Opposite Date

Opposite Date

  You know, I used to watch this show just when it was on. I don't know why. Initially I recently gotten cable and just wanted to see what it was- it was a teen show like Zoey 101 or Drake and Josh but just a bit after my time to watch it, but I ended up turning it on whenever I was doing work or similar.  There's something relaxing about it. Because it's not really good. But at the same time it's not bad. It is bad. But it's not as distractedly awful as something like Two Broke Girls. Have you seen that show? Jesus christ. Anyway, Victorious is just white noise. And after a while it just became the thing I would throw on in the background if it was on. Would help me clear my mind. Now I write summaries and reviews. It's very zen. Don't judge me.

  Anyway. I didn't really pay attention to any development over time in the show at the time. But watching now, Season 4 (really starting with The Blonde Squad) is so different than the rest of the show in little minor ways. It's absolutely indistinguishable to anyone who isn't a maniac that has a blog for this, but it's completely different from season 1 in its tone, premise, and design. It makes you wonder if they really had a creative vision for stuff like this. 

 A big component of this change is that at some point it seems that Dan was roused from a 3 year nap and started feverishly trying to write character development and match up cast members for his preteen patrons. This one is about Jade, Tori, and Beck. We're given a pretty sloppy premise for why Tori and Beck are hanging out solo- but whatever. They make plans to hang out just the two of them, but they don't want to make it a date for fear of offending Jade (I suppose, it's never made clear how honest they're being when they say that). They strive to make it an "opposite date" by dressing roughly and getting bad food, but for all intents it seems to be a fairly normal date. Certainly better than the majority of mine.

    

 Near the end of it, Beck receives an (off screen) phone call from his aunt tasking him with taking her dog to the vet to get some medication. Note that it is like 10 PM. They go to the vet and are immediately bombarded with questions from other pet owners on the nature of the relationships between Tori, Beck, and Jade.

  

   Meanwhile, Cat leaks the info of Tori and Beck's date to Jade, and Jade and Cat go off to track the friend-couple down during their date. They confront Tori and Beck in an animal hospital, and Jade confides that she is okay with Tori and Beck hanging out. Because they're friends and she just "gets it" I guess. And that's about it.

   It's not a bad episode, but it feels awkward. The premise is very hastily established, and the ending just feels out of place in this show. All of the vet clients suddenly asking Tori and Beck about the fine details of their relationship isn't quite treated as a joke but it's not quite treated seriously either. It's an inherently silly situation, but it feels like the episode is trying to sell real character based drama during it. Jade comes and essentially gives acceptance to Tori and Beck, but no real ground is made. Tori and Beck are still friends with romantic tension, Beck and Jade are still exes also with romantic tension... for an episode seemingly building up to a big shift in how the characters interact there's very little payoff. Adding to this, Avan Jogia just seems so disinterested during all of it. Beck has absolutely no real input outside of "Well I have good vibes for everyone", and Tori fails to take a stance on if she actually wants to date Beck or not.

 Ultimately it feels like it would better as an episode of Boy Meets World.  Victorious simply doesn't have the infrastructure to support plots like this as characters are constantly battling  the self-contained episode structure the show has used. That being said, the driving scenes between Cat and Jade are good, and Elizabeth Gilles does her best to sell the episode. I'd give it an 8/10

The B-plot is Robbie and Andre being stuck in pear costumes.It reminds me of the B-plot of "A Film by Dale Squires" where Robbie and Andre fix Robbie's car. Like it's fine and you know the characters do well, but it's essentially one joke that spans the entire B-plot. I dunno, it felt a bit lazy to me.

Side Notes:

• In an error, Tori posts a status on the slap but says "Why am I even tweeting this?". The Slap is of course a separate entity in no way related to or parodying twitter, but at this time I think everyone stopped caring and regretted making The Slap a part of the setting. 
• Jade pulls over to make her call to Tori. Nothing really particular happens, I just thought it was a nice touch as a little safety lesson. 

The Hambone King

The Hambone King

  I watched this episode alone in my car in a parking lot. It was the saddest moment of my life. 

  Anyway. Technically the first episode of season 4 is Wanko's Warehouse. But I don't have the ability to watch that one so we're moving forward. But hey, this episode isn't as terrible as I thought it would be. In it, Robbie is a hambone champion who is challenged by some other hambone champion for the title. It's a good one for most of the episode, and it's fun to see Robbie get the focus and have something of his own for ten seconds (Rex hasn't been in an episode for a while now, thankfully). Unfortunately Tori ruins everything because they need to have her steal the spotlight at all times.

   Basically, Robbie is popular for Hamboning, is challenged by Jerold (Gerold?), loses, and has to recover from his loss in a slight Rocky parody. However it is soon revealed that Tori herself used to be a pro hamboner, so she like reveals this and coaches Robbie or whatever. This woulden't be that bad but in the end of the episode Robbie is sabotaged, and instead of helping him back on his feet or anything Tori simply competes against Jerold and wins and everyone celebrates her victory. Like what the fukc you know comon let someone else be the protagonist for like 15 goddamn minutes. I would value this episode so much more if it turned out that Beck or Andre (or even Jade or Sikowitz) were the previous hambone champions, but it's not. It's Tori, because if it wasn't she wouldn't have any purpose in this episode. Because she doesn't have any purpose in this group. Because she's a useless character. 

   Even worse, Victoria Justice just isn't good at Hamboning. Jerold and Robbie actually do it fairly well, but I guess Victoria coulden't be bothered to practice because her routine is just an out of sync flapping of her hands. It gets me.

  But I did say this episode is better than I thought it would be. And it is. The rest of the group is great, there's one particular scene where Beck brings a watermelon to cheer up Robbie I thought was funny, and there are a couple good moments where Jade and Andre and Robbie and Cat are just hanging out. So it's a good episode- I'm just surprised at how quickly it was brought down at the very end by Tori doing everything.

The Blonde Squad

The Blonde Squad

   This show has a lot of lines that would be heartbreaking if delivered in any context other than a children's TV show. I won't list them, but know I take them out of context.

  The plot of this episode sees Beck trying to record and present a short film- which itself is a comedy parody of Charlie's Angels. The girls of the group decide to go to that Sushi restaurant I hate in their blonde wigs because Tori thinks it'll help her rail some dude or something. Some dude hits on Cat in a way that would be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable but he has a sharp jawline and V shaped build so it's fine.

 So Cat questions the legitimacy of if this guy likes her for her or only because she has blonde hair. This parallels her own flaw, that she herself is only interested in this man for his appearance- but this is a Nick show so it's not getting that deep. Instead she simply hides her real hair until a parrot steals her wig and the guy rejects her. What did you expect, Dorian Gray? 

  The B-Plot is Andre trying to chase down the above parrot. 

                                            Anyway. There's a lot of pretty good dialogue in this one. Like for a straight comedy this episode has the most lines that.. aren't really there for comedy it seems. People are actually sad and actually upset with each other and it feels a bit more legitimate than similar scenes in season 1. I suppose it's just the progress in acting. It's a nice change of pace. 

                After handsome dude leaves, Robbie does a song for Cat about how much he values her and all that. Despite this, she doesn't really notice the meaning behind it, presumably because Robbie has a less symmetrical face. And that's about the end of the episode. 

 I dunno. There's something kind of brisk and sweet about this episode. Like we're at the end of the third season and only now is an episode that actually tries to touch on a real theme or issue between the characters.  I miss a few things from Season 1, but if episodes had this type of structure back then  this could be a completely different show.

I still hate that dumbass sushi restaurant though.  8/10

That's season 3.

How Trina Got In

How Trina Got In

        For once in her god damn life Tori is the B-plot of this episode. She gets stuck in that one vaguely racist restaurant because she didn't bring any money to pay and she can't song and dance her way out of it this time. 

   Everyone else tells stories of how Trina got into Hollywood Arts. They're good.

it's a good episode, an 8/10 from me

Driving Tori Crazy

Driving Tori Crazy

     Tori gets a bunch of car rides from her friends.

           That's the entire plot. I don't know why. Apparently there's some movie being filmed by her house so instead of a 5 minute walk she now has to make a 20 minute drive? whatever

So everyone gives her a ride. I'll just run through it:

• Trina gives her a ride but she's annoying or something.
• Andre gives her a ride but his grandma lingers in the back seat and verbally assaults everyone
• Beck gives her a ride but is also getting road head from 4 girls at once drives 4 girls from a different school who are annoying or something
• Robbie gives her a ride but owns a pedal trolley instead of a car
• Cat offers to have her brother drive, but her brother is a schizophrenic maniac so Tori declines
• Jade gives her a ride, but is a schizophrenic maniac and Tori bails out of the car after bring driven to a desert with a shovel in the car
• Finally, Cat is able to rent a party bus for $20 for Tori. Tori- being a monster, insists that only she rides in the party bus and that Cat doesn't tell any of her friends who until this point were all just making genuine efforts to help their friend out. 

Anyway. So they're in the party bus and a parody of Sir Mix A Lot is the driver. The entire group does some half-rap that made me deeply embarrassed to watch.  Thats the episode.

It's good. It feels a bit like an Amanda Show skit or something, but it works out pretty well. The justification for why everyone has to give Tori a ride is pretty weak, but hey. I'd give this one an 8/10 

Side Notes:

• So Jade is now an actual murderer right? Normally her pranks were pretty limited to mildly inconveniencing people or threatening them. But no she's actually going to kill and bury Tori in this episode.
• That would be a flaw in the episode but Elizabeth Gilles does a really good job of delivering it. 
• If Tori was fine with paying $20 for a party bus just to get a ride to school, why didn't she simply take a taxi/uber/whatever to school every day?
• Probably because she is a monster.