Well, I hope you weren't expecting a certain episode. This was meant to be a filler question on a poll, but honestly I'm glad this won because I feel I'm way too old for Camp Lazlo.
Riddle me this, how often have you seen this premise? Boys begin crushing on a girl upon seeing her for the first time or suddenly out of the blue because of one circumstantial deed, they try pursuing her unaware that their quest is in vain and their boyfriend is, by coincidence, a jackass.
If you've never seen this premise in your life, you have very likely never seen a television. Granted, the premise not as by the numbers as you'd think, but it's the little things. Example, I just stated one toward the end of the above paragraph. If you see enough episodes with this premise in a row, you're bound to find some similarities.
To be honest, none of those episodes are particularly awful and, twist of the century, neither is this. However, this episode falls under one big cardinal sin. It's bland beyond comprehension. Given a show like Foster's where non-essential characters are limited to what they were imagined to be, how can I be surprised?
But to go off topic for a bit, I'm honestly surprised and kinda happy that my Foster's review went over so well (in that beforehand I wasn't faced with any opposition when I said outright I didn't like the show.) For perspective, even as a kid I felt something was wrong with the show, and it seems I'm far from alone in having that opinion.
I picked this episode because if I discuss episodes where Bloo got it in the end, that's where opposition would come in as he was everyone's worse takeaway.
Sorry for the delay, let's rip into a plot framework almost as bad as be grateful for being a kid.
Kiss from a Weed
One unique thing about this episode is that the one guy crushing is multiplied to four, Mac, Bloo, Pizza Guy and Prince Charming, which is one small stand-out from this worn framework. There're two words I can use to describe the episode, bland, and rushed.
Rushed, it feels like everything happens sooner than they need to be. A bit of a general statement to make but sometimes a general statement is all you can put it to. One way I can sum this up is how it began, Frankie, out of the blue (and gratefulness for him agreeing to take her place on work that needs to be done), kisses Mac, and you get the idea, hopefully. The other three guys I mentioned want in after some happily coincidental miss-wording, which could amount to, well you know.
Bland, basically how the romantic conflict began. This is something that applies to the general framework of plots like that as a whole. What more could be taken from it? Guy crushes on female well out of his league, he learns that the hard way but ruins a date, but don't worry, the guy's a total jerk, and everyone but the douche can go on as good friends.
As always, it's the little things that keep episodes that use the plot as separate from one another as they could. Hey Arnold! had Arnold crush on a substitute teacher who's actually Elaine from Seinfeld. Ed, Edd n' Eddy's typical brand of absurdity made their episode interesting. The Loud House showed the negative effects on crushing on people years above their senior. The Simpsons just had Bart try to get back at Jimbo well before they became sorta friends later on. The Fairly Odd Parents stretched that into several episodes and that's worse for it than this episode.
This is another one of those episodes that can easily be summed up. So Frankie meets her douche boyfriend and they go out to dinner. The guys try to crash the date, going by selfish impulse and the boyfriend gets appropriately upset because of this, I mean, Adolf McStalin harms the noble angels and Frankie scolds the boys for crashing the date, I mean she turns against Adolf and that's one more sign-up for Tinder.
What is it with Craig McCracken putting heroes with often selfish intent against villains who were acting in self-defense and suffer the worst in the end? I mean, take what I said and check out this and the PowerPuff Girls and tell me how it effects the episode. If there's one thing Craig's shows taught me is that the side of good isn't all sunshine and farts and he has a very authoritarian perspective on morality.
The end isn't anything to write home about, as more of the same from before happens after Frankie, once more happily coincidentally poorly words her sum up on everything.
Overall
In terms of structure, this episode is practically by the numbers on a done and dusted plot frame. In terms of execution, it's just so bland and years later I'm becoming open to faults that are undeniable. You can't just assume things are bound to go your way, then crash where you're not welcome and expect things to end close to how you want them to be.
Point is, Orlando Bloo can never save a bland bordering mediocre episode, and Frankie is hardly in the top 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment