Review: The Patrick Star Show “Patrick’s Alley”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
The show rebrands for a younger audience, with Patrick and Squidina looking after the children.

Our Take:
The episode has Patrick and Squidina taking a babysitting job when their last show went over budget due to Patrick’s sea ape segment. Along with making changes to their show to entertain their audience, they also have to deal with the babies’ troublemaking antics. If that sounds like something you’ve seen in other shows before, you’re not alone. While it’s another watchable episode of the spin-off series, it doesn’t offer much else from its “Adventures in Babysitting” trope to make it stand out from the other baby-watching episodes.
Much of the humor in “Patrick’s Alley” centers on Patrick and Squidina getting into some goofy shenanigans while protecting the babies from harm. This includes keeping them from getting sliced by the robot gardener and fishing them out of the freeway. The episode also has Patrick making his show more child-friendly with his “educational” segments, such as “Ouchie’s Hints” and learning the magic word “Please” through magic.
The comedy offers some simple nods to the other educational preschool programs, including “Mister Rodgers’ Neighborhood”, and “The Wicker Man”, with the characters wearing wicker masks. Unfortunately, it fell short of providing some solid hilarity for the scenarios. Although, I did find it amusing that even the babies are more intelligent than the pink idiot.
Overall, “Patrick’s Alley” doesn’t feel as frustrating as watching a group of two-year-olds. However, it also lacks any new tricks to keep its formula from reaching its state of repetitiveness. Fortunately, the episode managed to keep itself enjoyable with its references and the main characters’ adorable chemistry, which is one of the sources that kept the series going. Aside from those elements, there’s nothing unique about this babysitting business.