The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Outside

"So officer, allow me to explain why I'm running through the streets in a striped jumpsuit, handcuffed to a tattooed delinquent." 
The basic premise of the episode is that after meeting Frankie and seeing the squalor he lives in, Anais concludes that his primitive surroundings and lack of understanding of modern technology suggests he spent the last 30 years away from his family in a prison, meaning that if they want him to feel welcome, they have to replicate a prison-like environment.

In other words, the episode is centered on poor Frankie being condemned confusedly as much as possible, and while other shows would flounder with the concept by being too mean-spirited (take notes, SpongeBob), the premise works because of Frankie's ongoing charisma, baffled as he is, and I think that's what makes the episode interesting. The idea is weird and pretty prone to failure, and it certainly would've been a crash-and-burn if the writers didn't know what they were doing. However, with Frankie, they manage to strike up a nice juxtaposition between his attempts to maintain a positive spin and everyone else inadvertently making that task as difficult as possible. In addition, the fact that their cruelty to him is from a genuine attempt to comfort him works to hide at least some of the moral issues involved.

Honestly, until the ending, there's no set path for the episode, which I do think is a concurrent issue with more recent Gumball episodes, but the format allows the crew to do what they do best: exploit as much comedy as possible out of the scenario before allowing for progression. And what they manage to pull off is, for a lack of expanded diction, magnificent.

The whole driving force of the episode are the multiple trope-heavy roles each member of the family takes in providing authenticity to the prison experience. Gumball is the confrontational, aggressive prisoner, Nicole is the bad cop, Anais is the assertive smarts of the operation, and Darwin, despite not saying a word, probably stole the episode by just grumbling the whole episode as a deranged outcast prisoner in the corner.

It's through the fun characterizations that the comedy emerges, less from them (funny as they are) and more from the way Frankie responds to his inadvertent imprisonment with snide remarks. Obviously, he's trying to sweet-talk the family out of a free place to live and mooch off of, but his plan backfires hilariously when he's met with cold reception for every repeated attempt at friendly cantor, and it's only a solid halfway through the episode that he 'subtly' makes his feelings clear, gushing tears and rocking in the backyard (which the Wattersons still refuse to interpret as their fault for taking it too far).

Eventually, Frankie realizes he's had enough and escapes through the window handcuffed to Gumball. The two run to the Doughnut Sherriff (the head of the police force) and hilariously fail at explaining their unfortunate predicament. It's a nice touch, forcing Frankie and Gumball to be on the run from both Nicole's fake-authority and a very real one, adding a fun sense of danger to the whole sequence. Eventually, they flee to some underground drainage pipes only to reach a drop-off and become effectively cornered, and it's only in the tenseness of the moment that Nicole finally admits to setting the whole thing up.

They then set it clean: Frankie was never in prison, spending 30 years running away from a 3-day sentence, and the family apologizes, with Richard offering to take him back in under new conditions. Ultimately, Frankie is so heavily affected by the PTSD of it all that he jumps, dragging Gumball down with him off of what is revealed to be a one-foot drop, after which Frankie is cornered and arrested by the real police.

Where "The Outside" succeeds the most is in taking a one-off character and adding more dimensions to it as to sustain an episode of the same caliber, perhaps even better once you discount the original's emotion weight.

To be fair, though, "The Signature" is a completely different beast, so to compare the two would be incredibly difficult, but it's still a good indication for the show if they can manage to recycle a character only used once before and make him the main facet of comedy for the episode. (That can arguably also be attributed to the design of Frankie, though.)

My main issue here is with Richard. For an episode to feature his father, it's surprising that he manages to bring absolutely nothing to the table. It just seems weird that all the cliches were thoroughly covered, but then there's Richard, who should arguably be the most important character of the main cast in this episode, who's just making his father uncomfortable by hugging and kissing him a ton. Realistically, there would be minimal difference to the episode's progression if he was cut out of the picture, which is a bit of an issue. At the very least, it would've been nice to see him sympathize with his father about the situation or something instead of being as blind as everyone else is, but no. The prison rape-y vibe it was giving off just didn't do the episode any favors.

Regardless, he doesn't negatively affect the episode, he just serves no purpose. As such, there wasn't too much of a hiccup at all, only unfulfilled desire.

Takeaway:
-One of my favorite parts of the episode is Frankie's recollections of the torment he endured at the Watterson house, showing his PTSD through a series of flashbacks set in sepia to dramatic music. The show is great and finding comedy in playing a scene so straight that it would otherwise be dramatic- the best example I can give is of the gym scene in "The Stories" that plays out like a war tragedy, with all the classmates letting themselves be essentially murdered in a game of dodgeball.
-The interrogation scene had some fun reveals, like the marks Frankie was drawing (resembling prison wall marks) being part of his illustration of a fence and Anais' notes turning out to be a drawing of Frankie playing a violin. I can only dream about being able to create fake-outs that legendary.
-"Let me give you a tour. Here's the living area. And that's the end of the tour."
-"Anyway, you guys hungry?" "Sure!" "Me too..." "... I thought there would be some food coming after that question." "No, just sad music."
-"Richard, listen. I'm going to try to say this as nicely as I can. This place is worse than a Porta Potty at a punk music festival that's been left stewing in the sun for a week." "Wow, what was the harsh version like?" "I would've expanded on what the punks did inside."

Final Grade: A-. While there were some unrealized portions of the episode, especially with Richard, the whole thing was airtight and full of laughs. (Additionally, I won't let my petty voice actor issues affect the score too much, though I am hoping their abilities improve as they learn how to inhibit their characters further.)

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