The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Father

"How about a joke? Knock knock." "Dad?" "What? No." [profuse crying for split-second]

Well, thanks to CN and their impeccable scheduling, I completely missed watching "The Father" live, and that's a shame, because it's definitely one of the tighter episodes we've gotten so far. Don't get me wrong, Season 6 has been pretty darn close to perfection, but the fact that every episode is able to become such a distinctive little story is a testament to how delightfully-written the show is. For an emotional one, especially, there's always going to be lofty expectations, and those expectations can very easily make or break an episode; wisely enough, "The Father" found its own quietly touching niche among its poignant comrades.

Part of how it carves out its place is that the episode takes a decidedly "Fuss"-like approach; instead of devoting itself to an emotional crux, it sets forth the course of action through comedy firing on all cylinders. Admittedly, the beginning was a bit slow, largely indebted to an extensive but relatively unremarkable musical number—"pleasant" is always a nice term for this sort of thing (though Granny Jojo's death stares while holding instruments were great)—but as a means of establishing the narrative, it's a nice change of pace.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The One

"Do you ever get that tingly feeling in your stomach when someone tragically misinterprets something you said in a dangerously fundamental way?" "Hmm... nope."

Hmm. Here's the thing: "The One" is not a bad episode. But it's also not the greatest thing ever, either; it simply is what it is. I know that sounds nondescript and critical, but let me put forth my best efforts to explain what I mean, because these evaluations are always the peskiest.

I think the most meaningful evaluation I can give "The One" is that it feels like it's comprised of two particularly inspired ideas for episodes: on one hand, there's Gumball's relationship with Tobias, and on the other hand, there's Tobias' sort-of-a-relationship with Gumball. I know those sound ungodly similar, and that probably makes my complaints sound woefully baseless, but what I'm trying to get at is that the focus of the episode never truly commits.

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.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Sucker

"Wanna come hang out with a bunch of older kids who have a reputation for being mean and manipulative?" "Do I?" "Yes you do." "Yes I do!" "He's perfect."

It might have only taken six seasons, but y'know what? It's about time that Darwin should get his own solo gig on the show. Sure, he's had some episodes in the past where he's the stand-out, but with the exception of a couple of Season 2 gems, he seldom truly mans an episode, even when placed in the hypothetical center or turned into the transgressor. "The Sucker," though, finds him in detention far removed from his attention-robbing brother, and we finally get to see what Darwin's potential is without back-up.

It does so by pulling Julius out from the sidelines, allowing for some fun, antithetical "chemistry." I mean, I don't think the episode does a better job of immediately dichotomizing the two characters than describing how both characters got thrown behind (metaphorical) bars in the the first place: Julius throws toilet paper spelling out the word "VANDALISM" on a tree, which Darwin one-ups with a follow-up "IS BAD." If that point wasn't hammered in hard enough, that quickly becomes the bread and butter of "The Sucker," with Julius saying one thing and Darwin hilariously misinterpreting his criminality for altruistic gestures that simple aggravate Julius' situation.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Lady

"What's that?" "The bombshell that just got dropped on us." "Huh, always thought that was a metaphor."

Of all of the episodes I'd heard about when Season 6 sat contently on the distant horizon, the plot synopsis of "The Lady" made me do the greatest double-take. Perhaps it was the unbearable fatigue of watching the show flounder around with Season 5 episodes like "The Worst," but I prepared for the worst. Mercifully, though, and with the help of a few too many leaks on CN's part, I began to grasp the picture a lot more; "The Lady" is, simply-put, more of the show that we know and love.

Part of the reason it worked was because we didn't get into any of that murky commentary at all; "The Lady" had a lot of cross-dressing going on, sure, but it relinquished trying to deliver any message in favor of being as silly and Gumballesque as you could hope. There's also the fact that it was a sly genre parody, too, mining explicitly from The Golden Girls, and whereas I thought episodes like "The Test" couldn't quite get the groove with their on-the-nose writing, "The Lady" imitates its horrendously cheesy lines perfectly. More than simply mocking its genre, it becomes it.

The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Rival

"I really wish mom didn't raise me so well, because this deserves a better cuss word than FIDDLESTIIIIICKS!"

Whether or not "The Rival" was the deliberate official start of Season 6 (disregarding "The Cage"), you can't say it doesn't kill as an opener. Taking the (I assume) long-awaited flashback to Anais' birth, instead of doubling down on sentimentality, the show feels like just another TAWOG episode, albeit with the timeframe realigned - and I say that in the best way possible. Don't get me wrong, episodes like "The Origins" and "The Choices" play our emotions like the greatest fiddler to ever fiddle, but "The Rival" doesn't relish in the moment, and it works all the better because of it.

After all, this is Anais we're talking about. Sweet, condescending, too-intelligent-for-her-own-good Anais. Using her in any way other than how the episode does, casting her as a devious scamp bent on performing heinous acts on her poor brothers, just wouldn't work.