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.

Once we get over Richard's accidental crime, the episode starts to become more interesting, with the Wattersons (as per this kind of episode) hypothesizing what the next step should be, and surprisingly, there weren't any duds tonight.

First, there's Nicole, who proposes a stealthy break-in to re-deposit the stolen money. First of all, all of these bits have awesome cinematography, taking the form of square panels, and on top of a clean, fresh look, it also allows for some fun visual gags. In this particular plan, for instance, to avoid some precarious lasers, Nicole steps across panels with slight confusion, which is underplayed nicely to great effect. Then, true to character, Nicole drops her plan altogether and opts to instead take the money and go on vacation. I guess that there's some predictability to that particular aspect of her personality, but it's still an enjoyable twist.

Gumball's up next, and as usual, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. The premise is so farfetched - Gumball attempts to stuff money up an ATM- that it really lands, and once you throw in a nice plethora of cop talk, it's a fun aside. My main issue is how it's reflective of Gumball's more dopey attributes, which seems to be a problem as of late. That's my issue with the character- he's perpetually flip-flopping between snarkiness and stupidity, and the two don't mix that well. This certainly isn't as big of an offender as in "The Box," but it still seems to defy common logic.

Anais' has a similar anticlimax, though it's a lot more interesting. Basically, she seeks to do the job from the inside by getting an internship and working her way up to regional manager, after which she puts in a dollar a day. ("Practically undetectable.") That being said, it would still take 2 million days, and when we flash-forward to Anais having deposited it all, she quickly falls apart into dust. God, I love dark humor. While it wasn't as conceptually strong as Anais' ideas in "The Check," she still offers a nice, rational counterbalance to everybody else and tends to stand out in these kinds of episodes. I get that she's kind of a divisive character, but it's vitally important to the show that she serves as almost a foil to the rest of her family.

Last but not least was Richard, who opts to hide the money, get arrested, and eventually tunnel his way out (even if that takes as long as waiting the 20 year arrest out). In an interesting twist of events, Richard finds that his family had used all of the money and pampered themselves with their knowledge of its location via the flash-forward. I don't think it's that great of a meta joke because, in this case, the underplaying actually hindered the impact. As such, it feels adequate when it should've felt a lot stronger. At the very least, it closes up the bit well enough.

With all of that out of the way, I guess it's worth discussing the ending- I liked it! Sure, it's a complete cop-out, but it works because of the circumstances of the joke (THIS IS A MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE AND WE MUST PERFORM A CONTROLLED EXPLOSION) and the visual of all the shreds of money showering to the ground. On many occasions, I have admitted to hating endings that end in a shrug, but I thought it worked here because it wasn't being sincere. It's not Gumball shrugging it off so much as snide commentary on the situation, so I thought it landed.

Takeaway:
-Reception seems mixed, but I liked Cupcake Guy acting like the hero when he effectually did nothing. Yes, it's douchey, but it shows some thought in making even the most minor characters as to actually give him a distinct voice.
-Doughnut Sheriff setting out a model roadblock (he wasn't going to waste that taxpayer money) was such a stupid gag that you have to love it.
-Also great: the penalty for accidental crime is excessively worse than a deliberate one.
-I really liked how every flashback had some fun continuity to earlier episodes (Gumball's outfit from "The Saint," Richard's from "The Outside," etc.). It doesn't deter from enjoying the episode to not make the connections so much as it serves as a treat for the fans. It never felt shoehorned either- it was just a nice little detail.
-"And now a breaking story. A bank robber is making his getaway. Normally, we would call it a high-speed police chase, but the police haven't really started following him yet, so at the moment, it's more of a leisurely drive."
-"Oh, I love these things! Sometimes they get out and run. It's like, 'Dude, what are you doing?! You're in a car!'"

Final Grade: A. I'm probably the only person who enjoyed this episode that much. It's mostly because I thought almost everything landed, which is necessary for episodes like this and "The Check" to work. The only issue is Richard's ignorance of the situation, though I already talked about that and it didn't rub me the wrong way.

It's probably my favorite episode from the past week because it employed every character effectively. Over this Gumbomb (see below), there have been a lot of inconsistencies with how some Gumball, Darwin, and Richard were employed, so to see them in fine form here was a delight regardless of if the episode wasn't all that innovative. It's just a solid outing.

HOW WAS THE GUMBOMB?
To illustrate, here's a graph I made using my lack of Excel prowess. In place of letter grades, I went by intervals of .75 (an A+ is a 10, an A is a 9.25, etc. all the way to F as 1). Next to the averages, I placed the approximate letter grade for each week.

Week 1 Average: 8.3125 (A- to B+ range)

Week 2 Average: 8.875 (A to A- range)

Week 3 Average: 6.75 (B to B- range)

Week 4 Average: 6.8125 (B to B- range)

Week 5 Average: 7.75 (B+ range)
Episode Average: 7.7125 (B+ to B range)

My biggest issue is that the Gumbomb started off so well but the quality tapered off so quickly. I think the big issue is that they loaded the front way too much with surefire episodes that were destined to be popular- "The Copycats," "The Matchmaker," and "The Console" all appeared in the first half of the event, leaving the last few weeks to just rely on standard episodes that either hit or missed, and a lot just didn't register. Don't get me wrong, a ratio of 1:4 for good to bad episodes isn't bad, but when you concentrate them all towards the end, it only serves to make that stretch look far worse.

The third week was just astoundingly mediocre, with the only great episode having been leaked early on, leaving us with three others that struggled to stick the landing. Then, the fourth week was just a frustrating mess, with two great episodes off-put by two worse ones- "The Sorcerer" was humdrum at best and "The Diet" was frustratingly confusing and arguably the worst episode since "The Apprentice." The fourth week, while arguably strong, was weighed down by my opinion of "The Weirdo"- otherwise, it would've soared.

With that being said, how did I feel about the event in general? Well, it was good, I guess. It was draining having to write 20 articles in a month, I'll tell you that much. Regardless, it's been a blast to watch, even if some episodes were middling. Seeing them back-to-back is an interesting way to document the ebb and flow of the show. Sadly, that means that the show is nearing the end of its run, but I at least kind of get why CN would do it- they're trying to establish TAWOG as their flagship show and thought that blasting through a ton of episodes would serve as a good introduction. Whether or not that's truly the most logically sound idea is beyond me.

Despite complaining about some rough patches, this has been a surprisingly thorough season in terms of quality. Even the worst episodes tend to have something to appreciate and even the worst episodes don't suffer from a lack of effort so much as overthinking the premise or focusing too heavily on one aspect over another. As much as I didn't love "The Potato" or "The Cycle," they definitely had their moments and gave me some hard laughs- the only issue is cohesion.

TOP 5: "The Copycats," "The Matchmaker," "The Console," "The Vase," "The Grades"
BOTTOM 5: "The Diet," "The Weirdo," "The Cycle," "The Sorcerer," "The Potato"

I'll be seeing you next week. Or next month? I don't know anymore.

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