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Beaned
A
new season simply cannot go without new ways for Arnold and Helga to get
closer. For all their differences in
behavior and customs, this seems to happen with every new season. There has been more of them getting
involved in each other’s personal problems by choice, but now things go a step
further.
The cartoon’s opening features
Arnold in his usual good nature by helping other kids with their problems. They usually amount to small gestures like
sharing his umbrella, holding doors, and carrying heavy loads. While observing these acts though, they mean
a lot to Helga who laments over Arnold apparently never noticing her. Given how often in these recent seasons where
Arnold’s taken interest in her issues by choice without being told beforehand,
I feel this is a slight exaggeration.
Maybe it can work when you consider that Helga’s still too timid to be
honest about her feeling for him and they’re still not an item. Either way, their relationship starts going
to an area broader than simply helping in simple tasks.
When Arnold hits a baseball, it hits Helga in
the head and she can’t remember a thing, not even her name. It’s a case of amnesia as clear as day, and
because Arnold was the one who hit her, he feels the need to be by Helga’s side
to help her home and get settled. By
doing so, his great efforts show as he not only guides the way, but gives her
good treatment too. He makes her nice
hot soup, and makes sure she’s comfortable as he reads her an assigned homework
chapter. All this may just be a nice
gesture, but it’s very remarkable that Arnold would do more than truly
necessary to treat someone who’s usually mean to him like Helga.
Speaking of her, while she doesn’t really
notice the treatment while without her memory, Helga is quick to recover as
she’s back to normal the following morning.
When she hears that Arnold was taking care of her when she had amnesia,
she just has to get more of it. For
that, she fakes still having amnesia just so Arnold can take care of her
more. The experience is somewhat amusing
with the ways Helga keeps up the charade with a ditzy tone of voice and quick
solutions to cover up any progress to recovery. It makes her look infantile to others, but it
still gets her what she wants. In fact,
the other kids start showing concern over Arnold paying more attention to Helga
than them. Helga may seem to need all
this attention more than them, but if his efforts in doing so are an
indication, it feels like Arnold is going all out through more than just
obligation. It also helps that while
she’s faking amnesia, Helga is putting her usual mean behavior aside, making
her seem more deserving of Arnold’s affection.
In fact through doing so, it seems that Helga naturally grows to feel
bad over Arnold not devoting time to other big things in his life. This selfless observation is the best way to
convince her to finally drop the act and act normal again. Despite this, Arnold decides to walk her home
anyway, knowing he doesn’t have to, and only doing so because he wants to. Even if he was unknowingly tricked into
thinking Helga had amnesia, something genuine was gained from the
experience. For Helga’s sake, it’s just
as nice as their relationship seems to actually be moving forward.
Unfolding in an interesting story concept,
natural character development is a key factor in this cartoon’s appeal.
A+
Old Iron Man
This
season being the final one, it’s natural for its works to bring often-mentioned
plot threads into the spotlight for one last chance to showcase their
background. With Grandpa, he’s often
mentioned his old best friend Jimmy Kafka, whether it’s recounting a good
memory, or their past falling out they never made up for. However, their fallout over Jimmy being
difficult during a part time job of theirs is never mentioned. When Grandpa hears that he’s coming to visit,
it seems like their fallout is over something as minor as rivalry in physical
activities. He keeps insisting to Arnold
that he hates his old friend because of this, but Arnold’s not having any of
this.
When Jimmy arrives later on, his
dynamic with Grandpa is pretty much all set.
They constantly argue and bicker over being the best at something while
constantly showing some friendly affection which never really left. There are some humorous moments to come from
this setup such as being led to one up each other in the most ridiculous of
contests as pea-flicking. Also, little
moments of friendliness amidst their rivalries do make theirs stand out from
others. However, this happening a lot
does make the cartoon feel very monotonous and repetitive. It soon reaches the point where you just wish
they’d just realize that they don’t hate each other nearly as much as they say
they do and that Arnold is right.
As fate
would have it, they both find out about the perfect way to settle who’s the
best and strongest of them both. They
see an ad for a physical challenge for old men consisting of running, biking,
and swimming. The catch is that the
swimming portion involves man eating sharks to face while doing so which is
simply mad. Also, this show
grounds itself enough in reality. For that it’s hard to suspend disbelief long enough to think
that the people running this competition would think that adding sharks is
ok. Won’t they get sued if the sharks
actually kill someone? Either way,
Grandpa and Jimmy are too obsessed with winning to even think of the
repercussions, and ignore Arnold’s worries of the danger.
Considering that they have a history with
fighting in wars and the army, well Grandpa anyway, when the contest comes,
they start performing commendably. They
do, at least, until they both decide to play dirty. This is something
Grandpa has been hard-pressed to prove about Jimmy, but why would he do the
same and end up not looking any better than him? They both soon reach the swim portion of the
contest, but end up lost out at sea with elder-related injuries in certain
places. They’re all set up to restore
their friendship in their darkest hour with a fitting cloudy weather and cold
sensations all around. After awesomely
knocking out one of the sharks, it seems that all is well with them as they
work together to reach the shore, even if they both lose the contest. Declaring that they’re no longer going to
fight seems like a good place to end the cartoon, but that’s not so. They just find another reason to argue and
nothing changes, making for a big waste of development. It’s not enough to really diminish the fun
moments throughout the cartoon, but if the newfound respect stuck, it would be
a lot stronger.
As it stands, it makes
the long awaited appearance of Grandpa’s old friend good, but not great.
B
The Ranking
1. Beaned
2. Helga’s Locket
3. Rhonda Goes Broke
4. Sid and Germs
5. Phoebe Breaks a Leg
6. Principal Simmons
7. Fishing Trip
8. Sid the Vampire Slayer
9. Old Iron Man
10. Gerald’s Game
11. Stuck in a Tree
12. Big Sis
13. New Bully on the Block
14. Bag of Money
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode looking into the show's fright factor with a story of a ghost bride, and Gerald's jerk older brother Jamie O is back in the spotlight.
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
Oh good, I love both these episodes. Beaned is the one where I finally felt like Arnold and Helga's would-be relationship was finally on the verge of happening, as Arnold starts to show that he genuinely cares about her... maybe even more than just out of obligation or as just another of his friends, and Helga despite trapping him in one of her usual schemes realizes she can't just artificially force them to be together and has to be genuine about it. The best part is of course, though she's faking amnesia, she's ironically not faking being nice and if anything has removed her mean mask just under the guise that she can't control herself. And then to see Arnold still showing concern and care for her after she returns to 'normal' pretty much shows how much potential they really have... which is why I can't wait to get to your take on 'Married,' because as fun as that one is it does seem a little strange at how put off Arnold is by her in the beginning, at least at this point in the series.
ReplyDeleteAnd 'Old Iron Man' is just a ton of fun. I don't even mind that nothing changed in the end with Grandpa and Jimmy's relationship, because I just sort of accepted that that's how their friendship works. It's a unique one wherein they just constantly bicker and try to one up each other, but that just strikes me as how they relate to one another.
Well all I'll say about Married for now is that I find Arnold's initial stance about spending his life with Helga to somewhat make sense.
DeleteI suppose even if he's at the stage where he at least likes her as a friend and finds her interesting the idea of marrying her would be a bit much.
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