This cartoon formally introduces Helga’s older sister, Olga. The thing about Olga is that she’s pretty much as perfect as a person can get. She’s very kind to everyone around her, has a lot of awards and accomplishments as previously shown in “Spelling Bee,” always gets straight As, and has many more qualities that make her the favorite daughter in the Pataki family. With this in mind, it’s easy to see that all of Olga’s elements of perfection would have a negative effect on Helga. It’s been established that her bad home life involves her family neglecting her or trying to build her up to be like her older sister even down to the point of calling her Olga. With the way she’s brought up, it’s no wonder why Helga comes off as mean. A family who openly favors one sibling over another is never destined to result in a lot of good including how the neglected sibling turns out. This point is proven when you look at the plot of this cartoon where Olga returns to her parents’ home for a break from college and everything she does makes Helga feel inferior about lacking the perfection of her older sister. Helga then gets a chance at revenge when she gets a hold of Olga’s grades and changes one of them from an A to a B+. This one step of imperfection is enough to break Olga who’s moved to literally lie in bed and cry over her failure to uphold her perfect status. Then, the cartoon goes on to focus on a set of scenes of Helga enjoying the treatment her parents usually reserve for Olga by taking the items they use to cheer Olga up after the older sister turns them down out of sadness. I know Helga’s clearly in the wrong and I shouldn’t be fine with her enjoying her sister’s genuine pain and sorrow, but given what she puts up with because of Olga’s success, her behavior and actions are both understandable and watchable. Plus, after realizing her plan did not stop her parents from favoring Olga over her and a dream involving Arnold convincing her to do the right thing, Helga does have a change of heart on the matter and tells Olga the truth about her grades. When she does, we get a very nice moment between the two sisters when Olga reveals that she doesn’t really enjoy the display of perfection she puts on for her parents and that Helga’s lucky they don’t notice her. It’s a great reveal and insight to Olga’s character, but it’s sadly not fleshed out much in future seasons with Olga being shown to enjoy her perfection. Still, in the context of this cartoon, it gives her some good depth and is a nice concluding scene. In the end, we’re left with an insightful cartoon that further explores Helga’s home life with a reminder that it’s strong family bonds that triumph everything. 9.5/10
Sally’s Comet
There’s a time in our lives when we have certain aspirations to do something and will go to any lengths to make it happen. When you’re as old as Arnold and his friends, these aspirations could be to see something special, and in the case of this cartoon, Arnold and Gerald are shown to stop at nothing to get a chance to see Sally’s Comet, a natural phenomenon that passes by every 70 years. Not only does seeing a comet sound cool, but the fact that it’s an once-in-a-lifetime event makes Arnold and Gerald’s actions to try and see it worth getting behind. The cartoon has them do everything to make seeing the comet happen. They go through several boxes of cereal to earn enough box tops and get a good telescope, eagerly wait for the mailman for several days until the telescope finally arrives, and most of all, get the city to turn off their lights so the comet will be shown. The first two parts of the plan to see Sally’s Comet were easy compared to the latter part. Since most of the neighborhood doesn’t really know or care about the comet, it really is a challenge to get everyone to turn off their lights. Still, these kids are shown to have some real ambition to do what they set out to do here as they come up with great solutions to the problem. They try going somewhere else to see the comet, and when that doesn’t work since other people who knew about the comet jam the roads and fill up the mountain area, a cleverer plan develops. When they hear how popular the local radio station is, they decide to go there to suggest announcing the comet to the listeners. Even though they’re denied, they humorously get the message out behind the DJ’s back, though it’s most likely Gerald’s announcing skills that really win the day for them. Ultimately, the message gets across to the people and all of Arnold and Gerald’s efforts are rewarded with a chance to see Sally’s Comet in all its glory at the end. It does make the people of the city kind of fickle since it took a radio show and not simple requests to convince them to cooperate in making the comet visible, but the cartoon is too good for this point to really ruin everything, and it’s still great that everything Arnold, Gerald, and even Grandpa who actually saw the comet when he was younger, went through get a good payoff. This is a very basic story that may not be as engaging as other cartoons we’ve covered, but good characters, a well-told story, and solid entertainment and relatability make it worth watching. 9/10
The Rankings
1. Pigeon Man
2. Haunted Train
3. Stoop Kid
4. Arnold’s Hat
5. Wheezin’ Ed
6. Spelling Bee
7. Helga’s Makeover
8. Mugged
9. Tutoring Torvald
10. The Baseball
11. Olga Comes Home
12. The List
13. Das Subway
14. The Vacant Lot
15. Downtown as Fruits
16. The Old Building
17. Field Trip
18. Sally’s Comet
19. Roughin’ It
20. Gerald Comes Over
21. 6th Grade Girls
22. The Little Pink Book
23. Arnold as Cupid
24. Snow
25. Eugene’s Bike
26. Door #16
27. Heat
28. Benchwarmer
29. Operation Ruthless
30. Cool Jerk
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 16th episode of the season: "Abner Come Home/Sewer King."
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