Monday, January 15, 2018

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Vegging

"So there's some space scientists outside, BIG DEAL! We just wait until our brains tune it out. So there's a meteorite in the living room, BIG DEAL! We just wait until our brains tune it out. So there's a bit of a virus going around, BIG DEAL! We just wait until our brains tune it out. So people have six legs now, BIG DEAL! We just wait until our brains tune it out."

Here it is, the show's 200th and my own 100th. Yes, this was all untimed. But more importantly, who would've thought the 200th episode would actually, y'know, deliver on the front of being the 200th episode? Part of me knew that "The Vegging" would be far more deceptive than it lead itself on to being, but I think it's safe to say that what it did was something nobody could've predicted... aside from the rabid theorizers who probably think it's gonna happen every week. But we don't talk about them. If anything, "The Vegging" is coaxing us into joining them.

First of all, "The Vegging" is prototypical Gumball in both its heightening of mundanity and its normalization of the insane. They're two drastically different comedic faces that the show likes to swap between, but the episode finds them at a crossroads, with both spectrums pushing as far as possible until they meet right at the middle.

Of course, all of that combined just makes the episode a grand-stroke in off-the-wall absurdism at its most phenomenal. I mean, the central plot finds Gumball and Darwin taking all the means possible to preserve their veg day, even when the schedule decidedly switches to them having to save their family's lives. Nonetheless shaken, we find our protagonists kicking their way to victory in swivel chairs before deciding, no, even that's too hard. And then they mail themselves to their destination, still seated and near-comatose. The game of "The Vegging" is to stretch out the dull until it's ridiculous and to stretch out the ridiculous until it's dull.

Notice, too, that approach in the more surreal elements it plays around with. When the pair encounter a spectral figure, for instance, their complete apathy personally devastates the spindly creature in their disregard for all of the work he put into executing his little scare. Darwin's attempt to flatter the creature for his gift of a cursed teddy bear with human teeth, too, further adds to the hilarious faux-sappiness of it all; it's those weird little touches that makes all of the scenes distinctly memorable, and the ease with which the episode cruises through them keeps the delivery from ever feeling stilted in spite of how much they lean towards non sequitur.

Oh, and all of that's not even mentioning the fact that "The Vegging" is our foray into Season 6's slow build to the series finale, with some spectacularly world-shattering revelations quietly drifting across the whole thing.

Perhaps most enjoyably in their use, though, is that even though "The Vegging" commits to surprisingly ominous storytelling, at the end of the day, it's still the same show. When the world outside of their house collapses, revealing the Void, Gumball merely finds it an inconvenience in knocking his TV remote further away; when their couch is distorted into a flat piece of painted cardboard (again by the Void), the only takeaway on Gumball and Darwin's part is that they're not getting to veg. And yes, even with words literally written on the wall spelling out our heroes' demise, the show's tongue lay firmly in its cheek, and Gumball and Darwin couldn't care less about their message from the future once they dig up some couch candy.

Things are a-changing, but the show isn't, and that's the real treat. Now we just get to sit back and watch the show do its thing.

Quotes and Notes:
-Hey, minimal facial comedy tonight! Congratulations to those who were weirdly irked by it.
-"If the glasses are dirty we shall drink out of bowls, and if the bowls are dirty we shall drink out of plates!"
-The whole opening sequence, wherein Gumball and Darwin repeatedly zone out everything going on around them to a point where they fail to pick up on the complete destruction of the world they live in and an insectoid marriage ceremony, is arguably the episode's best moment. The sheer notion that both characters are discarding one of the show's most insane story arcs because it's intruding on their veg day is hilarious.
-What with "The Sucker" referring to Scandinavian prisons last time and "The Vegging" having a brief documentary on the Swedish sheet metal industry ("And their factories are the safest in the world."), that's two shout-outs to Scandinavia in a row and yet another reminder that it's a magical place.
-Larry's scene, with him trying to deliver a burrito through the Wattersons' mail slot, was perfectly-executed. Larry is sympathetic as always, abiding by every ridiculous command Gumball and Darwin make him do, and the end result of the mail slot sliding his tipped change out of the shovel he was using was some delightful salt on the open wound.
-The game show on TV spelling out "T _ _  S H _ W  _ N D S  A _ T _ _  S _ _ S _ N  _" was such a stealth reveal.
-I'm sort of excited because, believe it or not, this is the first episode I've written about to feature the Void, let alone the first one that really focused on story aspects (ignoring "The Ex"). So that was fun.

FINAL GRADE: A+. I'm going to put this out there: "The Vegging" was, in my opinion, the greatest episode of the show since "The Copycats" almost a year ago. It's silly, surreal, and with a strong disregard for the fourth wall, and above all else, it's the beginning of the end. If TAWOG is going out, it's going out with a bang, even if its characters are too apathetic to really take notice.

Also, it was nice knowing you all, I'm sure this website will be converted into a theory blog soon enough. You've been a very nice audience.

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

10 comments:

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    1. I give it a "DIVINE" on a scale of ODOROUS-DIVINE.

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  2. Great, I didn't think you were more stern wth the grades and never ever gave an A+ but this episode deserves it.

    The concept was well carried, Gumball keeping his dull stance in spite of having the universe conspiring against him was classy of the series and all those hooks to create intrigue were pointing towards an explosive ending. The only problem is that it started a promise that might be hard to fulfill.

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    1. I think that "The Vegging" worked so well that the writers HAVE to have a clear vision of how the rest of the show is going to play out, and that's what excites me. The show's in control, and "The Vegging" was just our first taste of the insanity that awaits us.

      Though I am, more than anything else, curious how the rest of the season will play out, bearing the world-ending notions in mind. Upcoming episodes seem not to focus on it too intently (and we've already seen "The Cage"), so I suppose we'll just have to find out how much of a shadow this episode will cast.

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  3. Maybe it's just me, but I found this to be a weak episode. Not sure why, probably because of the episode being another version of The Boredom/The Procrastinators.

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    1. I can see why you'd think that, but I think they can be distinguished by the fact that "The Vegging," despite taking it moment-by-moment, actually has some narrative structure to itself, even if it takes that as a mild suggestions, but each segment felt cohesive enough that it never dragged down the final product.

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    2. Meh, that was the part were the episode fell apart for me actually.

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    3. Do you think it was caught between trying to be skit-based and telling a narrative, and that indecision made it fall flat?

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    4. Yes.

      But I agree that at least this episode tried to differentiate itself from The Procrastinators and The Boredom, unlike other "copies" (The Password, The Awkwardness and The Compilation).

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    5. Exactly. I will contend you a little bit with "The Password" and "The Awkwardness" because both of those episodes go about setting a singular narrative with beats instead of scenes in isolation, but I can see what you're getting at.

      I'm just a sucker for this type of episode and I'm happily not regretting the final grade right now, which is very rare.

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