Pugs4Thugs
#1 SpongeBob Reviewer
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For our second episode of the day, we’ve got “Drive Thru”. While I remember this episode pretty well, I’ve never had a strong opinion about it. I always thought it was pretty harmless. And of course, it had been a while since I rewatched it, so this rewatch was sorely needed.
When the episode begins, the biggest problem stares me right in the face: the Krusty Krab. Why is this episode pretending like the Krusty Krab doesn’t have side windows??? You don’t even need to be a background painter aficionado like me to see how that’s so very wrong. And typically I don’t mind the show doing away with all senses of consistency, but this is one of the times where I have to draw the line. This would be like if the order of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward’s houses was changed. You just can’t do that.
Another thing that…doesn’t exactly bug me, but I don’t find to be an element I care about, is kind of the entire plot. I like how Bikini Bottom is clearly a walkable city. Maybe it’s because I long for such a thing in my own life, I don’t know, but having an episode be entirely about car-dependence (kinda) is not my cup of tea. But I suppose it is doing the thing this show does by keeping things slightly modern, but not really. And this is the nitpickiest of nitpicks, it hardly affects my enjoyment of the episode, I just wanted to talk about it.
Okay one last nitpick, but I think that this episode has kind of misunderstands Mr. Krabs’ character ever so slightly. And I’m talking about the scene where Mr. Krabs is putting together all the stuff for the drive thru. SpongeBob comes with a bunch of stuff that he bought, and Mr. Krabs says that his stuff is better because he made them for free. While this is something Mr. Krabs would do, I think it’s more likely that he’d accept the stuff SpongeBob got because he didn’t have to buy it himself…but whatever. This is a small thing in an otherwise dull scene anyway.
The conflict of this episode is kinda dumb, to be honest, mostly because it relies on the entitlement of the townspeople. I mean the police officer guy has got to be the worst about it, but also the fact that that many people are waiting on a drive thru…be serious. This is such a small thing, but it’s enough to annoy me, so I’m not a fan.
I’ve only been saying negative things, so let me bring out some positivity real quick. Squidward is pretty great in this episode, he has all sorts of snide one-liners that really help some of these struggling scenes. I also like that this episode features a lot of characters, including Plankton and Pearl. Though Plankton’s segment is only somewhat funny to me (the second one was much funnier), and Pearl’s is…a little too mean-spirited since that scene kinda fails to be funny. And lastly, this episode uses my favorite track in the whole series, Traveling Along, which was a pleasant surprise since I forgot this episode used it.
Although no one ever talks about this episode, I think it’s very important in terms of the show’s trajectory. It’s not the first episode to ever do this, but because this is season 8, it’s important to note that this episode uses the complete chaos ending that a lot of “modern” (read: season 9B onwards) episodes use. I mean it even has Greenhorn Rag running in the background, that tells you all you need to know. Like I said, other episodes have done this before, but I feel like season 8 might be the season where these type of endings really start to become a staple, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this potential trend. Whatever the case may be, I really like these endings, so all I see are wins in my future.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.7/10
When the episode begins, the biggest problem stares me right in the face: the Krusty Krab. Why is this episode pretending like the Krusty Krab doesn’t have side windows??? You don’t even need to be a background painter aficionado like me to see how that’s so very wrong. And typically I don’t mind the show doing away with all senses of consistency, but this is one of the times where I have to draw the line. This would be like if the order of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward’s houses was changed. You just can’t do that.
Another thing that…doesn’t exactly bug me, but I don’t find to be an element I care about, is kind of the entire plot. I like how Bikini Bottom is clearly a walkable city. Maybe it’s because I long for such a thing in my own life, I don’t know, but having an episode be entirely about car-dependence (kinda) is not my cup of tea. But I suppose it is doing the thing this show does by keeping things slightly modern, but not really. And this is the nitpickiest of nitpicks, it hardly affects my enjoyment of the episode, I just wanted to talk about it.
Okay one last nitpick, but I think that this episode has kind of misunderstands Mr. Krabs’ character ever so slightly. And I’m talking about the scene where Mr. Krabs is putting together all the stuff for the drive thru. SpongeBob comes with a bunch of stuff that he bought, and Mr. Krabs says that his stuff is better because he made them for free. While this is something Mr. Krabs would do, I think it’s more likely that he’d accept the stuff SpongeBob got because he didn’t have to buy it himself…but whatever. This is a small thing in an otherwise dull scene anyway.
The conflict of this episode is kinda dumb, to be honest, mostly because it relies on the entitlement of the townspeople. I mean the police officer guy has got to be the worst about it, but also the fact that that many people are waiting on a drive thru…be serious. This is such a small thing, but it’s enough to annoy me, so I’m not a fan.
I’ve only been saying negative things, so let me bring out some positivity real quick. Squidward is pretty great in this episode, he has all sorts of snide one-liners that really help some of these struggling scenes. I also like that this episode features a lot of characters, including Plankton and Pearl. Though Plankton’s segment is only somewhat funny to me (the second one was much funnier), and Pearl’s is…a little too mean-spirited since that scene kinda fails to be funny. And lastly, this episode uses my favorite track in the whole series, Traveling Along, which was a pleasant surprise since I forgot this episode used it.
Although no one ever talks about this episode, I think it’s very important in terms of the show’s trajectory. It’s not the first episode to ever do this, but because this is season 8, it’s important to note that this episode uses the complete chaos ending that a lot of “modern” (read: season 9B onwards) episodes use. I mean it even has Greenhorn Rag running in the background, that tells you all you need to know. Like I said, other episodes have done this before, but I feel like season 8 might be the season where these type of endings really start to become a staple, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this potential trend. Whatever the case may be, I really like these endings, so all I see are wins in my future.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.7/10
