircut (or calling him bald, or both- it's really not that clear), so Gumball and Darwin get him to write a review online. Larry finds the review, but bends easily to try to appease Richard, causing the kids to go on a reviewing spree to exploit Larry's weakness and get free stuff along the way. Basically, for their self-gain, they're just effing with Larry as much as possible.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Cycle

"Doo doo doo! Can Richard Watterson please come to collect his dignity from the front desk?"
What a mundane episode.
When I read the description and saw the promo, the first thing I was worried about was that this would effectually become an episode along the lines of modern SpongeBob- at best, forgettable and light, but at worst, mean-spirited and frustrating. This episode, while not that, fell dangerously close. It just never really felt like an episode of Gumball. It lacked a lot of the zany character interactions and smart jokes that have come to define the series, and I know why: it's Harold. But we'll get to that soon enough.

The whole premise is that Harold is being mean to Richard, and the kids are trying to get to the bottom of it all and help their dad get some revenge or, at the very least, a bit of closure. After a series of attempts to address the situation maturely, the gang decides to trick him by leaving a fake check for a billion dollars on the side of the road. Before they can tell Harold that they pranked him, though, he goes off on a lavish march back home, quits his job by manhandling his boss, replaces his wife, and is about to detonate his house. The kids are happy that he is inadvertently ruining his life, but Richard decides to man up and be honest to set it straight with Harold.

In the end, when Richard is about to tell Harold the truth about the check, Harold points out a bit of skywriting he created as to insult Richard ("Sorry we couldn't fit all of you in there. There wasn't enough space on the canvas."), causing Richard to have a change of heart, instead telling Harold he should stack his dynamite closer together for a more intensive blast. We then see a massive explosion in the background and that's it. The plot isn't particularly innovative- it just kind of drifts along- but I at least appreciate how the pace sped-up right when Harold found the check and more interesting things started to happen.