'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 19: Future Tense/Lynner Takes All

Future Tense

Ever since their faces were finally shown, Mom and Dad have gotten more significance and development than before, which is fitting for a season that starts developing characters beyond Lincoln and the sisters.  Now we have a cartoon that’s all about them and how they serve as parents to the kids.  The story is that the Yates family moves in, and Mom and Dad see how accomplished the kids of that family are, with their parents stressing the importance of being well-rounded in such a competitive world.  Through it all, there’s something very unsettling about the Yates family.  They always have these big toothy smiles all over their faces and find enjoyment out of everything especially activities that are highly intellectual and require class and serious mindsets.  It’s practically inhumane for people to be THIS happy about life.  Creepiness factor aside, the Yates family gets Mom and Dad to be considerate of their influence on their kids.  Given how the season has already had a lot of influence on how well the Loud kids are to their parents, it’s only fitting that Mom and Dad take the time to try and figure out what’s best for them.  While what they later do certainly has good intentions, it’s easy to see that it takes certain things the wrong way, not unlike how things went down in the previous cartoon.  Mom and Dad rope their kids into doing activities that are out of their league, mostly the complete opposite of what they normally like doing from after school activities to community-serving and artsy outings, stressing them to be good at everything so to get by in such a competitive world.  The kids’ reactions to being roped into things that they don’t want to do are pretty funny in how they protest, yet it’s still easy to feel sorry for them since who would want to be forced to do things against their will, especially when they’re just sprung on you?  At least we get some amusing outcomes out of the sufferings, namely Lana being socially graceful and wearing dresses, Luan being serious as the mayor’s assistant, and especially Luna being taught proper English in favor of her entertaining rock slang.  While Mom and Dad are way out of line for forcing their kids into what they don’t want to do without warning, through their actions, it’s clear that they really want to help them, and they’re not even getting competitive with the Yates since there’s never a moment where they want them to be MORE accomplished than them.  Even more admirable is that when the kids achieve success in their forced activities, Mom and Dad want to celebrate with fun stuff, but the kids have changed so much that they’re unwilling to take part in fun  because they’re not healthy or productive, which is very sad since it confirms that they’ve lost their true selves.  Thankfully, Mom and Dad finally see sense and allow the kids to have fun, admitting that it was wrong to force the activities on them and that being productive should never outshine enjoying life.  In other words, this whole story ends up teaching the importance of keeping life in balance and not being too relaxed or too overrun with work.  That’s always been a personal message to me, and I’m glad to see this show teaching it.  It’s also great that even the Yates want in on some of the fun at the end…even if their approach to it is still creepy.  If you can get past them and the kids being put through things they don’t want to do against their will, this is a nicely constructed cartoon serving as a reminder of the importance of living your life in balance starring Mom and Dad. 9/10

Lynner Takes All

Personally, I find Lynn to be one of the most enjoyable Louds.  She’s always up for a game or challenge and approaches life with a lot of energy and sense of fun, making her a very lively character and I’m generally the most entertained by characters like that.  I also understand why some might not like her, and this cartoon helps with that.  She plays roughly, brags about how great she is, and barely notices how problematic her behavior is. In this case, whenever she wins at game night, she’s constantly gloating.  Because she’s so in everyone’s face when she celebrates her victories and never lets them live it down, especially when she reaches her 300^th win, I can see how this can be a problem for some people.  Of course it can get annoying and make her look like a jerk for making her siblings feel bad about their losses.  For me though, I don’t see it being that different from other times she enthusiastically plays a game or acts sporty.  Yes, she’s still being a jerk to her family here, but like with most cases where Lynn plays rough, it hardly feels like she’s INTENDING to make anyone feel bad.  Nevertheless, given the sympathy being directed at the rest of the Loud siblings, it’s appropriate that the plot focuses on them attempting to stop Lynn’s gloating once and for all.  Their first attempt has them challenge Lynn at games whose subjects fit a specific sibling apart from her.  While the ways their attempts at beating her backfiring still makes it easy to feel for the other siblings, how Lynn finds a way to win from specially skilled dice rolls, to exercising enough to make a perfect grab, to making a huge Ace Savvy fan like Lincoln feel nervous, show how on the ball she is at winning to entertaining effect.  When everyone finally does beat Lynn at a game through teamwork, it seems like Lynn is too ashamed of herself to gloat.  As it turns out, Lynn turns out even more competitive and constantly pops out of nowhere to challenge everyone to everything.  As someone who likes Lynn, I can get a good laugh out of her overly-competitive actions, her never-ceasing energy, and lively sporty nature here.  Though since they show her siblings’ plans to teach her a lesson failed, some people can easily get annoyed and frustrated that she still won’t stop rubbing victories in other people’s faces.  Anyway, after the siblings’ attempts to throw the next board game, Lynn finally realizes how much of a pain she’s been to everyone.  She reveals that she never intended to hurt them and just loves having playing games with her family proving that despite what she does, she has a good heart indeed.  True, she still gloats at the end, but the fact that it’s now away from everyone shows that she’s grown more considerate of their feelings.  The fact that she gloats at all, however, leads to a glaring issue with Lynn’s character that even people who like her shouldn’t ignore.  Lynn treats winning games like a big deal and is more competitive when she loses one.  What we don’t know is WHY she feels the need to win, thus making her under-developed.  This cartoon had the perfect opportunity to reveal this and potentially make Lynn endearing in spite of her gloating, but it never does.  I hope we get an answer to this in the future, because if this behavior continues, Lynn might not turn out to be a very good character.  Since I still find her entertaining enough here, I can call this cartoon a good and fun one that stresses why there should be limits on showboating.  However, if you find Lynn’s behavior overbearing and annoying, I totally get it.  Here’s hoping she gets more developed with her next starring role. 8/10

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
19. Future Tense
20. Patching Things Up
21. The Whole Picture
22. Health Kicked
23. Garage Banned
24. Back Out There
25. The Old and the Restless
26. Kick the Bucket List
27. Intern for the Worse
28. Lynner Takes All
29. Cheater by the Dozen
30. Pets Peeved
31. Making the Grade
32. Vantastic Voyage
33. Change of Heart
34. ARGGH! You for Real?
35. No Such Luck
36. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the next episode featuring Lincoln as a "Yes Man" in a rocking cartoon big on sibling love, and we see Lisa at her most endearing in "Friend or Faux?".

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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.

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 4: Suite and Sour/Back in Black

Suite and Sour

It’s been established a lot that the Louds are chaotic by nature, meaning that it’s not uncommon to see them get up to mischief outside their house.  However, this cartoon is also strong proof that their hearts really are in the right place.  One point of interest is that this is the first cartoon to feature the parents in the spotlight, which is fitting since the show is now allowing their faces to be shown.  Mom and Dad are excited because they finally raised enough money to book a weekend at a luxury spa hotel, and thanks to their newly revealed features, it’s easier than ever to feel their satisfaction.  As for the kids, their role here starts another welcome trend for the series.  In most cartoons prior, the girls appeared to all have a common mindset while Lincoln led his own life separate from them, leaving little sense of a team, let alone a family.  At times, they were shown as one whole team, but what we mostly got was Lincoln against the girls or a sister against the rest of the family as opposed to one whole unit.  Here, all 11 kids are on the same page through wanting to go to the hotel too, and show the start of a consistent sense of teamwork.  It’s shown when they put on a play to convince Mom and Dad to take them which is big on humor and entertaining moments from every kid.  The unity continues when we get to the hotel.  Usually, it would be just the sisters going nuts, becoming the true detriment to everything else.  Here, all the kids, including Lincoln, equally take advantage of the fun and excitement of the hotel through moments like Lynn and Lana racing in the elevators and breaking them, Leni being mistaken for a concierge and going along with the misunderstanding, and Lincoln and Lucy going ghost-hunting.  As fun as the kids’ antics are, you’re still able to feel sympathy for Mom and Dad as what their children do gets in the way of the relaxation they wanted.  However, the kids aren’t just oblivious thrill seekers.  When their parents find them out and ground them for disrupting their relaxing time, they feel bad and strive to do better.  This is further shown when another set of hilarious antics occurs in their hotel room which they try to prevent.  Even when the whole Loud family ends up kicked out of the hotel, the kids still strive to appease the parents whose fun times they interfered with.  They set up their own hotel at home with their own custom-made amenities just for Mom and Dad, including the entire space of the house.  The parents’ satisfaction with their kids’ thoughtfulness is highly rewarding after what they’ve been through as well as a solid display of heart amidst the kids’ desire for fun.  There’s even a scene to balance this out when we end with a reveal that amidst following the rules, Mom and Dad have a mind for fun like the kids since they got them kicked out of the hotel for something…suggestive to say the least.  It could turn some people of that the kids don’t find out about this, but the strong levels of heart from the story and characters make this cartoon a pleasing entry for the season. 9.5/10

Back in Black

Each of the Louds have their interesting personality traits which make them such dynamic characters to spend a series with.  One sister who really stands out regarding personality is Lucy for how much of a different approach to life she has.  While the other Louds are highly energetic and sociable, Lucy is more prone to silence and, through her love of darkness, tends to scare people away.  As this cartoon shows, even with estranged personalities, these characters are still only human as they simply try to get by in life.  It has Lucy go through the common occurrence of coming across a cute person and crushing on him/her.  Her crush in this case is a small boy named Rocky, the little brother of one of Lincoln’s friends Rusty, who’s brought over when Rusty has to complete a solar system project with Lincoln.  Even as Lucy watches Rocky go about his business in her usual way of spying on him in the darkness and popping out of nowhere when trying to talk to him, she still gets some strong sympathy as Rocky either doesn’t notice her or runs away.  Lucy expresses genuine sadness of not getting Rocky’s attention and as she delivers her sadness, it’s done in a unique way through working in her dark and foreboding nature.  Speaking of that, Lucy feels that the only way to get acquainted with Rocky is to change herself internally and externally.  The other sisters (and I do mean all of them) give her a complete makeover, leading to a lot of interesting new looks for someone like Lucy, and coach her on how to act.  When they test Lucy’s final result on a little date with Rocky at a mini golf course, while it’s humorous to watch Lucy attempt to act like an average girlfriend, it goes wrong and Rocky doesn’t seem impressed by her new appearance and mannerisms.  Although out of this failed date, we get a nice moment of the sisters letting Lucy know that in spite of what happened, she’s great the way she is without blaming her for the failure.  Also, the drama Lucy went through reaches an appropriately nice end point when she finally befriends Rocky and the two of them are on good terms.  This is certainly a great starring role for Lucy for showing how endearing she is despite her unusual ways.  It’s not perfect though since it has all the sisters act as the same judgmental and opinionated character.  It’s hard to picture messy sisters like Lana and Lynn to be up for makeovers or passionate and expressive sisters like Luna and Luan to drive how one should act when winning over a crush.  It would’ve been better if sisters who do have a mind for romance and makeovers, the first ones in on the main conflict Lori, Leni, and Lola, were the only ones helping.  Not to mention they stick to unfortunate stereotypes of not letting Lincoln help because he’s a boy which is a poor excuse to not include him, especially since he ultimately brings Lucy and Rocky together.  Speaking of Lincoln, the subplot of him and Rusty constantly needing to rebuild their solar system is a mixed bag.  Sometimes it getting destroyed is funny, sometimes it’s watchable when it’s their own fault it breaks, and other times it’s hard to watch like when the sisters deliberately break it to get Rocky back for Lucy and when it breaks at the very end.  I might not like that ending for Lincoln, but I can tolerate it since the more important plot ends well.  Even with these weak points, this is still a nice cartoon that does justice for a dark, spooky character like Lucy, proving that “you can take the girl out of the coffin, but you can’t take the coffin out of the girl.” 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. Baby Steps
3. Suite and Sour
4. Back in Black
5. The Old and the Restless
6. Intern for the Worse
7. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lisa attempts to fit in with Lincoln's gang in "Making the Grade" and the family tries to break up Dad and a new family car by trying to get back their old broken down car in a "Vantastic Voyage."

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