Dang, we're at the end of season 4 already? Feels like I just started. Well, y'all know the drill by now. Time for a season overview, my top 5, bottom 5, and some additional comments!
Fear of a Krabby Patty: 9.2/10
Shell of a Man: 9/10
The Lost Mattress: 9.2/10
Krabs Vs. Plankton: 9/10
Have You Seen This Snail?: 9/10
Skill Crane: 8.7/10
Good Neighbors: 4/10
Selling Out: 9.3/10
Funny Pants: 5.5/10
Dunces and Dragons: 9.2/10
Enemy-in-Law: 8/10
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture: 8.5/10
Patrick SmartPants: 9/10
SquidBob TentaclePants: 7.3/10
Krusty Towers: 9.5/10
Mrs. Puff, You're Fired: 9.3/10
Chimps Ahoy: 8/10
Ghost Host: 9/10
Whale of a Birthday: 7.8/10
Karate Island: 8.5/10
All That Glitters: 5.3/10
Wishing You Well: 9.2/10
New Leaf: 9.3/10
Once Bitten: 9/10
Bummer Vacation: 8.4/10
Wigstruck: 4.4/10
Squidtastic Voyage: 7.8/10
That's No Lady: 7.5/10
The Thing: 3.8/10
Hocus Pocus: 5/10
Driven to Tears: 5/10
Rule of Dumb: 8.3/10
Born to be Wild: 7/10
Best Frenemies: 9.3/10
The Pink Purloiner: 9/10
Squid Wood: 9.3/10
Best Day Ever: 7/10
The Gift of Gum: 6.4/10
Top 5:
5.
Selling Out
4.
New Leaf
3.
Best Frenemies
2.
Mrs Puff You're Fired
1.
Krusty Towers
Bottom 5:
5.
Hocus Pocus
4.
Driven To Tears
3.
Wigstruck
2.
Good Neighbors
1.
The Thing
Scoring:
Amazing: 17
Great: 7
Good: 6
Okay: 1
Mediocre: 4
Tolerable: 2
Bad: 1
Abysmal: 0
Additional Comments:
Ah, season 4. I’ve got a lot to say about this one, so strap in.
Widely regarded as “the beginning of the end” for a large portion of the fanbase (both casual and not), season 4 is the first season where more than just a couple episodes were controversial, to the point where the entire season’s quality is called into question. Often I find myself wondering if these broad opinions would be different had the first movie premiered after this season, because to to me, season 4 really doesn’t feel all that much different to seasons 2 or 3, and I think much of the “divide” that people see between this season and the first 3 is arbitrary and based entirely on high-profile changes behind-the-scenes, not because of any actual quality issues. I’ll get to this more in a second, but there’s something else I wanted to address first.
Some people say that this season was where the show “jumped the shark”, and I completely disagree with that statement. Jumping the shark implies that something has become unpopular and so an attention grab is performed to get it back to popularity. When thinking of the kind of place this show was at when this season premiered in 2005, I don’t see how this could apply. It was fresh off the heels of a theatrical release and was generating a ton of revenue for Nickelodeon because of its popularity. If this show ever “jumped the shark” (which I don’t even think it’s done that…I kind of don’t think that term even applies to really long-running shows like this anyway), it would’ve had to have been
much later. Like…a second movie-type later. But that’s an argument for another time.
So, back to talking about season 4 specifically. Like I said, I don’t think this season is all that different from seasons 2 or 3. People like to throw around the word “flanderization”, and personally I don’t see it here. I’d say the characterizations are pretty similar, or changes have been made but I don’t believe they’re “flanderizing” (such as SpongeBob acting a bit creepier, or Patrick more frequently being an a-hole). All of these characters are still as decently complex as they were at the beginning of the show, but perhaps certain sides to them are less frequently shown (but then new sides are amped up to make up for it).
I think in general, season 4 and especially season 5 are transitions seasons to the season 6-8 era of SpongeBob SquarePants, where season 4 is closer to what came before, and season 5 is closer to what came after. In terms of episode quality, I’d say season 4 is pretty close to the first 3 seasons. The only real difference is that season 4 has more duds, but season 4 is also more adventurous with its plots and comedy styles. It’s just that those plots and comedy styles don’t always work for me. And the math only supports my thoughts here. This season has the same number of “Amazing”-tier episodes as the first 3 seasons, and around the same number of “Good” tier (season 1 had 9, season 2 had 5, season 3 had 7). It just has less “Great”-tier episodes, and a few more in “Okay” and below. Also, my average episode rating for this season was 7.8. For seasons 1 and 3 it was 8.4, and for season 2 it was 8.3. The point difference is significant, but it’s not crazy. And since this season has more lower rated episodes, it makes sense that its average rating would be bogged down a little bit.
Figuring out the top 5 for this season was extremely difficult, because when I started thinking of my list, I felt like I had scored episodes incorrectly. I think a lot of the best episodes of this season are of very similar quality, which made ranking the top 5 so hard. “Krusty Towers” was pretty much guaranteed #1, but then after that, there was “Mrs. Puff You’re Fired”, “Squid Wood”, “Selling Out”, “Best Frenemies”, “New Leaf”, “Fear of a Krabby Patty” and “The Lost Mattress” all vying for spots, with those last 2 being episodes that I considered re-scoring.
The bottom 5 was less difficult, given that this season has the first instance of my “Bad” tier being used, and after my 2 (barely) “Tolerable”-tier episodes, I only had 4 episodes to choose from in my “Mediocre” tier. It’s also generally easier for me to say what episode I dislike more than another, rather than like more than another.
So, what do I think of season 4 just by itself, without considering all the wider context? Well, I quite like this season. I’m not very good at making full rankings, so I really only know that season 3 is my favorite, and season 2 is my second favorite, and season 1 is
probably my third favorite (this could be subject to change). I don’t know where season 4 would fall. Honestly, I rate it pretty similarly to how I rate season 1. It’s a great, amazing season with lots of really great episodes that I adore. But there are also some duds, just like any season. It’s only that these duds are a lot louder to some people. I’m saddened by how some people disparage this season so. The dip in quality is not so readily apparent to me. I love this season, just like I’ve loved every season before it, and it’s high time that we rethink our conceptions of the “eras” of
SpoongeBob SquarePants, starting with understanding that this season is a great one.
