'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 4: We Messed Up

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We Messed Up

It’s interesting that this show gets K.O. closer to becoming a hero through every little thing he does in almost every cartoon, even when he’s just messing around at work with Rad and Enid.  This cartoon features this instance while also providing some interesting background on their boss, Mr. Gar, setting up an ongoing arc. 

The beginning is just a typical day at the bodega where the employees are assigned at random to test their powers in a simple drill of helping an old lady buy something and get to her car, the humor coming from Mr. Gar not even trying to act like an old lady.  Even as heroes in training, the main story reminds that these guys are still youths who are prone to messing around with potentially harmless rule-breaking as they proceed to sneak into Mr. Gar’s office while he’s away and attempt to not do anything to “disappoint” him.  In addition to cameras he uses to keep an eye on everything in the bodega, which is almost excessive since it’s so small, and photos of his heroic accomplishment, the employees discover that Mr. Gar also has a picture of K.O.’s mom, Carol when she was young and hot.  This is only the first part of the arc fueled by the legit sense of mystery of why Mr. Gar even has a picture of Carol in the first place. 

However, when Rad’s super-powered fingers accidentally destroy the picture, instead of finding the meaning of the photo, the focus is on the gang trying to hide what they did so Mr. Gar won’t be disappointed with Rad and Enid feebly distracting him from going into his office and K.O. getting Carol to pose for a new photo.  Honestly, their fantasies of their boss screaming at them to death don’t feel too far off considering his drill sergeant mannerisms, so their actions are understandable. 

In the process, K.O. takes initiative to find out about Carol’s past with Mr. Gar, helping the cartoon to stand out more than characters simply hiding the problem they caused from their authority normally would.  The past is illustrated by a single scene of an explosion at a donut shop while a sandwich is dropped in the rain while two figures run toward the crime scene.  It’s purposefully left vague and written off as “grown-up stuff” to K.O. leaving an even bigger mystery to the featured relationship, or as K.O. puts it, “just gives [him] further questions.” 

Apart from that though, the cartoon mostly stands as a simple gag fest from everyone’s attempts for Mr. Gar to not find out what happened to the picture of Carol from silly stunts Rad and Enid pull, Mr. Gar handling their petty problems, and K.O. ending up wearing Carol’s old jumpsuit when it doesn’t fit her anymore.  It’s funny, but also par for the course when it comes to plots like this.  However, when Mr. Gar does find out what his employees did, their fears turn out justified when he is just as mad and “disappointed” as they imagined.  It’s only an appearance of Carol with another copy of the original photo that eliminates the tenseness.  While some could argue that the resolution is anti-climactic, it does show how much Mr. Gar values Carol since it’s her appearance that calmed him down, and it helps that many more cartoons explore the relationship. 

This is ultimately a pretty basically structured cartoon, but the interesting ways it develops the characters' backgrounds and powers and its strong entertainment help it to stand as its own thing.

A-

The Ranking

1. Let’s Be Heroes
2. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
3. Let’s Be Friends
4. We Messed Up

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where K.O. wonders if at least one of the Boxmore robots really is just like him.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.