Review: Camp Camp “David Gets Hard”

See, it’s funny because…they mean getting tough, but it sounds like…ugh.

Well, so much for that. Once again, Camp Camp sets up a perfect opportunity to work in a good two-part story that could flesh out characters and develop relationships…and drops it entirely. I was actually really looking forward to David looking after Max, Neil, and Nikki on an even lower tech camp out, where the three of them could just take in nature. Maybe they’d hate it and realize that Camp Campbell isn’t as bad as they thought, even if it’s just because they have actual buildings. Or heck, maybe they’d like regular camping more and David would have to defend the camp as an institution. And yet, just like with the end of the third episode, this also presented the chance for the three main kids and David to actually bond and grow closer. To actually build on their cumulative experiences and possibly peel back the layers they have to find common ground. To show that, underneath the TV-MA front the show puts on, there is a core of heart and warmth that could relate to any TV-Y program. Maybe not Gravity Falls levels, but…something!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

But that’s not what we got. Nope, without any explanation at all, we are back in the camp like nothing happened. In addition, at least half a week has passed; in which various campers were given whole days to focus on the thing they signed up for and stupidly expected the camp to deliver on. Having reached Friday, there is one more camper to get a themed day, and that turns out to be Nurf, the bully, who signed up for “behavioral correction” camp. This is deemed so distressing that both Gwen and David don’t realize they can just avoid this altogether by just giving this day to one of the kids that hasn’t gotten a turn yet, so we have to persevere for the sake of what this show dares to call comedy. In their panic, an unlikely ally comes to their aid in order to teach them to stand up to Nurf’s disrespect…Max.

And already, I’m blindsided by this show refusing to bother to know how to write its own damn characters. Why is MAX, the one who detests the camp and David with an unquenchable passion, volunteering to help him? Like at all? Why not just let David fail so the camp goes under and he can finally go home? This is twice now that he’s simply given up chances to obtain his goal from the beginning of the series and it MAKES. NO. SENSE. Sure, it MIGHT have helped if Gwen and David had come to him FIRST, or if something important and perspective-changing had occurred during the potential second parts of the past few stories to make Max realize that David and him shouldn’t be mortal enemies, but without those, this just seems like forcing characters act a certain way (even if it’s against character) in order for a plot to happen, which is the EXACT WRONG WAY TO DO THIS.

Needless to say, the toughness training doesn’t work, no matter how much Max pushes it. We do learn, however, that Nurf is more aware of his actions and how people view him than he lets on. So, they try analyzing him psychologically, which SEEMS to work…until he breaks out into a berserker rage which is only stopped by David accidentally smacking him in the face. I guess the lesson is…child abuse good?

I feel like I’m at the end of my rope here. This episode definitely upped the joke quality this time, but I still feel so let down by how much they threw away from last time that I’m finding it hard to really appreciate it. I guess this is just the wake up call I needed to show me that this show isn’t really striving to go any further than just okay, and I just need to accept that. It can be hard to let go of hopes for a series that could be so much more than what it is, but Rooster Teeth’s kinda become good at doing that to people in the past few years. Who am I to expect them to do it differently now?