The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Future

"Mom, I missed you." "And I miss hardcore hip-hop."

There's a lot to take in with "The Future." For one thing, it was intended to be Season 6's season opener, though that's panned out to arguably one of the worst outcomes to befall a premiere—being so ambitious that its production cycle pulls it all the way to the final quarter of said season (let alone the final season). Luckily enough, though, the events of "The Future" have, realistically, no impacts on the show's timeline, at least not any super obvious ones at this point. (The existence of "The Spinoffs" as an episode that was intended to follow "The Future," for instance, seems explicitly contradictory.)

For the sake of this write-up, though, let's just say that "The Future" exists at a deliberate point in the season's runtime: this is a packed episode, injecting so many interesting concepts into Gumball's quietly unceasing narrative, some more spelled out than others... but I'll get to all of that in a second. Honestly, trying to figure out how to unpack everything is gonna take a second.

First off, it's been a while since Banana Joe has been something of a headlining act in an episode, but he's deployed as perfectly as you could hope here, especially considering how obligatory his existence in "The Future" is—the premise of his mother going missing means his involvement is built in by default. More than just being the butt of his own jokes, or the unfortunate victim of conflict (the two routes his appearances tend to go by), he's an active supporting character allied with Gumball and Darwin, and although he takes a step back for the episode's final act, he effortlessly sets the path for everything to happen, even if his role here renders Darwin somewhat redundant. (In all honesty, that's nothing new, though.)

Banana Barbara also gets to shine here, too, and aside from being kidnapped by Rob, she gets a nice bit of backstory, establishing her stupidity as the unfortunate result of a mental snap. In the grand scheme of "The Future," it's an entirely inconsequential cutaway, but it's an interesting opportunity to delve deeper into an otherwise unassuming character as this episode continues to do in slowly unfolding all of her strange, cryptic abilities, the greatest revelation coming in the realization that she doesn't just have clairvoyance so much as directly paints the future into existence, albeit without the thoughtfulness that comes from a recognition of that terrifying ability.

That's where Rob steps in. His objective in this episode is somehow even more cryptic that Banana Barbara, even if she puts up a fight for a "Most Cryptic" honorary superlative with her gibberish about how little future is left. Rob's been painted as a blatantly self-appointed antagonist to Gumball, but his role here finds him grappling with something else entirely, wanting Banana Barbara to spell out the future for him with her abilities. Why does he want to know about it? We're not sure; we'll know soon enough. You could argue it involves sabotaging Gumball as usual, but the fact that his final words before being erased from existence in the episode's awesome climactic paint-fight sequence draw attention to the fact that his concerns are beyond Gumball's comprehension speaks to something else entirely.

But even with more serious subject matter to discuss, it's not like "The Future" isn't a fun time. For however much it embraces a sense of darkness—this is one of the series' bleakest entries to date—there's always enough light humor to balance the episode out, especially in chronicling Banana Joe, Gumball, and Darwin's journey to trace Banana Barbara's steps by stooping down to her mental level. Even the scenes involving Rob and Banana Barbara, for however menacing Rob tries to be, are undercut with flourishes of silliness, whether it's Rob's inability to pull off dramatics or Banana Barbara's inability to properly understand them.

Ultimately, though, trying to meaningfully evaluate "The Future" is something of a difficult task. It's an episode that seemingly sets the table for whatever intense finale the writers have up their sleeves. As great as it is, it's conceptually a massive question mark awaiting response, but it does a damn good job of teasing us.

Notes and Quotes:
-The idea of Banana Joe nailing a poster to a glass window is so stupid that it's the funniest gag in this entire episode and the hardest the show's made me laugh in recent history.
-"What kind of slogan is this? Banana Barbara: 20% off 'cuz she's past her best?! That's my mom you're talking about!"
-The idea of Banana Barbara having disappeared before and being rediscovered in a Japanese karaoke music video was inspired.
-"Wait! Look! [points] My finger."
-Although I mentioned it in passing, it continues to be a shame how much Darwin gets pushed aside. He's pretty much just here in "The Future" because that's what's expected, though he doesn't really have any individual contributions aside from the occasional comment and almost getting erased from history by Gumball due to some incompetent brushstrokes. Here's hoping that the finale that "The Future" is building towards justifies his existence more.

FINAL GRADE: A. "The Future" is an episode that is clearly building to something, but the quality of whatever that is will most likely end up determining how much it really succeeds. (I mean, just look at how strangely my review of "The Ex" has aged.) That sounds like something of a complete nonresponse in terms of grading "The Future," but it does a fantastic job at what it wants to do, leaving its audience wanting answers and ending on a cliffhanger that defies simple explanation. All of its contributions to the ever-expanding story that Gumball has been building for the past several seasons, though, are much appreciated, blossoming here into a stellar entry into this season's exceptional catalog.

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

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