EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Tentacle Vision (Season 7, Episode 1a)
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 244 in standard order, Episode 242 in airing order
Plot: Squidward buys his on chat show on public access, only for it to be ruined by other characters
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Derek Iversen
[titlecard]127A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: SpongeBob Theme Song 2
Well, here’s the part of the re-evaluation I was dreading the most, starting Season 7. Like I said when I started Season 6, these two seasons are near-unanimously considered the worst of SpongeBob. Some others might say 8, but they’re a minority. Personally, 7’s always been in my bad books, not because its bad episodes are particularly awful (I thought Season 6 had worse episodes), but because of its lack of good, and as someone who looks for the good and bad in everything, this just leaves me with a whole lot of bad to cover. With that said, the season’s already started out in a sour note.
For the second time in a row, the premiere begins with Squidward getting ready to watch TV, only this time he’s interested in a public access show airing at 5AM called “Fab and Fancy”. Unfortunately, it’s cancelled on the spot to make room for a new show called “The Guitar Lord”, starring a teenager named Zeus. Zeus reveals his mother bought the show for him and he clearly doesn’t know what to do with it, aside from saying he wants a guitar over and over again, despite playing one in the title sequence. I tell you, special effects these days. Upon calling the show’s s number, Squidward finds out how easy it is to get your own TV show, and buys one himself which is set to premiere the following day. Already this is a flat set-up, but there’s still some hope the show itself is entertaining.
The next day, all Squidward has to do is wait through a work session at the Krusty Krab, where he acts rather gleeful to SpongeBob and never explains to him why. The joke is that he gloats about it, but blocks SpongBob’s ears so he isn’t tempted to mess things up. This joke doesn’t hold up however, because he finds out about it anyway due to Gary watching it in a relatively contrived plot ploint. Squidward seems to be hosting a chat show about the finer arts, which although I find boring, is nice to see him doing. The only problem is that he seems far too happy, so the episode has to knock him down and ruin everything, and it does so in a pathetic way.
SpongeBob head over to Squidward’s house to see if he really does have his own show and congratulate him for it, and then invites Patrick over. Instead of ushering the two out, Squidward decides to use them as a backstage crew, which only lowers the quality of the sound and camera. We soon get a chain reaction of other characters coming onto the show to outdo each other, Mr Krabs advertising the Krusty Krab, Sandy dancing, Pearl cheerleading and Plankton destroying things, none of which Squidward lifts a finger at. It gets even worse when Bikini Bottomites mistake this for a large shindig, and Squidward’s booted off the show and is replaced by Zeus as the presenter. It all around becomes a story that dissolves into wacky colours before your very eyes, instead of one that continues to develop until it reaches a sensible conclusion.
I know this is the first episode after what I can assume is a break for the writers, I’d expect one of two things- either they’re refreshed and ready to deliver more comedy, or they’re aimless without a backbone to support themselves. This episode dips more towards the latter, as the good jokes are rather sparse here. The joke I remember most is when Patrick says his stupidity varies, which is what people point to when they say how to do a fourth wall lean better than the one in The Card. That’s where the positivity ends however, as much of this episode relies on either the characters being dumb, like Patrick chewing on a camera, or being loud and mindless, like the end of the story.
The one thing I should mention first about the animation is that the colours are slightly brighter than in 6, but that’s the only major difference except for the absence of gross-out. As opposed to 6 where some disgusting image would be in nearly every episode, 7 is more a half-and-half deal. In terms of the animation for this episode specifically, there’s one alright moment at the beginning in the title sequence for “The Guitar Lord”, where it pans up a pile of bodies, but other than that, you have nothing good to speak of. Zeus’ design is unique, but how do his thin legs support his giant head? You also get SpongeBob donning his Springer cheeks when trying to massage Squidward, but that’s the only other thing I wanted to talk about.
I feel like this episode was bent on showing as many characters as possible as a sort of warm-up for the animation team, but that results in things getting pretty bloated towards the end. SpongeBob and later Patrick don’t have much of a personality aside from finding ways to bother Squidward, which is a notion that eventually carries into every Bikini Bottomite. Would Sandy and Pearl really do something to annoy him in any other context? Squidward himself is quite a doormat here, in contrast with what you’d expect from his day being ruined in episodes like Good Neighbours. Heck, perhaps even more considering his only real chance at stardom is slowly crushed to pieces. As for newcomer Zeus, he’s silly but not compelling in any way; he really should’ve stayed in the beginning of the episode as a sign any loser can get their own show.
I wasn’t expecting the season premiere to be this bad, but this kinda shows I’ve got some dark times ahead of me. Tentacle Vision is just another STP that’s hard on Squidward despite him not doing anything terrible, but it’s worse than most due to its near-lack of energy. Couple this with some jokes about characters being stupid that won’t appeal to anyone but children, and you get an episode that lacks the ability to keep my interest. There’s nothing worse than an episode that doesn’t even care about itself by the end, which is why it has to be the worst season premiere at this point. All I have left to say is I hope The Guitar Lord is soon replaced by excessive Teen Titans Go! reruns. One down, 49 to go.
Question of the Day: If you had your own public access show, what would it be about?
Who put tomorrow’s episode on the planet? Ugh!
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 244 in standard order, Episode 242 in airing order
Plot: Squidward buys his on chat show on public access, only for it to be ruined by other characters
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Derek Iversen
[titlecard]127A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: SpongeBob Theme Song 2
Well, here’s the part of the re-evaluation I was dreading the most, starting Season 7. Like I said when I started Season 6, these two seasons are near-unanimously considered the worst of SpongeBob. Some others might say 8, but they’re a minority. Personally, 7’s always been in my bad books, not because its bad episodes are particularly awful (I thought Season 6 had worse episodes), but because of its lack of good, and as someone who looks for the good and bad in everything, this just leaves me with a whole lot of bad to cover. With that said, the season’s already started out in a sour note.
For the second time in a row, the premiere begins with Squidward getting ready to watch TV, only this time he’s interested in a public access show airing at 5AM called “Fab and Fancy”. Unfortunately, it’s cancelled on the spot to make room for a new show called “The Guitar Lord”, starring a teenager named Zeus. Zeus reveals his mother bought the show for him and he clearly doesn’t know what to do with it, aside from saying he wants a guitar over and over again, despite playing one in the title sequence. I tell you, special effects these days. Upon calling the show’s s number, Squidward finds out how easy it is to get your own TV show, and buys one himself which is set to premiere the following day. Already this is a flat set-up, but there’s still some hope the show itself is entertaining.
The next day, all Squidward has to do is wait through a work session at the Krusty Krab, where he acts rather gleeful to SpongeBob and never explains to him why. The joke is that he gloats about it, but blocks SpongBob’s ears so he isn’t tempted to mess things up. This joke doesn’t hold up however, because he finds out about it anyway due to Gary watching it in a relatively contrived plot ploint. Squidward seems to be hosting a chat show about the finer arts, which although I find boring, is nice to see him doing. The only problem is that he seems far too happy, so the episode has to knock him down and ruin everything, and it does so in a pathetic way.
SpongeBob head over to Squidward’s house to see if he really does have his own show and congratulate him for it, and then invites Patrick over. Instead of ushering the two out, Squidward decides to use them as a backstage crew, which only lowers the quality of the sound and camera. We soon get a chain reaction of other characters coming onto the show to outdo each other, Mr Krabs advertising the Krusty Krab, Sandy dancing, Pearl cheerleading and Plankton destroying things, none of which Squidward lifts a finger at. It gets even worse when Bikini Bottomites mistake this for a large shindig, and Squidward’s booted off the show and is replaced by Zeus as the presenter. It all around becomes a story that dissolves into wacky colours before your very eyes, instead of one that continues to develop until it reaches a sensible conclusion.
I know this is the first episode after what I can assume is a break for the writers, I’d expect one of two things- either they’re refreshed and ready to deliver more comedy, or they’re aimless without a backbone to support themselves. This episode dips more towards the latter, as the good jokes are rather sparse here. The joke I remember most is when Patrick says his stupidity varies, which is what people point to when they say how to do a fourth wall lean better than the one in The Card. That’s where the positivity ends however, as much of this episode relies on either the characters being dumb, like Patrick chewing on a camera, or being loud and mindless, like the end of the story.
The one thing I should mention first about the animation is that the colours are slightly brighter than in 6, but that’s the only major difference except for the absence of gross-out. As opposed to 6 where some disgusting image would be in nearly every episode, 7 is more a half-and-half deal. In terms of the animation for this episode specifically, there’s one alright moment at the beginning in the title sequence for “The Guitar Lord”, where it pans up a pile of bodies, but other than that, you have nothing good to speak of. Zeus’ design is unique, but how do his thin legs support his giant head? You also get SpongeBob donning his Springer cheeks when trying to massage Squidward, but that’s the only other thing I wanted to talk about.
I feel like this episode was bent on showing as many characters as possible as a sort of warm-up for the animation team, but that results in things getting pretty bloated towards the end. SpongeBob and later Patrick don’t have much of a personality aside from finding ways to bother Squidward, which is a notion that eventually carries into every Bikini Bottomite. Would Sandy and Pearl really do something to annoy him in any other context? Squidward himself is quite a doormat here, in contrast with what you’d expect from his day being ruined in episodes like Good Neighbours. Heck, perhaps even more considering his only real chance at stardom is slowly crushed to pieces. As for newcomer Zeus, he’s silly but not compelling in any way; he really should’ve stayed in the beginning of the episode as a sign any loser can get their own show.
I wasn’t expecting the season premiere to be this bad, but this kinda shows I’ve got some dark times ahead of me. Tentacle Vision is just another STP that’s hard on Squidward despite him not doing anything terrible, but it’s worse than most due to its near-lack of energy. Couple this with some jokes about characters being stupid that won’t appeal to anyone but children, and you get an episode that lacks the ability to keep my interest. There’s nothing worse than an episode that doesn’t even care about itself by the end, which is why it has to be the worst season premiere at this point. All I have left to say is I hope The Guitar Lord is soon replaced by excessive Teen Titans Go! reruns. One down, 49 to go.
Question of the Day: If you had your own public access show, what would it be about?
Who put tomorrow’s episode on the planet? Ugh!
:sbthumbs: