Review: Camp Camp “Something Fishy”

Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme…dudes with fishy peens~

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As Gwen spends her day off lovingly weaving tapestries of boinking monsters, David and the kids begin pestering her with tasks and chores. Pushed to the brink, she decides to take Max’s suggestion and write by the lake, unexpectedly running into the Del-Torian fishman of her deepest fantasies which she named Gragle (Matt Chapman). This almost immediately improves her mood…which also raises alarms for Max, who liked her as miserable as himself, and David, sees the fishman as impolite for some reason. Their objections are shot down by Gwen just wanting to do something that makes her happy. Because we need an Act 3 climax, Quartermaster kidnaps the creature, and revealed it’s actually his godson (and possibly actual son). Gwen makes an impassioned speech about the freedom to make choices and being together ending with a romantic kiss that turns Gragle into a Fabio-esque specimen to behold!

…leading her to not-so-gently let him down and bail. He is then taken by a giant bird.

OUR TAKE

We’ve got the second of four episodes written by Leigh Lahav and Oren Mendez and it is once again nice to see their fresh comedic writing voices in this season.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I’m just not feeling this episode quite as much as their first, “Nikki’s Last Day on Earth”. On paper, a lot of this should work for me: a subverted take on the usual dashing suitor story making use of a topical reference in the recent Best Picture Winner “The Shape of Water” and a classic one in “Beauty and the Beast” AND keeping all of this pretty much completely within Gwen’s fan girl tendencies. The ending especially is probably going to rub some people the wrong way about Gwen, but her losing interest right her “beast” turns normal is totally consistent with what we know about her, as well as the perfect punchline for this story. They even have half of the famous Homestar Runner duo, Matt Chapman, to voice the monster!

And yet…the structure of this plot is so…flimsy, it ends up making the end feel kind of unearned (especially with, again, the best possible punchline!). The Quartermaster is kinda sorta set up as the antagonist keeping the would be lovers apart, but the twist about his connection to Gragle is kinda weak by usual Quartermaster weirdness standards. Then we have David, whose straightedge problems with Gwen dating a fish guy are almost too normal, and his search for a rare bird that doesn’t add much unless it’s setting up something later in the season. And finally there’s Max, who’s back to displaying the worst of his inconsistently motivated and increasingly spiteful behavior that I’ve really not been loving this season. Does he want to be done with the camp or does he want to stay and mess with people? Does he hate being there or want it to keep going? I realize kids usually have a hard time processing emotions, and Max is probably a prime example, but there needs to be a through line for a character’s motivation for us to connect with them.

As I’ve hopefully made clear, I DO like the idea of this episode, and a lot of the fishman parts were near gold, but a love story, even a COMEDIC love story, is only as good as its opposition, and sadly, that fell flat for me.

Well, there’s that, and Richie Bronson putting pointless meme references in another song. I just ask if you put “Dicks Out for Harambe” or “Is This Loss” in your rap lyrics, they actually RELATE TO SOMETHING.