196a. The Fishbowl

[Cha]

Oh hey nice new Sandy music, and I actually like how it started off with just her. Actually makes me start to like her more again. And I do like when she studies marine animals. Oh and Sandy being around SB/Pat's shenanigans is new. Omg Squidward getting giddy for free ice cream. (But who doesn't enjoy it.) Has anyone noticed Patrick always says "my good man" in multiple eps too. Patrick was kinda a jerk being a boss but I found SB's childlike attitude to him really funny as well and I'm sure SB would get a swelled head about being the boss too eventually. Kinda was about nothing, but again some interactions were nice.

liked this face for some reason, reminds me of older seasons

[BeachBob95]

Not that bad, but the slow pacing and little jokes made me get bored while watching this.

[WhoBibbles]

This is the worst season 9.2 episode I've ever seen. Too bad I was actually looking forward to this one. The plot seemed promising but a lot of jokes here were really dmb ulike Patrick's brian hanging from his nosehole? Cringe-worhty jokes. For the first time, I actually agree that Squidward felt really OOC here. In ohter season 9.2 episodes, you could understand Squidward's zaniness at least. Here it makes no sense. Oh yeah, lets make him go crazy for ice cream for no reason and repeat that joke over and over. As for SpongeBob and Patrick interactions, there was nothing that kept me entertained. Patrick was a jerk to SpongeBob and here's what I'm bugged about. He actually apoligized for this actions but later SpongeBob says it was all experiment's fault for him to act like a jerk. Bullshrimp. Oh yeah, being in charge means being a hole. The ending was really lame too, it ended on a bad and unfunny note. I gotta give the episode credit for nice facial expressing and it was fun to see Sandy experimenting fishes at the begining of the episode. Rest was really lame.

 

Grade: C-

 

On 5/3/2016 at 1:18 AM, Chrdrenkmann said:

I think people who find Patrick jerky in this episode missed the fact that Sandy manipulated him. She used psychological tricks such as calling him "the boss" or the different ice cream bowls. It's the actual plot of the episode, not some cheap throw away gag. Sandy also was concerned about his behavior and on top of that he even apologized. It's nothing near season 8 territory.

I disagree. yeah, he did apoligized but later it was blamed on science and experiment and I find it very bullshit. Sandy did manipulated Patrick alright but If being in charge meant being an asshole, then you'd be right.

[Jjs Goodman]

Just rewatched it, and I'm sorry, but I just couldn't enjoy it whatsoever. The whole episode just felt really boring and creatively bankrupt. They could've done SO MUCH MORE with a concept like this... and didn't. The plot didn't even really kick in until the second half, and it felt like it was over as soon as it started. The SpongeBob/Patrick conflict is actually not my biggest grievance with this episode, but maybe that's because it felt so forced in that I couldn't even react to it. It's like they realized "oh right, we have a plot" and had to fill in time somehow, but their whole conflict just came off really forced and dull. None of the gags were really funny either (I didn't smirk or chuckle at any of them), and Squidward was really forced into it for no reason, especially for the pretty lame ending. Not the worst Season 9 episode, but I was just so bored throughout it. It just disappoints me, as the episode idea was good... it's just the execution was severely lacking, and again, really boring. As others have said, the concept could've been really cool if Sandy had say, followed SpongeBob and Patrick around in secret, but instead they wasted it for what was essentially a bottle episode. Even then, the whole "experiment" didn't even kick in until the second half, and was botched anyways. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Grade: D

Edited February 13, 2017 by Pat Monahan

[Guest]

A decent episode. Not my favorite from the week at all, in fact probably my least favorite, in fact definitely my least favorite, but the episode is good. It's fun. I liked it. I've liked every episode from 9.2 so far (not counting Two Thumbs Down/Mall Girl Pearl since I haven't seen those yet) and this is no exception. While it may be the weakest one so far, it's still solid and had some very funny moments. 7/10, I voted 4/5 here though. 

[Jane]

This episode was pretty bad. The main issue with it IMO was how bland and zapped of personality it was. The pacing is also very weird: it's slow for 3/4 of the episode and then finally picks up towards the end. Sandy and the others were so cruel to Squidward. The thing is that jokes against Squidward like the seabear attack work because he was antagonizing someone/being a jerk and there was comedic build up. In this, he just wants ice cream badly and gets punished. SpongeBob and Patrick's rivalry was also really cheap. It ends abruptly, Patrick is really annoying, especially when he blames it on the experiment and Spongebob's really out of character when he just snaps at him for plot convenience sake.

I'm not trying to sound like Mr. Enter but that's just cheap writing.

I also didn't like the over-reliance on repeating gags in this episode.

Overall it was a dud aside from a few admittedly funny visual gags.

D+

Man, this is by far the worst post-SOOW episode, and it's post-movie level. I hope this isn't indicative of the other episodes which I have yet to watch. I'd hate to see SB enter another slump.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Teamwork

[Neru]

I really did not like this episode. i thought the plot was not bad but the execution was pretty crappy. 

I didn't think the episode was too funny especially, and the conflict between SpongeBob and Patrick was just kinda stupid in this episode. And the ending sucked as well. I didn't think it was clever, mostly just lame.

i guess my favourite part was Sandy throughout this. As for Squidward, I don't think he was TOO annoying up until the ending, where he just lost it over the ice cream, which was kinda OOC.

2/10

 

[Invincibubble]

"I didn't care about the sand, I just wanted to observe you acting naturally. So I hid microphones and cameras around your house---" - Sandy

This episode was pure genius! The animation, the characters, even the music, all of it added together to create a great episode! The plot is: Sandy wants to study behavioral phycology on the folks of Bikini Bottom, although the Bottomites don't enjoy this, so Sandy decides to study SpongeBob and Patrick. It is shown that both SpongeBob and Pat are shy around cameras, so Sandy sends them to collect one bucket of white sand and one of black, while they're gone Sandy starts hiding cameras and microphones around SpongeBob's pineapple home. When SpongeBob and Patrick return they are completely clueless to the cameras around them. Sandy then starts spying on them through a fake ice cream truck. I really liked the running gag in this episode of Squidward attempting to get free ice cream from Sandy's truck, and always failing. This episode was complete gold in my opinion, it seemed like an episode straight from Season 4. Overall I would give this episode a happy 9/10. A GREAT episode! I highly recommend it!

Edited September 7, 2016 by Invincibubble

[Honest Slug]

Season 9b's only mistake thus far. It wasn't funny and the characterizations were really bad. Why is Squidward so zany? Why is Patrick such an unlikable jerk? So much wasted potential on a mediocre episode. Feels like a season 6-8 episode.

2/5

[So Sejima]

The last few minutes are insulting. Patrick has a chance to at least recognize his flaw, but blames it all on science itself. Not Sandy who manipulated him, or him for being manipulated, but science. And then he's fine with luring an out of character zany Squidward into a cage for a scientific experiment. The ending is so horrendous that this is in my bottom 10.

[hippythehippo]

Obab's posts on The Fishbowl topic on SBM is more entertaining than this episode in it's entirety 

[WinterArcanine]

So, this is my least favorite episode of 9B, and the only one that I find to be bad. This episode, for the most part, is pretty boring and not funny, but it has flaws that knock it down to a bad instead of an ok or meh. For one, Patrick’s charcterization is bad here. Like in episodes such as Yours, Mine, and Mine, he’s a big jerk here, doing things like eating spongebob’s ice cream and mixing up the sand. I know he apologizes, but then he blames it on science, when in reality it was his own fault, so it’s not a good apology. For second, Squidward’s scenes are kinda stupid. He goes zany over ice cream, which feels a bit ooc. It’s one thing if he wants ice cream, thats fine, it’s the fact he’s so zany and hyperactive with it that feels ooc. Additionally, he’s treated poorly just for wanting ice cream too. For third, Sandy also feels a bit ooc too. She should know that people wouldn’t like being watched for research and such in that beginning moment. And finally, there’s the terrible ending, where they lock squidward in a cage for “research”. It’s like when they blame science in the end, They say it’s science’s fault for what patrick did, and they research squidward by locking him in a cage, which is really.... bad. He just wanted some ice cream. 

Considering all these flaws, and the fact that there’s not much else I like here due to it being overall pretty boring and lacking in good jokes, that makes this overall a bad episode to me.

3/10

[RD Rockruff]

Gonna be quite honest, I have honestly no idea what there is to like here. The pacing here is slow and boring as hell, Patrick's characterization is very weak (and although his jerkishness was caused by letting the power get to his head, how it's handled otherwise and his supposed realization that he was wrong feel more forced than anything else), there is borderline no humor (the "That's our line!" joke is rather forgettable and feels more weak than anything), and other than that, the ending here is among the worst endings of the entire show. Throughout the episode, I already disliked how they treated Squidward for wanting ice cream but trapping him in a cage is going more than a bit too far. While I don't find this episode to be the absolute worst out there, it sure does give claims that 9b is "great" a major flaw .

3/10 (BAD episode)

[Coffee_lover]

Let’s just hate Cave Dwelling Sponge instead