Why Does the Loud House Gets a Mixed Reception These Days?
It’s been 5 years since The Loud House came out. What made the show stood out from most of Nickelodeon’s animated shows is that it was an immediate success. The rest didn’t stood a chance against the yellow sponge. But there’s something appealing to a show about a white haired boy and his 10 sisters (for better or worse) as opposed to a dog becoming a secret agent, a robot and a monster, a boy and his snake go on gross adventures (to be fair, that one didn’t got burned off to Nicktoons), two ducks delivering bread, a blue bird spends time with two weird creatures, etc. The show has a large cast of characters to choose from. At first, Lincoln (the only boy of the titular house) was the main focus of the show and would usually speak directly to the audience, much like Clarissa Darling. Add that and the comic strip art style and you’ll have yourself a 90s-esque cartoon. Now you’ll know why it won the audience over. However, over the past 5 years, opinions on the show has changed a lot. And I’m going to give a few reasons why.
First of all, it was created by a man named Chris Savino. You may have remembered his works for cartoons such as Rocko’s Modern Life, Dexter’s Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Kick Buttowski , the latter three in which he took over as showrunner and director. A lot of people had their doubts on the guy’s resume since he happened took over two of the aforementioned Cartoon Network shows while their creator moved to their second creation, while other think he’ll do just as great as Kick Buttowski (where he directed all the episodes for the show). For the first year and a half into its run, people trusted him to make a decent show that everyone could enjoy. But on October 2017, the bad news happened. It turns out he was a sexual predator and his history of molesting women dated back to the 2000s. What made the situation even more awkward is that the first cartoon he ever worked on was Ren and Stimpy, also created by another sexual predator (in this case, a child predator). Which adds another asshole creator for Nickelodeon. Thanks to the situation, people’s views on The Loud House has suddenly shifted. They went from claiming to be the savior of Nickelodeon to being one of the most generic cartoons they’ve ever seen. In my opinion, it became the Fairly OddParents of the 2010s. Both are Nicktoons created by an animator from Michigan and went out to outlast the other Nicktoons from its era (except for SpongeBob, of course, when it comes to 2000s Nicktoons). TMNT 2012 had a decent run as well and up until now it was Nick’s longest running animated show from the 2010s, but that was based off an existing property. In spite of all the behind the scenes mess, The Loud House is still going strong and is now the longest running Nicktoon from the 2010s. Savino has been replaced by Michael Rubiner, story editor of the show, and a longtime Nick veteran.
Second, the show’s writing. A lot of people are very divided on its reputation, whether it deserves to be Nick’s biggest animated success in recent years. Even during its early seasons, the show was accused as being predictable. It was noticeable, but it wasn’t to the extreme in later seasons where there seems to be a formula for most episodes. Most episodes will begin with the problem of a plot kicking in, the characters (usually Lincoln) messing up, they must fix things, and everything is all solved in the end. In recent years, they have went overboard with formula is that you can’t almost not go an entire episode without hearing a soft piano tune, usually played on sentimental moments. It has gotten for the point that it has became exactly what The Fairly OddParents suffered: Strictly formula writing (again, both are created by Michiganders who aren’t nice people at all). People has simply stopped watching TLH altogether.
Last and the worst part of them all: the show has a questionable fandom. Now don’t get me wrong, the show has its fair share of nice people of the fandom as I follow them. They represent the show very well and are friendly people. But here’s where the creepy side of the fandom reside in: DeviantART. If you even dare to look up the Loud House on the Internet (especially on DA), you’ll see nothing but porn art of the show. It’s been this way since it’s first year of existence and it has gotten worse over time especially after the whole scandal surrounding its creator. I understand why people are turned off from this show. Since it has a large character of sibling character, there’s this nasty shipping called Loudcest. Which means if you ship Lincoln or any of the girls together, it’s considered to be incest ship. Because it worked so well with Pinecest (Dipper and Mabel from Gravity Falls)...not to mention, everyone except Lori as of season 5 are minors. So you might as well as call it Pedocest while we’re at it. (At least Lori happens to be dating someone, which is Bobby Santiago)
In the end, what was once to be considered the savior of Nickelodeon, ended being up a punching bag within the cartoon community (unless you’re still a fan). Other reasons why they’re getting sick of it might’ve something to do with its popularity (some people wished Harvey Beaks was the savior of Nick). The Loud House will be remembered as the show that wasn’t good enough to save Nick’s reputation because of the bad things associated with it. I don’t blame you if you’re not into the show these days, but it wouldn’t killed you if just respect it for paving the way for comic influenced shows for Nick. We are getting a few Nicktoons that are based on comics like Big Nate and they’re so boastful about acquiring the rights to Garfield. Frankly, I has grew tired of the competition surrounding both it and SpongeBob. They came out a day apart (by 17 years) and the fans attack each other for minor things. But who knows will be the next big thing for Nicktoons branding?
