Accidents Will Happen: 9.4/10
The Other Patty: 8.5/10
Drive Thru: 6.7/10
The Hot Shot: 6.2/10
A Friendly Game: 5/10
Sentimental Sponge: 7.7/10
Frozen Face-Off: 9.1/10
Squidward's School For Grown-Ups: 4.9/10
Oral Report: 5.3/10
Sweet and Sour Squid: 7.5/10
The Googly Artist: 6.8/10
A SquarePants Family Vacation: 8/10
Patrick's Staycation: 6.2/10
Walking the Plankton: 8.3/10
Mooncation: 8.9/10
Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation: 9.4/10
Ghoul Fools: 9.5/10
Mermaid Man Begins: 8/10
Plankton's Good Eye: 7.6/10
Barnacle Face: 9.2/10
Pet Sitter Pat: 3.4/10
House Sittin' For Sandy: 8.4/10
Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom: 5.6/10
Bubble Troubles: 9.3/10
The Way of the Sponge: 9/10
The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom: 9.3/10
Bubble Buddy Returns: 8.8/10
Restraining SpongeBob: 8.3/10
Fiasco!: 7.7/10
Are You Happy Now?: 8.8/10
Planet of the Jellyfish: 9.6/10
Free Samples: 8.6/10
Home Sweet Rubble: 8.5/10
Karen 2.0: 8.3/10
InSPONGEiac: 7.6/10
Face Freeze!: 6/10
Glove World R.I.P.: 7.8/10
Squiditis: 7.9/10
Demolition Doofus: 9.2/10
Treats!: 7.4/10
For Here or To Go: 8.7/10
It's a SpongeBob Christmas!: 9.4/10
Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!: 6.2/10
Chum Fricasse: 9.4/10
The Good Krabby Name: 9.5/10
Move It or Lose It: 6.7/10
Hello Bikini Bottom!: 9.3/10
Top 5:
5. It's a SpongeBob Christmas!
4. Mr. Krabs Takes A Vacation
3. The Good Krabby Name
2. Planet of the Jellyfish
1. Ghoul Fools
Bottom 5:
5. Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom
4. Oral Report
3. A Friendly Game
2. Squidward's School For Grown-Ups
1. Pet Sitter Pat
Scoring:
Amazing: 14
Great: 13
Good: 8
Okay: 7
Mediocre: 3
Tolerable: 1
Bad: 1
Abysmal: 0
Additional Comments:
What can I say about season 8? I guess the first thing I can do is look back at the questions I asked in my season 7 review. In that review, I said that this season had the potential to continue the trend started by that season, and that trend was improvement and refinement, and a return to adventure. And after watching season 8, I can say with confidence that this season did indeed continue that trend. While I like this season less than season 7, we’re nowhere near the lows of season 6, and I don’t think we ever will be again.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but much like seasons 4 and 5, I think season 8 is a transition season. For one thing, this season had some big changes over the course of these 47 episode segments. This season started off relatively poorly, and ended in a very strong spot. At first, season 8 felt like it was rehashing season 6 nonsense, but it eventually got over that around “Pet Sitter Pat” and started being really good, with of course some duds here and there.
Another reason why I say that season 8 is a transition season is because more than ever, I’m starting to see the vibes of “modern SpongeBob” (AKA 9B—present, which may be an overgeneralization but I’m not very familiar with seasons 12 and 13 so I’ll keep to this generalization for now). I see it in the animation, which I swear is becoming more expressive and more fluid, even if we haven’t fully switched over to the season 9B+ craziness. Additionally, just like in season 7, we can see it with the writing. Season 8 is a very adventurous season, in my opinion. How many times do I talk about character interactions and dynamics? And I do so for good reason, because I think this season really keeps up the trend of branching out a little bit when it comes to characters that interact with each other. Like Squidward and Plankton, that was awesome! Or even just seeing Karen and Plankton’s dynamic some more was a good choice. I also think it was a good choice to cut back a little bit on the Patrick appearances here. He still has many unnecessary ones, but I think that he’s starting to be used much more in moderation than he has been in season 6 or 7.
The average episode rating for season 8 was a 7.8/10, which, to remind everyone, is the same as both season 4 and season 5. Again, these averages are more used for comparison purposes, so dare I say that season 8 is similar in quality to both of these seasons? I’d for sure say it for season 5. Season 4 is a different story, though I think it would be a valid argument to say so. I think I’d prefer to watch season 4 over season 8 though, but that’s because I simply cannot stand a boring episode, and season 8 has them a lot more than season 4 does.
As always, I’ve gotta give season 8 a name that I think describes what the season means to me. This time around, I’m going with the Twinkling Season. And I know that that name sounds weird and unserious, but hear me out. Twinkle is a synonym for waver, which is another word I thought of calling this season. But the connotations of that word are negative, and there’s a few other reasons I chose ‘twinkle’, which I’ll get to in a second. I think this season wavers a lot in deciding what it wants to be, which is another reason why it’s so clearly a transition season to me. Like I said before, this season brings back a lot of things that season 7 had done away with, like highly boring episodes. But this season also does a lot of things characteristic of later seasons, like more adventurous plots and character uses. So it’s kinda like it’s trying to anchor to one of these vibes, and can’t decide which one. And I also use ‘twinkling’ because this season is undoubtedly a hidden gem. I mean, it’s lumped into the “bad era” (which at this point I can definitively say is one “bad” season), so that’s already reason enough to say it’s underrated. But not only that, but some people consider it to be the worst season, which I cannot allow to happen (I know, everyone has their own opinions, hush). This season is good. It is! And it gets a bad rap for episodes that aren’t even that bad. I mean the worst episode of this season was “Pet Sitter Pat”, which to be clear I did not like, but it’s not even Abysmal-tier. I’d say season 7 is more underrated than this one is, but it’s decently close.