The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Potato

"Hey, what are you doing?" "I'm salting the roads for ice." "But it's like 90 degrees out here, and it's June!" "I am so fired."
When this and the other episodes were leaked, I deliberately didn't watch them right away so that I could watch it with a good friend of mine whom I'm working on re-introducing the show to. Right when it was over, the first thing she messaged to me was "I think I've seen that episode before."

Obviously, that's completely wrong, and me pointing that out isn't really introducing you to any information you couldn't already assume, but it leads me to my point: this episode was completely passable, if not a little bit samey.

The main premise is that Darwin, seeing Idaho get offended whilst performing what I can only describe as potato torture porn, decides to stop eating potatoes to show support for his friend while Gumball works to help distract him from his withdrawal symptoms.

Admittedly, the middle portion of the episode is a pretty great sweet spot to employ as many jokes as possible, and it's where the episode shines the most. The self-relaxation CD where the narrator himself falls asleep was clever, for instance. Perhaps more pointed was the bit where Sarah, who joins in to help Darwin curb his cravings, shows him aversion therapy, failing on the basis that it was advertising but with different music and a blue tint. Ultimately, though, the highlight of the episode (and, so far, a true standout for the season) was Gumball looking up "Things to do with your hands" to help Darwin find a way to distract himself, only to yell "WOAH!" in shock, and, after some extended silence, "Origami!" There isn't much more to be said on how adept the series is when it comes to subtle (and not-so-subtle, on the occasion) adult humor, but the comedic timing and execution knocked it out of the park. (The two proceeding to fold up Terri's parents was also a nice reveal, if not a bit forced.)

Eventually, realizing that nothing is working, Sarah takes Gumball and Darwin to group therapy with Mr. Small (duo therapy, dare I say) to help him strategize ways to bypass his growing desire. After a brief visualization exercise, Darwin notices meat on the corner of Mr. Small's desk (a nice callback to "The Castle") and is pushed into relapse, eating a potato that's just sort of there (plot devices!) and hallucinating a whole musical number. I will admit that the song, delivered by four potatoes against him eating them, didn't really register too much, at least not for me. It seemed a bit too unwarranted and excessive, though there's been a surprising lack of songs over this past season, so I guess I'll take what I get.

With that, Darwin decides he's had enough and locks himself in his room. Gumball and Sarah then go off to report to Idaho that the problem's been solved only to be informed that he wasn't insulted by the potato-eating and making a slight race joke (not all potatoes are one in the same, guys), and he sets off to tell Darwin in person. What Gumball fails to register, and is thus brought attention to by Sarah, is that he literally let a potato go off to meet Darwin in the worst possible stage of his addiction, and they try to get to the house before Idaho does to prevent a disaster.

The situation is further worsened by a series of misfortunes occurring to Idaho on his calm walk to the Watterson's house: first, he applies sunscreen only to find that it's tanning oil, making him all toasty. Then, in another standout moment, he gets salted by a road salter (is that even a term?) to keep the roads clean. When it is brought to his attention that it's 90 degrees outside, the man lets out a perfectly deadpan, "I'm so fired." The coleslaw nonstarter was also a nice flourish, even though I'm confused how a truck driver would think he was about to run over somebody would fail to notice that the person in question is straight-up on another street. I feel the joke might have fared better if there was some kind of fourth-wall break indicating confusion based on the fact that the way the scene was laid out made it seem like, to the truck driver, he was on the same street, and he got confused because of the alternating shots, but that might be a bit too forced.

When Gumball and Sarah finally reach home, they open the door to Gumball's room to find Darwin hunched over a dissected potato, but it's all a fake-out. Further, the reason Idaho was truly upset was that Gumball kept calling him "Brotato". Then the episode just kind of trails off.

In case I'm not being blatant enough, I found the ending to be really lame. The show's already done perfect bait-and-switch executions before (I think the best example is "The Plan" in that the joke was a long time coming), so it's easy to gauge when it works and when it doesn't, and for me, this fell along the lines of the "The Apprentice" spectrum. That is to say, not so good.

Realistically, the tissue holding the episode together was a lot of the jokes, with a lot of solid stand-outs. My main issue was that the whole plot and especially the ending lacked any real punch, and the scenario wasn't particularly fresh. When the "recovering addict" idea is used, it needs to spiral into insanity (the first example that comes to mind is "The Bet" from Drake & Josh), and while this episode certainly hit some interesting points in the middle, the end fizzled out a bit too much- an issue I'm having a lot this season. (See: The Test, The Slide.)

Takeaway:
-It should be noted that this is one of the only four episodes where Ben Bocquelet doesn't get a writing credit, the others being "The Coach," "The Vacation," and "The Law." I feel that there were some things about the episode that were just a bit off, and it might have to do with Ben's absence, though the fact that the show can carry along relatively fine without Ben's full input is good, especially when you see how shows like Spongebob and (I've been told) Adventure Time have sunk with their creators not being present.
-The repeated fan gag was a nice touch, especially because it seemed like such a one-off joke.
-Sarah was delightfully sad as Scoop Dogg. I don't know what else to say, but it just tickled me, especially with all the general sadness already hanging over the character.
-The one gag I wasn't too fond of was Gumball having thoughts only to find that he's saying them out loud. The issue is that it's been done before and much better in "The Lesson," sure, but it just didn't fit as a punchline for the end of the episode.
-"My name is Sarah and I'm obsessive about comics, movies, Gumball, fanart, Darwin, Gumball and Darwin, making lists about things I'm obsessed with..."
-I shall henceforth refer to potatoes as "nature's taste grenades."
-"Darwin, wait! It's not what it looks like! I've been hiding meat around my desk because I can't stop eating it!" "That's exactly what it looks like."
-Glass is a stud.


Final Grade: C+. The plot itself is mediocre at best, but a keen sense of humor helps this episode stay relatively afloat. Even so, there's only so many good fortunes the jokes can really do without a strong support.

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