User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/Tricked! Review



Tricked!

As expected, this was a fun, enjoyable little Halloween special with all the laughs and horror filled moments you could want from such an occasion. As the initial trailers for the episode indicated, this episode turned out to be very atmospheric, with efficient uses of lighting and scenery, setting the mood and tone for each moment and every frame. The costume choices for each of the Louds were very creative, as well as befitting of their personalities. Lisa as a kangaroo with baby Lily in her pouch was rather inventive, as well as the twins, who wore various outfits, but one that was especially cute was when they wore the salt and pepper costumes together. Some of the outfits the older sisters wore inside the maze were also innovative choices. I know Lynn dressing up as an amalgamation of Jason Voorhees and some other horror icons has become incredibly popular amongst the online fanbase, with multiple fan art pieces being submitted, despite the fact she was probably the sister with the least amount of screen time in the special. Of course, the design is highly fitting for Lynn’s heavily aggressive and somewhat destructive nature. While I wouldn’t say Lynn would enjoy inflicting a massacre on people, I think it’s safe to say she enjoys dishing out a little bit of pain on people from time to time. Leni as a decapitated person with a missing head was also pretty funny, as the concept probably alludes to the fact that some perceive the character to be brainless. Lucy as the grim reaper was an obvious yet nevertheless tasteful choice, and Luan and Lori’s costume appearances were also pretty memorable. Then there’s Luna, who is probably based on some other Halloween character (maybe Jack O’Lantern), but as far as I’m concerned, she reminds me of Dr Facilier, especially during his “I got friends on the other side” song. The way in which the costumes of the sisters was utilised in the musical sequence was also pretty neat, but I’ll revisit that later…

Devious and Delicious

I liked some of the clever ideas some of the siblings used in order to gain more candy, such as how the twins used multiple costumes in order to gather multiple pieces of candy from the same house, and how the Clincoln McCloud duo actually went to effort of conducting advanced research to find out where the best area to go trick or treating was. It just goes to show how smart, cunning and resourceful these two can be when they put their minds to it. Of course, despite their initially selfish desires to exclude the other kids and exploit the rich neighbourhood they found full of large candy treats and keep it all to themselves, they soon have to redeem themselves when they realise they inadvertently ruined everyone else’s Halloween night by sending the jock duo to their street, who proceeded to vandalise the place and steal everyone’s candy. Fortunately, with the help of his sisters, Lincoln and his best friend Clyde were able to dish out some overdue justice against the jerks that tried to ruin their Halloween, which led to a really cool and pleasurable resolution to the narrative conflict. Speaking of which…

The musical sequence was really cool and a great way to show off all the Louds and the charm behind their Halloween costumes. After Lincoln and Clyde lure the bullies into the corn maze, they are subjected to a series of scares by the Loud sisters. Again, the costume choices are cleverly utilised in this segment, and the surprisingly squeamish jocks are rendered petrified as well as nauseated by the experience. Lana being Lola’s ghost was a rather ingenious idea, as was Rita acting as a mangled corpse, having been the victim of Vampire Lori. Luna’s voice actor, Nika Nutterman, also did a fantastic job with singing this song, so well done, Nika. Everything about this song works; the lighting, the imagery, the singing, the inventive ways in which the costumes of the siblings were used to scare the bullies, and the way in which it served to conclude the story in an efficient manner. The song and its lyrics also serve to justify the title change of the episode, which some people were complaining about. While Trick or Treachery certainly sounds like the superior title upon initial impression, it becomes clear why the simple title “Tricked!” was opted for when you hear the song and realise it’s more relevant and applicable as a result. Personally, I don’t find the title of an episode to be an overly major deal, anyway.

Efficient Balance of Character Focus

When constructing the narrative, the writers were sure to give many of our main cast members decent levels of screen time and involvement in the eventfulness of the plot. You could argue this is primarily a Clincoln McCloud story. But while they feature heavily and the A-plot is about them planning to exploit a rich neighbourhood to gain bigger candy bars, only to find out this move caused them to ruin Halloween, and then they need to reform the situation, the episode doesn’t exclusively focus on them. Plenty of time is devoted to other members of the main cast, too. Quite a lot of time focuses on Lucy’s efforts to setup a haunted corn maze with the help of her sisters, and there a quite a few gags emphasising how hard it is to tell if she’s happy about something due to her seemingly stoic personality, but her family knows her well enough to identify her emotions beneath her almost entirely blank face. Of course, heavy Lucy focus is a rather natural expectation in a Halloween episode, given she’s the gothic character of the show. Some time is also given to the youngest siblings and how they have their own plots to gain extra candy bars through the use of their costumes. Lynn Sr also has his moments, as there is a recurring joke about how he hates Halloween and how even the siblings are agitated by his fears (even if it has been pointed out that this yet another error in continuity as he was not portrayed as especially fearful of Halloween in Along Came A Sister). And while the older siblings were not featured that often in the episode, at least whenever they did briefly appear, they made a lasting impression (again, just the image of Lynn in a hockey mask with a chainsaw for a couple of seconds was enough to trigger the generation of much fan art). I would have liked to see a little more of some of the sisters, as some received minimal screen time, but as it stands, I wouldn’t argue there were any truly major focus issues in this episode.

Clincoln McCloud and Aesop Amnesia?

I even appreciate how the writers used the main duo. Normally, Clincoln McCloud episodes are viewed as quite average, but I honestly found them to be highly entertaining and enjoyable to watch here. They had many cute and funny moments throughout, and some of their interactions were quite amusing. I also like how subtle differences between the 2 characters were presented here (a major factor to consider given the criticism Clyde is often faced by the fans that he’s a copy of Lincoln in terms of his personality). For example, Clyde is shown to be a little more pessimistic and paranoid of the situation at hand when the duo discover a pair of bullies came over to their street and ruined Halloween, and they suspect it was the same pair they sent to the area. Clyde is shown to be fearful and convinced that it was the same pair (and ultimately, and quite obvious to the viewers, he turns out to be right) while Lincoln shows optimism, deniability and controlled emotional balance as he tries to suggest they weren’t necessarily the same bullies (until the information makes the conclusion that they were the same bullies all too undisputable). While some would argue the show would be better off without Clyde, episodes like this suggest he may have a more positive influence and valuable role in the show than he’s given credit for. Both he and Lincoln were very charismatic and hilarious in this special, and their scenes together were very engaging. I guess that’s a subjective point since humour is subjective and maybe some of the jokes and moments surrounding the duo could be perceived as generic or unintentionally dull and unfunny. Personally, I thought this was one of their stronger performances this season, even if I would appreciate less episodes being about them and more episodes focusing on the sisters in general. I guess how much you liked the scenes with the Clincoln McCloud duo in this episode depend on your sense of humour, as well as how much you are willing to tolerate seeing more of them at this point.

Some might complain about Lincoln acting selfishly yet again, since he learned lessons about not being selfish in previous episodes, but here’s the thing. Even if you learn a lesson one time, it might not influence a complete 100% personality transformation. In other words, elements of selfishness will still appear present in the character even after he learned his lesson previously. Just suddenly abandoning a significant aspect of your character after one incident highlighted the flaws of it to you is not necessarily a realistic approach to character development. While Lynner Takes All gets a lot of flack for “not reforming Lynn enough” (a perspective I understand since she so often gets on everybody’s nerves with her arrogant, aggressive, obsessively competitive nature that a minor redemption may seem like too little to them), I will defend the episode to the extent that the approach it selected was smart and plausible. As Luan said at the end of that episode, baby steps. A character will grow and change over time, and sometimes, it may take more than instance of their vice backfiring on them for a character to completely abandon or overcome their problem. With Lynn, learning not to gloat in front of her siblings was a small, but nevertheless feasible way in which the character could be redeemed. True, Lynn still has a long way to go before she can be truly reformed overall (and hopefully, future stories will continue to build her character in this direction), but Lynner Takes All provided a plausible start for that process. Her suddenly abandoning all of her vices and becoming a completely different character in the span of 1 episode was never going to happen, and expecting her to drop her gloating, and her over-competitiveness entirely in that one instance is just naïve. The same applies to Lincoln in regard to his vice of selfishness. Even though he had learned to be less selfish, elements of it may still appear present in the character from time to time. But he and Clyde quickly and independently drop this vice once they realise what trouble they caused and set out to put the matter right. So, while minor shades of selfishness may still be present (as is expected), the influence of those previous lessons soon shows as Lincoln quickly drops this vice once he realises he is responsible for ruining halloween for the other kids and his selfishness caused problems, and he selflessly goes out of his way to make things right, even if it means putting himself in danger. So, while he still has selfish motivations sometimes, Lincoln is shown to be far less selfish than he was previously, so I wouldn’t call this an example of Aesop amnesia or a case of destroying character development.

Comeuppance for the Jocks

It was also really satisfying to have those two football jocks return as the antagonists for this story. Recalling the events of The Loudest Yard, one of the complaints of that episode was how the bullies did nothing but annoy, torment and try to hurt Lincoln and Lynn, and they never received any comeuppance. In fact, they won the game while Lincoln lost and was chased by his team and Lynn was injured. As such, their presence as the villains of the story was a solid choice, and it led to a very enjoyable and satisfying conclusion, which sees the pair finally face a punishment for all their harsh actions by being scared senseless in Lucy’s corn maze by all the Loud siblings, and being forced to retreat, vowing never to tarnish the Loud’s neighbourhood again. Considering how annoying it was that they were karma Houdini’s in their first appearance, this was a gratifying occasion for many fans, as they finally got what was coming to them. They also function quite well as antagonists for Lincoln and Clyde, acting as the big, tough mean kids which makes them come across as clear foils to our geeky, sensitive, friendly main duo. They could potentially work as recurring villains to appear in future stories, if any of those stories require villains like them to be involved. A little generic? Sure. The bully is one of the most overused and outdated clichés in fiction, after all. But even still, they could work as minor antagonists in the show, and their presence here allowed not only for a brilliant musical sequence, but also a chance to represent the Loud siblings in a positive light. Through their shared motivation to defeat the bullies and retrieve what they lost, the Louds all work together in effective co-operative fashion to triumph over their adversaries, which is always great to see. So while not exactly the greatest villains we could ask for, they served their purpose quite well, and there’s room for them to appear as villains in future stories, against Clyde and Lincoln, or maybe against Lynn or somebody else.

Conclusion

Overall, this is yet another exceptional episode of The Loud House. Much like 11 Louds a Leapin, a 22-minute special related to an annual celebrative event turns out to be one of the strongest pieces of television the show has produced (thus far). There were no major criticisms I could think of. Just the odd nit-pick or so. It was fun, engaging, comedic, atmospheric, and full of entertaining character interactions and plot developments. Despite the title, there were no tricks for the viewers, just a treat. Once again, the show delivers one of its strongest televised segments. Let’s hope they keep up the good work in the future.



<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">Final Rating: 9/10.

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;"> 

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">+ Fun and entertaining

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">+ Good use of the main cast

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">+ Atmospheric

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">+ Memorable moments and images

<p style="color:rgb(44,54,53);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;">- Minor nit-picks