The Gorilla Club
In this episode Tori competes in an underground industrial challenge course in order to become more brave for a role. I remember reading the synopsis and thinking "wow that sounds awful." and you know, it is.
Like Tori has some part she's going to audition for but her character is supposed to be streetwise and tough but Tori can't pull it off because she's a prissy aristocrat. So she joins some underground obstacle course thing where all the metal-goths hang out and competes in their trials. But it's all just so bad. There are like three depressing looking "trials" that most anyone above the age of 10 could easily complete, Avan Jorgia (Beck) tries his best to be the hype man who is coaching Tori but it's clearly just him trying to make his best effort to sell everything as "crazy" when for the most part it's all stuff you would see in a 5th graders field day. Tori's acting "improves" as the episode goes on but at this point it's too late. It's so hard to care about Tori's problem at this point and it's completely unconvincing that she's somehow been hardened by her experience in the equivalent of a McDonald's playplace.
The B-Plot is also surprisingly poor. Robbie and Andre lose a bet to Jade when playing poker but don't have the money to pay her, so instead she 'makes' them do a dance whenever she yells "Hammer time!". It's just a realllly crude and rudimentary joke, and it's simply never funny. Elizabeth Gilles never seems comfortable yelling it, and it's just such an out of character "prank" for Jade to play because of how pedantic and lame it is.
There's also a C-plot where Jade is mad at Beck for coaching Tori?? But it literally lasts for 30 seconds and then doesn't go anywhere
I felt embarrassed when I started watching this show. You know, I still feel embarrassed watching this show. But this episode really made me feel viscerally sheepish and uncomfortable.
The only saving grace is a slight scene near the middle where the group is just hanging out and playing poker, but even that isn't as good as similar scenes in episodes like The Great Ping Pong Scam.
I would say this is the worst episode so far unfortunately. And would give it a dissapointed 8/10
Why do you feel embarrassed watching this show? There are plenty of young adults that rewatch this show like me because it was at least in my opinion one of the better Nick shows. How metal balls that swing back and forth, a mechanical bunny instead of a bull, and a gorilla that throws people around and can break bones is a McDonald's play place is beyond me.
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