Final Space Review: The Other Side

"Yeah. It's about time."

While the first three episodes of the past season have been alright, they've suffered from issues of being somewhat scattershot, unable to balance the season's cast in fulfilling ways that leave them feeling a touch sub-par. A lot of those issues, I felt, stemmed partially from the series taking a few steps back from the straight-shooting serialization of its last season, with the extra breathing room provided this time around meaning that episodes tend to feel a lot more loose and, occasionally, most of their events can seem inconsequential. But that's changing now.

 "The Other Side" is Final Space proving that, even with the more episodic nature of its second season, it can still create a work of emotional magnitude. Even if, by its end, there's a feeling that nothing too paradigm-shifting happened, and that its narrative was a mere pit stop in Gary's quest to collect the Dimensional Keys, it works by means of its intrinsic significance as a heart-wrenching tale of loneliness, isolation, and grief. This isn't an episode that has to exist, but I'm glad that it does.

Amphibia Weekly Round-up Review (feat. "Croak and Punishment," "Snow Day," "Wally and Anne," and more!)

"Wow, you've gone from Town Beast to Town Protector! Big fan of that narrative."

(Because of Disney's ridiculous "eight-episodes-a-week" scheduling, I'm trying a new way to write about the show. Hopefully it works out.)

Amphibia is clearly aware of how ambitious its narrative will ultimately become, but at the moment, it's embracing a more episodic nature, with hints of its progression occasionally coming to the forefront with some level of influence. It's a sound formula, and one that allows the writing to occupy a very specific and valuable time and place: it allows its characters to establish themselves, and gives time to flesh out the universe of the show. It's just a matter of, at this point, what more the series really needs to elaborate upon, and while this past string of episodes has been consistently fun, it feels like Amphibia tends to coasts along by virtue of its own goodwill and inherent strengths, occasionally (but not always) bringing something new to the table.

Perhaps most noticeable is how many of the past few episodes have used Sprig as a catalyst for conflict, to varied effect. Entries like "Trip to the Archives" and "Family Fishing Trip" feel somewhat on auto-pilot by taking advantage of his ability to behave poorly, and even if they're just another means of him learning some valuable lesson along the way, it's a lesson he's learned enough times that the repetitive nature of his use feels sort of disruptive. There's certainly an interesting kernel to their premises, with "Trip to the Archives" being a field trip to the town archives to ready Anne for her journey and "Family Fishing Trip" showing how Hop Pop's new relationship with Sylvia affects Sprig, but they just take advantage of his ability to be petty, which feels unflattering.

Final Space Review: The Grand Surrender

"What's the plan?" "I didn't think that far ahead! That's not good at all!"

In my last review, I wrote a lot about the struggles with Final Space's massive cast, and while "The Grand Surrender" manages to solidify them a lot more while telling a tighter, more focused narrative, a lot of those issues still persist. With seven characters filling out the episode's A-plot, and the remaining three taking care of the B-plot, there's a lot more of a happy balance reached in the weight of what each party handles, but no matter how fulfilling the episode's narrative is on a lot of fronts, the underutilization of a large slice of its ensemble leaves a bit of a frustrating aftertaste.

On the plus side, "The Grand Surrender" gives us a new name for our current rotation of heroes: they're the Combo Pack. It's an apt descriptor, too: what we've got is an assemblage of fries, and onion rings, and dipping sauces, and yes, unfortunately, napkins. It makes for an interesting, and I should hope, relevant little bit of allegorical criticism, so let's just break this one down. It'll be fun, right? Right.

Amphibia Review: Civil Wart / Hop-Popular

"Ah, theater night. The one night a month we come together, watch our stories, and forget all our horrible, horrible troubles."

Okay, I just want to get this out of the way: it's obviously Team Alastair. His eyes sparkle like stars and the dude slays with the panflutes. I'm not falling for some phony Schwarzenegger-ass lumbersexual.

Slightly less importantly, "Civil Wart" was a great episode. While the last set of episodes left me skeptical of the show's sense of ambition when not pursuing more serious parts of its narrative, "Civil Wart" immediately assuaged me of my concerns, leaping into a particularly crazy idea with full force. In this case, after Anne shows "Love Choice," a movie where two dudes compete for the love of a girl named Constance, the town gets split into two aggressive factions rallying behind each male lead, both spearheaded by the Plantar kids—Sprig is on Team Alastair, and Polly is pro-Hunter.

Sure, it's inherently funny to watch how dramatically the feud plays out, with Wartwood devolving into a warzone with a line straight down the middle of town, and the snippets of "Love Choice" we get shown are appreciably weird in how they spoof Twilight-esque movies, but the best part of the episode is just how it illustrates Sprig and Polly's brother-sister relationship. I've consistently struggled with Polly's role in the show because I feel like she never feels genuine as a character (instead dishing out mocking commentary whenever she can), but she tends to do well when she's actually in the spotlight, and "Civil Wart" is no different, allowing her to participate in some pretty nice character work.

Amphibia Review: Grubhog Day / Hop Pop and Lock

"Don't stare into the abyss, Anne. After all, it stares back."

Following yesterday's spoils, perhaps there's some disappointment to be felt in "Grubhog Day" and "Hop Pop and Lock," two episodes that very well could've happened far earlier. They don't acknowledge the changes that "Toad Tax" afforded Anne in her place in the community, most noticeably, even though it's not a necessary factor into the episodes themselves, but that still leaves room to feel somewhat disappointed by the gesture that the show was seeming to make. Either way, today's batch isn't bad—just pleasant, if unremarkable.

"Grubhog Day" is definitely the more conventional episode, and probably one of the most straightforward yet: Hop Pop makes Sprig watch over the Grubhog, Amphibia's warped take on Groundhog Day's groundhog. In traditional fashion, though, Anne convinces Sprig of a middle ground, with them taking the creature out of its cage and celebrating a day at the fairgrounds with it. Naturally, this backfires as badly as you would expect, with the Grubhog being captured by a bird and flown away.

Amphibia Review: Toad Tax / Prison Break

"Now, who wants pill bug pancakes?" "Oh, my favorite! I've been here too long."

With Amphibia at its halfway point, I was anticipating some more legitimate development in the show's narrative; most episodes in the past, after all, have been more focused on building up the show's cast of characters through more episodic, conventional subjects without taking any bold steps towards anything greater. Luckily, today's episodes delivers on every front, bringing about a sense of real change, aiming to shift the status quo and ready the second half for some exciting changes.

"Toad Tax" will tragically go somewhat underappreciated by virtue of the episode it's paired with, though both feel incredibly seminal in their own ways. Here, the show finally tackles the townsfolk's perception of Anne in a meaningful way, something that's always been somewhat in the background but never examined in such a way as to suggest a break in the cycle. As much as I enjoyed "Breakout Star," which a lot of people didn't, even I have to admit that it played more with their perceptions of Anne for laughs without making any more poignant examinations, so "Toad Tax," in that sense, feels incredibly refreshing and exciting, taking that episode's ideas and pushing them towards a certain end.

Final Space Review: The Happy Place

"Gary, where are you?" "In case you're interested, H.U.E. is right here. Heyyy."

When "The Toro Regatta" ended, one thing caught me somewhat off-guard: with its last frame smushing Gary, Lil Cato, H.U.E., K.V.N., Nightfall, and newcomers Clarence, Fox, and Ash together, I realized that the current cast of the show is straight bloated. Throughout Season 1, every gain seemed to be matched with a loss, keeping the sizable ensemble at a steady equilibrium, but this season's gains threaten that sense of harmony, and unfortunately, I don't feel like "The Happy Place" really put me any more at ease with that fact.

That's not to say that "The Happy Place" doesn't find some great utilization with most of the cast, because it certainly does. An early highlight is the cold open, taking the form of a sprawling, cinematic pissing match between Gary, Clarence, and almost the entire cast (Nightfall watches on, completely unphased), and it's the sort of go-for-broke joke that just works because of its insanity and dedication, all while getting everyone in on the fun. Likewise, even once all the characters get broken up, none of them ever fade into the background. The premise of the episode, though, doesn't enable them to show a stronger sense of chemistry than we've seen before, even when it tries to advance them as a unit.