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.

That's not to say it was a complete miss, but the parts I enjoyed most were, unsurprisingly, the small moments that didn't involve Sussie's behavior as a punchline. I think the whole intro sequence worked great (which may have set my expectations way too high), what with Gumball's classmates having to find elaborate ways to throw out their awful presents (Jared stuffs his present down his pants, rips them off, and throws them out; Banana Joe throws himself out while his present floats away), all while Gumball attempts to rub his gift of mayonnaise off on everybody else.

There was also Gumball's plan to poison the town's water supply to make everyone on the same level as Sussie as a means for acceptance which, personally, was the highlight of the episode. Even disregarding that Gumball and Darwin are acting a bit out of character by showing support for Sussie (who they usually ogle at as some kind of oddity), the lunacy of the concept is enjoyable, especially with Gumball's persistence in the plan being infallible.

After that, I just felt the episode lost steam. The whole "It's Sussie: in Color" sequence felt like it was trying to pull at the "LUL SO RANDOM xD" school of comedy, which isn't a school so much as a bottomless pit full of garbage. There needs to be structure and there needs to be rationale for something to work to great effect, and combining Sussie's already persistent spontaneity with Mad-libbed prompts such as a "meat cravat" just didn't work. I only really laughed when Gumball interjected with a solid, "I think we've seen enough, thank you." I complacently agree.

Then there's the whole ending sequence. Ehhh. As much as I adore when the show does a change in art style, I just felt that it didn't gel here. Same with the song- there wasn't any catch and it wasn't particularly catchy either. It just kind of existed, meandered for way too long, and ended so abruptly that I felt almost betrayed. If you do some insane sequence, it has to end with a bang. Here, it feels like they had some novel idea but no decent way to frame it or really justify it, and by ending with Bomb Guy exploding instead of anything proper, there's nothing to take away.

And I get it. "Oh, it's emotional!" It didn't do anything for me. Episodes like "The Choices" put you on an emotional rollercoaster by presenting you with tragedy blossoming into something beautiful, while moments like "Nobody's a Nobody" present an obvious, cute message. I don't feel either way towards Sussie as a character and I don't think that she has enough emotional depth to really allow anything like that to happen. And you know what? There are morals to be learned. I get it. Acceptance. Appreciation. All that fun stuff. But the lesson was so obvious that there's no weight to it. Further, the lesson really is incredibly similar to the aforementioned "Nobody's a Nobody," but that worked better in my opinion because it was simple and objectively heartwarming. This was a tad bit too rose-tinted.

It's not like the sequence was pure, unadulterated eye candy like "The Money" or "The Fury." It was just flashing children's drawings, which is fine and all, but at the same time, it was a bit much. Everything was so flashy that I actually felt kind of dizzy and uncomfortable- not good.

Even if this was a commentary on, like, mental illness or something (and I'm not joking, because that's actually entirely plausible), it was severely undercut by, again, the dizziness of the whole sequence, but also how idiotically everybody acted in between sequences. I get the need to add in some humor, but I don't think that there's necessarily acceptance in them idiotically hugging a clearly uncomfortable homeless guy. The visual is completely fine, but it kind of works against the message they're trying to deliver.

And no, it's not that I'm not a sucker for emotional stuff, because I'm pretty easy to tear at. Considering that, it's even worse that I sat watching the end almost completely stoicly except for some confused brow-furrowing. So, I'm sorry. I just couldn't get into it.

Takeaway:
-So Sussie got a new chin, but did she get a new voice actor? I'm really thrown off by all of this because Fergus Craig's voice has been consistent, but regardless of his name in the credits, this time it sounded really different. Or maybe I'm having some cognitive disconnect- just like I'm having with the rest of this episode! HA HA JUST KILL ME I GET IT
-The Thatcher Illusion joke admittedly got me good. But that's about it.
-"And this one's for toothpaste!"
-"Alright, imma fight these punks!" "What, Greco-Roman style?"
-Oh, uh, [FILLER FILLER FILLER FILLER BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO SAY]

Final Grade: C. Man, I don't really want to ever have to watch this episode again, but if I lower the grade any further, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my "TAWOG fan" license revoked. It started out fine, if not a bit slow, but never found a firm position, and even if the ending sequence was different, it didn't amount to anything and the song accompanying it was entirely humdrum and dare I say a touch off-putting.

The worst part is that I completely understand why people would love this episode. It just didn't do enough for me out of a distaste for the character and for some of the direction. Again, I can only blame myself, because this episode should be theoretically amazing.

Further, this may be the first time that I'm actually going against character development. At the very least, I can say that exploring Sussie was really unnecessary because, again, there's nothing new to really explore, but it also doesn't help her case that this was her one moment. She'll be back to the sidelines for the rest of the show, meaning that any evolution of her character will be put aside in favor of ongoing gross-out gags which, to be honest, she probably should've just stuck to in the first place.

Oh, and wait! Don't think this has to do with some relatability factor. I've been through all that fun depression stuff and I don't want to talk about it, but the point is that I get what it's like to be ostracized. Heck, I'm still pretty ostracized, but it's not like that bothers me anymore, right?! [single tear] The point is that even though I get what the objective was and that I get the appeal to people who can relate, I just didn't get that connection despite the fact that I probably should have.

I give you full authority to send in the angry mob now, but remember, comedy is subjective! So, like, shut up, dude. You don't have to be reading this. I should be entitled to not like an episode that others seem to love. Let this be my Achilles heel for the season. I'm sure opinions will continue to deviate tomorrow.

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

(If you want to see a converse opinion on this episode from Guy, CLICK HERE. He writes good.)