The Original 3 Nicktoons: How It Began

The Original 3 Nicktoons: How It Began

August 11, 1991 is remembered as one of the most important days in television animation. Three animated shows premiered on Nickelodeon (not just cartoons, they’re Nicktoons) during a Sunday morning. They would soon define Nickelodeon forever. So I am going to take a look at these three shows. Keep in mind, I’m only covering the original series although I plan to cover their continuations (Disney’s Doug, the 2021 reboot, and Adult Party Cartoon) in another journal.

Doug

The first ever Nicktoon is a slice of life cartoon revolving around a boy simply named Doug (last name being Funnie). Every episode is told through a story narrated by Doug as he writes his experience through a journal. All the episode title starts with his name. Doug is one of the most divisive classic Nicktoons. You either love it or hate it. Or you think it’s a boring show. Most people think it’s that dull of a show because it’s too realistic and doesn’t provide anything interesting. I personally think that while it’s definitely not the most interesting cartoon in the world, it’s something I would rewatch when there’s nothing else to do. I will admit, the first season was pretty slow as the writers were trying to get the hang out of it. Most episodes throughout the season were pretty much your typical sitcom plots like attending a school dance, babysitting a dog, going to a rock concert, and taking a cooking class. You can see why the show got the reputation from cartoon fans, it feels too much like a live-action show if it was animated. Seasons 2-4 really improved the storytelling so I was able to keep myself watching each season instead of doing the old fashioned rule of dropping a show. The plots of these episodes got better, such as getting tickets to see a band, a career week participation, and graduating from elementary school. But I’m actually getting ahead of myself of what I’m going to rank my favorite episodes of the show, so let’s focus on what I liked about the show and why I go easy on it than other cartoon fans. It’s a slice of life show, so you might get a few episodes that you can relate to Doug. Most of my favorite installments will involve a situation that I can relate to. Even then, when it’s not being a relatable show, it can feel experimental when it needed to. The characters (outside of Doug himself who is the definition of a vanilla protagonist) are all distinctive that I’m able to tell them apart from each other. I can’t think of a favorite character honestly because none of them don’t reach my top 10 favorite Nickelodeon characters of all time. But I will say Porkchop is the best character of the entire series. I’m not a dog lover myself, but there’s something special about him. The voice acting is fine for the most part. Billy West started his voice acting career here but I can guarantee you he will be more passionate at the role later on in the series run. It’s very interesting that only he voiced Doug but also Roger Klotz which means a lot of talking back and forth between the two. It’s a shame he got replaced during the Disney series. But I gotta say the best aspect of this show comes from both acting and composing. That guy’s name is Fred Newman. He’s a man of multiple talents. Not only does he voiced a bunch of characters on the show, but he also does both the sound and the music. All by his mouth. Okay, not all of its score is done in a cappella style, but it’s the reason why the show can be charming to watch. Roger, Judy, Quailman, and the geeks especially have a distinctive theme that you notice every time they show up on screen. That’s all the praise I have to give to this show. Now here’s where the problems lie ahead. The animation quality can be rather inconsistent and the earliest episodes look very primitive even for 1991 standards. Some of the stories told throughout the series can be pretty derivative and other shows can handle certain plots much better. This is especially a season 1 problem. A few characters aren’t as interesting, but it seems like Doug and his family are the definition of blandness except for Judy and Porkchop. Doug doesn’t hurt the show much despite being named after him because other characters carry the show hard and West’s performance makes up for it. But if I have to consider the worst character of the entire show, it definitely has to be Mr. Bone. He’s the vice principal of the elementary school, but for whatever reason, the writers sure portrayed him like he’s the leader of this school and we never even seen the actual principal. His voice is like a grating Don Knotts impersonation. And when the show doesn’t catch my attention with the aforementioned pros I listed, it can indeed be a slog to watch, and I understand that it’s not everyone cup of tea. But I’m a lot nice to the show (especially regarding the Nickelodeon run) since not only it’s the first Nicktoon, but also because it’s a comfortable show to watch when nothing good’s on tv. It’s wonder Nick kept this show in reruns for almost a decade before it was limited to Nicktoons throughout early in its life and eventually NickRewind on TeenNick. I will only recommend watching the show just to see how it holds up as Nick’s first in house animated productions. Not a great start, but I promise you there will be better shows of its kind pretty soon. I can tell you this: it’s leagues better than the Disney version but we’ll get to that when I review it another time.

My top 5 favorite episodes:

1. Doug Graduates
2. Doug’s Halloween Adventure
3. Doug’s Hot Ticket
4. Doug’s Career Anxiety
5. Doug’s Lost Weekend

My bottom 5 favorite episodes:

1. Doug’s New Teacher
2. Doug Gets Busted
3. Doug Didn’t Do It
4. Doug’s Big Nose
5. Doug’s a Big Fat Liar

Rugrats

The first Nicktoon to become a mega hit, it focuses on the lives of toddlers as they roam around and go on adventures while their parents aren’t looking. Originally intended for 65 episodes, this show was so popular in reruns, it ended up getting 6 more seasons as well as three movies, a couple of spinoffs, various video games, and a reboot. This was the original cash cow Nicktoon and if you were a Nick fan during the late 90s and early 2000s, you couldn’t escape from those dumb babies. So how did a show about babies attracted an audience? Well, if you read this review, you’ll find out why it became a big show in the first place. Since it’s a long running show, the review will be divided by different eras.

Seasons 1-3

The golden age of the franchise. All very good seasons in their own right. Though, like with all long runners, Rugrats was completely different early on in its run. The pilot had Tommy wearing a different shirt and a different woman voicing him. Both the pilot and season 1 had really dark color palette (most old cartoons do, but Rugrats and Simpsons season 1, both produced by Klasky Csupo take it to a level of darkness). It was also animated by a different Korean studio (Wang as opposed to Anivision and its subsidiary) and it surely move so differently than the rest of Klasky Csupo’s works. While the premise is still about roaming babies when the parents aren’t looking, you’ll notice that season 1 primarily focused on Tommy himself (occasionally the other babies are absent). The characters personality hasn’t been officially established yet so watching a season 1 can be jarring after watching a later episode. The best episode of the season was At the Movies while the worst episode was Fluffy vs Spike. At the Movies had an interesting story of the babies wandering during a cinematic experience. Little Dude would be a close second, and while it’s a solo Tommy episode, it’s one of the better Tommy episodes as he tried fitting in with a cool person. Reptar’s Revenge introduced the iconic dinosaur mascot, who pretty much represents the series as a whole. The first season ended on a high note with a Stu episode. As for my least favorite, I listed Fluffy vs Spike as the worst because it’s one of those dumb episodes where the good pet does something wrong and gets blamed for it. It doesn’t sit right with me and it’s the worst episode of the early seasons. Barbecue Story suffered from major early installment weirdness and it’s just a dull story. Beauty Contest won’t fly well in today’s society with the way they made Tommy dress up for a pageant. Ruthless Tommy and Weaning Tommy both suffer from the same problem: mundane plots solely focusing on Tommy with not very good execution. Yeah, it’s clear Tommy as a character by alone doesn’t work. So I’m glad they decided to flesh out the characters more the next few seasons and drop the Tommy’s on his own episodes. Season 2 is when the show got a bit better. It introduced characters such as the Carmichaels (which include Susie, the first supporting black character in a Nicktoon), Charlotte, and Dr. Lipschitz. Let’s get through the negatives first. My least favorites are The Dog Broomer, The Big Flush, Runaway Angelica, and Driving Miss Angelica, as they’re all either not interesting or don’t feature the best portrayal of Angelica. Picking a favorite episode of season is tough, but I’m going to pick the Christmas special. It succeeded at telling a Christmas story without being too mean or preachy. Reptar on Ice is a close second as I loved the idea of everyone seeing an ice show featuring the series mascot. It’s followed by Sand Ho as my third favorite as I tend to love pirate themed episodes. Ice Cream Mountain will surely make your crave for ice cream after watching it. What the Big People Do was basically All Grown Up before All Grown Up (except that it’s a what if scenario as literal adults not teens). This was a good season, but it was able to get even better and experimental by the following season. Season 3 was, without a doubt, Rugrats at their peak, at least as a tv show. But it was still just a little show although it was the only one that was able to surpass 52 half hours. For whatever reason, the colors got even brighter and put a bigger emphasis on purple. It’s a bit of an eye stain, but it doesn’t hurt opinions on the third season that much. And once again, let’s get through the worst episodes first. Tricycle Thief is your typical plot where a character gets accused for a crime they never did. The Unfair Pair is kinda of lame, and doesn’t offer anything special. Pickles vs Pickles had an interesting idea, but it’s held back by a poor execution. Now do you want to guess what is favorite episode of the entire series, which is during this season? Wait a minute, I just remember, that’s not produced during this era. Oh well, but it was clear that I was going to pick the Jewish themed episode Passover. There were some hints before this episode came out (like the grandparents being Jewish stereotypes), but the Pickles family’s religion is Judaism. When you have Jewish creatives involved, of course an episode like this was going to succeed at educating viewers (Jewish and non-Jewish) about the importance of Judaism. I Remember Melville is my second favorite and it’s crazy how they managed to expect us to feel bad for an insect. Chuckie’s Wonderful Life is a perfect parody of It’s a Wonderful Life and arguably the best of its kind as they tend to be hit or miss. Kid TV and Home Movies are one of the most creative stories the show has done as they revolve around television and filmmaking, which are always a joy to watch. If I have to say the show’s biggest strength during this period were definitely the chemistry between the characters and especially the music score, although the comedy almost reach it. The character interaction between the babies didn’t hit its potential until the second season, but they always felt like a group that would go along even if Chuckie’s too scared. Angelica’s conflicts with the babies worked and I know she can be a divided character but I’m basically neutral on her, but I can see why she became a fan favorite from the viewers and writers. My favorite of them all has to be a mix between Tommy and Chuckie. They’re both total opposites of each other and I really like the friendship between the two. I like Tommy for his bravery and I like Chuckie for his sensitivity. The Deville twins have their moments, but their shtick of grossout humor and petty arguments can get old after a while. The adults carried this show as they provided most of the comedy and especially moments that make this show aimed at everyone rather than strictly for literal toddlers. My favorite adult has got to be Grandpa Lou. Whether he was voiced by David Doyle or Joe Alaskey, he always stole the show with his one liners. And I really like Stu for being laid back (Jack Riley does a great performance as him. May he RIP), although he and Didi are horrible parents for never noticing their own son. The music score was at its peak during this time as they got future CatDog composer Denis Hanigan to do serious music alongside Devo musician Mark Mothersbaugh. Mark’s work for the show is iconic even if it’s just different from his usual rock fare, but there’s something special Hanigan’s score. If you’re binge watching the entire series, I definitely recommend watching from the beginning to see how it evolve. 65 episodes was sure enough to make a series about wandering toddlers. But soon, this show would be important for Nickelodeon…

Seasons 4-5, the first movie

In 1996, after a couple years break of new content, Nick has decided to renew the show for another season. Reruns were proven to be popular and that is the rise of Rugrats. Not to the point of overexposure, but we’re almost getting there. The show is pretty much the same as it was as the earlier seasons, although it had a different crew since most of them migrated to Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Klasky Csupo’s other show. While it’s a slight drop in quality, I treat this show the same way I treat with SpongeBob seasons 4-5, Fairly OddParents seasons 6-8 and The Simpsons seasons 9-10: it’s different from what came before, but it’s harmless and the bad qualities have not taken over the show yet. The art style here is more polished and it’s less brighter than the third season, which is the one improvement they made during the post-revival era. However, if there’s one thing that did made the show a tad worse was dumbing down the babies’ dialogue. It was noticeably less big wordy if I can describe that. Now that is still some adult humor, and the cursing episode does fall during this era after all. The comedic moments are still present but they aren’t as common as they were in the first three seasons. The characters are still portrayed the same as they were in seasons 2-3. I still recommend this era, if you can tell, as I barely notice much of a difference. It does actually had my favorite episode of the show, Mothers Day, where we hear about the whereabouts of Chuckie’s mother. And Chuaunkah is up there as well and it’s the start of season 4. They even went all out with the animation budget for that episode and it shows. Let It Snow will put you in a joyful mood as it revolves the idea of experiencing snow, so it’s a must watch during a snow day. America’s Wackiest Home Movies continues the creativity with home movies that the writers explored in the previous season. And the Thanksgiving special was just great to watch. Season 5 is noticeably a step down but still watchable. Word of the Day is just entertaining on the sole fact that it’s an episode revolving on swearing. This was Sailor Mouth before Sailor Mouth. Sleep Trouble is very relatable for the insomniacs. And the season ends on a perfect note focusing on family tree. This would the be last of the show before it would become a global phenomenon. So towards the end of the 90s, they would announce that the dumb babies are heading to the big screen. And it was a rather important movie as it was the first non-Disney animated movie to gross more than $100 million at the box office. It was clear these babies were here to stay a little and Nick found a way to milk them for all they’re worth. The movie introduced the character Dil Pickles (clever pun they made) who is Tommy’s brother. And of course the audience reaction is what you expect when you add a new character. Dil simply exists for the cute factor. As for the movie itself, I like it, but it’s not the best Rugrats movie and you’ll find out in the next paragraph. It had quite the budget here. The lightings are noticeably darker and the animation is more fluid to give it a theatrical feel. The middle act of the movie kind of dragged when the babies are at the forest and we have to endure a third act breakup scene because of course those scenes need to exist in movies, even if you have toddlers as your lead. Probably why I never gave this movie a perfect score. So yeah, it’s not the highlight of this era and that would go to Mothers Day. And it’s not even the best Rugrats material yet. You’ll find out soon although the show itself would noticeably starts to take a nosedive.

Seasons 6-9, Paris/Go Wild

The last 4 seasons of Rugrats is going to be rather short to describe as I won’t explained why this episode was the best of a season because at this point, the show has started to shift demographics and not in a good way. The original seasons target audience has grew up so they’re mostly watching shows that better suited to a tween audience. Season 6 is harmless, but you can tell they try their hardest to shove Dil down the viewers’ throats as much as possible even though he can’t talk unlike the other babies. So of course, they were trying to give an audience to Nick Jr’s demographics which is why they aired the show on the block for a while. I don’t have much to say about this season except that it contained the worst episode of the entire show, which will surprise you because while I’m neutral on Angelica, even a spoiled brat like her don’t deserved to be treated this (I’m talking about the Silent Angelica episode). The best episode of the season is predictably the tv movie Runaway Reptar, cause Reptar makes a special cooler. With that said, it is the last good season of the original series. But first, let’s talk about Rugrats in Paris, their next theatrical adventure. What can I say? It’s easiest the best thing to come out of Rugrats, period. And this was during a period when they were at their most overexposed and the main series wasn’t as good as the earlier seasons. Maybe I’m biased since I used to own the movie on VHS, but I just enjoyed watching it. Everything about it was perfect, from Chuckie’s arc, the animation, the atmosphere the villain. While the first movie was good and all, Paris just had a better story. Sadly, the show itself will continue to go on a downhill spree. It says a lot about season 7 that the best episode is a a freaking Cinderella parody. And it’s so different from the rest of the series that most of the episodes had three segments: two 5 minutes shorts and one short just end after two minutes. As you can tell, this didn’t worked because the middle segment would always be a 2 minute short and they never had enough time to tell a story. The other two segments tend to be better because the pacing isn’t lighting speed fast. A Rugrats Kwanzaa was wasted on being during this season tbh. For being the first full season in digital animation, it’s not a good sign when it’s just a bunch of dull stories. Easily the worst season of the show. Now seasons 8 & 9, while an improvement as they went back to the two segment format, both feel the same so I will be describing them as if they were equal. And both seasons are just as interesting as watching paint dry. It was clear that Nick was trying to keep this show as alive as possible even though they already found a new hit in SpongeBob. Season 6 already started to feel so much like a Nick Jr show but these later season take it to the extreme that everything that made the show great in the first place are almost gone. It’s more about the babies than adults so it’s wonder why it feels so blatantly like a literal toddler show. Kimi and Kira were decent additions to the show as they are more interesting than Dil. But they don’t really save the show much from being a dying ship. Another new character they add was a babysitter named Taffy who literally look like Reggie Rocket. You all know I love Amanda Bynes with a passion, but even I consider her work on Rugrats one of her weakest. Her character is nothing to write home about. By the time the final episode aired, Nick was already focusing more on All Grown Up, a continuation that came to be after the massive success of a season 8 special. Before we end the review, I just want to say Rugrats Go Wild didn’t really need to exist. It was just Klasky Csupo saying “we should do a crossover between two of our biggest show.” The Wild Thornberrys Movie was better and Rugrats in Paris is league better. I don’t feel much of a reaction watching it. So in the end, this show was ran into the ground so much that it just ended with a whimper. Sorry if this review ends up being longer than I expected.

Top 10 Episodes:

1. Mothers Day
2. Passover
3. Sand Ho
4. The Santa Experience
5. Runaway Reptar
6. I Remember Melville
7. Chuckie’s Wonderful Life
8. Sand Ho
9. Home Movies
10. Kid TV

Bottom 10 Episodes:

1. Silent Angelica
2. Angelica’s Assistant
3. The Times of Their Lives
4. Fluffy vs Spike
5. The World According to Dil & Spike
6. Ruthless Tommy
7. Who’s Taffy?
8. Happy Taffy
9. Lil’s Phil of Trash
10. Dil Saver

The Ren & Stimpy Show

The show features a crazy chihuahua and a dumb cat who get into wacky situations. That’s basically what the show is all about. It’s a pure comedy with no other genres explored, with the occasional sci-fi elements. Although he’s very controversial for different reasons, John K was best known for being the first person to make a creator driven cartoon. Most cartoons at the time were strictly toy commercials and lacked artistic merits. Almost every single  animation made today can have this show to thank for (except for the creator). Unlike Rugrats, I will review the whole run instead of doing separate review for both Spumco and Games Animation episodes. The early episodes were done at John K’s little studio called Spumco (The Danes call it quality according to the vanity plate at the end of every episode). As you may expect, the first few episodes were rather slower paced and the animation hasn’t been perfected yet (as it look like a grossout version of a Hanna Barbera show). I actually did an old review of the Spumco seasons that you access to on DeviantArt (my opinions hadn’t changed much). By the second season, the show became familiar with animation techniques that everything during it is spectacular especially the Carbunkle animated episodes. The pacing has slightly improved although it still suffers from slowness, which has always been John K’s problem even during his prime. Now that I analyzed the early seasons, does that mean I copy everyone’s opinions on the Games Animation seasons? No, because I liked them just as much as the Spumco seasons, although I can definitely see a different vibe. I only noticed the final season being off in story structure, and occasionally the animation due to different overseas studios, but otherwise Ren and Stimpy had always remained good (except for that adult themed reboot we shall not speak of). What made this show good in the first place is that it’s clearly a team effort of which artist’s style gets to showcase. It’s one of those cartoons where the art style changes depending on who work on it. As you can see, John had a strict rule about not drawing the same poses more than once. It shows, but it can be very difficult to pull off. This show don’t really had much of a supporting cast, as the titular characters are the only one to show up in nearly every episode. But what I do noticed is that certain characters only show in a specific era. You have Mr Horse and George Liquor only appearing in Spumco episodes since they also show up in John’s other works. In the Games Animation episodes, Wilbur Corr, the Lumonx, and Haggins show up. But there are few characters that show up in both era, and my personal favorite had to be the Powdered Toast Man (so good he’s in the Nick Brawl games). The music cues are just as memorable as the drawings. And the odd thing is, there isn’t original music outside of the theme song and original songs (composed by then future Angry Beavers and Jimmy Neutron composer), it just consist of stock music for a music library called Associated Production Music. Other Nick shows will soon follow suit although they have their own music composition as well. If I had to pick my favorite season, the answer is very obvious. Season 2 is when the show was its most experimental. It had stories such as the important of keeping your teeth clean, making a fart bubble, having a fan club, joining a Canadian army, and more. It’s the general consensus and I agree with everyone’s opinion that the show peaked here (and not because of John). Season 3 is a mix between Spumco and Games Animation, but it never really loses its luster. Season 4 had more mediocrity, and by the final season, it was a completely different show. With that said, I just want to vent about one thing. The popularity of this show kinda hurt Nickelodeon’s reputation for the longest time because the cartoon community are always quick to point out how gross they are. And they aren’t wrong, nearly every single of their cartoons (and some live action, which become commonplace later on) will have some sort of fart or toilet humor to remind you the impact this show had. Because of this, I feel like people never take the network seriously as it was always considered the weirdest of the big three. The only difference in the 90s and 2000s is that grossout was used in a minimalist (with the occasional gross episode that feels mandatory by the network). By the post-splat logo era, nearly every single Nicktoon that debuted put a bigger emphasis on making viewers grossed out for the sake of shock values. I get that they’re the lowest common denominator of comedy out there, but it is what it is. Kids will find that humor amusing and there’s no we can do about it. Regardless, it still had a more positive impact on the animation industry as we started getting more creator driven cartoons and the toy driven junk were out to wayside. Watch this show at your own risk, but I understand if you aren’t interested in watching because of the creator or its weird comedy style.

Top 5 Episodes

1. Space Madness
2. Sven Hoek
3. Stimpy’s Fan Club
4. Insomniac Ren
5. The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksman

Bottom 5 Episodes

1. Hair of the Cat
2. Road Apples
3. Feud for Sale
4. Travelogue
5. I Love Chicken

Middlemost Post is a Walk of Sunshine (Season 1 review)

Middlemost Post is a Walk of Sunshine (season 1 review)

Intro

Once upon a time, there was a serious dude, his name is John Trabbic III. He used to be an alcoholic until he sobered up. And thus, it inspired for him to create a new Nicktoon called Middlemost Post. The show was in the works since February 2020, but it wasn’t until June that we finally heard words about the show being picked up for a full series. This marks the third time Nick has greenlit a cartoon created by a SpongeBob artist.

Premise

The show’s promise is best described during the theme song. During a stormy voyage sailing the seas, Angus got shipwrecked and his boat ended up at a mountain. One day, a raincloud named Parker J Cloud joined the postage service, the Middlemost Post, and joins Angus and Russell on delivering mail. You know the premise sounds so cool that I was immediately interested in checking out the show. Even better, it was an original Nicktoon, in a sea of corporately produced Nicktoons that were either spin-offs or revivals of beloved shows, which wasn’t a good outlook.

Recapping the Episodes

First Delivery: The very first episode of the show, it revolves on the Middlemost Post gang delivering a letter to someone who just wants to be left alone. Pilot episodes tend to make or break a show and Middlemost Post did not disappoint me when I first sat down and watched the premiere of it. We got to see a little of bit of other Mt Middlemost’s locations in the beginning before the rest of the episode is set at Yellow Springs, a desert full of cacti. A show like this can make a mundane job of mailman look cool - The MMP gang are delivering a letter without getting trapped. However, Angus is the one that keeps getting trapped while Parker still tries his best to deliver the letter. The character they’re trying to deliver is fittingly named Levi Alone, who doesn’t like to be around people and set up booby traps (or they’re called booty traps). While MMP is a gag driven show, this episode focused more on the story, the character interaction and the action sequences. The MacGuffin of the episode is the letter. Angus and Parker (as well as Russell) are very cooperative together, which is a good thing. When the show was first announced, people feared that they wouldn’t cooperate due to their clashing personalities, but this episode highlighted their teamwork. Midway through the episode, Angus and Parker finally decide to get serious after their repeated failures. We are then treated an amazing sequence of Angus doing stunts while trying to avoid traps as much as possible. It was such a fun scene to watch even if he failed once again. So now it’s up to Parker to deliver the letter himself. When Levi finally shows up, he read the letter. It turns out Parker was the writer of the letter the whole time, as he wanted to make Levi happy. As he slammed the door on Parker’s face, he is left in tears, thinking all the trouble of getting there was all for nothing. However, a few seconds later, Levi responded back to Parker and he thinks they’re pen pals now. All in all, it was a great start to a great show. Pilots are normally below average, but this one sets up the premise of the show very well. (9/10)

Chore or Less: In this episode, Parker tried doing chores, but he ended up hating them, leaving the ship a mess. Somehow, this episode got a little better upon rewatch. I gave it a lower score on day one due to its more laid-back plot, but the episode actually had more jokes than the previous one. The character chemistry is still strong although here Parker doesn’t get the concept of chores so he and Angus had a little disagreement on what to do. The episode saw the official debut of Lily (not counting shorts), Mayor Peeve and Ryan. They are established quite well - Lily is just doing her job while giving Parker some advice, Mayor Peeve has an one sided rivalry with Angus because his ship keeps blocking the sunlight on the city hall, and Ryan is the mayor’s assistant. Anyways, I think the reason why I’m more kind to this episode now is that it’s a relatable story. We all hate doing chores, and the characters in the show make it clear that it’s a boring thing to do since it takes away our free time. Parker wanted to enjoy them, but the progress of doing them bores him. So eventually, due to his lack of understanding Angus’ sarcastic remarks, he ended up not doing chores and the whole ship is covered in filth. This caused the whole town to notice. Everyone is nervous, but Peeve would rather see the ship gone, in which he anticipated for its demolition. Angus is holding the ship, entrusting Parker and Russell to do the right thing by cleaning up the mess. And so they did, as the town watched Angus’ butt get exposed. The mayor laughed at this but no laughed at his funny. Balance is brought back to the Middlemost Post. So the moral of the day: always do your chores on time or else your place will be a mess. (8/10)

Burt! the Musical: Aired as part of Nick’s Musical weekend, this episode revolves on Burt, the box, being used as a mascot for a recycling factory. If Chore or Less can be better through rewatch, then I think this episode isn’t as good through rewatch either. I still enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but I somehow liked the chore episode slightly better than this. During a meeting, Parker noticed the absence of Burt and Angus revealed that he accidentally threw the box away. So they went to the one environment friendly place and that is called Greenwood, the main setting for this episode. The recycling factory is home to the Recycling King who is the first character to be voiced by a guest star (Billy Porter). As you expect, due to his actor’s musical nature, he often break into song, much to Angus’ annoyance, who rather want Burt back. There is a musical number exploring why Burt is the mascot of the factory. When you put it that way, this episode is like a modernized version of the Rocko’s Modern Life episode about recycling where it featured a lot of singing. After putting up with the recycle king, it was time for the MMP gang to rescue Burt. However, he already knew the plan because one of the Reggies was fluent in gibberish, which was kinda funny to know. Overall, the episode itself isn’t really the most memorable, but it still had that MMP charm and Billy Porter’s performance was delightful. (8/10)

Saturday No Funday: After Angus kicked Parker and Russell out of the ship for bothering him, Parker thinks they’re permanently out of the ship. Well, this is such an interesting episode. A lot of stuff going on - Parker and Russell bothering Angus, Mayor Peeve in a tight jacket, and everyone getting ready for the eruption of Ned (that’s the name of the volcano). The whole episode is a such a mood whiplash and you’ll find out. It started off funny with Parker and Russell bothering Angus on his day off. But he just want to be alone. So, he kicked them out of the ship, which lead to Parker thinking he’s out of the MMP forever. Now I gotta admit, it did dragged on after while because of how disinterested Angus was and I felt like it start to get a little bland for the next couple minutes. Angus was way too hard on them, but thankfully he will regret it later in the episode. Thinking he’s jobless, he search for new places to work at, and he was hired to work for Lily, but it turns out he just packed his bags to the store, thinking it was his new home. As everyone was prepared for Ned, Parker decided it was time to live there (in which we got to see a look of Red Ridge, a place full of rocks). Russell then warned Angus about the situation and told Parker that his new “home” is an active volcano. However, before Angus could save Parker, it was too late. From the look of it, Angus thought Parker was killed off by Ned, which was a heartbreaking moment. But luckily, Parker is still alive thanks to ability to shapeshift into different things. The last couple minutes of the episode is full of wholesome moments, with Angus feeling apologetic for what he said earlier and giving Parker a small beanie. The last scene with the MMP gang watching the volcano together is arguably my favorite moment of the entire episode, especially due to the fact that Angus is now willing to spend time with Parker and Russell every Sunday. The usage of stop motion of Ned’s eruption is a major plus as well. I originally gave it an 8/10 score but it’s too low of a rating for an episode with so many nice moments, so it’ll be bumped up this time. Rewatching stuff can make a difference. (9/10)

POSTBOT 3000: After getting a deliver from the Middlemost Post, Mayor Peeve get a robot that could deliver mail as fast as possible, so he bets Angus on a mail-off and the winner gets to run the MMP. This was the first episode to be written by Rocco Pucillo, who would later become story editor for the show. He only wrote for two shows and they’re both action-packed. So, unsurprisingly, we’ll be seeing quite a bit of actiony episodes from Pucillo for the show. Anyway, this is the first episode where Mayor Peeve and Ryan play a major role to a plot. We all know Peeve desperately want to get rid of the Middlemost Post so his city hall can finally have some light. His scheme is  building a robot who looks exactly like Angus (its name is POST 3000) and challenging him to a mail-off. It started off well for the Middlemost Post until Peeve decided to cheat. Ryan is actually guarding the POST 3000, but during the middle of the mailoff, the robot kicked Ryan out at a Stinkhole in Yellow Springs. It then ends up doing a dance off with a resident while Peeve took a look of it and thinks it’s stuck. Meanwhile, the MMP has decided to split down in order to deliver mail quicker. By the time they’re all caught up, they realized that Ryan is in the stinkhole. While POST 3000 has already won the race, the MMP had no choice but to rescue Ryan instead. Angus is declared a hero according to Ryan and the POST 3000, despite winning the race, is a big jerk. So in default, the Middlemost Post won and get to keep their ship, much to Peeve’s disgust. Not top 5 material, but pretty exciting to watch. The concept of having a race of to see who delivers the most amount of mail was cool. When the mail off started, it was done like a video game before abandoning it after a minute. I forgot to mention this but the drone Parker was killed off during the race and it won’t be the last we’ll see of it. And it’s not without its sweet moment like what Angus did with Ryan. The episode was great, but in 20 episodes from now, we’re going to have an even better followup.

(9/10)

Boom Goes the Cloud: Parker keeps making thunder noises at night, which disrupts everyone’s sleep. This is the first episode of the show I can fully give a perfect score because it got all the good qualities in a Middlemost Post episode: comedy, nightmare fuel, heart, and tearjerker. And the characters were fun as usual. This episode portrayed Angus as a protective dad towards Parker. We got to see Parker’s former dark side as a raincloud who would always ruin people’s lives, which only happened during his night booms. The episode can provide you a little bit of foreshadowing when you rewatch it and I’ll reveal the twist in a little bit. So, the night booms occurred three times throughout the episode, and they all involved a painting, a wedding, and a sewer. This disrupted everyone at the mountain that they became sleepy. Viewers can relate to this situation as loud noises can ruin your sleep (like me every time I have to put up with barking dogs every night). After almost losing hope, Angus asked Lily for help. She offered him an underwear that would help Parker not get night booms anymore. However, it failed as he still end up having another nightmare and it got to the point that he almost left Mt. Middlemost forever. This is one of the most sympathetic moments of Parker in the entire show. However, thanks to Angus’ motivation, he was able to stay. In the end, it was revealed that Parker was eating a new dessert from the Middlemost Toast which makes the consumer pass gas. Of course, this being a Nickelodeon show doesn’t surprise you as they love their fart jokes. Angus prevented Parker from eating more and their nights have gotten better without the thunderclaps. Originally my favorite episode, I’ve found a few more episodes superior to this, but my rankings won’t be revealed until the very end of this journal.

(10/10)

I Named It Whiskers: Parker and Lily try to get rid of one of her inventions gone wrong - a robotic rat. A few members from the Middlemost Post Discord server consider this one of the weakest episodes of the show, but I don’t think it wasn’t forgettable or anything. I mean, come on, how could you not like this episode when it got some great action? And its smart humor is still present and it’s just as funny as most episodes of the show. So, when Parker finds out the Somewhere Store is a mess, Lily tells a flashback story of how it happened. She invented a rat-like robot to clean up the store, but instead it ends up going haywire. And she named it Whiskers (in which she dropped the episode title after the end of flashback). Parker and Lily try to find a way to destroy it without making the store a mess, to no avail. Lily then built a caterpillar robot to take care of Whiskers herself and you’ll notice it resembled like Caterpie. While this is all happening, Parker is in charge of Somewhere Store, and we treated to this hilarious sequence where a customer asked him for a few things and keeps questioning what’s going on with the store. However, the Caterpie lookalike robot is destroyed and now Whiskers is running around town. Luckily, Parker can shapeshift so Lily uses him as a weapon. And so, they finally destroyed Whiskers with Parker’s icy powers. Unfortunately, the store is still a mess so Lily tries to invent another device but it ends up chasing them away instead. Overall, this was a great episode that showcases Parker and Lily’s friendship/teamwork. Oh, and did I forget that Angus and Russell were completely absent in this episode? Yeah, it definitely felt a tad different.

(9/10)

How Angus Got His Groove Back: When Angus cannot find his lucky beanie, he ends up like a child, so Parker must go on a search to get him a new beanie. This was a rather interesting episode to say the least. My opinion on it has changed somewhat on rewatch, but let’s recap the story first before I can give you my final thoughts. Angus ends acting like a manchild when he doesn’t find his lucky beanie that was passed down from his family. So while Parker and Russell look for the perfect way to make a beanie, the now babyish Angus is left at the Middlemost Toast where he is being babysat by Ms. Pam. Once they do create a beanie, they finally gave it to Angus, but then his face melted off. In the end, the whole event for 80% of the episode turned out be a dream and Angus’ beanie was in the toilet the whole time. This used to be my least favorite episode of the entire show, but I felt like I was too harsh on it as the first half of the episode was funnier than the rest which kinda felt a bit dull. I’ve found a few episodes worse than this now and you’ll find out later. I liked the main plot better as it had Parker and Russell looking for the perfect beanie but the subplot with Ms. Pam babysitting Angus didn’t provided that many good moments (although there’s one interesting moment during storytelling where she wanted to be a movie star but is stuck running a restaurant). I think what soured me was the “all just a dream” twist meaning most of the episode’s events were pointless. This was script coordinator Mo Moffet’s writing debut and while it’s not their greatest start, all writers have to start slow before finding their magnum opus in the long run. 

(7/10)

The Tooth Hurts

Parker accidentally knocked out Russell’s tooth, so they hide from Angus so he won’t find out, but Angus fears Parker doesn’t want to spend time with him after planning a day with the little nimbus. The first episode written by AJ Marchisello, who is known for writing action cartoons. Though, this show is an odd man out as it’s zanier than the other shows he worked on. So, most of his episodes have a sitcom feel to it, similar to Katie Chilson’s episodes. One day, Parker was playing ball with Russell until he accidentally knocked out a tooth of Russell. As a result, Russell keeps barfing out delivery mail. Parker asks Lily for help and they unsuccessfully try to find a replacement tooth. While this is all happening, Angus plans the perfect day to hang out with Parker, but he suspects that he’s busy due to what happened with Russell. Later on, Parker finally confessed what happens and cried a whole river at the Middlemost Toast. Despite all the trouble, Angus laughed it off because Russell always keeps a spare tooth in her trunks, thus solving the episode’s problem. It may have been have a copout ending, but it was still a funny episode. I liked how Russell acts out of control when she only have one tooth, which is why Parker needed to find a replacement tooth in the first place. The subplot was also funny, as it revolves on Angus trying to spend a perfect day with Parker, but he makes a big deal about being left out when he tries to hang out with other people in town. There’s not too much to say about the episode (not that it’s forgettable or anything, it was still worth watching). On another note, this is the first episode to have an The End card.

(8/10)

The Middlemost Toast

Angus, Parker, and Russell are ready to spend the day on getting free toast, but they must endure a long waiting line. The Middlemost Post gang are prepared to get free toast, but everyone in the mountain is getting their hands on it. As Angus missed out on free toast the previous year, Parker and Russell try to find a way to cut in line without the line goers noticing. As they finally got to the last piece of free toast of the year, the angry mob stops them from having a good ending, but Parker saves the day. This is such a great episode. Granted, it’s not perfect as there’s one major flaw with the story - cutting in line so you can have a piece of toasted bread for yourself can comes off as selfish to some viewers. Either way, the episode contained some of the show’s most hilarious moments such as Parker dying from impatience, Mayor Peeve dropping the toast, Ryan getting hit by a raccoon, Angus doing a potty dance as he couldn’t hold it in, and getting the other people to get out of the line. The last minute of the episode is my favorite scene as it had Parker doing the right thing by sharing the last crumb of bread by toasting it with his thunder powers. Everyone gets a satisfying ending and that’s the type of episode I loved seeing. (Well, except for Ryan)

(9/10)

My Buddy, Buddy

Parker befriends a leprechaun named Buddy, but it turns out he’s not an actual buddy. I’ll be honest with you, this was a pretty forgettable episode. The plot kinda went nowhere and it could be predictable with how the leprechauns were portrayed. It begins with Parker introducing Angus and Russell his new buddy named Buddy (fitting name, am I right? More like ironic as the episode progresses) and his father. Angus is fine with this at first until Russell noticed that the leprechauns were only using Parker for gold. With the help of Lily, Angus and Russell search for Parker so they can stop the leprechauns for exploiting the little nimbus. While this is happening, Parker is oblivious to this until Russell saved the day. Ok, so what I just described to you is the plot of the episode. It doesn't sound bad at first, but the episode starts to the drag once the leprechauns become evil. Parker was too clueless to even notice that Buddy and his father were using them as an object rather than being actual buddies. The subplot was better since you had Angus being overprotective for Parker, Russell getting ready to attack, and Lily with an invention. The episode starts to pick up during the last few minutes and it was satisfying to see Parker getting saved from those leprechauns. The ending is just great to watch as well as we see Buddy and his father flown away. But this won't be the last we'll see of them. Despite my beef with the green creatures, Ian James Corlett did a great job pulling off Irish accents. I wish the episode was executed better, but not every show's episode is going to hit.

(6/10)

Love Letters

Parker desperately wants to know who is Angus’ lover. Another not too strong episode, but its humorous moments made up for it. The episode starts off with Angus having a bad hair day and he's embarrassed about it. While he fixes his beard, Parker finds a love letter and believes Angus has a love interest. So they want to reveal the whole mountain about Angus' secret admirer. When Angus finds out, he is embarrassed at the situation and soon everyone at Mt Middlemost suddenly becomes lovestruck. Once Angus finally tells his own love interest, everyone aren't impressed who he really loved and they finally leave him alone. When it comes to secret admirer episodes, they are hit or miss. When it hits, it can allow for a character to successfully express their romantic feelings. When it misses, it just becomes one big awkward mess. Luckily, this episode, while a tad weak at times, hits more than misses, and doesn’t come off as cringeworthy. Even the climax was done in a unique way, as you have every in the mountain falling for Angus. It was just funny to watch the guys fall for Angus. But all of this chaos ends once Angus finally told the truth: his true lover is, believe or not, the ocean. This caused everyone to leave in disgust. And the episode ended with the funniest moment, with Angus’ beard coming out, which scares Parker and Russell away.

(7/10)

Darker Parker

While serving everyone snowcones during a heat wave, Parker uses so much of his colors that he becomes a goth. When Angus notices a change of the little nimbus’ personality, he decides to take them to the doctor. Parker continues to act like a goth until they realize that saying no is the solution and eventually he would turn back to normal again. Meanwhile, Mayor Peeve wants to enjoy his day as he’s the only one with shade, but soon his building will get invaded by unwanted guests. What can I say? Darker Parker easily one of my favorite episodes of the show, it’s top 10 or even top 5 material for me. Episodes where characters change their personality for the sake of a plot tend to be my favorite (see Patrick SmartPants). When I first heard about it, I knew I was going to be treated with a genuine hilarious episode and I was not disappointed. Darker Parker led to some of the finest performance from Becky Robinson, who pulled off the emo side of the little nimbus. Their trash talking is just priceless, and at one point, there was even a your mom joke. Worth noting during the doctor scene, there was a subtle reference to SpongeBob as it featured a pineapple. I really like the moral of the episode: you have to say no no matter how much you want to say yes. It’s been done before, sure, but the show’s execution of it worked because it was required for Parker to return back to normal. That’s not all - the subplot with the mayor trying to find shade is just as funny as the main plot. And it works as well because for once he isn’t plotting to destroy the Middlemost Post and his plans still fail because people want to get some cool air. So yeah, this is worthy of a top 5 episode, and although the show’s fandom is small, I can see Parker’s emo self being a fan favorite.

(10/10)

Lady of the Tree

The Middlemost Post gang goes to the forest to deliver a package to an old lady tree, but she may or may not be an evil witch. This episode is not bad, but the perfect word to describe it: mediocre. The storyline follows the Middlemost Post as they head to a forest and deliver mail to a home inhabited by an old lady. But they have an unfortunate encounter with her, as they’re unsure if she’s evil. And she ends up almost killing the gang, but when the day gets saved, Parker invited her to the Middlemost Post. You can easily tell it’s one of MMP’s weakest episodes because I was feeling it with a predictable plot. Not a lot of shows done this plot, but when it does, it always the same story every time. The first half was harmless, even with the episode still being low on laugh worthy moments. But once the witch starts to express evil intentions, that’s went the episode lost me. I was like “I saw it coming” when I first saw it. The climax was very contrived as you get the gang in peril as they’re about to be killed by the witch. But it gets solved in a half baked way: Parker wants to make amends with the titular character after a sob story and the episode just ends abruptly. This won’t be the last we’ll see if her, but surely her next appearance won’t be as much as a letdown as this. I love the show, but even great shows aren’t immune from duds, and this is a rare dud.

(5/10)

The Sleepover

Parker has a sleepover with Lily, but doesn’t know to plan one, so the little nimbus asks Angus for help. So they plan a whole night of doing many activities at  once, but this still doesn’t win Lily over, much to Parker’s disappointment. When Parker and Angus goes over to Lily’s store, Parker confessed that they never have a sleepover before which is why they had a hard time planning one. Turns out both Lily and Angus also never had sleepovers in their lives before. The episode ends as Angus prepares to join Parker and Lily on their first sleepover, as they laugh at the word “jam jams.” Middlemost Post doesn’t focus too much on its premise of delivering mail, but I can forgive the writers because they do a great job at making episodes with a simple story. The episode’s biggest strength is chemistry between the characters. We have Parker trying to bond with Lily, but they struggle to plan a sleepover, so with the help of Angus, they try to make it a good sleepover. Angus served as the co-organizer of the sleepover, making sure it goes smoothly. The activities they did were pretty fun scenes, even if it went by pretty fast. This is a contrast to the beginning, where it was a tad slow. So yeah, the pacing was the only issue with the episode and it takes a while for Lily to feel truly excited for the sleepover. But the last few minutes make it worth it and shows you that the show’s biggest strength is character interaction.

(8/10)

The “B” Word

Russell smells, and the only way to clean her is to take a bath, but she is terrified at the thought of hearing that word. One utterance of the word bath and she will go berserk. So Parker and Angus try to find a way to clean her without saying the “B” word. But when all their plans fail, Russell’s odor spreads all over the mountain. And the angry mob form, chasing the Middlemost Post everywhere they go. The situation is solved once Russell dived into a lake and had a great time taking a bath. Well, this was an interesting episode to watch. If the ending of the episode made it obvious, Angus and the residents plan to do a chase sequence every 6 months whenever Russell doesn’t take a bath. Russell functions like a cat and the sight of water freaks her out, which makes sense. All of the attempts of keeping her clean were funny to watch, especially when the air plugs ran away. The chase scene was an exciting sequence especially in one shot where was a bowling pin knocked over in live-action, once again making good usage of mixed media. Pretty much everyone appears in this episode due to Russell’s odor affecting the mountain. The last scene was just nice to watch seeing the plot get resolved even if it was all an attempt to get Russell to be clean. So when you come across this episode, the B word means bath not another word for female dog. And I know people will take Parker’s “you say the b word” line out of context.

(9/10)

Dog’s Best Friend

Angus is a dog magnet, but he finds out the only dog in the mountain that hates him is Ms. Pam’s pet pug Jelly after unintentionally hurting her feeling one day. So he try to find ways to get her to like him. All of his attempts to win her over failed, and this includes kissing Jelly while in a dog costume. In the end, Jelly still remains the only dog to hold a grunge with Amgus, making the whole thing pointless. This is an episode that somehow got worse on second viewing. Maybe it’s because I’m not a dog person, but while the plot isn’t bad, it just went nowhere. It’s also surprisingly light in comedy. The only moments that got laughs/chuckles out of me was the sandwich debate (which is why Jelly hates Angus in the first place) and Angus in a dog costume. While I do like the attempts of winning Jelly over, they all had a predictable punchline: she continues to hate Angus. And the ending pretty much sums my feelings on the episode: all those attempts were for nothing, and the episode just abruptly finished. And of course, it ended with a pee joke. I don’t expect gems after gems, but this is one of the show’s most forgettable episodes.

(6/10)

Out of Shape

After earning day off from work, Parker becomes out of shape and enlists Lily to help them get back into shape. She then takes a science experiment about the four matters. Parker becomes a group of ice, a flat surface, a nucleus, and a fart cloud. In the end, it doesn’t even matter (the fifth matter), as Parker is back in shape again. The episode ends with a photograph montage. It’s a surprisingly relatable episode. Viewers can relate to Parker here - you can be a workaholic and then one day off, you’re suddenly out of shape. Parker is sympathetic as usual as you feel for their unhealthy shape. All the scenes of Lily trying to convert Parker back to normal were exciting and not to mention, educational for the young ones. The target demographic will learn a thing about the state of matters in addition to taking science lessons. The last couple minutes was very sweet, and it showcases why I love this show. This episode doesn’t get a perfect score though due to the beginning dragging on a bit (like Parker struggling to get out of the couch), but it’s not too frustrating where I give it a lower score.

(9/10)

Premium Parker

The Middlemost Post go on vacation to celebrate rate the anniversary they met each other, but once Parker saved a man, they started hanging out with him and his wife more than with Angus and Russell just to join a premium club membership. Despite this, Parker still tries to make time to hang with Angus and Russell, only to be invited to an VIP dinner. However, once they get there, the couple were about to leave after a meal, much to Parker’s sadness. Once they came crawling back to Angus and Russell, Parker confessed they got ditched. Angus reassured them and promised they can have a great time together, and so the episode ends with a montage. It’s one of the few lesser episodes, but thankfully the good outweighs the bad. Parker isn’t a smug jerk in the episode but seeing the little nimbus ditch their friends/co-workers to hang out with a couple just feels out of character for someone like Parker. It just doesn’t feel right to do this during the middle of a vacation. But they were able to learn from their mistake in the end. The ending montage is sweet and even in the episodes where there’s nothing noteworthy to talk about, can still contain such moments. Though, the comedy is rather light as well, putting a bigger emphasis on character interactions.

(7/10)

Toast of the Town

Ms. Pam hosts a reality show about toast where people of Mt. Middlemost compete against each other on to have the best toast. Plenty of people competed for the show, but they had a lot of flaws with their toast such as making their foods hard as a rock, so they were disqualified. The final three are down to Angus and Russell, Mayor Peeve and Ryan, Vs Russell and Jelly. What can I say about this? I love this episode, it’s among one of the greatest of the whole show. I’m no reality show fan, but as long as you’re watching a competition show, you’ll be interested to know who’ll be the winner. Every minute of this episode is full of laughs and you’ll be amused all the way through the every end. I think the funniest moment was that Mayor Peeve and Ryan were finally able to win, but got disqualified at the last minute because of the mayor’s ring being on their toast. I was rooting for all of them obviously, but Jelly and Russell stole the show. So no surprise there seeing the victory goes to pets who actually excellent chefs. The interview scenes were interesting and showcases how they were able to cooperate at making their toast. I’m unsure how to rank this episode, so we’ll find out at the end of the journal to see where it would end up on.

(10/10)

Ariel Force One

A hot air balloonist crashed into the Steadfast, much to Angus’ horror. The person introduces her as Ariel. She travels all over the world and the Middlemost Post follows along with her for an adventure. Angus isn't thrilled to spend time with the person who destroyed her ship, so he is determined to prove he can be adventurous, but with disastrous results. Oh boy, was I really excited for this episode. It introduces a fan favorite character named Ariel who is voiced by Michaela Dietz, which is her first Nickelodeon role. And she totally nailed her performance, which is as radically as it sounds (she says dude quite a bit). The rewatch made me enjoy the episode a lot more and my score was only lower because of Angus, but I understand where he was coming from. His jealously got the better of him because he wanted to have an exciting job like Ariel’s rather than being stuck as a mailman. The episode was full of laughs and most of it were at his expanse as he tried to be adventurous. During the scene where Parker tried to console Angus for having a good job, we are treated a few flashbacks (from the show itself and a couple events that didn’t happened). And in the final scene, we bid farewell to Ariel but reassured that we haven’t seen the last of her. And indeed, we won’t, we would have one more appearance of her again. I won’t review every single season 2 episode as I feel like I’m getting burned out longer reviews, but I will definitely do an analysis review of Mayor Ariel, which is arguably one of the best episodes of the show.

(10/10)

Itsy Bitsy

During a cold snap, Parker brought home a spider who they called it James. However, Angus is terrified of spiders and doesn’t want them in his ship. Parker attempts to hide the spider as much as they can, but things get worse when James started hatching baby spiders. Angus is disgusted and advised Parker to get the spiders off his ship immediately. And so they did, but much to Parker's sadness, the spiders are freezing themselves to death. So Angus let Parker keep the spiders for a little while. While I had a fun time watching Ariel Force One, this episode is just a step down, and it’s a shame considering it’s sandwiched between some amazing episodes. It plays out like your typical pet bug/spider episode except that it’s more focused on the fact Angus is terrified of spiders. So of course, the episode is going to feel repetitive when most of it is just Angus being nervous or running away from James the spider. Despite this, it’s not that gross of an episode and it doesn’t even reach my bottom 5 of the show, since it’s harmless. John DiMaggio actually pulled off an outstanding performance here especially when Angus yelled at Parker to get the spiders off his ship immediately. Not to mention, there were a lot of great drawings courtesy of Gabe Del Valle. It’s a pretty slapstick heavy episode if I say so myself, despite being revolved on a phobia. Angus might have been a bit harsh commanding Parker to get rid of the spiders, but even the ending shows you that he’s still kind enough to keep them at the ship.

(6/10)

They’re All Named Reggie

While delivering the mail at Purpleton, the Middlemost Post gang all get separated from each other during an escort mission to bring a baby home. So they must find each other and escape from the weirdness that is Purpleton. Steve Borst sure knows how to write bizarre episodes for the show. But unlike Lady of the Tree, I was interested in the story all the way through the very end and it didn’t had a contrived twist that already soured my opinions. It’s pretty much on the same quality as his previous effort, The ‘B’ Word. The whole episode showcased how out of this world Purpleton is because as the title states, they’re all named Reggie (even the newborns). You have Parker and Russell minding their own business with a Reggie and have no problem with them despite Angus’ warning. Angus, on the other hand, struggled to be seen or adapted to the lifestyle of Purpleton, but he learned to embrace it and went on his way to reunite with Parker and Russell after entrusting a Reggie (despite what he said earlier). I really liked that one gag where Angus became John DiMaggio for a couple seconds (I can’t find the trope name for it). Russell was a pretty good mother figure for the Baby Reggie, and all the moments with it was just nice to watch. It’s not a perfect episode though as they really didn’t found out whose owner for the baby, and the problem wasn’t resolved. Even then, the ending of the episode just felt a bit random meaning that Russell actually brought the baby home with crystals. But yeah, this is definitely season 1’s weirdest episode yet. But a couple a season 2 episode will out weird it even more.

(9/10)

Same Ol’ Same

A beloved rapped named Old Skool visits Mt. Middlemost. Everyone is excited to see him perform his hit song The Same Ol' Same, but the rapper himself has grew tired of performing the song. Parker tries to reassure Old Skool that trying new things is better than doing the same thing over and over. So, he has decided to record a brand new song, which wins over the mountain. I wasn’t expecting much with this episode at this first, but when I heard that an old school rapper was literally going to voice a fictional old school rapper (whose stage name is literally Old Skool), my exceptions went higher because I am a huge rap enthusiast especially before it went downhill sometimes in the 2010s. Old Skool is a fitting way to name a guest character because his voice actor is an actual old school rapper named Del the Funky Homosapien whose debut album was in the 90s when rap was at its peak. And I can proudly say this is in my top 10 for various reasons. The main reason of why I loved this episode so much (besides being a huge fan of classic rap music) is simple: it brought in an amazing message of how doing the same thing over and over again gets tiring and trying new things is the way to go. Seeing Parker convince Old Skool to try new things is your usual wholesomeness for the show as all of the adventures led to Old Skool coming up with a new school. It's understandable why he originally didn't want to do the concert. One hit wonder artists don't have much of a successful career outside of that one song they want to listen to. So it's not surprising the residents just wanted him to rap The Same Ol' Same, but he decided to prove them wrong by performing a kickass rap that recapped the events of the episode. The storyboard artist stated it was presented similarly to the song sequences in Disney movies, but with a hip hop fare. And it is well done because it takes a lot of skill to do that. I loved Angus in this installment, acting like a fangirl towards Old Skool, as well as the beatboxing competition against the mayor. Yeah, he was easily the funniest part of this episode. So yeah, even if you aren't rap fans, I do think this episode is still worth a watch. Old school rap fans will definitely dig this one if they ever check out this show.

(10/10)

Cloud of the Month

Angus rewards Parker Employee of the Month (or in this case, Cloud of the Month). However, Parker lets success get to their head (literally) that they make unnecessary changes to Middlemost Post. Angus has had enough of their antics, but regret it when Parker gets depressed. So, he tried to make it up to them. It’s an interesting story where employee of the month award is the main focus. Nicktoons seem to be very fond of that plot. I do like how the episode acknowledged one thing that the rest of the show hasn’t done: the Middlemost Post don’t wear uniforms, which has always surprised me that they never do while on duty. Parker’s growing narcissism was amusing to watch especially where they keep changing the MMP’s policy. Of course, this eventually gets out of hand to the point that Angus gets fired. The last few minutes is your usual MMP format: Angus is guilty of what he did, and tries to offer something nice to Parker. I think this episode's lesson reveals that if you're getting awarded for your hard work, try not to let your achievements go to your head. There's not much I can talk about this one, so let's move on to the next episode.

(8/10)

A. Plumber

During a shower, Parker accidentally clogs the bath with a watermelon, so Angus calls a plumber. Unknowingly to them, the plumber is actually Ryan in disguise, all part of Mayor Peeve's plan to destroy the Middlemost Post. Ryan as a plumber is named Rocco and spends more of his time with Angus that Peeve decided to take care of the situation himself. I'm not gonna lie, when I first heard about this episode, I didn't really expect much. It sounds generic at first, but what made me give this episode a high score is how Ryan was portrayed. He dressed up as a stereotypical Italian plumber. Sounds familiar? Johnny Pemberton pulled off a hilarious accent throughout the episode. It's such a hilarious episode because of that and I like how the gang doesn't even know that Ryan and Peeve are part of the scheme. It's not perfect though and there's some moments that felt flat, but other than that, it's still an enjoyable time.

(9/10)

Scary Stories to Tell Your Cloud

Parker, Angus, Russell, and Lily tells scary stories. The first story is called.

(10/10)

I Know What You Did Last Mail Off

The Parker drone from Postbot 3000 returns from the dead and it's out for revenge. Parker must team up with Mayor Peeve to get rid of it.

(10/10)

The Pumpkin Pageant

The Middlemost Post enters a pumpkin pageant in an attempt to beat the mayor's pumpkin. I'm going to stop describing the plots with greater details so I can go straight to the episode's strengths and weaknesses.

(8/10)

Dolores Moody

Parker finds out that one of the rock resident is really grumpy and attempts to make her happy, but to no avail.

(4/10)

P.I.R.A.T.E.

The Steadfast has been stolen by a pirate, so Parker, Angus, and Russell challenged him to various games in order to keep it.

(8/10)

Inside Russell

Angus and Parker go inside Russell

(9/10)

The Stinkhole Chronicles

In order to save Angus, Parker and Lily go on a gaming simulation, where a bunch of a familiar video games are featured throughout the experience.

(10/10)

Parker Saves Christmas

Santa Claus comes to Mt. Middlemost. But when he gets injured, Parker and Angus must take over to save Christmas.

(9/10)

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Parker thinks they're all grown up when they gain a bit of hair, but it turns out to be something else.

(8/10)

Dentist Trip

Russell is due to a dentist appointment, and Parker hides inside her and experienced a trippy sequence. This is when we know about the origins of the show.

(10/10)

Ranch on the Side

After a ketchup shortage, Parker is treated with ranch sauce and grew addicted to it that they started to fall in love with the dressing.

(7/10)

King Cloud vs Smogzilla

A dangerous smog cloud has spread over the mountain and Parker must save the day.

(10/10)

Conclusion