Review: The Amazing World of Gumball “The BFFs”;“The Inquisition”

The Gumball bubble bursts.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In the first half, Gumball’s old pal Fuzzy shows up again after many years to reconnect. Darwin is jealous, but it turns out Fuzzy was actually trying to get Gumball to go back to being the baby he was when they met, but then that’s resolved and I’m pretty sure you don’t care as much about this episode as you do the next one.

In “The Inquisition”, live action person Superintendent Evil (pronounced Eh-Vill) comes on a surprise visit to make Elmore High more up to code and get rid of their “cartoonish conduct”, forcing every student to change and act more conventional, even when it’s physically impossible for them. But soon, it’s revealed that the next step in his plan is to turn all the students into human looking versions of themselves with A CONSISTENT ART STYLE. And eventually, he plans to turn them into live action people just like him. Unwilling to let this happen, Gumball manages to convince every changed student to reclaim their former weirdness, then chasing down Evil and unmasking him as Rob. Rob claims that he only did this to avoid a far worse fate, but no one will be believe him and so he’s left unconscious in the school after it closes.

Once he awakens, Rob laments that the other won’t listen to him, saying that transformation was “the only chance of escaping the other place”, but before he can finish his thought, a hole opens up in the floor. His worst fears realized, Rob clings for dear life before falling into the void below.

OUR TAKE

…and THAT’S THE END! After six seasons, four Darwins, three Gumballs, and two hundred forty episodes, The Amazing World of Gumball concludes WITH…a literal cliffhanger. Like with a lot of recent episodes, this one has been available on the Cartoon Network app since the end of last month, so fans have had aWHILE to be disappointed, confused, and hopeful about what all of this could mean. Could it be a set up for a Gumball movie to wrap this plot up and end the show with a bang? Well, it’s been nearly a month and no official announcement has been made. We might just have to wait until Comic-Con to get something concrete, assuming we ever do. As for the episode on it’s own…

…well, first let’s just get it out of the way. “The BFFs” was…fine. Just fine. Nothing special, pretty typical Gumball which is pretty solid overall. But let’s be frank, it’s “The Inquisition” people really want to talk about and for good reason. First of all, it shows that this show’s wit and comedic timing are razor sharp, even up until the very end, which is always nice to see.

One of this show’s greatest stand out quirks is that almost every character is their unique art style somehow managing to co-exist in one world, having the final episode be the series’ first ever live action character trying to make everyone the same is fitting on at least a few levels. It doesn’t quite fit what should be the level of gravity a SERIES FINALE should have, though. At least, not compared to the last few series finales that Cartoon Network has put out in recent years. I guess that’s where the twist with Rob and that final scene were meant to lead into…I assume. The cynic in me wonders if this wasn’t just a meta way of jabbing at executive meddling, but I feel like that wouldn’t be accurate and, again, not really worth bringing up for the closing chapter of such a rich and developed world as Elmore.

The Amazing World of Gumball was not a show that I watched as religiously as Adventure Time, Regular Show, or Steven Universe, but the episodes I managed to catch always made it seem like an amazingly inventive and hilarious series. By some weird twist of fate, I’ve come in to assess the ending which doesn’t feel like an ending. It’s tough to see the last big pillar of the crop of CN shows that got me back into their channel fall away, but it’s even harder to see it seemingly burnt off like this without proper resolution. I really hope this isn’t the last we see or hear of this series, but it’s still been a heck of a ride.