There are three possible reactions I can imagine to come out of this line. You could laugh. You could "mmhmm." Or you could cringe internally. I took the third option.
No no no, I'm not sexist, don't you play that crap on me. But I think that quote pretty much sums up how you're going to perceive this episode - you're either gonna really dig it, see it as defiant to the expectations of society or something, or hate it.
I... hated it, I guess. Hate's a strong word. Basically, the episode's getting a C-. For "confused." "The Worst" is an episode where the show is trying to make a statement, but it just can't.
The basic premise is thus: all of the Wattersons are angry for various reasons stemming from the biases they experience by virtue of who they are. Gumball and Darwin get shunned for embracing some level of femininity, Nicole's experiencing sexual discrimination at the workplace, Anais is tired of the condescension that stems from being a kid, and Richard's, uh, dumb, I guess. They then disagree on who truly has it worst and decide to experience each other's lives by switching up their roles, the result of which is a complete disaster, both for them and for the episode.This is practically the plot of a Modern Family episode. And that's why it's so, so wrong. They tried to wield social issues to make some sort of powerful remark, but they couldn't dig deeper, instead going as aimlessly as possible.
I think the most glaring issue is with Gumball and Darwin's story arc, if not exclusively because all of the other ones (A) don't register and (B) don't get enough screentime. Admittedly, there was something to the scene where Gumball and Darwin get mocked senseless for wearing aromatic shower gel - Tobias is lovingly insecure as always - but the punchline of them being women for a day fell back on broad (no pun) jokes. They're shooting at the easiest comedic fodder possible - women don't get the respect they deserve - by just demonstrating it at face value.
The furthest it went in an interesting direction was Gumball standing up for himself in trying to press the elevator button, but failing by virtue of his height - that's golden - but everything else played out a bit too hacky for its own good and balked at the chance to be meaningful, which was a huge, missed opportunity.
Further compounding the general unpleasantness was, again, that Gumball and Darwin's story arc completely overshadowed all of the other ones, which made the episode feel really imbalanced. I mean, the only joke about Nicole is, "Haha, she can't admit her weaknesses because she's a guy! Isn't that the worst," which felt pretty low-reaching, especially considering how aggressively the show was attacking sexism. (If anything, saying the only issue with being a man is that we're stubborn is kinda sexist in its own right, so good one, show.) Richard's segment relied more on rinsing-and-repeating, with him experiencing the tedium of classwork and exams, a premise designed to be interminable, so it succeeded at that, I suppose?
The rest of them, though? If they weren't just dead air, they weren't clicking. Like the characters by the day's end, I'm happy to forget it all happened.
Notes and Quotes:
-"Takeaway" seems like a weird name for this section. "Notes and Quotes" sounds dumb. I don't know, man, I'm workshopping it. Other than that, it's good to be back.
-Idaho's instantaneous rotting is probably his best fatality to date.
-"THEY DON'T SMELL LIKE THE CHEMICALS WE'VE BEEN TAUGHT TO ASSOCIATE WITH MANLINESS!" "Quick, everyone - question their masculinity in a sarcastic way!" It hits close to home, guys.
-Richard's oblivious condescension towards everything Anais was saying was a nice touch.
-I feel like I should have something to say about the ending, where the show gloriously chops off Nicole's lines, but it didn't hit as hard as I would've hoped. I think I was a bit fatigued from it all by that point.
-The Internet's going to grapple onto this episode and call it "avant-garde," I'm calling it.
-Gross-Out Update: Nicole's face; Gumball waxing himself.
FINAL GRADE: C-. "The Worst" is not, in fact, the worst. But it's also not the best. And certainly not "The Best."If there's anything you should take away from me, it's this: "The Worst" severely lacked any of what makes TAWOG work: an impeccable eye for subtleties and the ability to dissect what it's talking about or, at the very least, present an issue through a different lens.
Don't get me wrong: making an episode like this work is difficult. But TAWOG's proven time and time again that it's capable of taking some of the most daring premises and turning them into gold. With "The Worst," they got too caught up trying to make a statement that the spirit of the show - what makes it so enjoyable - was almost lost in its entirety.
Oh, and one more thing: don't hate me, Ben and co. I love you all, sincerely. I wouldn't criticize the show so much if I didn't care about it! It's not like you read this stuff anyway, right? Right?
Oh no.
For the last Gumball review of "The Heist," CLICK HERE.
Like I said before, this episode was hard to stomach and you have managed to mirror many of my thoughts towards the episode. I am all for gender equality and whatnot, but this episode is just so single-minded, shallow, and alienating with how it presents itself that I it dampens the viewing experience and makes me not want to watch it.
ReplyDeleteOne could argue that the episode is not completely about gender inequality and that there is some levity with the childhood vs. adulthood plot going on. However, given that the episode emphasizes the dilema between the Watterson brothers and Nicole, it is apparent that the feud between Richard and Anais was more of a tacked on section than a fully-developed idea helping to drive the episode. A shame, too, as Anais would have benefited from screen time far more than her mother or brothers.
I want to laugh at the legitimately humorous moments, but I can't when I feel so awkward watching the episode.
The community is already all over this episode, claiming it's avant-garde (what a fun term!) for being a commentary/mockery of social commentaries (or other similar reasons). Ironic coming from me, but I honestly feel as if they may be looking a tad too deep into the whole charade.
To repeat again what we talked about a bit more publicly and tidied up, yeah.
DeleteI was rooting for this episode to reach the levels of commentary of "The Gripes," which served to both criticize and be entertaining, but instead, "The Worst" was weirdly patronizing. The message the show is trying to reflect shouldn't come at the cost of the quality of the episode, and here, it felt like the show just had some checkboxes to fill.
What's most disappointing is that I know the show is better than this. Of all children's cartoons, or even just cartoons, TAWOG should've been able to hit the nail on the coffin the hardest, but, to quote a close friend of mine, it was as if the writers were too scared to take a true stance aside from the blatantly obvious, balking at the opportunity to be incisive.
I honestly couldn't imagine how anybody would find this episode "avant-garde;" it's more a complete trainwreck caused by having a legitimate idea and refusing to prod at it. This is the show at its most manipulative, trying to win the viewer over by virtue of making a statement, and that it worked to some capacity on some people really frustrates me.
What statement did it make? That it is okay to be sexist and stereotype people so long as you're only being sexist to and stereotyping men?
DeleteA statement is when you put your foot down and say "this is the way it really is" and show some kind of evidence in support. Only two episodes later Nicole gets Employee of the Month, what she was griping about in this episode... and she also gets a raise.
"The Best" blatantly makes fun of "The Worst" it doesn't seem like any statement was actually made after all, if this kind of SJW pandering is followed by an episode making fun of SJWs, what is there to think but that they don't agree with what they just said?
Mindlessly repeating what your party thinks is not making a statement. The unexamined life is not worth living, yet people are more than content to never examine their party beliefs or question themselves as to why they actually believe what they do. Socrates showed, numerous times, that when you dig down deep, you'll find that most people are just mindlessly following the crowd.
So I say again, mindlessly following the crowd is not making a statement.
A statement is defined as "a definite or clear expression of something in speech or writing." So let's dial it back a bit.
DeleteOxford also defines statement as "An expression of an attitude or belief that is made by means of actions or appearance." Which is how you were originally using the term. You are now using it in the grammatical sense.
DeleteMy point was that they're not saying sexism is bad... as they're sexist against men.
They contradict themselves about gender inequality in the workplace only a few episodes later.
As you noted, they had a check list of topics that are always ready to be mindlessly repeated.
As I said, the unexamined life is not worth living, and you've made it clear that examining your beliefs is not something you wish do to; perhaps you should reflect on the philosophers of old rather than being so close minded.
Also, I was bored yesterday, and am bored now... but whatever you want, I find my point to be rather clear in both cases.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI agree with pretty much everything in this review. I have even bigger problems with The Worst myself, mainly how the themes clash horribly with TAWoG's main values. Sure, I can see how the writers were trying to keep the satire cynical because that's one of the show's strongsuits, but it created a very depressing and unimaginative universe extremely lacking of its typical creativity and subversiveness. While I do agree that some statement against sexism was the point, the use of stereotypes made it seem hypocritical and misandrist. I'd argue that a few of the early gags were executed in such a mocking and absurd fashion that the show was purposefully warping its characters' actions to become "avant-garde," however, it never followed up on it.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the characters getting reduced to demographical strawmen, I not only noticed this in the Wattersons, but Mr Yoshida himself. Treating Nicole the way he did seemed incredibly bizarre from what little we know about him. After all, he's married to Yuki, a noticeably kickbutt and hard-working woman herself. Given the events of The Fury, you'd think he respected Nicole even more as his wife's old friend in addition to being his most workaholic saleswoman. Thankfully, Mr Yoshida regained his sense later as shown in The Deal, but The Worst had wasted potential when it came to fleshing out his boss/employee dynamic with Nicole better.
I can't really agree with you on your claim that the episode is similar to one from Modern Family; that show does depict its fair share of demographic progressiveness, but don't debunk its ability to refrain from being pretentious about it.
In the end, The Worst was full of poorly researched and half-assed commentary. In my opinion, the episode could have benefited from the Wattersons' realization that their universe was suddenly becoming oppressively sexist, and then they could have roleswapped to defy their tropes (while staying in character) instead of resolving a petty conflict about life's troubles.
Forgot to mention, I consider The Worst to be bad not only by TAWoG's standards, but by animation standards in general, therefore I could only give this episode a D rating. You're free to respond, even though this blog post is about a year old!
DeleteGeneral agreement all around, but in terms of the Modern Family analogy, its less about its ability to be progressive so much as using that to be ham-fisted. It's a show that doesn't really care about demonstrating its message in a sincere way so much as just delivering it for the sake of delivering it. At least discussing the later seasons, it's exceptionally hollow and only trying to act as a surveyor of morals because it's an easy way to look innovative and reverent, when their takes are actually shallow or destructive.
Delete"The Worst" is pretty much exactly that.
I see. Of course, I don't really view Modern Family in a critical light as I only casually enjoy it since my mother loves it. I didn't mean to sound like I was a superfan of sorts of it, I just never looked deep enough into it to see its apparent pretentiousness.
DeletePlus, I was thinking more in the sense that Modern Family is a mockumentary and can't really pull something cartoony off like a roleswap.
Delete(Sorry for the spam, I wish you could edit your comments here)
DIE
ReplyDeleteEh
Delete