CrazyMew37
Just some guy on the internet, I guess
Hey, just thought I wanted to say something I noticed about the series and some conversations I wanted to drum up regarding my observations. I think I realized why the later seasons of Spongebob aren't generally as good as the classic seasons.
To make things clear, here's my definition of the three/four different eras of Spongebob.
The Classic/Pre-Movie Era: Seasons 1-3
The Post-Movie Era: Seasons 4-8
The (Early) Post-Second Movie Era: Seasons 9-11
The Late Post-Second Movie/Post Third-Movie Era: Seasons 12-Now
I guess I should begin with Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I'd say the first three seasons have a very unique style of humor. While this is less so for Season 1, the Pre-Movie era I consider to have a fast-paced type of humor. It's literal and surreal, though there's a certain level of groundedness to the series. Really the most unhinged thing I can think of is Mid-Life Crustacean, and maybe the removed scenes from Just One Bite.
Seasons 4-8, alternatively, feel off compared to the earlier seasons as I notice that the pacing is slow. I think that's why the jokes often fall flat. In terms of the types of humor, I'd say this era is more 'weird' or 'gross' than anything. It's both more and less grounded in terms of humor, in my opinion, too. That's probably because of the slower pacing, but still. Honestly, this era was actually quite experimental to some agree (With honestly varying success). SpongeBob's Legends of Bikini Bottom quintology and Gone come to mind for example.
Now... as for the modern era, it's a bit hard to consider Seasons 9-11 and everything after it to be the same thing, so I've decided to split them into two sub-eras. The animation and humor get more wacky and surreal, but it loses the relative groundedness that the first three (arguably first eight) seasons. If you want my opinion, the show's now too quickly paced and surreal compared to the original era. Episodes like Cuddle E. Hugs and Mimic Madness are fairly crazy. I guess I'd consider Seasons 9-11 to be less unhinged than what came after.
Of course, Seasons 12 and onward have nuttier episodes like Pineapple RV and SpongeBob in RandomLand. Another aspect of the later seasons is its nostalgia baiting, which imo doesn't really work. That doesn't mean nostalgia baiting is bad per se, it just needs to be used right. A good example is (in my opinion) Doodle Dimension and My Leg!. While these two episodes are in Season 11, it shows that episodes referencing older ones can work. A bad example of nostalgia baiting is Squidferatu and Squidiot Box.
What do you think of this observation of mine? Do you agree that stuff like this is why everything past the first movie tends to be different from the original series?
To make things clear, here's my definition of the three/four different eras of Spongebob.
The Classic/Pre-Movie Era: Seasons 1-3
The Post-Movie Era: Seasons 4-8
The (Early) Post-Second Movie Era: Seasons 9-11
The Late Post-Second Movie/Post Third-Movie Era: Seasons 12-Now
I guess I should begin with Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I'd say the first three seasons have a very unique style of humor. While this is less so for Season 1, the Pre-Movie era I consider to have a fast-paced type of humor. It's literal and surreal, though there's a certain level of groundedness to the series. Really the most unhinged thing I can think of is Mid-Life Crustacean, and maybe the removed scenes from Just One Bite.
Seasons 4-8, alternatively, feel off compared to the earlier seasons as I notice that the pacing is slow. I think that's why the jokes often fall flat. In terms of the types of humor, I'd say this era is more 'weird' or 'gross' than anything. It's both more and less grounded in terms of humor, in my opinion, too. That's probably because of the slower pacing, but still. Honestly, this era was actually quite experimental to some agree (With honestly varying success). SpongeBob's Legends of Bikini Bottom quintology and Gone come to mind for example.
Now... as for the modern era, it's a bit hard to consider Seasons 9-11 and everything after it to be the same thing, so I've decided to split them into two sub-eras. The animation and humor get more wacky and surreal, but it loses the relative groundedness that the first three (arguably first eight) seasons. If you want my opinion, the show's now too quickly paced and surreal compared to the original era. Episodes like Cuddle E. Hugs and Mimic Madness are fairly crazy. I guess I'd consider Seasons 9-11 to be less unhinged than what came after.
Of course, Seasons 12 and onward have nuttier episodes like Pineapple RV and SpongeBob in RandomLand. Another aspect of the later seasons is its nostalgia baiting, which imo doesn't really work. That doesn't mean nostalgia baiting is bad per se, it just needs to be used right. A good example is (in my opinion) Doodle Dimension and My Leg!. While these two episodes are in Season 11, it shows that episodes referencing older ones can work. A bad example of nostalgia baiting is Squidferatu and Squidiot Box.
What do you think of this observation of mine? Do you agree that stuff like this is why everything past the first movie tends to be different from the original series?
