Is it the end of the month already? Time for me to post something very unpopular.
Tentacle Vision: 9.2/10
I Heart Dancing: 9.3/10
Growth Spout: 9.4/10
Stuck in the Wringer: 0/10
Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy: 1.5/10
The Inside Job: 8.5/10
Greasy Buffoons: 9.4/10
Model Sponge: 9.3/10
Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful: 9.3/10
A Pal For Gary: 1/10
Yours Mine and Mine: 3.5/10
Kracked Krabs: 9.3/10
The Curse of Bikini Bottom: 8.7/10
Squidward in Clarinetland: 9.2/10
SpongeBob's Last Stand: 7.6/10
Back to the Past: 8.8/10
The Bad Guy Club For Villains: 7.7/10
A Day Without Tears: 8.4/10
Summer Job: 5.7/10
One Coarse Meal: 6.5/10
Gary in Love: 8/10
The Play's The Thing: 9.1/10
Rodeo Daze: 9.4/10
Gramma's Secret Recipe: 6/10
The Cent of Money: 9.3/10
The Monster Who Came to Bikini Bottom: 9.2/10
Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle: 9.1/10
The Curse of the Hex: 9.2/10
The Main Drain: 9.2/10
Trenchbillies: 7.6/10
Sponge-Cano!: 9.3/10
The Great Patty Caper: 9.3/10
That Sinking Feeling: 8.9/10
Karate Star: 5.7/10
Buried in Time: 8.3/10
Enchanted Tiki Dreams: 8.4/10
The Abrasive Side: 8.5/10
Earworm: 9.5/10
Hide and Then What Happens?: 4.6/10
Shellback Shenanigans: 9.2/10
The Masterpiece: 8.6/10
Whelk Attack: 9/10
You Don't Know Sponge: 3.8/10
Tunnel of Glove: 9.4/10
Krusty Dogs: 9.3/10
The Wreck of the Mauna Loa: 8.9/10
New Fish in Town: 8.4/10
Love That Squid: 7.8/10
Big Sister Sam: 4.4/10
Perfect Chemistry: 9.4/10
Top 5:
5. Tunnel of Glove
4. Greasy Buffoons
3. Rodeo Daze
2. Perfect Chemistry
1. Earworm
Bottom 5:
5. You Don't Know Sponge
4. Yours Mine and Mine
3. Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy
2. A Pal for Gary
1. Stuck in the Wringer
Scoring:
Amazing: 22
Great: 12
Good: 4
Okay: 2
Mediocre: 2
Tolerable: 2
Bad: 2
Abysmal: 3
Additional Comments:
In the biggest opinion overhaul since I started these reviews, I gotta say that I was so, so wrong about this season. For years I thought this was the worst season of this show, which always hurt my heart because 7 is my favorite number. But I was wrong. This is nowhere near as bad as the worst season of this show, which so far for me is season 6 (season 8, of course, has a chance to claim that title, as I know that everything past that will not be doing so).
So what is it that makes this season such a marked improvement over, at the very least, season 6? Well, for one thing, it’s not freaking boring. I really do think that some kind of learning from mistakes happened here, because as I’ve said many times, season 6 had a real problem with being boring and having moments of awkward humor. Season 7, on the other hand, is consistently interesting, and when it does use awkward humor, it does so very well, which to me shows that season 6 was kind of a testing grounds for this brand of humor.
Season 7 also keeps things interesting by finally doing something about the character dynamic problem present in season 6. With the elevated role of Plankton in this season, we saw many new interactions with him, such as in “Perfect Chemistry”, “Shellback Shenanigans”, or even “The Inside Job” to a certain extent. Additionally, this season took some existing character dynamics and played with them a little, such as in “Kracked Krabs” or “A Day Without Tears” or “The Abrasive Side”. All of these things keep the season fresh in my eyes, which was a huge problem in season 6.
Lastly, in general, the quality of the episodes this season was just much higher than what we’ve been seeing. Yes, this season had some real garbage, but what about the good stuff? Well, this season had so much of it! I mean, do y’all see all those Amazing-tier episodes? And they aren’t even 9/10s, they’re 9.x/10s, which is very impressive. And I know I’m a very positive watcher who doesn’t need that much to be pleased, but this is still such a clear improvement over what we’ve been getting. I mean…22 Amazing-tier episodes, that’s great! And I know this season had 49 segments, but still.
I think the biggest problem of this season is one that has been a long time coming, and that is the deterioration of the writing of SpongeBob and Patrick’s friendship. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on here, but we’ve been seeing fewer and fewer great episodes about these two’s friendship. I didn’t even like “The Secret Box” all that much, but I’d take a million of those over an episode like “Yours Mine and Mine” or “Hide and Then What Happens?” or “Big Sister Sam” or “You Don’t Know Sponge” or, god forbid, “Stuck in the Wringer”. I really do not understand what we’re supposed to gain from Patrick being SpongeBob’s worst friend, and it’s a detriment to both of their characters. Can we return to “Patrick SmartPants” or “The Battle of Bikini Bottom”, please? Heck, this season even has some good iterations of their friendship, like “Tunnel of Glove” or “Model Sponge” or “The Great Patty Caper”. It just seems like whenever their friendship has to hit a snag, all satisfying writing goes out of the window. And I know this isn’t a trend that will be ending at least for another season, so I’ll just grin and bear it, I suppose.
Although this season had such dizzying heights, it also had some real appalling lows. I won’t beat around the bush; this season had some real pieces of garbage. I mean…3 Abysmal-tier episodes. 2 Bad-tier episodes. What else do you want me to say? This season had my least favorite episode in the ENTIRE show, “Stuck in the Wringer”, and y’all should now be familiar with my hatred of that episode. And one of the reasons for this is the awful trend of Bikini Bottomites being literal garbage. The culprit for another one of them is the horrendous writing for SpongeBob, though luckily this didn’t become a trend. Comedy born of frustration doesn’t work. The sooner we learn this, the sooner I don’t have to keep handing out Abysmals and Bads.
However, even though this season had some real garbage, I think some episodes are just extremely overhated, most notably “One Coarse Meal”. “A Day Without Tears” and “Big Sister Sam” also fit this bill. I just think there’s so much negativity about this season that completely overlooks the fact that this is the strongest season of the show since season 5, maybe even season 4. I mean, just look at the math. The average episode rating for this season is an 8.1. Season 4’s was 7.8. Now, admittedly, I don’t put much stock in these averages, but I do think that they show just how much good was in this season. As a cohesive product, I think it’s on par with season 4, or slightly below it, same with season 5. Because, again, this season does have some real freaking duds. And also, one thing that’s important to note is that even though I really like this season, and have given it so many Amazing-tier ratings, I love it in a completely different way than I love other seasons of the show. With every season, this show changes, and so the ways I like it change too. I think that’s a kind of nuance that can be lost in these discussions sometimes.
In my overview of season 6, I said that season 7 needed to be more adventurous to be an improvement, and I think season 7 rose up to that challenge. To me, season 7 is the refined season. For one thing, like I’ve been saying, this season took a lot of the problems plaguing previous ones and improved them, such as the use of awkward humor, or character dynamics. Also, animation. I also think that in general, this season is quite the improvement over the previous, and shows some real sharpness and wit that this show had been lacking. I’m aware that this is a woefully unpopular opinion, but I don’t care, season 7 is a great season. The question is, as we reach the final season of the infamous era, will season 8 continue this trend? Or will it get bad? Let’s check back here on June 30th, okay?
Dancing
