217b. The Checkup

abney317

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Review and discuss the episode The Checkup in this topic
 

J-444

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Now that the thread is unlocked, my thoughts:

I though this was a good/great episode. Nothing amazing (with one near-exception), but nothing less than okay either.

The opening was a mostly a nice watch (guess that the odd joke out was)...
Squidward's ink :squidx:
...followed by the also-mostly-smooth midsection (each portion having exactly one less-than-good gag)...
In order, Krabs shattering himself, SB ripping one of Krabs' eyes off by accident, Krabs' skeleton falling apart (though relatively minor, I'll let it slide) and nude Krabs (ditto here)
...and finally capped off by the ending chunk, yet again with only one thing wrong for each portion
Krabs' shattered shell in the half of the section before the KK scene, and shell-less Krabs at the end - That makes two pre-S5-Spongebob sights I can't get over easily now
dot.

The ending twist was the best part of the entire eleven minutes to me - I'll just say that it is a very short string of well-hitting gags and stop there.

I'll also give the episode as a whole an 8-8.5/10 (though I'll favor this one over Spot Returns, as I haven't ever seen Plankton's Pet, and thus felt a little hollow watching the exposition in SR). Overall, Season 11 is looking to be the best post-first-three season yet - The animation, I feel, has hit its peak now as well. I don't have much to say, except that it isn't too wacky and isn't too stiff, hitting a good balance, like the first three seasons.

:wow:
 
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Another doctor episode quickly after Code Yellow, quite interesting. It was great to see Krabs as the scared one instead of SpongeBob since we already had that in Suds, or someone like Patrick. I'd normally consider it OOC but it works for an old fashioned navy veteran such as Krabs, from times were health was different. Things like Squidward being scared of the BBBB as well, and the whole setup for Krabs' test was great. Visual humor was great as always with things such as Krabs pinching himself,the suit salesman etc. Another good start to season 11! 8.5/10 episode here.

also no holds barred "you seem fine, at least physically" that's cruel :p
 
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What a funny episode. Now that's how you actually make a good slapstick comedy with some good characterization and balanced pace. Mr. Krabs was more than just a money freak here. Yeah, his jokes were him obssessed over free stuff but I liked how he was so scared of one checkup. That really added up to his character. Also kind of relatable for some who are scared of checkups. I liked Squidward/SpongeBob dynamic here. Squidward actually worried about his job and decided to help SpongeBob with checkup exam and the best thing about this was that he wasn't a butt monkey. Only his nose was pinched and that was funny. It was rather Mr. Krabs that got pain but it was used comedically and I really liked that. Larry pretending to be Mr. Krabs was really hilarious and my favorite joke in the episode. One last thing I wanna say is that I'm glad Squidward inking as a checkup wasn't used comedically. It was used as actual checkup, instead of idk him inking all over the place. Overall, I really enjoyed this. If season 11 is like this and not like Krusty Katering or The Getaway, I can't wait.

Grade: A-
 

Smitty

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The Checkup and Spot Returns imo has some of the best stories I've seen from the crew, more so The Checkup because of how they used an amazing Squidward-Spongebob dynamic we haven't really seen used this way in a while.

Both of them were written by Andrew Goodman and Storyboarded by John Trabbic, and so far Andrew Goodman is probably my favorite post-sequel writer.

9.5/10 :bowdown:
 

More

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First Impressions:

Sorry... wasn't that big of a fan of this episode.

The Good:

-Man, the crew just keeps perfecting the visual humor with every Season. The crisp lines, bright colors, dynamic expressions and boatloads of new designs for the fake free locations SpongeBob and Squidward make up just makes this a delightful episode to watch for the animation alone.

-The SpongeBob-Squidward dynamic is quite decent. While not as good as "The Sewers of Bikini Bottom" as the stakes are much lower here, I do appreciate that they can bounce off each other and be helpful in the goal of getting Mr. Krabs to good health. Squidward's cynicism and SpongeBob's naive hope make a good combo.

-My favorite joke in the episode was when SpongeBob set the X-Ray photobooth to take 25,000 scans only for it to give Mr. Krabs radiation poisoning. Don't worry, SpongeBob, you did your best, it's an honest mistake.

-Larry the Lobster is the perfect substitute Mr. Krabs! I have no idea why the show didn't see their similarity earlier!

The Bad:

-The episode doesn't really do that good a job of giving Mr. Krabs this new flaw of being scared of check-ups because there isn't really anything that sells this idea. No backstory, no pokes at his old age, no deeper insight into his character--it seems like it's just a plot device so that the stakes of the Krusty Krab closing are higher. And those stakes fall kind of flat when SpongeBob and Squidward have such a long time to get checkup results. Heck, they could've just lied about Krab's health and they'd be good to go, defeating the whole point of this sequence.

-Mr. Krabs's new flaw is also put to the wayside by the fact that all the methods SpongeBob and Squidward use are simply making everything "free". It turns an episode that'd be about Krab's flaws in the direction of him being cheap, which isn't really what you want in a character study like this.

-The style of jokes is just too violent for me. I think the problem is that the punchlines for the otherwise goofy ways Spongey and Squiddy's plans fail are depressing and linger throughout the episode. Usually when a character's harmed, he ends up unscathed by the next scene, and it's jarring that Mr. Krab's injuries slowly accumulate and leads him to further misery and wallowing. It makes the goofy situations rather sad.

-Ultimately the moral lesson is kind of botched because Mr. Krabs doesn't overcome himself to become healthy or get any genuine help from his employees, but instead just winged the health inspection by substituting Larry just doesn't give a good message to people overcoming small ailments. "The Whole Tooth" has Patrick overcome his fear of the dentist and become satisfied when his tooth comes out, and compared to that "The Checkup" is pretty pessimistic.

Overall:

Just not an episode I can see myself coming back to. This even mix of okay and mediocre elements balances to a "C" for me. Can't love it or hate it.
 

Honest Slug

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I liked this episode. At first I was apprehensive that this would be another Suds but instead it went in a different direction. Still having that goofy slapstick stuff from season 10 but this time it's able to take a breather. The slapstick was very funny and well-timed and there's some good jokes. So far I'm liking the direction season 11 is taking but I'll need to see more episodes to say "OMG Season 2 SpongeBob is back!" especially considering how none of season 10 was able to live up to the fantastic MermaidPants. Even if ones like Mimic Madness, Unreal Estate, The Getaway, and Lost and Found are still great.

8/10
 

Amiaprettygirl

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I thought this was a pretty good episode, loved how they tricked Krab's into doing his physical. I especially loved the ending where Mr.Krab's got Larry to do his physical instead, couldn't stop laughing 10/10
 

TheCrunchyPudding00

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Ughh. Mr. Krabs is so out of character here. Maybe if the writers gave him an actually reason to be scared of the check up (like a past experience) this would have been better. They should have had more expresive and cartoony animation for this episode. It would better fit the style of this episode inparticular, better hilighting the slapstick scenes. It sorta felt like a 9A episode imo. Just boring without much funny going on in terms of slapstick or any other type of humor they attempt here. I liked the joke with Larry saying "I am Mr. Krabs and I love Money!" In order to convince the nurse that he is mr krabs. But alot of the episode really fell flat for me. 5/10
 

Honest Slug

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TheCrunchyPudding00 said:
Ughh. Mr. Krabs is so out of character here. Maybe if the writers gave him an actually reason to be scared of the check up (like a past experience) this would have been better. They should have had more expresive and cartoony animation for this episode. It would better fit the style of this episode inparticular, better hilighting the slapstick scenes. It sorta felt like a 9A episode imo. Just boring without much funny going on in terms of slapstick or any other type of humor they attempt here. I liked the joke with Larry saying "I am Mr. Krabs and I love Money!" In order to convince the nurse that he is mr krabs. But alot of the episode really fell flat for me. 5/10
Mr. Krabs literally says something like "This is why I don't like checkups" after going through SpongeBob and Squidward's checkup. If that isn't a reason I don't know what is.
 

McSponge

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If you're not aware, I really despise the episode, Out of the Picture, and personally, I believe this episode is Out of the Picture done right. That's right friends, I really adore this episode.

The main plot of the episode is a type of plot I believe we've seen before. Various attempts to succeed a goal are done by the main characters, Squidward and SpongeBob. And I really like the dynamic between Squidward in SpongeBob in this episode. They don't feel forced, nor do they feel like certain traits of their's are exaggerated for the sake of some jokes. They come off as perfectly natural, yet they do manage to be funny (I don't know why, I really found Squidward's angry "Don't touch me" mumble to be hilarious).

Back to the plot, I feel as if this is a type of plot we've seen before.

Oh wait... :squidtroll:

But, this episode brings something new to the table. While the episode's layout may be similar to that of Out of the Picture, Tutor Sauce, Best Frenemies, and even to an extent, Plankton Retires, the plot itself is actually quite original. Krabs being afraid of having the nurse inspect him for his physical is an interesting plot. Though it is kind of out of character, considering Krabs is supposedly the "Toughest of the Tough", I guess I can let it slide, because it does allow for an interesting conflict. Did you notice how in all of those episodes I mentioned earlier, Krabs is one of the characters who is attempting to reach a specific goal? Well, for once that's not the case. Instead, he is the subject of the episode.

As I mentioned before, I really love the SpongeBob & Squidward dynamic in this episode. These 2 have teamed up before, and usually things don't usually work out. But, in this episode, there's a vibe from their teamwork that differs from past episodes. For once both of the characters are actually serious about what they're doing, and I think it allows for great chemistry between the two. For once, Squidward actually cares about his job, because if the restaurant is shut down, he'd have to...get a real job. :scaredsquid:

There's nothing worse than that, I tell you.

So, the two spend the episode trying to get Krabs to perform his physical, without him actually knowing he is doing so. I think the execution of this episode was brilliant. :clapping:

It's not the funniest episode out there, but there are a lot of really great visuals I find appealing in this episode. Harm is done to Krabs, but unlike Out of the Picture, where the character's intentions are to harm the other character, in this episode, Squidward and SpongeBob want to genuinely help Krabs out, and they end up doign unintentional harm to Krabs. I really enjoyed watching this episode. It wasn't predictable, where I could tell that SpongeBob & Squidward were going to fail Krabs ahead of time, but rather I kept questioning whether or not each attempt would work, which kept me interested in the story. I do really like the ending as well. I thought it was a clever idea for Larry to pose as Krabs to help Krabs pass the physical. Their similar appearances are finally put to good use! I really enjoyed this episode, surprisingly, and I find it to be a Great Episode. After both this, and Spot Returns, I am really excited for future Season 11 episodes. Season 10 wasn't the greatest, but it still had good parts about it, whereas Season 11 tones down some of the zaniness, and takes the good parts of Season 10 episodes, and incorporates them into these current episodes. A truly enjoyable episode, with a solid plot, not too many jokes, though entertaining visuals do make up for it, and great characters. I give it a 9.3/10
 

pgh214

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The good:
Fresh concept, some very funny moments. Well paced story showing the phases and attempts.
The weird: Mr. Krabs' character model getting abused. Just eww.
The shock: larry posing as krabs. It was a perfect idea and i didnt see it coming.

-why did squidward care about the krusty krab fate so much?

7.5/10
 

Amphitrite

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This was a pretty bizarre episode. One problem I kind of had was Mr. Krabs' treatment throughout the episode with SpongeBob and Squidward putting him through so much torment, but it isn't awful and they were at least trying to help him and showed remorse. That aside, I really liked this episode! I liked most of the check-up gags thrown in throughout the episode and while most of them consisted of Mr. Krabs getting hurt, they were all varied up, well-paced, and visually funny. There were other funny moments such as Mr. Krabs accidentally pinching the
robot
baby's head off Squidward giving an ink sample (is Squidward inking finally becoming a running gag on this show? :P), and Larry taking the check-up for Krabs, which was hilarious and unexpected. xD It was also rather refreshing to see Squidward actually concerned about the Krusty Krab for once. Overall, this episode was good, and nice start to season 11's premiere along with its sister. 8.5/10
 

Nickelodeon Stuff

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I found this episode funny and good because it is relatable to people like me who HATE checkups in general.
It had funny moments, and i really liked the ending, how Larry pretended to be Mr. Krabs, i laughed for a little bit at that.
8.5/10
 
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