It Came from the Nightosphere | Aired: October 11, 2010 | Reviewed by Grumproro

Season two of Adventure Time started with what is, in my very humble opinion, a perfect episode of television [Footnote Note: As always, footnotes are not spoilers, just notes!]1While trying to write this review I learned that the episode was nominated for an Emmy, but it did not win. It lost to something called “Disney Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa”. I spent a silly amount of trying to figure out what that is because there isn’t even a photo on the Emmy website. I guess it was a sequel to something called “Prep & Landing”, which didn’t really explain anything. Anyway, that was just a weird thing I learned while writing this. I don’t really have a point, just wanted to share. Can you tell I’m having a hard time writing this?. Which, it turns out, is kind of a problem because suddenly I can’t figure out how to write this review! There are so many ideas, thoughts, and feelings rushing into my brain that it’s a struggle to sort them all out to come up with some kind of coherent, and at least semi-intelligent, thing to say. Here’s a list of the the things I could focus on:

Marceline’s character development 
The portrayal of a strained father-daughter relationship
Music as a way to express your feelings!
Hunson as a terrifyingly perfect villain
Finn’s attempt to help his friend while also saving the souls of Ooo
The action!
The wild tonal shifts 
Every brilliant & hilarious joke

So you can see how this might be difficult, right? Even when I just sit down to write a plot summary to ground myself all I can muster is a semi-stream of consciousness mess of thoughts. But that’s going to have to suffice because it at least enables me to touch on some of my favorite aspects of this episode. 

Alright! So, Finn has come over to Marceline’s to play music. What fun! We get to see Marceline’s house! Marceline! Yay! And she’s going to play some music, and Finn is going to accompany her. What will she play? I bet it will be something cool!

Whoa. That was…whoa. Hitting a little close to home there. The way it starts with a low, kind of subdued voice as she sings what sounds like a joke about fries…and then suddenly we’re listening to a daughter asking if her father even loves her because he is apparently oblivious to her feelings…That was not the song Finn was expecting (and I definitely wasn’t either, the first time I watched it, which is kind of what makes it perfect)2I think one of the reasons this songs works so well is because it’s unexpected. Apparently the song was a collaboration between Pendleton Ward and Rebecca Sugar. Rebecca explained that the first draft was more Broadway musical style and very serious, and Pen suggested adding a bit more humor at the start, which resulted in capturing what the show does best (in Rebecca’s words): “that balance of being really light on its surface, and being really heavy underneath” (from the “Distant Bands” documentary). Okay, after hearing that, Finn concludes that Marceline should see her dad, so he summons him! What could go wrong?

YIKES! What is this show again? Not only do I feel like my heart is being squeezed but now I’m also kind of scared? This guy is terrifying! And Marceline does not seem to get that. She’s pretty focused on getting her bass back, without much concern for, you know, ALL THE SOULS OF OOO! And he’s serious, too. He really is sucking out souls. And he’s really enjoying it. This guy is a menacing threat for sure. Wow, what a great villain!

Marceline’s dad is a perfect blend of hilarious and dark and scary, and Finn clearly needs to stop him before he causes any more damage (to both Ooo and Marceline). But Marceline isn’t being super helpful. She’s clearly got a lot on her mind. Not that there’s a lot of time to think about this because the episode moves instantly from one moment to the next. Marceline is as cool as ever and is showing a vulnerability that makes her feel so real. And Finn is just trying to keep up with the chaos and protect Ooo while not making his friend any sadder than she already is. In other words, he’s way over his head, but that’s never stopped Finn. He’ll do whatever he can to make this right. With quick thinking, he pulls out the song he just recorded with Marceline and plays it for everyone to hear.

Naturally, music makes everything clear and Marceline’s dad finally hears what his daughter has been trying to say this whole time. He apologizes. And delivers one of the most heartfelt “Of course I love you” lines in the history of television.3Exaggeration, you say? Maybe! But I’m saying it anyway! I’m unstoppable! This beautiful moment is perfected by the sudden shift in tone as Finn goes wild on Marceline’s dad, slashing his mouth(?)neck(?)glands(?) open, rescuing the souls of Ooo, and sending the terrifying demon back to the Nightosphere.

Marceline and Finn are, understandably, emotionally and physically exhausted from the whole ordeal. As a viewer, I feel a little exhausted by this point too. In a good way, though. Like I said before, this episode is just running at full speed. Not a single moment is wasted. Every scene is packed with something to keep your eyes glued to the screen. But I still haven’t said anything all that interesting or intelligent about the episode, have I? Let me try at least one thing before I finish. 

I think Marceline is a fascinating character. Part of what I love about her is the fact that she gets to just BE. It’s difficult to express what I mean by that, but the basic idea is that she never feels like she has to do this or that, she doesn’t fit into a box but she’s also not wildly unrealistic or difficult to relate to, she has flaws like everyone else, but she isn’t a total mess of a person either. She just is. She’s Marceline. And this episode starts to expand on what it means to be Marceline. The fact that it does this with the help of a song just makes me love it even more. The other big thing I love about this episode is the way Finn just keeps on diving in. He tries to understand Marceline’s feelings (even when he misses the mark), and he seems genuinely concerned for her. This show has so many beautiful and silly stories to tell and characters to connect with, and I think that’s a really special thing that this episode highlights. And I’d feel pretty lucky to have a friend like Finn. He might not be perfect, but he will always try to understand where you’re coming from. And sometimes, he’ll carry you around in a shirt pocket made just for you!

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The Eyes | Aired: October 18, 2010 | Reviewed by Meh-Gorey Justice Machine

This one is a straight up comedy episode, there are no “themes,” no deep lore or characters to return to later when the ideas are drying up, nothing here but the yuks – and I love it dearly because it is very deeply silly.  How many other episodes just go for straight comedy?  I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but there must have been a few more, right?  Anyway, this is an early one that pulls it off just about perfectly – so much so in fact, that writing about it would end up being “explaining the joke” and spoil it, so I suggest you stop reading here and just go watch it yourself and leave it at that.  Please DO NOT read any further, I’ll only make things worse.  Also, don’t rewatch it too often, as repeated exposure robs comedy of its power; I know this because I watched it twice to write this up and now dare not watch it once more (for now) lest I spoil it for myself.  

So again: stop reading this, go watch the episode, enjoy it, and then comment below.

…

Well, OK, since you’re not going anywhere, I guess I won’t either and you’ll only have yourself to blame later.  Rather than just make a long list of bullet points with lots of “this was so funny!  Great line reading!  Good slapstick! ‘Luncheth!’” prattling, I’ll just talk about the comedic structure of the story.  You’ve been warned.

So: this is of course a classic comedy set-up, here’s a scenario where the main character(s) want something but keep getting stymied, so let’s run this through a series of increasingly silly and ridiculous attempts and failures as they try to resolve it only to see their efforts often backfire and making things snakier.  That’s it, it’s nice and simple, and the KISS Rule (“Keep It Simple, Stupid” he said, not keeping it simple) applies to comedy pretty well.

Now, back when I was a kid in the early 70s, there was an animated Pink Panther cartoon on TV that I recall enjoying a lot, but maybe that’s just because of the swell Henry Mancini theme or based on how much I like cats.  Anyways, I hadn’t seen them since I was a kid, so a few years ago I tracked some down to watch: classic “cartoon shorts”-length stuff, each one a series of vignettes where Pink keeps getting stymied by a series of circumstances he’s trying to overcome to achieve something.  OK, but: they weren’t very good.  See, PP was a pretty put-upon guy in all of these, “just trying to cross the street without getting run over” or something, with lots of “ain’t that just the way?” failures.  Poor guy!  Nothing went right for him, it’s like the universe hates him for no good reason at all – and not in a funny way, the writing didn’t really reach for much beyond that (speaking of being stymied ha ha); the best they could manage was something like he gets run down while wearing a suit of knight’s armor and walks away looking and sounding like a wheezing squeeze box.  Fade to a quick black, then back up as he makes some other attempt.  Life for him sucks, but isn’t all that funny. 

Now compare that to another classic “they never win” character, Wile E. Coyote.  His loser-dom works better comedically because he’s not just trying to get through life, but is actively up to no good (trying to eat that Roadrunner who just wants to Beepbeep on the drum all day), and he goes about it in the silliest and most wrong-headed ways imaginable. He deserves his failures!  When we see the next vignette start with him strapping himself to a giant red fireworks rocket, we know  this is going to end spectacularly badly, and it’s a trap he set for himself.  This sets up a good “get ready everybody, he’s about to do something stupid” anticipation for the audience.

OK, now then, back to this episode of Adventure Time, which spends a lot of its run-time on Finn and Jake’s “the next hairbrained idea which either doesn’t work, or backfires and makes things worse”: one way I think it surpasses the usual Coyote or Pink Panther cartoon is that this is one continuous story, not a series of vignettes; there’s no quick fade to black/fade back up as they now strap a bunny costume to the horse (which is itself just a funny plan; funnier still how it almost works out, but anyway).  All those Coyote or Pink Panther segments over the years could be strung together in just about any order… you set an AI bot to write new ways for them to try and fail at the same task, and they’d need never ever end, just fade/cut from one failure to the next attempt.  This episode however allows the situation to ramp up until they’re hitting points like “dude, let’s kill the horse.”  Story development!  And doing so delivers on another comedy premise the others didn’t: we get to see the characters getting further and further upset and flustered by their inability to succeed, like Basil Fawlty losing his shit and completely flaming out.  Now that’s funny! 

Lastly, the episode then takes another step by reversing the roles near the end: suddenly the horse is The Ice King, not some force-of-nature horse-obstacle that’s “out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever.”  Now the Ice King is the story’s Coyote, he’s just “that annoying dude we always beat,” and the horse was just his latest ridiculous plan.  The Ice King’s effectiveness against Finn and Jake withers away pretty quickly once this is revealed and the story ends with his defeat, yet again, as they fall asleep like fast friends, but … he’s still not happy.

That’s some great story structure.

A Long List of Bullet Points That I Said I Wouldn’t Include, But It’s Your Own Fault For Continuing To Read And Encourage Me

• Has anyone here noted yet how every episode’s title-card screen (apparently??) has a short little but unique musical sting?  I love that.  Sometimes it’s just a little dashed-off collection of near-random sounds and notes, other times a fairly well developed little tiny snippet of music, that may even set the tone for the coming episode.  I think this one’s more the former, but I would buy a collected CD of them anyway.  Maybe that’s been made already?  I’ve never thought to check.
• Oddly enough, although “whack with poo brain” was apparently censored in a few markets overseas, the “snake in Finn’s underwear” joke got a free pass, ho ho ho!
• The Ice King using his ice powers to merely call and fling some loose cubes at Finn and Jake only to then ask “is this all the ice you have?” was a great way to re-establish that this story is still low stakes –  and was so funny!
• Ice King’s line reading of “I should go” was so understated – great line reading!
• For some reason, the fact the horse doesn’t even look like a horse makes things funnier.  Such a ridiculous googly-eyed face contrasting with its ominous intro music.  The balloon sound effect as its eyes and tongue bulges out is some great wordless comedy and timing, something other parts of this story also achieve well.  Good slapstick!
• “Luncheth”!

See, I told you to stop reading.