I was actually really excited about this episode. The promo for it seemed to have great potential, and I heard from a lot of people that it was one of the best episodes in the Season. Unfortunately, I got a different vibe from this episode. It seemed kind of boring, and very repetitive. I tried, believe me, I tried my best to actually get a laugh out of this episode, but I didn't find any jokes that actually got me laughing (Aside from the "I never take a bad picture" joke, which I already saw in the promo). Ultimately, I found it to be a disappointing episode, rather than a really awesome episode.
The concept of this episode was brilliant. It is a very different, and unique concept that feels like it can work really well in an episode. But, the episode itself is pretty much the same thing.
SpongeBob injures the criminal.
Mrs. Puff & The Getaway driver compliment each other.
The criminal steals things.
SpongeBob & the Criminal escape the police, and avoid Mrs. Puff and the Getaway driver
A majority of this episode is nothing but one of these 4 things, so if you don't find any of these 4 things to be entertaining, you're kind of stuck with an episode you don't like.
That being said, do I like this episode? Yes, I do like this episode. I think it was an entertaining, fast moving episode, that had likable elements (Particularly the Puff/Driver subplot), along with some entertaining, well animated chase scenes. I just think that it could've been A LOT better than it was. The promo definitely had a lot of great humor in it, which unfortunately is sparse throughout the rest of this episode.
I did not find myself laughing at anything in this episode in particular. Most of the time it was a forced laugh, hoping that this episode would be a great episode. But it wasn't. It was not a great episode. There's no memorable, entertaining jokes or gags in this episode. A lot of the jokes that work are usually chuckle worthy, there's no real funny jokes aside from the gag I mentioned earlier. This is a problem, as a good amount of this episode is stale without funny jokes. The scenes with SpongeBob & The Criminal mostly. The comedy in these scenes usually involve the criminal being injured by something, and while the animation itself is funny, it's not that funny of a gag. It gets kind of annoying, and just bland at many points.
While this episode does terrible trying to make me laugh, there are some enjoyable moments.
I really do like the Puff/Driver subplot. I thought it was an interesting element added to the episode that was unexpected, and delightful to watch. It kind of develops Mrs. Puff's character in a way, rather than just have her be her usual "I HATE SPONGEBOB!" self. It was an entertaining subplot that really helped boost the episode's quality in my opinion, and spiced things up. It's not as brief as the gag with Krabs and Puff in Whirlybrains, so it doesn't feel like it's the same exact thing. It was nice to see some character development, not only in Puff, but also in this one-off character.
Speaking of the one-off characters, they were pretty good characters in this episode. The guest star (Don't know who he is) voicing the criminal did a marvelous job voicing this character, and really brought him to life (Primarily in the repetitive injuries towards the end of the episode. He did manage to spice things up a little). While the other character wasn't as memorable as the criminal, he did manage to be entertaining in his parts.
I still think the suspenseful, driving scenes were very entertaining. They're a big highlight in the episode and makes it all the more entertaining. While this episode may not be entertaining with its jokes, it's still entertaining with its story. The story works very well in this episode, as I mentioned earlier, as it does break away from a regular SpongeBob episode. It's also interesting that this entire episode is at night. We hardly get an episode at night, let alone, a Boating School episode at night. This episode was a nice change from previous episodes this season, and despite its many flaws, it's still a very solid episode.
It's a Good Episode. If I had to watch it again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. This episode, while not funny, was certainly entertaining animation wise. It had a lot of well animated scenes. Also, I love the Con Artist's cameo in this episode.
I give it an 8/10.
Interesting how much Mrs. Puff is in this Season. Considering how little she appeared in Season 9, it's a pretty nice surprise having her being given a big role in a few episodes.
