Review: The Loud House: “Schooled”

Overview

In a series of converging subplots, Lincoln tries to swap middle school classes after being separated from his usual circle of friends, but ends up being transferred to Canada; Lori doesn’t fit in on any of the college dorm floors, And the Loud parents rush to potty train Lily for preschool.

Our Take

On a basic level, I get that comedy can often play to extremes but much of the situational comedy within this episode felt unrealistic and at times unrelatable but at this point, it feels like they wanna turn Lincoln into the “Butters Scotch” of the series with the running joke that he’s the most hopelessly optimistic character who frequently gets the short-end of the stick as a punchline for a cruel joke and the slapstick torture of his situation feeling the most contrived and pigeonholed which doesn’t really pick up until he’s transferred to a middle school in Canada which has some of the most grotesque stereotypes about Canadian culture that I’ve ever seen.

And let’s not forget the fact that a grown teenage girl like Lori whom in order to go to college has to take preschool classes? Or how each dorm room is built around a specific and harmful theme that for the most part makes no logical sense, or how Lily’s subplot for an up and coming toddler quickly resolves itself near the end of the episode with some indirect motivation.

Within these storylines, there’s an attempt at the underpinning message about the acceptance of change for better or worse. Change is going to come at you when you least expect it and while humanity is arguably unable to evolve, we are capable of adapting to changing the situation around us to where we can prepare ourselves usually after change hits us like a brick to the face. It’s a meaningful message to convey, as it’s also a harsh reality not many of us can’t always properly comprehend. If the writers were smart and didn’t rely on comedic contrivance and the frequent abuse of Lincoln to tell their stories, they could’ve found more clever & subtle ways in giving us this message than what we were presented in this episode.