Good Neighbors (SpongeBob)-The Animated Critic #1

“The title is a lie. The neighbors nor the episode are any good.”

Show-SpongeBob SquarePants

Episode Title-Good Neighbors

Airdate-May 20th 2005

Season 4

Episode 64b

Hello my name is Evan A.K.A. The Animated Critic. Some of you may recognize me. I use to have a blog where I reviewed animation that has since been taking down due to poor quality. I eventually created a show on YouTube....which I haven’t updated in almost 1 year and I really need to get going on that. Either way I decided to restart the blog as writing is my passion. It’s my favorite part of making the videos. So with the blog I can just write and not have to worry about editing voice samples or music or the billion other things that need to be done. It’ll be a more laid back experience, but it’ll still be fun. Oh, but enough about me. We need to talk about SpongeBob. I’m sure you’ve all seen other reviews of SpongeBob episodes, so you should know the history of the show’s quality. It started off as one of my favorite toons of all time during seasons 1-3. In season 4 the quality vastly decreased (well, some people say season 3 started the decline in quality, but it was much more noticeable in season 4. I personally love season 3 though). It only got worse and worse until the last half of season 9. Stephen Hillenberg, the creator who left before season 4 along with most of the other staff from 1-3, returned in the midst of what was looking to be another awful season. And while the show hasn’t lived up to seasons 1-3 yet, there are some amazing episodes within this new era of SpongeBob history. It’s weird, I’ve never seen a show go so bad, only to pick itself back up. Either way, SpongeBob has been covered to death within the animation community. I frequently talked about it on my old blog, and plan to talk about it a decent amount here and on the show. Just cause I like talking about SpongeBob. The problem is a lot of episodes are bad for similar reasons, or have been covered a million times by others much more popular than myself. So it probably won’t be a frequent thing. Either way I do want to talk about this episode. Just cause it’s my personal least favorite of the bunch, and also where I believe the seasonal rot started. Also it was the first one I reviewed on my old blog. So I feel like it needs to be the start of this new one. Without further ado, lets dig into Good Neighbors. 

So this episode starts with a rather nice shot of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward sleeping. Enjoy these few moments of silence while you have them, you’ll miss them by the time it’s over. The plot of this episode kicks off when Spongebob breaks into Squidwards house. Squidward kicks him out. We then get some annoying filler with Spongebob and Patrick. So the first problem is that this episode is too dang loud. Loudness can be funny if used right, or if your actually saying something funny, but here it’s loudness just to be loud. Cause hack writers think that if it’s not loud and hyperactive kids won’t pay attention. Sponegbob and Patrick are the worse when it comes to this. They’re like this for a good chunk of the episode. The reason I say this is where the seasonal rot began is because this episode, while debatably isn’t the first bad episode, does set in stone a lot of trends that would happen in future seasons of SpongeBob that fans did not take kindly to. It characterizes SpongeBob and Patrick as annoying idiots first of all. Don’t get me wrong. They’re both not supposed to be the sharpest knives in the drawer. Patrick is a downright idiot while SpongeBob is just naive, but the older seasons made those usually annoying traits charming with some clever writing and jokes. Here, and in many future episodes, the two are just downright obnoxious, loud, and annoying. Nothing charming is presented. Nothing funny is done with these traits. Just annoyance. This is also one of the earliest Squidward Torture Porns. A weird name I know. It pretty much describes an episode that’s made to abuse the daylights out of poor Squidward. Yes, older seasons did this. However, older seasons did something this and many future episodes didn’t. The older episodes gave us a reason to want to see Squidward get hurt. In the older seasons Squidward only got punished when he deserved it. Culture Shock is probably my favorite example. Squidward acts like an egotistical douche during the entire episode, and goes on and on about how he will bring class to Bikini Bottom. So his punishment for being that way is the audience not liking his show, but liking SpongeBob’s, who Squidward originally didn’t let perform. So what heinous crime did Squidward commit in this episode? Not letting SpongeBob break into his house? They kinda make SpongeBob the designated hero, despite how unlikeable he is in this episode. Designated Hero is a trope that describes a character who’s put on an untouchable pedestal by the writers despite being annoying or unlikeable. That’s SpongeBob in this episode. And anyone who dares conflict with him, no matter how right they may be, are going to be punished. Even if they don’t deserve it. Ok, we still have plenty of time left, let’s see if they redeem themselves. So what heinous act is Squidward committing now? Wanting to enjoy his day off without the two little annoyances getting in the way. What a monster. So of course they punish this by having the annoyances torture Squidward throughout his entire day off. Listen, if you’re gonna copy the formula used in Culture Shock or Artist Unknown you have to make Squidward do something unlikeable that way when you punish him we get catharsis from it. That’s what made those older episodes work. All Squidward did was want to enjoy his weekend, which isn’t bad. Heck, many of us can probably relate to Squidward which is something you don’t want when doing this type of episode. He didn’t even say anything mean to the two that was uncalled for. So mix the fact that they’re doing this episode type completely wrong with how annoying Spongebob and Patrick are and you have a recipe for disaster. So Squidward constantly gets annoyed and bugged by these two because they want to form a secret society of Good Neighbors. They eventually manage to take over Squidward’s entire day off. Squidward tries to be positive though as he still has a massage. Whoops, we almost threw him a bone. Lets fix that right now. There we go. Now Spongebob and Patrick have taken over Squidwards massage. The reason is because they wanted to see if the masseuse was really a masseuse or an assassin. Why would he be an assassin? I can see Patrick doing this, but this goes way beyond SpongeBob’s usual naivety. Another trend future episodes would use, character flanderazation. Squidward finally snaps on them, and it’s a beautiful moment. He calls them out for being terrible pests that should probably just rot somewhere and....ok, I embellished it a bit. But it is a great moment, because they actually deserve it. Aw, but SpongeBob and Patrick are sad. So? After all the annoyance they put both me and Squidward through who cares. Well, it seems the writers can’t let them be sad or learn a lesson. Cause that’d be smart. The climax of the episode starts when Squidward gets a home security system and installs it to keep the two pests out. They manage to get in anyway, however they’re there to apologize so the system fails to activate as it doesn’t detect a threat, despite the fact Squidward keeps telling it to act. Man, he got ripped off. However after the system gets damaged during one of Squidward’s fits of rage the machine turns the house into....

A...Gundam House?

A Gundam House?

Ok, I know this is a show where sea creatures talk, and a round pineapple house has corners on the inside somehow, but this....this is dumb. 

Listen, despite its absurdity SpongeBob has its own set of rules and logic. That’s what makes me able to stretch my suspension of disbelief. This doesn’t work...how is this a thing.....uh....ugh....

I’m speechless. What the heck?...

So the Gundam House kicks Squidward out of his own house. Cause Bikini Bottom apparently doesn’t have a fair god. Squidward continues to be positive though, as now at least he’s away from Spongebob and Patrick, who were carried off by the Gundam House, and he can enjoy the rest of his day. Except, whoops. We almost gave Squidward another happy moment. We’ll fix that. So the *Sigh*...Gundam House destroys Bikini Bottom. Not even the military can stop it. I must say this is one heck of a security system. Eventually Spongebob and Patrick are able to find the Stop Switch. So they stop the robot house, and it lands right on Squidward. Which is confusing.

As you can see I made a highly detailed chart describing the issue.

So it went off to the right of Squidward....how did it get to the other side? Ah, who cares?

So Squidwards Day off is now officially over, it was ruined by the two dweebs. At least there’s other days off though. Psyche, the writers would never give Squidward any semblance of hope. Because it was Squidward’s house that destroyed the town he’s forced into community service every week for the rest of his life, on his day off. At least he’s away from the two pests though. Psyche again, Spongebob and Patrick have the same order despite the fact that they stopped the machine. Isn’t that so funny? 

No? Well I agree. This episode sucks. It’s not funny, Spongebob and Patrick are annoying pests, and it does the whole Squidward torture plot completely wrong. This episode unfortunately set a lot of trends a lot of future episodes during the seasonal rot era would use. This is why I and many others consider it the start of the seasonal rot for Spongebob. How the mighty have fallen...and then picked themselves up again. Either way this episode is still a poor excuse of a dud for a show that before this had such a great track record. 

Best Part-Squidward yelling at SpongeBob and Patrick for being the annoying pests that they are.

Worst Part-The last minute or so. 

With that said I hope you enjoyed the first episode of The Animated Critic. I appreciate you reading, and I’ll see you all next time. 

Peace. 

Upcoming Reviews:

Next Animated Critic-Dunno, some sort of Anime. 

(Probably Date A Live Episode 1)

Next Anime Experience-Sweetness and Lightning

Next Evan Vs. Disney-Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Evan-“And with that, the deed is done.” Evan said to himself as he posted his first blog review. “Hopefully these blog posts will keep me busy when I can’t work on the show.” No one responded to his chatter though, as there was nobody to respond to it. Don’t get it wrong, he was in his schools cafeteria so there were people everywhere, but he didn’t want to associate with any of them. He was content with being by himself. Sitting at the wide lunch table, meant for 20 or so people, all by himself. 

Evan-“This is the life.” Evan lied to himself. 

Now, despite Evan’s wishes, there are those that still wished to get to know Evan. The lunch table directly next to Evan consisted of a group of 4 people. Naomi was the only girl. Short brunette hair, and thick frame glasses. The jacket she wore was tye-dyed and she usually wore jeans. Bradley was her boyfriend. In Evan’s silence he usually analyzes his classmates, and noticed that he seemed to be the class clown. He had glasses as well, plus ironically more jewelry than Naomi. He had 2 necklaces, one a bullet and the other Thor’s hammer. He was usually seen in a jersey and jeans. Just what was comfortable to him, Evan guessed. Sam and Rob were currently in the middle of an argument. Evan noticed both of them are kind of hot heads with very strong opinions, usually opposite from each other. Rob was the slacker of the group, skipping school, missing assignments. He also always spoke his mind, no matter who got hurt. Sam on the other hand seemed to be more empathetic, and a whole lot more hard working. He currently was the only of the group with a job. Evan noticed he was staring when Naomi looked over at him. He quickly turned back to his computer and began pretending to be at work. 

Naomi-“You guys ever think that Evan secretly wants to sit with us.”

Sam-“Why would you tell the principal he sucks!?”

Rob-“Because he does.”

Sam-“You’re such an idiot.”

Naomi-“Nevermind.” She sighed. 

Bradley-“You forgot that when those two get into an argument they block out the world around them better than a person with a pair of headphones at max volume ever could.”

Naomi-“What do you think?”

Bradley-“Maybe, he does always tell us though that he’d rather keep to himself, and work on those reviews he does. What does he review again?”

Naomi-“Anime...I think.”

Bradley-“Hentai.”

The two giggled and the bell rang. Rob and Sam, still in the midst of their yelling, even heard it. 

Sam-“We’ll finish this after school.”

Bradley-“What are you two even arguing about.”

The two froze. 

Rob and Sam-“Uh....”

Sam-“Guess we won’t be finishing this then.”

Bradley-“Oh, knowing you two, you’ll find something new to fight about.”

The four split up, saying bye to each other, and went their separate ways to their next class. Evan packed up his laptop, and closed his bag. He then made his way down the filled up hallways. Alone in the crowd. No one around. Wouldn’t have it any other way, he once again lied to himself.