User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/No Spoilers - Episode Reaction



No Spoilers

This was some really good television. Leni has not received a focal episode in over a season, so this is certainly a welcome addition to the series. Leni has been under criticism from some fans, who believe she has been flanderized as a character due to her stupidity and ditzy nature being taken too far. Here, while she is shown to be an incredibly ditzy individual to a fault, to the extent that she creates a problem of ruining surprises by doing what she is not supposed to, she is never portrayed as too dumb to live. Some of her simple-headed antics result in some solid laughs, too. For instance, when Leni is so focused on helping the other siblings with Lori’s surprise party in a brief flashback scene, she forgets to keep the secret from the intended recipient, and tells Lori she is hiding for her surprise party, ruining the surprise. Even though the plot is primarily based on Leni acting like a fool, constantly ruining surprises and plans through her moronic nature, she remains not only likable and funny, but well-written and portrayed. In spite of Leni’s various feats of idiocy, the strengths of her knowledge and personality are on fully display in this episode. For example, her expertise on fashion is demonstrated quite thoroughly as Lincoln keeps asking her about fashion tips when he is tasked with distracting her and making sure she does not find out about the other siblings planning to throw a secret surprise party. Another of Leni’s strengths is shown when it becomes apparent the other siblings struggle with throwing a quality party for Rita, with Lisa basing her guest list on who she regularly sees rather than who she likes, or Lola and Lynn creating overly sweet or spicy foods which only suit their individual tastes, for example. Leni shows that through her own openly caring and thoughtful nature, she has a specific level of intelligence which is overlooked: her ability to know what is good for other people. Through this, she provides Rita with a fantastic surprise party, and it becomes clear that despite her huge faults, Leni is a genius ditz in her own way, who is not overly useless or imbecilic, but is someone whose strength lies in being able to do good things for people by having a knack for knowing what is best for them. In any case, this episode provided us with a very strong representation of the character.

Additional points include some solid humour throughout. There were many gags attached to the scenario, and not just all the ones involving Leni (though some of the scenes of her spoiling the surprise parties in the past, as well as some of her scenes in general, were highly amusing). Other notable jokes include Lynn Sr’s lack of subtlety when trying to distract Rita so the siblings could prepare her surprise party, which then tempted Lucy to remark that he should probably also be kept out of surprise party plans in the future. Also, there was the sequence where Lola embarks on a sugar rush after making her cake absurdly sweet, as well as Lynn burning her mouth by making her sandwich too spicy, only to judge it still wasn’t hot enough (seriously, Lynn is a glutton for punishment). Of course, it does lead to Flip burning his taste buds, too, which was also pretty funny. Then you have Mr Grouse telling someone to turn on the ‘boob tube’ (no doubt a joke of getting crap past the radar, with kids thinking it’s simply him confusing TV with YouTube, and getting names wrong). These are just a few examples of the comedic value contained within this story.

So, the characterisation was solid and the jokes were effective at providing successful amusement. Leni was likable and well written as a character, and the other Louds all have their moments as well. Lincoln worked well as a distraction, and it shows what he’s willing to do to please his sisters, allowing Leni to put him in various dresses. Though what’s to bet some fans are really going to take the line “My sisters owe me big!” and use it as ammo when they go on tirades about THOSE episodes and how the sisters are supposedly scum who mistreat Lincoln all the time? While there was almost a scene a little like Brawl in the Family (mainly to emphasise the failure of the siblings to throw a surprise party for Mom), fortunately before it escalated, it was stopped by Lori, so we received a decent conflictual scene which served its purpose, but it didn’t drag on too long or go too far. While the episode wasn’t especially memorable, unpredictable or exciting in any sense, it was still a really enjoyable piece of televised entertainment.

'''Final Rating: 8.5/10. '''