Here we see more of how skilled
Arnold is at sports, in this case basketball.
In fact, he knows so much about it that he’s got it down to an art if
you can believe it. This is why it’s
very unfortunate that he’s placed in such a mean and unforgiving environment of
a basketball team. All the meanness
comes from the man in charge, Coach Wittenberg who’s mostly completely unaware
that he’s teaching the team poor basketball tactics, namely always passing the
ball to his son, Tucker. Now, Tucker
isn’t exactly the best basketball player out there, especially when making foul
shots. Basically, this whole thing is a
case of favoritism, and Coach Wittenberg doesn’t grasp how wrong this is. His real jerky moment comes in when Arnold
doesn’t pass the ball to Tucker, despite being for good reason, and he blows up
at Arnold for not following the “rules” and makes him sit out of the game as a
benchwarmer. It’s really annoying as to
how dense Coach Wittenberg is in this scene.
If he wants to win so badly, he should get in his head that there are
times when his son just won’t be able to get the ball. Some may see it as him loving his son too
much, but to me, he’s hard to get behind if these flaws are going to make him
disrespectful to the other players.
Anyway, regarding Tucker’s inability to make foul shots, he learns the
way to do it from Arnold, and like I said earlier, he has the sport down to an
art. He actually gives Tucker Zen advice
about the ball, which includes meditations while standing on top of the
ball. This may seem crazy, but knowing
me, I admire a unique perspective of a common element of life. The training gets Tucker to “trust the ball”
and he’s able to do foul shots a lot better during a game. However, the poor treatment of Arnold still
doesn’t stop when Tucker flat out says to Coach Wittenberg that he taught
himself to get better at basketball without giving Arnold credit. It’s bad enough that Arnold was unfairly
banned from playing, but him not getting the credit he deserves is really
unwarranted. I get that Tucker wants to
impress his father, but from what we saw of him to this point, he seemed too
moral to do something like this.
Thankfully, things work out for Arnold in the end when Tucker fakes a
sprain, and Arnold wins the game for his team and Tucker gives him credit for
helping him leading to a change in heart for Coach Wittenberg. Still, the unfair punishment Arnold endures
bring the enjoyment down, and this cartoon as a whole becomes pointless because
we never see Tucker again after this, but he honestly wasn’t very interesting
anyway. So, there’s some glaring issues
with the entertainment of this cartoon, but it’s still decent for what it is. 7/10
Cool
Jerk
You know how people always say that
you shouldn’t talk to strangers and that some people aren’t always what they
seem? That’s an important thing to
remember in life, and this cartoon demonstrates that lesson greatly, but they
also seem to enforce a stereotype that anyone who acts cool and is popular is a
bad guy. The story features Arnold
getting the attention of a guy said to be the coolest person in town, Frankie
G. He acts all friendly to Arnold and
even takes him for a ride on his motorcycle.
He also takes him out of school for a day of fun, shows him his home,
and even considers him to be a part of his group. Everyone at school only cares about how
Arnold hanging out with the cool kid makes him cool while only Gerald actually
learns more about Frankie to get the hint that Arnold shouldn’t be trusting
him. This is where we get to the biggest
problem of the cartoon. Frankie’s
moments with Arnold really seem genuinely nice and it really feels like he
considers him to be his friend, but at the same time, he’s a guy Arnold doesn’t
even know, yet he sticks by him over everyone else he knows in his life. Now with the reveal that he’s bad news, he
still sticks with Frankie, believing that there’s some good in him. It just seems so
unlike Arnold to not listen to reason and trust people he actually knows as
opposed to this dude who’s a total stranger to him. Honestly though, his behavior would be
tolerable if Frankie really does consider Arnold a friend. Like I said, their moments together really
are nice, and Arnold even says that Frankie is like the big brother he never
had. Instead, we find out that Frankie
really is scum when he and his gang reveal that they befriended Arnold to steal
a tweeter on account that he has the right head to fit through the window. This moment just destroys everything that
could’ve been great about this friendship between Arnold and Frankie. I must ask, why spend so much time with these
guys acting like the best of buds if you’re just going to make him the bad guy? Now, we’re left with Frankie as a one-dimensional
bad guy with nothing about him to like, and any depth he could’ve had is now
gone. Yes, Arnold goes back with his old
friends and we’re left to learn to be careful of who to trust, but Frankie and
his gang never get the comeuppance they deserve, so the conclusion is not as
satisfying as it could be. With all this
in mind, despite some nice and fun moments, for mostly being built on
non-existent character depth, I have to name this as one of the show’s weakest
entries. 5/10
The Rankings
1. Haunted Train
2. Stoop Kid
3. Arnold’s Hat
4. Helga’s Makeover
5. Mugged
6. The Baseball
7. The List
8. The Vacant Lot
9. Downtown as Fruits
10. The Old Building
11. Field Trip
12. Roughin’ It
13. 6th Grade Girls
14. The Little Pink Book
15. Arnold as Cupid
16. Snow
17. Eugene’s Bike
18. Door #16
19. Heat
20. Benchwarmer
21. Operation Ruthless
22. Cool Jerk
Be sure to stay tune for the review of the 12th episode of this season: "Das Subway/Wheezin' Ed."
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