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.

It's just that the second half of the episode is just... something else. Richard becomes buff and acts like an attention-thirsty idiot. I guess there's supposed to be commentary in how addicted he is to his phone as to send out a post every five seconds. Either way, for a main gag, it didn't really do anything interesting.

Then there's the point where Richard is just kind of slo-mo shimmering in the fountain and man, I just... I don't know. I was laughing, though I think that was almost entirely a coping mechanism. You're just laughing because you have no idea how to feel otherwise. It's just confusing. There's, like, a disconnect going on and I don't know if it's hilarious or just really unnerving.

The ending suffers a bit, too, with Richard snapping back into shape when he remembers how much he misses food. Look, I'm fine with the show doing anticlimaxes when they do them that way by design ("The Plan," for instance). This episode did an unintentional anticlimax, and it definitely hurts everything. The whole "Richard goes buff" part was not only hard to look at, but also rendered pointless immediately afterwards.

I just... don't get this episode. I've never had this issue before with any other episode from the show (or really a lot of other shows), so I don't know how to approach the episode at all.

Takeaway:
-Look, I can't even finalize any of my thoughts on anything else in this whole episode. I can't handle extra stuff.

Accurate.

Final Grade: C-. I just... don't know how to feel. I feel it deserves at least a bit higher, but relative to episodes like "The Cycle," this didn't have anything particularly strong to battle its overarching mediocrity. It was just weird and kind of uncomfortable to look at, which might be fine if a bit more was attempted, but they went way too broad on the concept and the second half of the episode was just a huge botch. I have no idea who thought anybody really wanted to see any of this, but we saw it.

At the same time, I know I should hate it more but I just can't commit. Do I really ever want to watch the episode again, though? No, not at all. It's adequate if not instantly disposable, and it lacks in anything that really defines the show: the humor here is one-note and kind of gross, the writing lacks character, and the design choices were just... not working for me. Add in an ending that left a lot to be imagined, and you get an episode that's neither worthy of praise nor hatred. It's just what it is.

I don't want to think about this episode ever again, if that means anything. Even if I thought "The Slide" sucked, that was just on a level of the plot. Here, there's just so many poor ideas all over the place and I just... can't figure it out and if I actually liked it or not. Good God. I'm done.

ELLIPSES COUNT: 8

For the last Gumball review of "The Grades," CLICK HERE.