'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 17: ARGGH! You For Real?/Garage Banned

ARGGH! You For Real?

One of my favorite things about TV shows and movies, especially animated ones, is that the sky’s the limit for something grand and creative.  Whether it’s to tell a big epic story, or create a unique vision of the world, or even to exaggerate common occurrences in life, there’s a great sense of imagination or different points of view that sticks with you for life.  This is why I feel sorry for those who don’t like something just for being unrealistic. Everyone has their own taste in entertainment, but this scenario to me feels like these people don't understand that fiction has its appeal too.  Not helping is that this cartoon falls into this trap.  Past cartoons have shown Lincoln and Clyde to be huge fans of the TV show, ARGGH (Academy of Really Good Ghost Hunters) and now we have a cartoon dedicated to it.  What’s more, the show is going to be filmed in their hometown, and of course the boys are excited for it.  However, when they’re mistaken for crew members, they’re roped into working the special effects for the show and in the process find out that everything they’ve seen on the show is fake.  First of all, you have to wonder how this is such a surprise to Lincoln and Clyde.  You’d think they’d know that things like ghost hunting aren’t real at their age.  Then there’s the biggest problem of the cartoon.  Now that Lincoln and Clyde know that the show is fake, they completely abandon their love for it.  It’s not like the people behind the show betrayed them after they took its message to heart.  They just see that the show is simply fictitious, therefore, it’s bad and worth deleting every recorded episode over.  I find this way of thinking too extreme and pretty insulting.  Just because something isn’t real doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed.  A lot of my favorite shows aren’t real, and I’ll enjoy them for the rest of my life.  Lincoln and Clyde look so closed-minded for believing shows have to be realistic to be enjoyed.  Actually, Clyde’s the most problematic of the two when learning the truth about ARGGH leads him to abandon all childish beliefs that he SHOULD be past.  Though again, something not real shouldn’t be disliked, even if you should have a sense of knowledge of reality for a healthy life.  This belief gets so ridiculous that the only thing that snaps Clyde out of his funk is a staged ghost hunt that appears to be real, and he goes back to believing in everything.  It would’ve been better if he just accepted that some things aren’t real, but still found the strength to enjoy them. Now, with him thinking everything is real, he appears to be dumber than ever, and I can’t picture him turning out healthy in the future.  That said, the third act has plenty of strong moments that prevent it from being bad.  Hunter Specter, the main character of ARGGH has an endearing dilemma of legitimately wanting to hunt ghosts and feels bad that TV guidelines means he has to lie about his hunts.  It helps show that even when shows do questionable things, the people behind the scenes aren’t always happy about it, contrary to certain reviewers who blame writers and artists for a show or movie turning out bad might say.  Plus, even with the problematic portions of the plot, there’s a lot of heart through Lincoln pulling off all stops to help his friend.  Overall, this cartoon has some frustrating ideologies that miss a point to fiction's appeal, but there are enough good-hearted moments that spare it from being worse than it is. 6.5/10

Garage Banned

 

This show is no stranger to having characters want to prove that they’re all grown up to do certain things, and this cartoon continues the trend to engaging effect.  As the oldest Loud, Lori feels like she should be treated to certain privileges. In this case, she wants to be allowed to have her own space away from her siblings especially when they’re constantly bugging her with requests like Lana bunking with her due to nightmares (which adds to her endearment formed this season), Lola needing help getting tangles out of her hair, and constant fights between siblings she needs to break up.  This may sound harsh, but given how constantly up in her business her siblings are at the start of the cartoon, it feels like she earns the audience’s sympathy.  She soon gets a chance at her own place when her parents allow her to move into the garage.  At first, Lori’s time alone feels ideal to how most people would view living on their own with her doing all her favorite activities.  However, it literally isn’t long before she realizes that living on one’s own isn’t as easy as it seems when she gets through her activities much too quickly, and when it’s bedtime, she’s constantly frightened by the strange noises from outside.  The interesting thing about this is that in addition to Lori realizing how solo living can really be, though there could be better hardships for her to endure as opposed to mostly fear from the outside, we also get scenes of how hard the other kids have it without Lori around.  Each one of them ties into an issue brought up in the beginning with Lana not feeling as safe, Lola completely losing her hair while trying to untangle it in a hilarious scene, and no one being able to settle the sibling fights, not even Lincoln.  Basically, both sides of the issue offer good reasons for Lori to want to move back in.  While the kids are actually respectful of Lori’s space, which makes them likable, it’s Lori who comes up with various stunts to convince everyone that she can’t stay in the garage.  The attempts are fine enough on their own, and the family comes up with various clever ways of fixing the problems that play to the strengths of various siblings, but I’d be lying if I said that these scenes are the show at its most entertaining.  However, through Lori’s attempts to get herself out of the garage, we get more proof of Mr. Grouse coming to better terms with the Louds when even though he loves the thought of destroying their property out of Lori’s request and getting lasagna out of it, he’s on seemingly good terms with Lori with no malice.  The interaction leads to a humorous backfiring on Mr. Grouse’s part, but we also get a nice scene of Lori being welcomed back in with open arms when she admits what’s up.  We also end with both sides of the inciting issue on good terms with the siblings being more respectful of Lori’s needs, and Lori being happier to help her siblings .  Even if it’s not the most interesting or entertaining cartoon out there, the take on sibling relationships and the attempt to share the truth of getting one’s own place make it a good one to watch if you’re up for it. 9/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. L is for Love
3. Pulp Friction
4. Frog Wild
5. Party Down
6. Room with a Feud
7. Lock n Loud
8. Fool’s Paradise
9. Fed Up
10. Out of the Picture
11. Job Insecurity
12. Potty Mouth
13. The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
14. Spell it Out
15. Baby Steps
16. Shell Shock
17. Suite and Sour
18. Back in Black't
19. Patching Things Up
20. The Whole Picture
21. Garage Banned
22. Back Out There
23. The Old and the Restless
24. Kick the Bucket List
25. Intern for the Worse
26. Cheater by the Dozen
27. Pets Peeved
28. Making the Grade
29. Vantastic Voyage
30. ARGGH! You for Real?
31. No Such Luck
32. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode to see if Clyde's "Change of Heart" really leads to a change and Mom and Dad take up exercising in "Health Kicked."

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If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.