Amphibia Review: Handy Anne / Fort in the Road (and Other Season 2 Thoughts)

"Anne! What the heck is a disk?!" "I don't know! I'm from another dimension, not the '90s!"

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When Amphibia's second season was announced, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I'm not sure how much of that was simply off-set by circumstance; beyond the fact that I'm trying to balance coverage of soon-to-be two other shows right now, writing about the first season, indebted to its agonizing release cycle, drove me up a wall. While that churned through the season far too fast for it to really be discussed to my liking, it also presented the occasionally repetitious patterns of the show that fueled my nervousness about its longevity. Amphibia is funny as all hell, clever, and endearing, but as we enter the new season, it's still quietly juggling the same set of issues.

As much as the show entertains me, I feel like there's always been something of a question in regards to, "What about Amphibia makes it Amphibia?" Some shows are able to find an identity incredibly easily, and through that, a unique perspective that makes them immediately enjoyable enough to allow you to tolerate their inevitable ebb and flow. If there's one thing I can say about Amphibia, it's that it came out fully-formed and packed with a certain swagger, smart writing, and strong characters for that writing to live through... but that's about it. As the first season unfolded, it demonstrated an admirable level of craftsmanship, but few revelatory moments.

I think what I'm trying to say is that even though Amphibia is incredibly enjoyable, it's also very safe, and it needs to show an interest in taking risks and working outside of its conventions to really prove what makes it worth investing in and find a unique pulse. This season, I wanna see the show demonstrate that it's got that intangible special something, because I know it's there, buried deep down.

As for today's batch of episodes, "Handy Anne" and "Fort in the Road" are exceptionally fun romps, but their adherence to how the show works—the reliable but predictable engine that powers the show—keep things tidily on the tracks. It's satisfying to see the show back and firing on all cylinders, but that pesky issue of knowing the mental gymnastics of how the show's storytelling works ensures that, at a certain point, you're just sitting back until the end fulfills your expectations.

"Handy Anne," especially, has that issue in spades, though it manages to smartly deflect that with some fun character work.

There's something frustrating about how Anne seems to exhibit the same innate carelessness that powered the premises of a lot of the previous season's episodes, though it's a nice step up for that to come out of a desire to do things right as opposed to messing around or evading responsibility. The idea that Anne would feel guilty for the extent that the Plantars are helping her out is great, with Hop Pop purchasing a new family wagon (a "fwagon") so everyone can disembark on a road trip to Newtopia, the heart of Amphibia, to help her return home. While that sits more at the sidelines of the episode, with their journey beginning by the episode's end to bookend things, it's not a bad idea for the show to navigate its story arc for the season through fun, episodic premises.

Of course, Anne's guilt, combined with her distrust of Chuck (the frog that Hop Pop selected to watch over the house), causes Anne to go into overboard defense mode and inevitably make a callous decision that turns all of their produce into monsters. Meanwhile, there's a fun sub-plot with Sprig slowly losing his mind over what slingshot he should bring on his travels, augmented by Polly playing mind games on him; it's not the most meaningful material, but it's always fun to watch Sprig spiral into insanity (see: "Croak and Punishment") while preparing him to team up with Anne and everyone else in the fantastic, climactic fight sequence.

Ultimately, "Handy Anne" wrings out the lesson for Anne that her guilt was in vain; Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly aren't taking the trip to Newtopia for Anne, but with Anne, and with that newfound understanding, their adventure's ready to begin. Ultimately, as much as "Handy Anne" follows Amphibia's rigid template, it spins some strong moments out of all of the characters involved and manages to find moments of inspiration at every step of the way, so I can forgive the familiarity.

Our other half, "Fort in the Road," certainly has some more interesting ideas at play, and more importantly, some nifty world-building, but it's also kicked off by more unsurprising character work which, to some extent, etches out the outcome too early on. Perhaps it's how frequently Amphibia falls back on having Anne, Sprig, and Polly commit acts of rebellion against their greater judgement that feeds into the cyclical feel of the series' conflicts, and while I think that can work, the fact that they seem to rarely demonstrate having learned a lesson leaves an off taste in my mouth, at least until it pushes the episode into a more unique place.

That place is the Ruins of Despair, a set of mysterious, ancient structures that Anne and Sprig decide to pose next to against Hop Pop's anti-fun rules of the road. Of course, things backfire and they end up falling into the underground chambers of the ruins, with an outraged Hop Pop following suit; furthermore, through a series of poor attempts at power moves on Sprig's part, they uncover it to be some strange, shockingly-high tech robot factory which interprets Hop Pop as a raw material and attempts to pulverize him. While the sum of its parts equates "Fort in the Road" to a fairly average episode of the show, it pulls off some excellent foreshadowing (certainly bolstered by an exciting twist ending that sets up some complications for Anne and the Plantars further down the road) that hints nicely at this season's potential.

Ultimately, while Season 2 makes a promising debut here, it's hard to figure out what the show's taken away from Season 1, and what it plans to implement. I realize that my review wavered on the critical side, but make no mistake: "Handy Anne" and "Fort in the Road" are incredibly enjoyable episodes, and it's good to see Amphibia back and as excited as always to be around. I'm just hoping that, across the next season, we'll get to see some interesting and exciting new decisions from the show that help push Amphibia into the pantheon of the greats. For now, it's keeping things slow and steady, but sure.

FINAL GRADES:
"Handy Anne": A-.
"Fort in the Road:" B+.

For my last review of "Reunion" from Season 1, CLICK HERE.

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