Another month, another season review!
Cave Dwelling Sponge: 8.5/10
The Clam Whisperer: 8.9/10
Spot Returns: 9.3/10
The Check-Up: 9.2/10
Spin the Bottle: 8.6/10
There’s a Sponge in My Soup: 6.2/10
Man Ray Returns: 9.5/10
Larry the Floor Manager: 8.9/10
The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom: 9.3/10
No Pictures Please: 9.6/10
Stuck on the Roof: 9.2/10
Krabby Patty Creature Feature: 9.4/10
Teacher’s Pests: 9.4/10
Sanitation Insanity: 8/10
Bunny Hunt: 5/10
Squid Noir: 9.7/10
Scavenger Pants: 8.5/10
Cuddle E. Hugs: 7.9/10
Pat the Horse: 8.6/10
Chatterbox Gary: 9.5/10
Don’t Feed the Clowns: 5.2/10
Drive Happy: 7.5/10
Old Man Patrick: 7/10
Fun-Sized Friends: 6.3/10
Grandmum’s the Word: 6.5/10
Doodle Dimension: 4.8/10
Moving Bubble Bass: 9/10
High Sea Diving: 7.4/10
Bottle Burglars: 9/10
My Leg!: 9.4/10
Ink Lemonade: 6.7/10
Mustard O’ Mine: 9.6/10
Shopping List: 9.2/10
Whale Watching: 9.2/10
Krusty Kleaners: 7.6/10
Patnocchio: 5.3/10
ChefBob: 9.3/10
Library Cards: 6.8/10
Plankton Paranoia: 9.4/10
Call the Cops: 9.4/10
Surf N’ Turf: 9.3/10
Goons on the Moon: 5.5/10
Appointment TV: 8.6/10
Karen’s Virus: 9/10
The Grill is Gone: 8.4/10
The Night Patty: 9.2/10
Bubbletown: 8.5/10
Squirrel Jelly: 7.3/10
The String: 9.3/10
Bottom 5:
5.
Goons on the Moon
4.
Patnocchio
3.
Don’t Feed the Clowns
2.
Bunny Hunt
1.
Doodle Dimension
Top 5:
5.
Man Ray Returns
4.
Chatterbox Gary
3.
No Pictures Please
2.
Mustard O’ Mine
1.
Squid Noir
Scoring:
Amazing: 23
Great: 10
Good: 6
Okay: 5
Mediocre: 4
Tolerable: 1
Bad: 0
Abysmal: 0
Additional Comments:
For season 11, let’s skip the pretense and prelude, because I’ve got none. Nah, I want to get to the real meat of this discussion—
season 11 is absolutely the most experimental, refreshing season of SpongeBob SquarePants that I have reviewed so far. I don’t think this comes as a surprise to many that I think this way. And I think in some ways it was kind of inevitable that we’d get to this point. This show has been having an experimental trend since season 9B, and I think season 11 is what season 10 might’ve been had it not been so drastically shortened. This also has finally given me a reason to think that season era marks the end of one era, and the beginning of another. I think that seasons 9B, 10, and 11 should be grouped together. They just belong that way. I’ll wait until season 12 to fully decide if season 11 is the end, or if season 12 is.
Let’s break down what I’m saying real quick. So, when I say “refreshing”, I don’t necessarily mean that this is my favorite season. I mean, I did quite enjoy this season, and I will get to that in a moment, but I also mean that this season really…revamped the show in a way? Again, very similar to season 10, except I’m not talking about the fandom response this time. I just think that this season went to some of the show fundamentals, and really shook them up. That’s where the “experimental” comes in. Let’s consider some examples.
- Firstly, the biggest site of experimentation has got to be in characters and character dynamics, which is a pretty typical area of experimentation for this show (as I mention this basically every season overview haha). But this season was on another level, seriously. Like, let’s look at the material! We’ve got episodes with characters who rarely, or in some cases, have never interacted: “Whale Watching”, “Surf N’ Turf”, “Girls’ Night Out”, etc. We even have episodes with familiar dynamics slightly altered or varied: “Ink Lemonade”, “Plankton Paranoia”, “Sanitation Insanity”. And, most of all, we have episodes about characters we’ve never focused on before, like “Moving Bubble Bass”, “My Leg!”, or “Man Ray Returns”.
- Secondly, this season has some weird episodes. Some of these episodes are more weird in that their plots are unique, like “Squid Noir” or “Patnocchio”. And then there are some episodes that are just weird, like “Cuddle E. Hugs”, “No Pictures Please”, or “The Night Patty”. The latter two are especially interesting because of their connecting plot thread, something this show does not ever do, until now.
- There are also some smaller areas of experimentation here, particularly in the visuals. In some episodes, we have very neat and different perspective shots, such as “Stuck on the Roof”. In others, we have entire aesthetics, like “Squid Noir” or “The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom”. In general, the animation and visuals of this season were fantastic. The animation in this one was so smooth and so expressive, and really adds life to these episodes, again bringing in that feeling of refreshment and rejuvenation. This is something that has been steadily improving since season 8, so it’s nice that this has been continued. Additionally, the art style of this season has been excellent, some of my favorite looks of the show. There were a few episodes where I wasn’t particularly vibing with the art direction (like “Ink Lemonade”), but for the most part, I’ve really liked the look of this season, definitely an improvement over season 10.
Another important thing to note about this season is that it really…showed the show’s age. And I don’t mean that in the bad way it sounds like. I mean that like this season kind of honored the show’s history and celebrated it too. We’ve got easter eggs galore, which is something that’s been happening throughout the entire time this show has been on the air, but has really picked up following season 9B. Additionally, this season showed the return of fan-favorite characters of Bubble Buddy and DoodleBob (even if one of their returns was handled poorly). And, most importantly, this season contained an episode dedicated to the show’s most well-known gag (”My Leg!”). I’ve said before, I believe during my reviews of “Truth or Square” and the second movie, that the show buying into its own hype was justified. And I continue to stand by that opinion. Yeah, the show is self-referential, yeah it does “fanservice”, but like…who cares? To me, when the show does this, it doesn’t feel shallow, which is what I think a lot of people interpret this as. To me, this feels like the crew behind the show celebrating their work. The show has been going on for so long that of the people working on these later seasons, a good chunk of them literally grew up on SpongeBob. And then for the others, many of them have been here since the show’s beginning, or soon after that. In other words, the crew cares about this show. And most of the crew has some kind of history with the show. And I think that kind of love for the show is what I feel from these later seasons, and it’s particularly coming through in this season, which is why I think this season might be so refreshing to me.
Now, remember how last month, I said that season 10 was kind of like a rest for the crew, a necessary healing and recharge period? Yeah, I think season 11 is the direct result of that, and I feel more justified in what I said in that review. Like, just compare the two seasons. This season carried a lot of threads from season 10, but it was also more…bombastic, more eye-catching, more…everything! So, it should come as no surprise that I’m calling season 11 the
Refreshing Season. Lowkey a similar name to season 7’s, but I mean this in a very different way. There’s just something about season 11 that feels really novel. I just can’t put my finger on what that is. But something sets this season apart from season 10 and 9B for me. And whatever it is, it makes me love what I’m watching (more than I already love this show). The average episode rating for this season was an insane 8.4/10. That’s as high as seasons 1 and 3. And that’s because this season had some of my favorite episodes in this show period (and yeah, also because my re. So yeah, so far, season 11 is my favorite of the post-second movie seasons, beating out season 9B for the spot. This season had more duds than seasons 10 or 9B, but as a lot of them were products of experimentation (like, even more so than usual), I don’t mind as much. And only one of them personally insulted me (the bungled return of DoodleBob), so it’s easy to forgive a lot of the missteps in this season. Especially when the great and amazing episodes in this one were of such high caliber.
With how refreshing this season was, I’m very excited to see what season 12 brings. And to bring back my question from 2020, I’m still asking: When will I get my Tom episode?