Hasbean Reviews Every Episode...of Luke Brookshier's

Hasbean

Hasbean

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I've been thinking about doing this list ever since the discussion in the "Have We Really Improved' topic, in which Jibbix asks if it's better to have consistent B+ episodes like S8 or a handful of stellar episodes like in S9. It appears that the best way to assess a season is to watch every episode in it and determine their individual quality. If the good episodes outweigh the bad, it's objectively a good season.

However, I have a problem with doing it by episode because they're not written by the same people. Zeus Cervas storyboard/wrote on a different level than did Aaron Springer, who had different concept of the characters than did Tom King, etc. There have been some negative comments about the overall quality of S4-S9 writing of the first two, particularly of Springer. So how can we really judge whether the seasons have improved if writing is coming from different places? I decided to isolate the episodes I'm reviewing to a single source: Luke Brookshier.

Luke Brookshier has been with SpongeBob its entire post-movie run, with no breaks from Seasons 4-9. Unlike Aaron Springer and Zeus Cervas (not to mention Mr. Lawrence, but he didn't even become a post-movie writer until Season 7), he has had no prior experience with the show. At the very least, he's also been acknowledged as one of the better post-movie writers, so at least his episodes won't be too painful to watch (sorry Casey/Zeus, no list for you). I think that he's the best choice in order to evaluate season or characterization trends and season-by-season quality, at least from a sole perspective.

Of course, throughout his tenure on Spongebob, Brookshier has worked with three other storyboard artists; Tom King (4&5), Nate Cash (6-first half of 8 ), and Marc Ceccarelli (last half of 8&9), and writers. Hopefully by reviewing these episodes I'll be able to see which qualities were consistent from 4-5 versus those that developed due to the new writer/artist and which team worked best together.


I'll be posting my reviews of his first two (of eleven) Season 4 episodes by Friday 6:00 EST. In the meantime, any feedback about this project will be greatly appreciated!
 
Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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Awesome! I'm following this. Glad I'm not the only one who likes a lot of Luke's episodes best when it comes to newer SpongeBob episodes.

When I was watching the credits for the SpongeBob movie, I caught Casey's name in there, so technically he also had a bit of experience before joining the show full time as a writer.
 
Hasbean

Hasbean

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Written by: Luke Brookshier & Tom King (storyboard) with Steven Banks

I had watched Funny Pants a few months prior to making this review and thought it was boring and irritating. Now that I've seen it recently, I can say it is much better than I remembered, despite having some glaring flaws that makes it at best mediocre.

The humor is what saved it from being condemned to the dark annals of "average-bad" episodes such as Stuck in the Wringer and A Day Without Tears. After that infamous montage of SB laughing, some of the jokes were pretty good. Squidward's house coming to life and plugging its ears and SB crying in different formations (Grandma's Kisses reference, maybe?) were creative visual gags, which is usually a post-movie strong point. There was some nice dialogue humor in the scene where Squidward makes up the lie about the laugh box. Although the things that SB tried not to laugh at weren't that funny (and just ended up being cheesy), Patrick delivered some decent humor. I honestly didn't expect him to slip on the peel that one last time, and I laughed hysterically at the "It's dark in here. I'm gonna light a match!" gag. When he shakes Squidward's old laugh box in the jar, it feels like his pre-movie characterization; he is trying to cheer ST up after his operation, but he misjudges the situation.

While we are on the subject of characterization, Patrick and Mr. K were probably the least annoying characters in the episode. Although Mr. Krabs is shown to be obsessed with money (seriously, all of his lines in the episode are connected to money), it doesn't hurt anyone. He tries to help Spongebob laugh, even letting SB touch his coins, but the only happiness he knows is connected to money. It's not his original characterization, but it isn't unpleasant to watch.

Glancing over the episode list, this is the Sandy's first S4 appearance, and it isn't good. When SB tells Mr. Krabs, "Maybe I should ask Sandy. She's a scientist," I muttered to the screen, "No, she isn't!" I did smile at her "Science makes everything sound painful" line, but her small role here was telling an unfunny riddle in an imagine spot, loading up SB with textbooks, and inexplicably being with Squidward at the hospital. It must have been confusing to have seen this episode when it first came out and have no idea where Sandy's character traits were coming from. Prior to Funny Pants, had we ever seen her pick up a book?

I'm broken between sympathizing with and disliking Squidward. He makes a sarcastic comment about his boss's cheapness and gets treated to one of the most ear-aching days ever. I don't remember SB's laugh being so annoying. It sounded like the same 2 second clip was played over and over until I heard sound fold in on itself like some demented laughception. From a logical standpoint, I can forgive this aspect of the episode that some/most view as its critical flaw. The laugh was supposed to be painful and annoying to hear in order to drive Squidward to get the Cubic Cackler to stop, therefore kicking off the plot. The way he reacted to the incessant laughter was realistic and sympathetic.

But then there's the painful line after SB gets depressed when he can't laugh, "I really hate to see the little guy sad but not as much as I hate to see him happy." SB-ST interactions were some of my favorite in the show, so it was painful to see Squid indifferent to SB's depression, especially when it was his fault. The writers have Spongebob point this out later, and Squid does agree that what he did was a bit harsh…but then he laughs at how gullible SB was. It's like Brookshier, King, and Banks couldn't decide whether they wanted ST be a hero or a villain. Ultimately it's this comment that makes Squidward laugh so hard he breaks his apparently imaginary laugh box. Luckily for him, SB agreed to transplant some of his own laugh box (always good intentions with old Spongebob). Then the episode ends with the two of them…doing that awfully constant laugh again in a creepy sequence during which ST looks absolutely horrified. In my opinion, this was a good deal less justified than the laugh sequence at the beginning of the episode because it didn't contribute to any plot points or lead to a satisfying conclusion. All it did was torture Squidward and the audience.

Some people might call this a Squid Abuse episode. Was it? Eh, in the same vein as Good Neighbors. He was in the right initially, but he was overzealous in his revenge plot. Although he did get a horrifyingly annoying laugh, it was making fun of SB's naivete that did it. It's not fully-justified, but it's a far cry from some Season 6 episodes.

However, my biggest problem with Funny Pants is not the characters or the plot. What really killed this episode was the animation. Dear God, the animation. I'm sure it has something to do with this being Brookshier & King's first episode, because I don't think I've ever seen SB animation that horribly off model. Typical thick-line S4 animation doesn't bother me. That weird thing they did with Spongebob and Squidward's eyes did. There's one scene when Spongebob keeps laughing as he goes home for the first day, and then the camera pans over to a trembling Squidward in bed…he barely looks like himself.


I was prepared to give this a bad rating based on the ear-aching annoyingness of the first few minutes, but the episode sort of got better. However, I can't forgive it for its lackluster characterization and atrocious art style. If I had a bottom 100 episode list, this would probably rank in the high 80s or 90s. 4.5/10
 
Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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Nicely done. I still don't like "Funny Pants" that much but it did have a few bright spots in it. Not a good start for Luke or representative of some of his best work yet. Big problem with this episode is how the first two minutes, SpongeBob laughing incessantly is exhausting and gets really tiresome and annoying and there isn't that much of an explanation as to why he keeps doing it. It really kills a lot of the comedy. If they had made that scene much shorter and focused more on the sight gags, drawings and characterizations, I would have probably liked this much more. 4/10 is what I gave this ep originally.
 
Hasbean

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Popeye Q. Krabs said:
Nicely done. I still don't like "Funny Pants" that much but it did have a few bright spots in it. Not a good start for Luke or representative of some of his best work yet. Big problem with this episode is how the first two minutes, SpongeBob laughing incessantly is exhausting and gets really tiresome and annoying and there isn't that much of an explanation as to why he keeps doing it. It really kills a lot of the comedy. If they had made that scene much shorter and focused more on the sight gags, drawings and characterizations, I would have probably liked this much more. 4/10 is what I gave this ep originally.
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Most of the time, a writer/storyboard artist's first episode ends up being pretty mediocre (like Sean Charmatz's The Splinter). The next few of Brookshier's (I'll be posting my review for EIL today) are some of the best of Season 4, and the animation was decent.

I was originally going to give FP a 4/10 but I upped the rating once I considered that the team did a fair job handling Squidward's punishment. It's not a great episode, but it does have some legitimate redeeming points.
 
Hasbean

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Written by: Luke Brookshier and Tom King (storyboard) with Tim Hill

A giant robot is attacking Bikini Bottom, knocking down buildings and razing the town. It's kidnapping fish left and right, marching over to its evil lair to the citizenry's doom….eating at the Chum Bucket of course! It is, after all, a standard marketing strategy. Brookshier, King, and Tim Hill nailed the underlying irony of Plankton's character; he's a megalomaniacal kidnapper/thief with a giant killer robot…that he uses to make people eat at his restaurant. The fact that he didn't even remember to trap everyone inside and so they all walked out anyway just added to the joke.

Enemy-in-Law's strongest point, like Funny Pants before it, was the humor. But this episode was even better in that regard. The main plot is the admittedly ridiculous idea of Plankton falling in love with Mr. Krabs's mother. It milks an "evil villain in love" trope for all it's worth really well. Whether it's Plankton using his robot's laser to spell "I Love You" in the burning wreck of Bikini Bottom or reciting a "romantic" poem comparing world domination to Mrs. Krabs, he just doesn't get how she wouldn't find his gestures attractive ("Guess she's not much of a poet."). Seeing Plankton as a "single-celled Romeo", to quote a later episode, was also hilarious. "Somebody call heaven because I think an angel's gone missing," right before giving Mrs. K a lidded stare was cheesy in a self-aware, making fun of romance cliches way. Mr. Krabs's snark over the situation of his worst enemy and his mother together were some of his best lines in S4. The visual pun of the scorned Mrs. Krabs firing her 'guns' was funny, too. And who can forget this exchange over the reveal of just who Mrs. Krabs was dating?

Mr Krabs: Plankton!
Plankton:Krabs!
Mama Krabs: Eugene!
Mr Krabs: Mommy?
Plankton: "Mommy?"
Spongebob: (jumps in the air) Spongebob!
Mr Krabs: Spongebob...
Plankton: This delectable creature is your mother?
Mr Krabs: This no-good conniving chiseler is your date?
Spongebob: And this devilishly handsome sponge is your waiter.
Mr Krabs: Spongebob!

It's a good thing that I loved the jokes, because I did not think the plot was handled well. I feel like part of this episode is a more sympathetic version of FUN but without the buildup. Plankton falls in love with Mrs. K while he looks at her out the window for little reason other than he finds her attractive and that Karen is mean to him. But he loves her so much he hadn't even thought about asking her about the formula until Krabs stupidly barges into the Chum Bucket and blabs that she knows about it. Then aside from the gun gag and the robot holding the flowers before saying "This is uncomfortable," the episode really starts to go downhill. Suddenly Plankton's love for a beautiful woman wasn't enough to keep him on the straight and narrow if that woman has the formula. He even accuses her of leading him on when she rejects his marriage proposal! Then he holds the formula for collateral. All right, so we probably knew this wasn't going to work out by the end of the episode, but it turned around so quickly. He was all smooth talk until she said no. And unlike FUN, the character change in Plankton was 100% genuine, so seeing him go back to his original formula-grubbing was at the very least a little strange; it flattens his character. I guess once a crook, always a crook. Love that comes fast leaves fast. It's the nice guys that turn about to be jerks.


(Hell hath no fury like a...okay, I'm stopping now.)

Aside from whether or not Plankton likes Mrs. K, I thought the writers handled him really well. He's over-the-top, smooth until he isn't, and stereotypically evil but comically petty. We also got to see Mr. Krabs in a role that we rarely see him in; he's not SB's father figure, but a whiny son. Sure, he's cheap (the hat…ugh!), but not in a way that detracts from the episode too much. Watching him act like a little boy begging his mother not to marry this "bad, bad man" was great. Although it was his fault that Plankton couldn't have his happy ending, it's quite in-character for him not to trust Plankton as far as he can blow him out of a straw.

I didn't like Karen's character in this episode. I realize she was written this way for the plot to work, but she's too whiny and emotional to be entertaining. She seemed more like a cardboard cutout of a stereotypical naggy housewife than the strong snarker she is before and after this episode. "Nagging software? I heard that! Come back and dust my screen," or crying over how she's just a WIFE isn't something I imagine she would say or do. She'd dust that screen herself. She appears briefly at the end to give Plankton his literal laser-guided karma for cheating on her. I didn't mind it, but I didn't think it was all that amusing or a satisfying conclusion.

Spongebob had a very small role as a funny line-spewer in a nice suit, but he contributed to the best scene in the episode (the reveal, of course!) None of the other major characters were present. I suppose that they wanted to save time to focus on Plankton-Krabs-Mr. Krabs drama, and they didn't really need Squidward for added humor since they had SB. The next Brookshier ep focuses exclusively on the main four, and nothing was lost there from that either.

I'll just note that as this is the first post-movie appearance of Mrs. Krabs, her voice changed from a nasally tone to a more feminine one with an inexplicable Scottish accent. This is because the voice actors changed from Paul Tibbit to Sirena Irwin. However, they've kept her voice consistent throughout S5 and S6 (Friend or Foe and Spongicus).

In conclusion, this episode is good but not great. I'll gladly watch it for the humor and it keeps me interested for the whole 11 minutes (they didn't waste the potential of an awesome concept), but I'm not fond of Plankton falling in and out of love so suddenly and Karen's lack of subtlety. 8/10

Next up: Patrick wants cheese.
 
Hasbean

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Old Man Leroy Jenkins said:
Yay! Krusty Towers is next! Loving this list so far! From what I heard, Brookshier wasn't a very good writer.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Hopefully I'll be posting my write-up of KT by tomorrow.

I think Brookshier is a pretty good writer and artist, at least after Funny Pants. He had a hand in producing some of the best episodes from 4-6. Incidentally, the episode your icon's from is one of them. He wrote the lyrics to "I wrote this" himself.
 
Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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Hasbean said:
Thank you! Hopefully I'll be posting my write-up of KT by tomorrow.

I think Brookshier is a pretty good writer and artist, at least after Funny Pants. He had a hand in producing some of the best episodes from 4-6. Incidentally, the episode your icon's from is one of them. He wrote the lyrics to "I wrote this" himself.
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From what I've seen, he's done a better job at trying to stick to the original vision of the show and characterizations than say Zeus and Casey and has written less bombs than them, Aaron Springer, or Richard Pursel.
 
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Hasbean said:
Thank you! Hopefully I'll be posting my write-up of KT by tomorrow.

I think Brookshier is a pretty good writer and artist, at least after Funny Pants. He had a hand in producing some of the best episodes from 4-6. Incidentally, the episode your icon's from is one of them. He wrote the lyrics to "I wrote this" himself.
Click to expand...
Wait, he wrote "I Wrote This"? :bowdown: I now think he is good, but he still wrote bad episodes like The Card, Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful, The Main Drain, Little Yellow Book, Gone, and Are You Happy Now.
 
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Old Man Leroy Jenkins said:
Wait, he wrote "I Wrote This"? :bowdown: I now think he is good, but he still wrote bad episodes like The Card, Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful, The Main Drain, Little Yellow Book, Gone, and Are You Happy Now.
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"Gone" was good until the ending I think. I can see why the other ones you mentioned are bad or forgettable, especially the damn Main Drain. Yuck.
 
Hasbean

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Written by: Luke Brookshier and Tom King (storyboard) with Steven Banks

Trio Previously Wrote: Funny Pants

(I promised by today, and I meant it)

Ah, Krusty Towers. If you ever hear a New-SpongeBob hater speaker talk about post-movie episodes they like, they'll probably mention KT. And with good reason. This episode is awesome! I'm sure all of you reading have seen it more than once (or if you're me, more than 7 times), so you all know what makes it great.

Some people, when praising Krusty Towers, claim that it feels like a pre-movie episode. It does. Unusual for post-movie, much of the humor is dialogue- rather than visual-based, which gives it a Season 3 feel (and many quotable lines). Yet there are still some good visual gags such as SB's rocket legs and the epic sequence of the beaten "Mrs. Tentacles". Seriously, did you fall for that when you first saw it?

One of my favorite dynamics on the show is Patrick-Squidward, not because it's sometimes heartwarming like SB-Gary or pre-movie SB-Squidward, but because they're hilarious together. Conversations between these two produce the most quoted lines in show history, such as Wumbo and the suggestive pickle, mayo/horseradish being an instrument, and this episode. Just like Funny Pants, Brookshier, King, and Banks wrote Patrick really well. His stupidity works with Squidward's logic and sarcasm. His answers to Squidward, who tries to point out how unreasonable he is, sound like something he would say. Of course his suitcase is full of rocks and that 400 yards is "getting away from it all".

A silly nitpick is that while these lines are hilarious, they aren't exactly logical. There's no rhyme or reason why Pat would pay Sponge with a dollar and Squid with a rock, why he would put rocks in his suitcase, and why would he keep forgetting that Krusty Towers=hotel other than, "Patrick is dumb and weird?" I'm not saying that these antics are out-of-character for Pat, but they're not exactly the same as his stupidity in Big Pink Loser, with the upside-down broom gag. To be fair, that aspect of him depended on the scene in S1-3. ('d draw a parallel between his behavior here and in The Krusty Krab Training Video since he seems just as oblivious and annoying to Squidward.

Squidward felt more like his old self, which is a refreshing turn after Funny Pants. He's grumpy and angry, but he still has the sarcasm that makes him fun to watch. His interactions with Mr. Krabs and Patrick made the episode what it was. He always gets frustrated at Patrick for being too slow. Then he drives the action of the rest of the episode with forcing Mr. Krabs to do demeaning tasks. It's pretty clever of him to take revenge on his boss rather than Patrick because the latter probably wouldn't understand what was going on. Some of the things he made Mr. Krabs do were actually rather sadistic, like the eating of the cheese-less Krabby Patty and painting a whole room 5 times for no reason. But the writers went a long way to show that it was at least sort of justified. And in any case, ST has been overzealous in getting revenge before, right? (Opposite Day, Fools in April) Of course, it all backfired in the end, leaving neither Mr. K nor Squidward with anything except a lot of broken bones. I think that was the best way the writers could have ended it since both sides were in the wrong and had already been mutually abusive. They still snuck in some good snark between them! ("You're not gonna have a heart attack, are you?" "Not at these prices!")

I sort of admire Mr. K in this episode. He's a cheap slavedriver in order to kick off the plot and at the end of the episode, but it was effectively played for laughs. He had a plaque, "We shall never deny a guest even the most ridiculous request" and he stuck with while Squid was being completely unreasonable. It takes real honor to actually drive to Squidward's mother's house in order to fulfill his promise.

SpongeBob was once again a minor part of the episode. He loves his job and is loyal to Mr K. He is so enthusiastic that he blasts a hole right through the ceiling straight to Patrick's room and Krabs didn't get upset. It's cool that the writers showed him with water-wings in the pool scene since it's been established that he can't swim.

I'm never tired of watching this episode since it has so many memorable moments. It is rare to see an episode as well-rounded as Krusty Towers in terms of diverse humor (the best aspect!), original plot, and sensible character interaction. 10/10!

(Still not my favorite S4 episode of Brookshier's, though. ;) )

Next up: Sandy's (and Patrick's, and Spongebob's) new invention

A/N: If you guys have any suggestions on how I should better format my reviews, as they tend to be a little all over the place, I'd love to hear 'em. :P



Old Man Leroy Jenkins said:
Wait, he wrote "I Wrote This"? :bowdown: I now think he is good, but he still wrote bad episodes like The Card, Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful, The Main Drain, Little Yellow Book, Gone, and Are You Happy Now.
Click to expand...
I'd honestly forgotten that Luke Brookshier had written those episodes. I tend to look at him in a more positive light since he co-wrote/drew Krusty Towers, Spy Buddies, Wishing You Well, Whale of a Birthday, Goo-goo gas, Krabs A La Mode, Roller Cowards, Sing A Song of Patrick, Suction Cup Symphony, Single Cell Anniversary *gets hit with a brick* and many more, which are all my favorite 4-6 episodes that I watch constantly. I knew that he had written some bombs, but they weren't the colossal failures of Dear Vikings, The Splinter, A Pal for Gary, One Coarse Meal, or Pet or Pests, so I thought he'd been doing reasonably well. His recent S9 stuff has been really good so far. As for my thoughts on LYB...well, we'll get there If when we get there.

I love how one song with zany lyrics changes your opinion of an entire writer. You made my early morning :)
 
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