User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/Fool Me Twice (The Loud House): Reaction.

Fool Me Twice

This was a passable episode. How much you enjoy will ultimately depend upon how you view Luan’s character when she becomes the villain and decides to play pranks on the rest of the family. Basically, if you liked April Fools Rules and Fools Paradise, you’ll probably be fond of this one. If you disliked them, then you’re probably going to find this story off-putting. Early on, it seemed as if the plot would mainly revolve around the idea of the Louds trying to pull off the plan of having their stunt doubles impersonate them for the duration of the episode until near the end when Luan figures out (or revealed that she knew all along) that they weren’t the real deal. Instead, that reveal is executed early on, and the majority of the story’s running time consists of Luan responding to their plan by using these impersonators to embarrass the family. Fortunately for those who dislike episodes with overly harsh and/or unjustified levels of mean-spirited activity, the pranks Luan pulls here are not too severe for the occurrences on screen to be uncomfortable to watch, at any point. Most of it is a series of relatively minor inconveniences that would at most, make some of the family members feel awkward or uncomfortable, but it’s not mean-spirited to the extent that some of the other more infamous episodes of the series have been.

Humour is subjective, so whether or not anyone found the gags involving Luan’s pranks with the stunt doubles amusing will be heavily based on personal taste and preference. But certainly, there is humour existent within the episode. Some of the gags even serve as call-backs to previous episodes, such as Lori’s excuse of “it’s my shoes making these noises” way back from season one’s Making the Case” and how that really backfired on her here. There was even a teaser as to what Lucy’s eyes may look like underneath her face (via her lookalike), but then the camera cuts to static before the reveal can take place. But that was a neat little teaser regarding a topic of fan speculation. There were a few generic gags as well, such as Lincoln’s lookalike confessing love to his teacher, and Lynn’s lookalike losing a game to one of Lincoln’s wimpy friends, but given the variety of different jokes, at least a couple are likely to generate a chuckle.

It was rather satisfying to see the Louds undeniably win the battle against prankster Luan in this story. In April Fools Rules, Luan got away scott free (RA throwing a pie in her face doesn’t really count as any meaningful type of punishment), and then in Fools Paradise, the family manage to turn the tables but Luan has the last laugh by threatening vengeance pranks against them the following year (which is apparently this episode despite none of the characters aging a day). But here, the family satisfyingly manages to get the last laugh, as they trick her into thinking their moving, and then leave her with palpable consequences (the moving van leaving with her belongings). It is rather pleasurable to witness the family get their own back on Luan after all the stuff she’s pulled at their expense. Though all these episodes only further solidify how useless the parents are at actually just disciplining their kids when necessary. Luan’s psycho-joker trilogy, combined with stories like NSL, Brawl and so on, and you get the impression the parents are utterly powerless when it comes to controlling or restraining the vices, misbehaviour and destructive tendencies of their kids. Seriously, why don’t the parents simply put a stop to stuff like this? I’m sure that’s a question many fans of the series have thought about at some point. It’s also still unclear as to exactly why Luan feels the need to become a psychotic victimiser every year. What does she have to gain out of acting cruel? It’s actually a potentially interesting direction for exploration of the character that the writers could exploit at some point.

Overall, this is passable, even moderately entertaining and funny television. It has some notable faults, and it is entirely subject to personal interpretation and judgement as to whether or not these Evil-Luan episodes are actually funny and engaging or just frustrating and degrading to the characters, but there is some substance which strengthens the quality of the story. Everyone is mainly in character, and most of them have their moments to impress or amuse us. The direction the writers took was a little different to what I had expected (I figured the episode would focus more on the doubles actually fooling Luan and taking the bumps of her traps on behalf of the Loud family, with the reveal that Luan knew she was being tricked all along coming near the end, but instead, it was pretty immediate and the majority of the running time dived right into Luan’s reactive tactic of using said doubles for her pranking) so I guess I’ll give bonus points for unpredictability. Whether you like her or not, Evil-Luan is an interesting diversion from the usual cheerful and positive persona of Luan Loud, and she certainly has a knack for coming across as genuinely dangerous, devious and cunning as a villain. Personally, I found this episode to be reasonably decent, though nothing worthy of high praise or commendation. Then again, I suppose we cannot get 10/10 masterpieces all the time.

Final Rating: 6.5/10