"We should just nip it in the bud." "Uh, no, let's not. That phrase is actually incredibly offensive to plants."Continuing off of Gumball's grand tradition of releasing episodes early in different countries without a US airdate in sight, "The Awareness" found its way inconspicuously on British airwaves yesterday, and through the power of shady Internet wizardry, I'm here to review it.
I think I'll start things off by saying this much: even if I don't think a lot of episodes are great, I can generally see how people could get to those conclusions. Maybe you like "The Intelligence" and the extent of its commitment to the medieval motif, or you enjoyed the macabre hijinks of "The Ad." But "The Awareness" is an episode that eludes me on that front; it's not that it's bad, it's just uniform in every way. It takes a fun premise and just goes along with it as much as necessary without ever breaking into more exciting territory, making for a respectable but unmemorable outing.
First of all, it's worth noting that the episode tackles a very interesting satirical target in the form of Gumball attempting to demonstrate an understanding of plant culture to a skeptical and condescending Leslie, with the two creating an echo chamber of cultural appropriation in an attempt to maintain the upper hand. Theoretically, the premise brings out some of the strongest cynicism that Gumball has to offer, at times bordering on Season 2 levels of deviousness, but none of the episode really gets channeled into a satisfying end, and in my opinion, there's a lot of reasons for that.