Amphibia Review: Ivy on the Run / After the Rain

"We all have our off-days, I suppose."

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This week's episodes were "Ivy on the Run" and "After the Rain." My editor told me to add more to this part but I feel like that would be stalling, and if you've gone out of your way to read what I write, you don't deserve that! You deserve the best. So I hope your general circumstances are comfortable and good. If they aren't, I hope this review makes them better. I don't know how it could, but I'm not you. Anyway: episodes!

If there's anything that always works in Amphibia's favor, it's shifting the focus out of our core cast of characters and giving peripheral figures more of a chance to shine. Ivy Sundew, especially, has proven herself to be particularly endearing, a rare instance of a romantic foil done right. A lot of that comes down to the fact that she's always felt fleshed out beyond just being half of Sprigivy; she matches her counterpart with a fistful of spunk but the same adventurous, sunny spirit. It's because of the sheer joy of her character that "Ivy on the Run" works, giving its rudimentary plot a fun paint job.

Amphibia Review: Night Drivers / Return to Wartwood

"Oh no! Who could have predicted this?" "Don't overdo it."

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Hi! Due to my current circumstances of being in college during a particularly hectic semester, I'll be experimenting over the next few weeks with trying to find a way to write shorter, quicker, and more succinct reviews. While I'm sure there are some people dismayed by this change, I think this is far more ideal than not being able to push reviews out at all, and the length shouldn't come at the expense of quality. And if you're still upset: pay me! I'll do more if you pay me, and that's only a partial joke.

Anyway, the review! There's a lot of excitement surrounding how Amphibia would choose to kick off the next leg of its season, but perhaps it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that "Night Drivers" fires everything back up by sticking to its guns, unraveling its narrative, more than less, as you'd expect. I don't intend to sling mud, and to Amphibia's credit, it's a show that's so tightly-written that it's hard for an episode to truly go wrong. That can also serve as a restraint, though, rolling out episodes that are certainly pleasant but, in the long run, unadventurous and indistinct. "Night Drivers" is one such case, an episode that's satisfying in a vacuum, but just another speck in the crowd.

Amphibia Review: The Shut-In!

"Nightmares are real!"

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Well, it's that spooky-ass time of year again. Admittedly, spookiness has sort of persisted across the entirety of this year, and perhaps most ironically, October isn't really shaking up to be any more scary than any other month this time around, but escapism! While Halloween in the traditional sense might be cancelled, there's nothing like a good Halloween episode to stir us into that fun, autumn mood, and "The Shut-In!" is pretty much exactly that.

Continuing television's long-held tradition of fictitious-but-eerily-comparable holidays, this isn't technically a Halloween episode. It's all about Amphibia's warped version, the Blue Moon Shut-In, the night where the moon turns blue and everyone locks themselves inside of their homes and tells stories until the sun rises again out of fear that staring at the moon could transform them into horrifying beasts. (There's also jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treating for practical supplies, but... it's not a holiday.)

I was initially a little hesitant about how this episode falls into the narrative of the show, to be honest. It feels a little odd considering how elegantly last episode wrapped up this leg of the season, with Anne setting off to Wartwood once more and Marcy being approached with an ominous proposition from the King, for us to suddenly be back home without any indication of time passing. I honestly feel like that plays to the show's benefit, though, in retrospect. A good holiday special should have a relatively timeless quality to it, and there's something of an appreciable coziness to being back home, bereft of narrative complications, for some fun, scary stories.

Amphibia Review: The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers / A Day at the Aquarium

"These will be formative memories."

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Another week, another late, late review. Let's dive in!

It feels a bit weird how little we've seen of Marcy since her debut; even though "Scavenger Hunt" gave her a decent amount of character work, as with "Marcy at the Gates," the focus was still largely on Anne's relationship to her rather than vice versa. "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" is a similarly safe take on the characters to some extent, but it manages to find a new energy in putting the two, unequivocally, on the same side, and with no internal conflict between them in sight. Instead, it's just a night for them, Sprig, and Polly to have fun at the castle, uncover some secrets, and reflect on their missing friend.

Even if I've been a little colder on the Newtopia episodes than I'd like to be, I'm very much a fan of how Amphibia has been plotting itself. The show takes advantage of very episodic sensibilities, but tightly wound around a linear timeline, and through that, it's able to dutifully examine every potential shift in the status quo and its characters with a nice amount of care. There can be some weirdness to rise out of it—the pacing might not be everyone's style, and I feel like we've been struggling a bit to plug Marcy into things—but for the most part, it's offered Season 2 a level of variability and freshness that I feel last season lacked. In the case of "Sleepover," the immediate acknowledgement that this is the night before Anne and the Plantars reconvene with King Andrias ensures that the episode can occupy a specific time and place, but its most interesting contribution is how it exists as an opportunity for Anne and Marcy to reflect upon Sasha, the sleepover queen who set forth the rules that their present sleepover abides by.

Amphibia Review: Little Frogtown / Hopping Mall

"Y'know, I've always wondered, can you miss someone you never actually knew?"

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This review is late enough, so let's just get right on into it! This week's episodes: "Little Frogtown" and "Hopping Mall." Who cried? It's okay. We'll get to that in a minute.

(Note: in light of being back in college and the lack of timeliness with this review, it will be shorter and less comprehensive. But you've seen the episodes already! You don't need me to help you with that side of things!)

"Little Frogtown" is perhaps the most keen Amphibia has ever been on prodding at the fourth wall, though under Hop Pop's voice, that's hardly a detriment. There's so little that can go wrong with a Hop Pop-led episode; he's the sort of character you could saddle with almost any premise and he'll make it work, so who better to take on the series' second big genre parody episode? (The first one, "Children of the Spore," was also notably led by him.) In this case, after Hop Pop discovers the Newtopia sandwich shop of his long-time friend abandoned and ransacked, he sets off to get to the bottom of his unexpected caper, and with the screen tinted to a grayscale and internal monologues abound, we're off to the races.

Amphibia Review: Lost in Newtopia / Sprig Gets Schooled

"TEAM P'ANNE FOR LIFE!" "...Our team name's bad." "Yeah, could be better."

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As Hop Pop says at the start of this week's batch, we've got a few days to kill before Amphibia dives back into the nitty-gritty, and that can only call for one thing: filler episodes! Sure, the term has some fairly negative connotations, but there's nothing wrong with loosening up and being able to indulge in the sense of fun at the heart of the show. That's something that both "Lost in Newtopia" and "Sprig Gets Schooled" set out to do, and while they're no great shakes, they make for pleasing enough episodes to hold us over while continuing to key into the fun in our change of setting.

"Lost in Newtopia" feels like a direct follow-up to last week's "The Plantars Check In," giving Anne and Polly a chance to cut free in Newtopia and try to experience the city as locals (and even, amusingly, holding Sprig back after his big solo outing). It's a pretty decent conceit, and most importantly, a great opportunity for Amphibia to actualize the sorts of ideas that powered its conception in the first place; more than any other episode, it's most certainly an ode to Matt Braly's childhood trips to Thailand and the outsider feelings that coincided with them.

Amphibia Review: Scavenger Hunt / The Plantars Check In

"C'mon team, it's PUZZLE TIME!"

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In light of last week’s Marcy extravaganza, I was naturally very curious to see the sort of road that Amphibia would take following such a massive development—would the show barrel into the heavy subject matter that such a shift implies, or would it spend time getting comfortable with our newest addition to the cast? “Scavenger Hunt” and “The Plantars Check In” do a little bit of both, and although the Amphibia takes it pretty easy for this batch, it’s also the show excelling at what it does best, with great character work and sharp joke-writing galore.

“Scavenger Hunt” is a fairly standard way to follow up “Marcy at the Gates,” but it certainly works well. If that episode was intent on exploring the two characters’ new and transformed dynamic, with Marcy now being a respectable ranger for the royal guard and bearing a greater degree of autonomy, “Scavenger Hunt” dives into a pesky fragment of their relationship from back home: Anne’s inability to cope with feeling inferior to her friend’s astounding intelligence and puzzle-solving skills. Hop Pop and Polly fawning over Marcy at Anne's expense, too, only serves to aggravate those self-doubts.

Amphibia Review: Marcy at the Gates

"Let me see that power pose!"

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With our arrival to Newtopia, we've officially reached the season's first big shift. I'm, admittedly, a little saddened to see the road trip aspect gone so soon, but there's something undeniably promising about how eager Amphibia is to keep pushing its narrative forward, unafraid of dedicating itself to the ideas that it's orchestrated. While those may be as opaque as ever, though, as of right now, Anne and the Plantars have reached their destination, and equally important if not moreso, we've found Marcy!

Marcy's always been something of a mystery over the course of the series. We know that she was transported to Amphibia alongside Anne and Sasha, but beyond that, she's not someone that the show has been too intent to comment upon; her whereabouts persisted simply as one of the show's many loopholes, left at the sidelines until it could be meaningfully addressed. It's a joy, then, to finally be able to see what Marcy's personality is like beyond what little has been established: that she's a best friend of Anne and Sasha's, and that judging by the opening intro, she was very shocked to be sucked into the Calamity Box.

Amphibia Review: Swamp and Sensibility / Wax Museum

"SWEET TADPOLE MARY!"

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I feel like it makes for an interesting sidenote to acknowledge that, if Amphibia was being churned out at the same rate as last season, Season 2 would've already concluded; instead, though, we've only really gotten to one major narrative shift (in last week's "Toad Catcher"), with the show as a whole cruising along at a nice steady rate that I feel has really assisted in my ability to assess the show with contentedness. It's nice to get a better idea of what the show is supposed to feel like, unwinding on its own terms without the contrived urgency that its eight-episodes-per-week release model created, without allowing any episodes so far to really slip through the cracks... not like an episode as notable as "Wax Museum" would really have that concern.

"Swamp and Sensibility" certainly does, not to knock on the episode too much. It's nice but no shake-up, finding our protagonists taking an unexpected pit stop in Ribbitvale, the most expensive town in all of Amphibia, only to unexpectedly spot... One-Eyed Wally? His return is pretty exciting—he's the latest contestant in Season 2's game of recontextualizing the characters we met along the preceding season, and I've always had a soft spot for the guy—and the revelation that he's actually more properly known as Walliam, the progency of the rich Ribbiton family and heir to their family fortune, makes for a nice, unexpected bit of revision.

It threatens to undo some of Wally's charm, but using that bit of personal history to accentuate his love for living like a tramp is as smart of a way to go about things as Amphibia can get. In a lot of ways, it shares DNA with Season 1's fantastic "Wally and Anne," instilling the usually-wacky character with an appreciable level of heart and depth to ensure he's more than just a wild card in the cast. Little touches the episode makes along the way, too, like Wally hiding accordions under the floorboards of every room in the family mansion to keep himself sane, speak to the sweet degree that its conception is realized.

Amphibia Review: Quarrelers Pass / Toad Catcher

"Do you have to do this every single time?" "Honestly yes, repetition helps it stick."

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A new week, two new episodes. It's hard to really draw a connection between our latest set, but to me, they represent the show at its highest degree of functioning, yielding a solidly fun, character piece for the Plantars in the front, and setting the stage for the quieter ongoing narrative going on in the back. Let's dive in.

"Quarrelers Pass" is the more inconsequential of the two episodes, but it's still enjoyable in its own right, despite being fated to fly under the radar. Its set-up is incredibly simple: Sprig and Polly's quarreling reaches the point of becoming a hindrance on Anne and Hop Pop's enjoyment of their journey to Newtopia, and when their path splits into two (though with both looping back in on each other), they decide to separate themselves from the pair and set them out on Quarrelers Pass, "a road of reconciliation for weary travel mates." Sprig and Polly, then, are tasked with hashing out their problems and getting to the other side in one piece.

In light of how I was fairly critical of Polly in her episode from last week, "Truck Stop Polly," I think it's worth commenting on the fact that she works in this episode to astonishingly great effect. Part of that is probably how much of the episode is ingrained in her caustic tone and unstable relationship with Sprig, which is the perfect vehicle for her personality quirks, but more importantly, it's neutralized by Sprig clapping back. "Truck Stop Polly" struggled because there was nothing she could bounce off of, instead having her spend almost 11 minutes talking to herself, but we're able to hit the ground running with someone else in the mix to help power the episode along and create a fun dynamic.

Amphibia Review: Truck Stop Polly / A Caravan Named Desire

"Zap-tag, anyone?"

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As I mentioned in my last review, one of the most enjoyable parts of this chapter of Amphibia is the fact that we're no longer stuck in Wartwood, and that freedom means that whatever idea is fueling an episode, it'll feel truly unique and have its own sense of atmosphere. Whether or not an episode succeeds or struggles, though, is a matter of how well the show is able to use its new environments to make interesting revelations about its characters or push a certain theme. Anne, Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly will always be at the forefront amid a rotating cast, and even if that means we won't get to see whoever each episode introduces be fleshed out over a longer period of time, it's an opportunity for rapid-fire character portraiture and seeing how our core four make the most of it.

All of that promise can also lead to mixed results from time to time, admittedly. In the case of "Truck Stop Polly," while its setting of a grungey truck stop opens the doors for a different crowd of characters and some fun visuals, its prospects get nixed a bit much by the fact that it's dedicated entirely to Polly, who remains the only character that I've remained unsold on.

I haven't actually written about her too much, and a lot of that is just because my general feelings towards her haven't changed since she was introduced. She's Amphibia's easy source of comic relief, affronting the comparative mellowness of the other main characters with her instability and impulsive nature. I can somewhat get how that was used as a subversive asset earlier on in the show, but as Amphibia developed and matured over its first season, I feel like Polly has felt more and more out of place. She no longer provides a unique contrast to the good-natured spirit of the show; the frequent, dark musings from Hop Pop, Sprig, and Anne do that perfectly.

Amphibia Review: The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar / Anne Hunter

"Audiences want clear stakes, Hop Pop! And action."

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In my last review, I delved into a lot of my general thoughts in terms of where I stand with Amphibia; it's a show that I appreciate deeply, but also a show that still feels cozily embryonic at times. It knows what it wants, but throughout Season 1, I rarely saw it trying to explore different paths, leading to a solid but streamlined feel. My greatest hope, then, is for Season 2 to demonstrate a willingness to defy expectations and ultimately find a distinct voice among its competitors, and with this batch of episodes, I feel like we might be getting on the right path.

"The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar" certainly stands in raw defiance to audience expectations, at the very least. There's a formula deeply-embedded in most of the show's episodes; a character or group of characters commit some cardinal mistake that sends them scrambling to resurrect goodwill in an attempt to salvage the situation, always ending in some happy ending that puts a nice cap on proceedings. While this episode certainly follows those basic, initial beats, it also shows an interest in tampering with that formula, and the final outcome is potentially one of Amphibia's most quietly daring episodes yet.

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.