The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Ad

"Well, I guess we all learned a lesson today. It's okay to commit a crime if it means you get away with a different crime." "Nicole, that's a terrible lesson."

"The Money," in my opinion, is the greatest single episode that Gumball has ever created. Its examination of the Wattersons' financial situation, how it manages to strongly demonstrate the role that each Watterson plays in the family dynamic, and how it shatters the fourth wall so dramatically makes it, no matter what angle you look at it from, a complete blast. With that being said, though, I don't think it really warranted a sequel, but alas, that's sort of what "The Ad" is.

I'm not saying that "The Ad" traces the plot of "The Money" very much, though in all honesty, it's not a bad episode to take notes from. Rather, it follows the same basic plot of Richard wasting money on something particularly lavish—in this case, a horse named Wunderklopp—causing the family to take every measure possible to scrape up the money to survive for a month until a potential horse buyer can pay the money back. While "The Money" devotes itself to exploring their depravity and falling dignity, though, "The Ad" simply finds them involved in a scheme, using their house as a bed and breakfast to earn money, all while secretly living in the house. Theoretically, the premise offers up promising absurdity, but the route the show takes somehow winds up crafting one of the most boring, uneventful episodes since Season 5's "The Deal."

The weird thing about that, too, is that it's not really a case of the show doing uninteresting things; it's the converse. "The Ad" tries so freaking hard to be out there, and it gets what it wished for; nothing really locks in and allows the episode to shine, instead weighing itself down with contrived affectations. There's a frustratingly inorganic vibe to the episode's assembly that feels like it's taking aimless swerves to try to win the audience over, and while it certainly earns some laughs here and there, as a whole, it's just sloppy.

I mean, writing out the basic plot synopsis in one sentence makes a sentence that feels like every twist should be preceded by a record scratch. Richard buys—get this—a horse, so the Wattersons—get this—turn their house into a B&B, but they rent it out to—get THIS—fainting goats. Every element feels shoehorned, as if conceived through a Mad Libs card.

The biggest offender was just the conceptualization of the fainting goats, Ethel and Bernie. While their implementation allows the show to narrow its scope for the second act, where the Wattersons knock them out and, fearing the two dead, act out the rest of their vacation Weekend at Bernie's style, it moved further and further away from what bits and pieces I admired of the first half.

Watching the Wattersons discuss possible means of earning and saving money at the start was the closest "The Ad" ever landed, allowing for some fun and quick character portraiture. It also prompted the episode's greatest moment, when Richard is tearfully driven to ordering a pizza against Nicole's fears for his diets, slowly unfolding melodramatically as if ripped out of a mafia movie. Watching the Wattersons stealthily share living quarters with the goats also led to some fun sight gags, like the hollowed-out food in their fridge, as well as Richard's thoughtful description of himself as a gateau.

It's the fact that Ethel and Bernie are fainting goats that the episode reaches such a tepid conclusion. There's just a lack of ingenuity to how the episode decides to end itself, working in the detail of them being fainting goats as if trying to paint itself out of a corner. "The Ad," with that added wrinkle, ends up playing out the whole "unconscious body" gag like almost every other cartoon has done at one point, and it's just... uninteresting. It rarely deviates from the standard visual humor, with the exception of a brief encounter when someone recognizes Bernie at a restaurant and attempts to pummel him. (The idea that he swindled someone into buying a lemon that he thought was a car was a fun, absurd detail, but if anything, its existence just makes me wonder where that spirit was for the rest of the montage.)

It's just weird to see Gumball trying to win the viewer over with directionless absurdity, and it doesn't even really commit to that. Instead, it stretches itself out, all while dragging out its climax as expectedly as possible. If you want to do something weird, you have to double-down on the weirdness until it comes back around. That just never happens here, and as a result, "The Ad" comes and goes without really bringing anything fresh to the table.

Notes and Quotes:
-"I don't know what's the funniest, the fact you think you got a trust fund or the fact you think you'll make it to college."
-"You know the sad thing about betrayal? It never comes from an enemy."
-I really want to see the weird B-roll footage the show uses whenever they have to show something on television.
-"Ah, what is that?" "I am a Black Forest gateau with a crunchy shortbread base, multiple layers of praline, and a glossy cocoa finish." "Hmm, must be a Black Forest gateau with a crunchy shortbread base, multiple layers of praline, and a glossy cocoa finish."
-I have no idea why the scene where Ethel talks about her love of dank memes and rejection of Cheezburger weak sauce had to exist. I get it, y'all want to be savvy, but nothing makes your show look like more of a dinosaur than trying to nudge the kiddos. You guys are millennials! You guys of all people should understand the shelf life of this sort of thing...
-The notion that Elmore is the most boring place on the planet hit very close to home for me, a person who has lived in suburban North Carolina for their entire life. The entirety of the town I live in looks like the Google image search result for "neighborhood."

FINAL GRADE: C+. It's really hard to come up with a proper grade for episodes like "The Ad." It's not entirely bad, per se, but nothing gels at all, and ultimately, it wounds up being a rather noncommittal affair. It's in a weird sort of gray area where it's both trying its hardest to work but never unleashes itself and goes off on its own accord to make that tryhardedness bring about anything. At the very least, though, if you want to be glass-half-full, the show's ambitious; it just has to fit that ambitiousness with proper care.

For the last Gumball review of "The Understanding," CLICK HERE. See you in a bit.