User blog:AustinDR/Review: Homespun

When I had gone over my favorite episodes from the show, one episode that I had neglected to mention was "Homespun." To make a short story short, the Loud family is alerted of a tornado warning. While the Loud kids are thrilled at first, because it possibly means that their house would be blown away in the storm - and they could finally get a new one - they realize that while their house wasn't perfect, it held several of their memories, and it would be devastating to lose all that in the storm.

Now, I had mentioned that this episode struck a special chord with me. About a year ago, my church was to attend Disney World. You see, they had saved up enough money to go, and this would've been my second trip to DW. However, before we left, my kitchen caught on fire. What happened was my father was cooking, and then he went out to speak with one of his brothers. Maybe it was grease meeting up with the flames or whatever, flames erupted from the stove, melting the microwave. My mom tried to stop the flames from expanding by opening the door, but more oxygen entered in, making the situation worse. We ran out of the house, and called the fire department. By the time the flames sustained, my kitchen was pitch black. Literally nothing of it was left. The soot was thick, everything was dark. While admittedly my house didn't completely go down in the fire, I was devastated about it. While we went to Disney World anyway, I couldn't enjoy my stay knowing that everything in my life changed at that moment.

Eventually we returned, but we were made to stay at a hotel. It was actually a pretty good one, but I still missed my house. Even though the house wasn't destroyed or anything like that, I felt a deep connection with the house. After all, I had spent most of my life in it, and I just felt that nothing could replace it. So being away from it actually made me feel miserable. That's not even getting into how my dad accidentally forgot to book us at the hotel for another night, and we had to go to a subpar motel. Just everything about that motel was disgusting. I saw a cockroach walk up the wall, there wasn't really any stations on the TV, the air conditioning didn't work....It was a nightmare. I was scared to even go under the covers, because I felt that they would be unclean.

So in short, this episode really spoke to me about how much I love my house, as well as to the many memories it gave me. My house isn't perfect, and it can attract spiders here and there, but it's mine. Even though the Loud kids aren't real, I actually felt that this was the only time that they felt realistic. I found myself connecting to the characters and fearing for them. While I knew that there house wasn't going to get destroyed, I was legitimately terrified when the tornado was on its way, and you hear the wind beat against the house. The fears that they had for their house actually matched my fears when my house caught on fire. Just...never had I felt that an episode from a children's show was relevant to my life. It actually made me emotional as well as relieved to see that the house was in one piece.

Overall, it's a great episode. While it isn't my absolute favorite, this one holds a special place in my heart. It was dramatic, it shared real fears that I had when my house was in danger, it made me feel just once that maybe the Loud family could be more than just cartoon characters....I don't know what else to say about this episode. It just really struck me more than I could say for any other show.

Final score: 5 out of 5 stars