"What's the difference between the dream you and the awake you?" "About
twenty pounds of lean muscle, hair for days, softer hair."
--
It's been long enough since my last review so let's just dive into this!
"Breakfast Like Gene Kelly" is the sort of quintessentially warm
SCI
episode I was hoping to kick off this season. While I (of course) appreciate the
show's constant broadening of scope, allowing for more characters to step into the
spotlight than ever before, there's nothing more comforting than a classic
Osc-Hog pairing. After all, those two were created for each other; their
dynamic is untouchable, balancing Oscar's charming naivete off with Hedgehog's
bookish smarts, and it's always a delight to see.
While this isn't the most perfectly balanced episode for the two, with Oscar
taking a more prominent lead, Hedgehog's input is the crucial ingredient that
helps send things home. If anything, the episode is a reflection of how
nurturing Hedgehog is at every step of the way. Oscar dreams of a perfectly
choreographed breakfast ritual, pirouetting around a kitchen and throwing his
ingredients in the air with graceful precision, in spite of the fact that it
comes in complete contrast to his relatively graceless existence. Hedgehog never
treats those dreams as some unattainable fantasy, though, even if all evidence
would point towards Oscar's ability to pull it off as suspect; instead, she's
determined to help him understand the circumstances that could enable it to
happen.
The episode is at its best when it's focused on that mission, though I suppose
it's fair that there's a bit of a journey to get to that point. Oscar needs
access to the monster's kitchen, the location of his dream, but they're
immediately faced by resistance from Melvin, the monsters' resident
hypochondriac. Because of that, the middle section of the episode is a bit
aimless, however charming; we're not really progressing the narrative so much as bringing things to a complete stand-still in an attempt to elaborate on Melvin’s personality, but there's not a sense of the character being
particularly enrichened by the extended screen time. It's just a bit
hard to think of the monsters as anything beyond a monolith; they're fun
characters who work best playing off of each other or plugged into ancillary
roles, but "Breakfast Like Gene Kelly" doesn't suggest that they're the best
at commanding focus. Likewise, while it's interesting to see an entire
sequence in the episode dedicated to the monsters getting injured by a series
of unlucky blunders and blaming Hedgehog for telling them prophetically to
"break a leg," it feels a bit like the episode buying time even though there's
no shortage of intrigue to its central idea.
Fortunately, the episode's climax allows for its idea to be actualized to
intriguing effect. After Oscar fails to perform his breakfast ritual with poise
even in the right kitchen, Hedgehog casts him under a sleep spell to scope out
his dream and figure out what boxes are yet to be ticked. It's a nice sequence
that keys into
SCI's brand of low-key surrealism and eye for cute
flourishes—of course Oscar would have Hedgehog cheering him on inside of a
cupboard in his dream!—and while I would've liked to see more of the detail to
this dreamland, it's a delightfully inventive way to bring Hedgehog's magical
prowess into the plot, with Oscar wandering about his imagined kitchen as if
lucid and finding out that what he really needs is a crowd of people to serve.
And luckily, the monsters have just come home from a day of broken legs!
There's also a surprisingly nice out for the episode beyond just Oscar's
success at making his dreams a reality. I like how Melvin, after all of his
distress that his spotless kitchen will be ruined, embraces the chance to
clean things up at the end; it's nice that he's able to take the same
circular, self-fulfilling journey that Oscar's attained, joyfully cleaning up
his kitchen with an identical, sensory fervor. ("The splashing of wet mop! The
swooshing of the sponge-skate!") Everyone has their own, little rituals—a
sweet little message to cap off a sweet little episode.
Whereas "Breakfast Like Gene Kelly" is another notch on the belt of the show's
surefire formula,
"Spirit Balls" is an attempt at something much more
ambitious.
SCI had a whole arc framed around the history of the island
last year, but it's interesting to see this season swapping out an episode slot for a
nonchalant flashback episode, operating within a different timeframe with a
largely different cast of characters but the same episodic feel. It's not
perfect, but curiously, the bulk of its issues aren't a matter of
that risk so much as how the episode decides to carry itself out.
The greatest success here is that even though Susie and Ramona are the only
characters bridging this point in time with the present,
SCI's molecular structure and sense of self are so strong that the show
doesn't lose an ounce of its charm despite the change in direction. The world
feels just as vibrant, if a bit more antiquated, and the fact that a nice
chunk of "Spirit Balls" is spent exploring the various nooks and crannies of
the island preserves a nice sense of adventure throughout. There's also an
interesting conceit to the episode, presenting the show with another chance to
elaborate upon its conception of magic with the concept of the eponymous
spirit balls, coaxes designed to trap spirits with impossible, menial labor so
that they don't overtake witch's bodies.
With that being said, the issue with "Spirit Balls" is simply that it's built
around two characters who deliberately lack synergy, and who never develop as a
pair. I'm not opposed to the idea of framing an episode around two characters
that are practically new to the show, but there should be some justification
within the narrative for why they were chosen, even if that just means being
compelling to watch. Individually, both Mallory and Emma might be: Mallory is a
skeptic who prides herself on being individual and adhering to her assignment at
hand, while Emma is utterly detached from the situation, prioritizing her own
set of alternate goals without giving Mallory any indication that she's invested
in her character. They just don't make a good pairing, and the episode doesn't
try to sell us on them either, with "Spirit Balls" settling for a cycle of
Mallory exhaustively narrating the day to herself with general disbelief in her
partner (even if Emma does nothing to dissuade it).
"Spirit Balls" ramps up in intensity when Emma and Mallory return to class
without a proper spirit ball, but while it brings the episode to a proper
crescendo, it feels more like it's fishing things out of a feedback loop rather
than driving them towards a satisfying end. If anything, the fact that Mallory,
in lieu of a proper spirit ball, is possessed by the ghost of a soggy old log
just pushes both her and Emma into an even more uncooperative stasis, passing on
duties to Susie and Ramona to channel some reliable energy in. It's true that
Emma does ultimately save the day, forcing the ghost out by triggering Mallory
to sneeze him out of her system, but it's an action that's still carried out
with more detachment than a suggestion that the characters have grown. Her swift
departure from the schoolhouse right after, too, deprives the episode of any
particularly warm feelings, even if there's a clever twist at the very end.
It all just feels strangely cynical for a show which tends to be very wholesome
and positively-minded. That's not to say that I don't think
SCI should be able to experiment with striking different tones, but it
has to fight against a certain set of expectations that the show's imposed upon
itself that leaves the end result feeling kinda unfulfilling. Even so, it's hard
to be too angry at an episode which takes a chance, and there's plenty to enjoy
about what "Spirit Balls" is able to accomplish. Consider it a step towards
greater things.
While Season 4 seems to off to a fairly slow start, I don't think that's emblematic that we're in for a
problematic season. I think it's reflexive of a certain degree of promise;
Summer Camp Island is keen on tackling new ideas with a lot of
enthusiasm, and whether or not they're all home runs, that's deeply
appreciable for a show entering its fourth season. Here's hoping that the best
is yet to come.
FINAL GRADES:
"Breakfast Like Gene Kelly": B+.
"Spirit Balls":
B.
Next review: Oscar retrieves berries and learns some ghost manners.
For my last reviews of "Sea Bunnies" and "Mushrumours,"
CLICK HERE.
If you like my stuff, be sure to follow me on Twitter @Matt_a_la_mode.
If you think my articles are good, that's probably because of my editor,
Glass! Follow them on Twitter @Glass_Shardon.
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