The Loud House (Season 1)
Basic Premise
Throughout the 2000s straight into the 2010s, Nickelodeon
didn’t really seem to have very appealing series, which is a shame considering
how much of a powerhouse of entertainment they were in the previous decade with
shows like Hey Arnold, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s
Modern Life, Rugrats, and even the first three seasons of SpongeBob Squarepants, which hold up
today. After those shows, Nickelodeon’s
programming became mostly boring, stupid, mean-spirited, or just downright
disgusting and not worth your time with shows like Fanboy and Chum-Chum, Sanjay and Craig, and Breadwinners. Not to
mention, they’ve gone on to run shows like SpongeBob
and Fairly Oddparents into the ground
by having them run too long and lose what made them so beloved in the
past. Sure, in this time period they’ve
released the two shows of the Avatar
franchise, but those great shows are far and few between the bad shows. Then, in 2015, Nickelodeon released a show
that was actually critically-acclaimed called Harvey Beaks suggesting that the network was slowly getting out of
its slump. I trust that it’s very good, but I haven’t
seen it due to lack of interest (maybe someday I will). What did interest me though was the subject
of the coming set of reviews which is the Nicktoon that followed Harvey Beaks that deserves all the praise it’s gotten, The Loud House.
This
is a simple slice-of-life show where the stories are very basic and grounded in
reality. However, much like something
like Peanuts, it gets a lot of mileage out of its basic life stories and creates
something that’s funny, relatable, endearing, and overall universally
appealing. To be honest, it’s pretty
easy to see that when you read what the show’s all about. It follows an 11-year-old boy named
Lincoln, who goes through life as the only boy in a family with 10 sisters each
with their own distinct personality.
They include Lori, the bossy, boy-crazy teenager, Leni, the dumb blond,
Luna, the aspiring rocker, Luan, the incurable prankster and comedian, Lynn,
the sports nut, Lucy, the spooky little girl, Lana, the handywoman, Lola, the pageant
queen, Lisa, the child prodigy, and Lily, the baby. With characters this distinctive and rich
with personality, one can tell that they can really do a lot with even the
simplest of plots. Sure enough they do
which helps in making this a great achievement from Nickelodeon, which means a
lot now. However, to see just how great
of an achievement this show is, we’ll be going through the many short cartoons
that make up this show’s first season; BTW, it’s honestly hard to believe it's only a year old. Anyway, we better
get started exploring the life of Nickelodeon’s biggest family; brace
yourselves, things will get chaotic.
Now on with the reviews:
Left
in the Dark
Not only is this a strong premiere cartoon, it’s a really dang great cartoon in general. At its core is an incredibly simple story about Lincoln trying to beat his sisters to the TV and later heading down to the dark basement to fix everything when the power goes out. That doesn’t sound like much, but thanks to the diverse cast of characters the story feels a lot bigger than it really is. We get a great sense of what the sisters’ personalities are like near the beginning when Lincoln cleverly appeals to their interests so the way to the TV will be clear. However, they really get a chance to shine when they head down to fix the power like Lori trying to make her authority as the oldest one clear by being in charge, Luan seizing every opportunity to crack a joke, Lisa sneaking in her experiments, and Lucy popping up out of nowhere scaring everyone. They all make what’s happening a lot of fun, but this cartoon also shows how heartfelt this show can get. It’s shown when Lincoln steps in to do whatever he can to protect his sisters from whatever horror is in the basement using what he knows from his favorite show. Its real impact though comes in at the end when, after all that he went through, Lincoln ends up missing his show, but his sisters are quick to console him and remind him of how great he was in the basement, showing that despite how chaotic living together can be, the Loud siblings really do love each other. Thanks to its showcase of personality, humor and heart, this cartoon is a great watch and one that demonstrates how great this series can be. 9.5/10
Get the Message
What happens in this cartoon is initiated by Lincoln’s most
rocky sisterly relationship, which is with Lori. While Lori is not a bad character at all, she
doesn’t come off as one of the most enjoyable Loud siblings for being too bossy
when enforcing rules, not being the most considerate of the feelings of others,
and mostly focusing on her relationship with her boyfriend,
Bobby, though to be fair, the boyfriend part of her character is pretty enjoyable for how over-the-top her feelings for him are presented. All these traits are on display
when Lincoln unintentionally wanders into her room while playing with a toy,
and when Lori accidentally breaks the toy and doesn’t seem to care, prompting
Lincoln to send her a mean message.
Later on, however, Lori does slowly start to show off her good side by
buying Lincoln a new toy, and even if her reveal doesn’t sound genuine, it’s
admittedly a good start to even more of Lori’s good side we see throughout this
season. The rest of the cartoon features
Lincoln trying to delete his mean message from Lori’s phone as a result of what
she did. This whole plot is fine and
good, but it’s not the show’s most engaging ones. This is mostly due to an explanation of the
plan that could’ve been cut out, many moments of Lincoln’s friend, Clyde,
crushing on Lori which can get kind of creepy and would pop up frequently in many
future episodes, and Lori not seeming sorry enough for what she did to make the
audience really care if Lincoln deletes the message or not. There’s honestly more entertainment from the
small moments of other sisters, like Lana and Lola acting as hall monitors,
Luna using her music to censor Lincoln’s message as well as Lori’s rant at the
end of the cartoon, and Lucy showing up in the vent leading to Lori’s room to
read one of her poems. There’s enough
material here to make this cartoon enjoyable, but certain factors prevent me
from calling it a highlight. 7/10
The Ranking
1. Left in the Dark
2. Get the Message
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of the season, featuring questionable morals of what it means when a girl picks on a boy in "Heavy Meddle," and an instance of embarrassing ones family leading to life-scarring hatred in "Making the Case."
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