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.

Summer Camp Island Review: Where's the Confetti (Yeti Confetti Chapter 5)

"Uh-oh! Y'all ready for snow?"

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Season 3, up to this point, has been an interesting beast, and despite my enjoyment, a little bit hard to peg down. Whereas the show's second season was a vibrant effort to take everything about the show and recalibrate it to perfection, Summer Camp Island's third season buries those leads in favor of more pointed explorations of its characters and lore. That's difficult to complain about, really—SCI is no less of a workhorse, determined to challenge itself whenever it can—but it's also turned SCI into a moderately different show with about as many things to like as things to take quiet umbrage with, having been able to take a step back and assess its accomplishments over the past half-season.

"Where's the Confetti," curiously enough, does a nice job of epitomizing those overall trends, a strong and compelling episode on its own that feels a bit perplexing under the weight of the season's ambitions. There are certain expectations that come with an episode like this that the conflicts of the past chapter get resolved, and while "Where's the Confetti" succeeds at that, it feels equally motivated to exist in its own space while paying limited dues to what came before.

Summer Camp Island Review: The Sherbet Scoop / Lucy's Instrument (Yeti Confetti Chapters 3 + 4)

"This is so avant-garde."

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Whereas the first two episodes of the Yeti Confetti arc were more about establishing the circumstances, we've finally reached the point in the arc where Summer Camp Island is in a nice spot to both experiment and dig into some more meaningful stories. There's an interesting vibe to "The Sherbert Scoop" and "Lucy's Instrument": while they're no more narratively significant than the arc has been, and no closer to a certain goal, there's something nice about seeing the show work at its own rate, pursuing the stories that it wants to tell in the moment. Sometimes it's the smaller moments that help paint the biggest picture, after all, and it's a thesis that SCI seems intent to explore.

"The Sherbet Scoop," especially, is the most detached episode of the arc thus far, but I feel like that also makes it the most compelling. Season 3 is generally its best when episodes both feed into the unique atmosphere of their respective arcs and exist in a capsule all their own, and "The Sherbet Scoop" is pretty much exactly that, trading in plot specifics for meticulous, rousing character portraiture. Admittedly, it's an episode that spends the bulk of its runtime with Lucy in the back-seat, but I don't think that's a knock against it; the Yeti Confetti arc is as dedicated to her as it is to the yetis at large, and considering how much of a work-out she's gotten already, it's nice to see her slotted into a narrative where she has less control. 

Summer Camp Island Review: Don't Tell Lucy / The Yum Whisperer (Yeti Confetti Chapters 1 + 2)

"It's better to have loved the yetis and have them ignore you than to have never loved the yetis at all."

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Since all of this season's arcs were announced, the yeti arc has always been the one I was most excited about. As far as creatures on the island go, they've always had the most fascinating and defined mythology to me, operating by the rules of their own complex society that feels shockingly fleshed-out and spectacularly endearing. It should be telling that despite only featuring prominently in two episodes spearheaded by Saxophone—the early, series-defining "Saxophone Come Home" and Season 2's equally-precious "Catacombs"—they've left such a strong impression.

The fact that the Yeti Confetti chapter also ushers forth five episodes centered around Lucy only serves to sweeten the deal. I've sung my praises of SCI's supporting cast in so many of my reviews, so make no mistake about my enthusiasm: the greatest frustration with the show's characters is just how much they flirt with being underutilized. While Max's dry spell continues, though, it's awesome that someone who got a nice boost from last season wasn't just driven to the forefront, but would be the defining character of a whole leg of Season 3.

She's an interesting character for the show to work with, too. Lucy is, at once, both callous and sincere, and that gives her an interesting bite amid such an otherwise sweet and amiable cast, especially because (unlike her closest snark equivalent, Susie) she's equally defined by her naivete. She'll talk the talk about dense yeti lore, but also fawn clingily over a unicorn in the same breath. "Don't Tell Lucy" and "The Yum Whisperer" do a great job of exploring that duality, setting the Yeti Confetti arc at a promising, if rather slow, start.

Summer Camp Island Review: Honey Moondog / Royally Bored / All the King's Slides (Puddle and the King Chapters 1-3)

"Choo choo! All aboard! Last stop: a heightened understanding of the physics of true love."

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I'm not gonna lie in saying that the prospects of the Alien arc of this season scared me a bit. Puddle and the King have been two characters that I have, perhaps controversially, always struggled with a bit; while I've found them pretty darn delightful in small doses, they can become exhausting for me when they're pushed more towards the forefront, with episodes like "Space Invasion" and "Tortilla Towels" being among the most frustrating entries in the show to me. Every appearance from the aliens risks them becoming a cumbersome presence that exist to weigh on Oscar and Hedgehog.

It came as a surprise to me, then, just how much I enjoyed this week's offerings. Whereas the Susie arc was made up of four deeply interconnected episodes with a focus on telling one story, the alien arc is more in the spirit of how SCI usually conducts itself, though with a sharper focus on the aliens and their kingdom. While there is linearity to the episodes, going from Puddle and the King's departure to their return and focusing in large part on Oscar and Hedgehog assuming the throne temporarily, each installment is interested in exploring vastly different concepts. Some inevitably landed for me more than others, sure, but combined, they come across as a pleasant return to form that, nonetheless, feels distinctly invigorating and special.

"Honey Moondog," especially, quelled a lot of my fears about what I feared the arc could be, kicking off the trilogy with the soundest and most delightful episode of the bunch. While I have a lot of praises to sing for the King and Puddle here (which we'll get to), so much of that is indebted to some classic Osc-Hog shenanigans. For such a winning duo, it's a little unfortunate how much last season de-emphasized their partnership in favor of solo outings, so seeing Oscar and Hedgehog back in their element and playing off of each other as enjoyably as they do here is like the balm that our troubled souls need.

Summer Camp Island Review: Meet Me in Massachusetts / Witches in the City (Susie and Ramona Chapter 3 + 4)

"The sunsets are so pretty in Massachusetts."

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While I certainly enjoyed last week's offerings, I feel like there were a lot of places where they left me with some unfulfilled desires. There's an obvious novelty in their conceit, allowing us to witness the start of Susie and Ramona's friendship, but it felt like it was ultimately insistent on enabling the success of what followed, their greatest qualities being the devil in their details as opposed to the wholeness of their narratives. (One of my greatest issues was just how little it felt like we saw Ramona and Susie bonded by "Ghost Baby Jabberwock's" end.) But the special's second half, "Meet Me in Massachusetts" and "Witches in the City," sort of... make the witch arc work, indebted to their predecessors but nothing short of triumphant as the two pieces of the puzzle that complete the despairing picture.

I feel as if there's a very direct correlation between how much Susie's chapter progresses, and how much stronger it grows; it's fairly clear that the deeper that we get into it, the more we're attending to that which SCI found most exciting to showcase. Each chapter offered something different, of course, and interesting in its own way, but beginning with "Meet Me in Massachusetts," things finally start to fall into the right groove, pushing the arc patiently towards a satisfying, revealing, and emotional close that snaps us back into SCI's present with some new thoughts to process.

"Meet Me in Massachusetts" still comes across as largely set-up, but it's set-up that begins to more closely approach the island as we currently understand it to be, and that makes its offerings more enticing. Its most immediate contribution is the addition of Betsy, the final witch to join Susie and Ramona's coven enabling them to forward their plans to save magic. (Comically enough, she shows up on the island with a badminton racket, believing that she's been sent to reform school for wearing pants rather than about to be indoctrinated into witchcraft.) We also get to see the genesis of her friendship with fellow, soon-to-be-camp counselor Alice, and while it's far from as meaningfully-developed as what it's designed to mirror, it doesn't have to be; it's just pleasant silliness with the side effect of accentuating Susie and Ramona's intimate connection.

Summer Camp Island Review: Susie's Ark / Ghost Baby Jabberwock (Susie and Ramona Chapter 1 + 2)

"You mean she wasn't a sandwich the whole entire time? Plot twist."

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There's something inherently exciting about the fact that, every time Summer Camp Island returns, it seems to have a brand new bag of tricks up its sleeve. Now in its third season, SCI is looking to make its most complex transformation yet, spearheaded by a four-part special about Susie and Ramona's friendship and the history of the island and with future clusters devoted to specific groups of the island's residents (the yetis, the aliens). There is a little bit of dread on my end in terms of that decision; off the heels of a seemingly-truncated Season 2 (only half as long as the first) and with an even smaller episode count (12), I feel nervous for the show's future beyond this point. But with however much time it has left, it's good to see SCI going all in, keen to keep reinvigorating proceedings when they're not even tired yet.

The season kicks off with "Susie's Ark," taking the form of a bedtime story from Jimjams to Pajamas, Oscar, and Hedgehog—an appreciable means of retaining the show's lovable, slice-of-life feel while working the characters into a narrative that they would otherwise be eschewed out of entirely. Much like last season's premiere, "Meeting of the Minds," the episode uses its position as our opener largely for set-up, empowered most strongly by the inherent excitement of seeing the show back. That's not a strike against the episode by any means, but it's sort of the sacrifice that such a plot-intensive episode has to make. You have to set the pins up to be able to knock them down, after all.