The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Master

"Boom. Mega happy ending."

Dungeons & Dragons, Dragons & Dungeons. It was something of an inevitability for Gumball to cover in its ongoing mission to get an angle out of every major pop culture phenomena of our current era; if anything, it's shocking that it took until close to the end of the series to make an episode centered around it. It's the sort of idea that allows you to theoretically do what the series does best: explore the many complications of its core cast by putting them together on the same road and watching what happens. "The Master," in that regard, is generally successful.

As a disclaimer, I should say that yes, I have played Dungeons & Dragons. I had a triumphant run as Sheridan the Aasimar that lasted all of two games before being pummeled to death by lowly goblins, but realistically, that's all the experience you need to understand all of "The Master's" jokes. That's not a diss, in any way: that's really all you need. "The Master" isn't looking to do some elaborate survey of everything D&D; it's all about the experience, the perpetual bickering and dicking around and those incredibly-inconvenient 2 rolls, which I swear happen more often than 1's. The entirety of their journey reminds me of me and my five other roommates managing to wring out an entire hour of D&D getting into bar fights—good times.

For Your Consideration: Rilakkuma and Kaoru (Season 1 Review)

It's interesting how Netflix, over the past few years, has slowly worked towards accumulating an exciting library of animated shows for 2019, starting with the anthology series Love Death & Robots and, in the near future, Lisa Hanawalt's Tuca & Bertie—it's also been a great year for ampersands, apparently. (Cupcake & Dino Season 2 May 3rd!) But wedged between those two more critically-attractive shows was another that captured my attention almost immediately: the Japanese, stop-motion animated slice-of-life show, Rilakkuma and Kaoru.

Based around the incredibly popular Japanese cultural figure of Rilakkuma, a cuddly, dango-obsessed bear with a rather inconspicuous zipper on his back, R+K (his first television series) drags in other characters attached to his franchise, including pet bird Kiiroitori, bear cub Korilakkuma, and most importantly, Kaoru, a woman who discovers Rilakkuma in her house one day. (A new character, a young boy named Tokio, also makes occasional appearances.) While Rilakkuma is at the forefront of the show's advertising, and often wrings out the series' finer comedic moments (however subdued), Kaoru is the show's greatest asset, becoming more often than not the heart of the show.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Possession

"We want our refrigerator repaired." "Ah, that old thing's still going?" "Yeah, she is. And she thinks your lifetime warranty still means something."

I can't believe it's been over four months since I've written literally anything television-related, let alone Gumball-related. Sure, there have been several incredibly unfortunate episode leaks, but for the most part, I've stayed loyal to the show's erratic television airing, even if it... annoys me to no end. Nevertheless, as we approach Gumball's last leg, starting everything off on "The Possession" is a great step—this is a fantastic episode.

Gumball is a show that thrives in conceptuality, and "The Possession" is the perfect combination of cleverness and legitimate emotion, starting strong with some good-natured, sharp fun before taking a sweet, emotional pivot. This, truly, is an episode that exemplifies the series at its finest, even deep into its sixth season with only a few more episodes to burn off, and that unrelenting charisma combined with fact that this is a show that could, at any moment, surprise us with an all-time great, has been the key to the series' longevity. "The Possession" is Season 6's poster child of that principle.