Summer Love (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 20) - 'Toon Reviews 28

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Summer Love

The end of this season follows many characters during a week’s vacation at the beach.  Given how versatile they are and how wholesome I find the setting of a beach to be, we have a lot of potential for greatness, and the final product delivers. 

As fate would have it, both Arnold and Helga discover that their families have rented the same beach house making for two distinct sets of characters to follow.  We have Ernie burying himself up to his head to win over beach babes who see him as a creep, although it’s a pretty mean that absolutely no one helps him out after a while.   Oskar is seen as a beach thief after being told he can keep anything his metal detector picks up.  Grandpa tries to get away from the crowds on an island and goes mad thinking he’s stranded when the tide comes in.  Stronger laughs come from Big Bob’s karma-fueled subplot where his neglect towards his family for watersports gets him a bad sunburn he suffers throughout the entire special.  In fact, without him, Miriam has a wonderful time at the beach bonding with Oskar’s wife Suzie and taking classes from a sexy suggestive dance instructor. 

As intriguing as these beach stories are, it’s the main one featuring Arnold and Helga themselves that stands out from them all.  Upon realizing she’s sharing a beach house with Arnold, Helga laments over her usual mean behaviors towards him.  However, when Arnold is spotted by a cute-looking beach babe called Summer, Helga is instantly swayed towards her mean demeanor.  As for Summer, there’s something phony about how she constantly flirts with and compliments him and Arnold doesn’t notice that, seemingly because of her appearance.  This turns out to be the case when it’s soon revealed that not only does Summer already have a boyfriend, but she’s planning on just using him to win a sandcastle contest.  Helga doesn’t find this out at first and performs several extreme harmful stunts on Arnold and Summer behind their backs, which is a particularly nasty side of her actions.  Making them work is Arnold finding this out by the end of the first act and saying he never wants to see Helga again.  These are appropriate actions taken for legitimately harmful pranks, and what they lead to is very pleasing. 

Just as Helga plans to sincerely apologize to Arnold for what she did, she hears Summer’s true intentions and sets out to warn Arnold of them.  It takes a few tries since Arnold understandably doesn’t trust Helga, but it’s admirable that she never stops trying despite that.  When Summer and her boyfriend are in earshot, Helga seizes opportunity and brings Arnold to them as they explain their plan.  Arnold sees that Helga was genuinely trying to keep him from getting hurt and enhances his often mentioned belief that she’s not as bad as she seems.  In fact, at the sandcastle contest, it’s impressive that Arnold and Helga get along well and use great teamwork to build the winning castle.  For good measure, Helga even gets a chance to get away with kissing Arnold during an authentically staged beach rescue show called Babe Watch at the special’s end. 

I have to admit that it would be more interesting if these various subplots were more connected with each other instead of having very little in common.  Thankfully, this is made up for by the strong humor, character development, and pleasing atmosphere they all provide.  This leaves us with a memorable time at the beach with many endearing characters from this great show.

A

The Ranking

1.      Helga on the Couch

2.      Helga Sleepwalks

3.      Monkeyman!

4.      Veterans Day

5.      Dino Checks Out

6.      Buses, Bikes, and Subways

7.      Headless Cabbie

8.      Grandpa’s Sister

9.      Back to School

10.  Helga’s Parrot

11.  Oskar Can’t Read?

12.  Dinner for Four

13.  Summer Love

14.  The Beeper Queen

15.  Helga’s Masquerade

16.  Stinky’s Pumpkin

17.  It Girl

18.  Polishing Rhonda

19.  Baby Oskar

20.  Synchronized Swimming

21.  Weighing Harold

22.  Big Gino

23.  Mr. Green Runs

24.  Chocolate Turtles

25.  Friday the 13th

26.  Grudge Match

27.  Fighting Families

28.  Phoebe Skips

29.  Eugene’s Birthday

30.  Weird Cousin

31.  Egg Story

32.  Student Teacher

33.  Love and Cheese

34.  Jamie O in Love

35.  Deconstructing Arnold

36.  Full Moon

Final Thoughts

So how strong does Hey Arnold stand four seasons in?  From my observation, I’d say it’s still incredibly strong with all the strengths of the previous seasons very much intact.  Previous seasons may be where the series peaked, but that’s mostly out of personal preferences.  In Season 4, we still get plenty of character development, a variety of feels to broaden all experiences, and many creative story ideas that fit the down to Earth tone.  Many cartoons are even contenders for some of the show’s best, and in one case from my personal opinion, the show’s best.

As far as weak cartoons go, working in Season 4’s favor is that there’s surprisingly very few of them.  At this point far along in the series, you’d expect the crew to run out of ideas and lose hold of what made the show as good as it was in the past.  The number of cartoons I grade lower than a B is quite small and don’t even feature many recurring problems for the season.  Things like characters suffering for pranks they weren’t really part of, forgetting the benefits of Arnold’s constant advice, and an overabundance of jerks only last for about one cartoon.  It’s like these people have awareness of what really works and use more of those things to craft their stories.  At worst, the only reoccurring weak point with this season I can think of is the constant use of Arnold crushing on Lila as a main subject.  This is an especially big issue when you consider Arnold’s typical portrayal at this point in the series.  He was more of an average, sometimes deviant and unfocused, kid in the earlier seasons, but in time, he’s really matured into the most moral kid in the neighborhood.  His advice to people of all ages is more prominent than ever as is his logical problem skills for any problem.  This is an interesting transformation suggesting a lot of growth between seasons.  For that, it’s off-putting that he’s constantly trying to get Lila to like him-like him.  If he was really following his steps in maturity, he’d accept that she’s just not into him and move on, which would be the realistic mature reaction to love in real life.  Making this setup worse is the fact that his interest in Lila is built on a misunderstanding that only the audience knows, so we know we’re not watching something genuine.  Plus, even though it’s never referenced, the lack of genuineness to Arnold’s attempts to win over Lila persist considering we know that she knows of Helga’s crush on him.  Not only that, but this fact makes some of Helga’s attempts to harm Lila uncomfortable when Lila supporting her love should convince her not to be so harsh.  Seeing a lot of this trope doesn’t work in Season 4’s favor, but it’s made acceptable by what’s done with it in the following season.  Above all, that’s only one major weak point with the season which still has a lot of good to offer.

It always seems like the storytelling this show gets broader and creative with every new season.  The first season had a lot of basic stories that were just about Arnold and his friends doing a simple activity.  They were almost always nice, but paled in comparison to more dramatic and imaginative stories.  As more seasons came out, the bigger more impactful stories become the norm with far more of them than what seemed basic.  I can’t say that Season 4 has the most creative stories, but then again, how much of them we got in Season 3 is hard to top.  Truth be told, Season 4 still has many memorable stories to it with a broad scope of interesting directions.  Some of them cover unusual events like skipping grades, competing in an actual gameshow, witnessing celebrities fake their death, or using a variety of transportation to get home.  The show also continues to pull off some impressive scares with a ghost story about a cabbie getting roped into a trick that gets himself decapitated.  Eccentric characters are also smartly written as human individuals despite their quirks via a cartoon dedicated to that random stranger constantly shouting “Monkeyman!”  Several instances make for some crazy comedy driven plots, especially those of Helga trying to keep her love for Arnold secret.  It’s a gold mine of whacky scenarios from trying to kill a parrot reciting her poem, to involuntarily sleepwalking to his house, to impersonating Lila to get close to him.  A characteristic of Helga’s this defining really impresses when it can make you laugh as much as it can make you understand her for who she is.  Even cartoons about characters taking up certain activities stand out more than ever, for rather than focusing on the fun factor, time is taken to show what it means for them and others.  Someone starting a new job and getting obsessed with it leaves a heavy-hitting sad tone for her child.  Visual cues can show the pains of being illiterate.  Little accomplishments like planting a big pumpkin, graduating from a polishing academy, and performing an elaborate swimming routine leave strong emotional satisfaction. The last cartoon of the season especially shows appeal in simplicity with strong entertainment and heart from different stories of different characters getting up to fun on the beach.  All of this goes to show that when a story of this show gets something right, it’s sure to resonate with you for life in a variety of ways.

In accordance with well-made slice of life shows, the thing that makes the show so appealing are the many different characters in the cast.  I’ve often mentioned that nearly all of them have interesting development and background to them, and that continues to be true in Season 4.  Many characters are given interesting reveals to their backgrounds and stories that allow them to overcome certain challenges, leaving a highly satisfactory response at the end.  We have problematic characters like Miriam step away from her alcoholic habits for once and successfully and impressively run her husband’s business.  We learn more about Grandpa which leads to compelling stories on his service in World War II, not completing his education, and his falling out with his twin sister.  Oskar Kokoshka is given his best material as he overcomes his illiteracy and proves he can care for others when left alone with a baby.  Certain characters go through challenges that are staged respectfully enough to feel true to real life like Harold being self-conscious about his weight.  Even usually uninteresting or underused characters like Stinky, Sid, Gerald’s father, and Mr. Green have impressive stories to them.  It’s rare to see characters usually not getting the best material or general attention be featured in legitimately great works. 

That said, the stand-out character here is the most interesting and multi-layered in the cast, Helga.  She’s always been a huge part of the show, and this is no different here with many cartoons about her bad home life and the difficulties of keeping her crush a secret.  The real reason she’s a highlight for the season is the inclusion of what I feel is the series at its best, “Helga on the Couch.”  It’s a character study featuring the show at its most insightful and fascinating.  Everything established about Helga comes together to truly present her as more than what she seems.  It doesn’t hold back with how much of an issue her parents’ lack of care for her is, especially in a flashback to her toddler years.  In the process, this part of her shows a connection to why she loves Arnold. Her infatuation is a response to the kindness he showed her in her dark times, and her anger from at home is geared towards him to avoid mistreatment in the outside world too.  The tragic, hope, and dramatic weight of Helga’s life showcases how well-rounded as a character she is and that there’s bigger reasons for her behavior than one may think.  Forming a good relationship with her therapist amidst all this is great support for her turmoil.  Not only that, but there’s general progress to her and Arnold getting closer too.  He takes a more frequent interest with her through finding out her problems by talking to her about them and helping her through them. This is a contrast from being there from the start like with everyone else’s problems.  Helga even helps Arnold through his own problems in her own mannerisms.  It’s because of her that Arnold goes back to giving advice which he was discouraged from and that Lila isn’t with his weird cousin Arnie for very long.  Helga’s best support is saved for last where even after getting called out for tormenting Arnold on the beach, she stops at nothing to warn him about the beach babe he meets.  She eventually exposes the truth, and that leads to a rare wholesome scene between the two as they get along and work together on a contest-winning sandcastle.  In spite of a few times where Arnold ignores the good he believes is in Helga, most of this season brings interesting chemistry between them.  They may not be open with their true feelings, but the ways they show support and care for each other a lot more in this season than anywhere else is of special mention.  It’s also a testament to how much thought and devotion goes into the characters and their relationships with others.

We’re on the home stretch with Hey Arnold, and it retains its great qualities with Season 4.  The stories are still creative, the characters are still interesting with strong signs of development, and the atmosphere and emotions are as investing as always.  If you worry that it starts losing steam as it nears the end of its run, fear not for you’re still sure to find the great qualities the show has always displayed.  There’s only one more season and two movies to go, and I can’t wait for when the time comes to talk about them.  As the quality of this season shows, there’s a lot of endearment to find through these many football-headed adventures.

Highly Recommended

 

Stay tuned in the coming months for when my look at the last works of Hey Arnold are up and ready to share.  Tomorrow, look out for my review of the last episode of the DuckTales Vol 3 DVD before I announce the next big change in the MC Toon Reviews schedule. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!