User blog:AlexKawa/Episode Review: Teachers' Union

Well, here we are. New episode, new review. So, Teachers' Union. Another Clincoln McCloud episode. I know some people are tired of Clincoln McCloud episodes, but personally, I can probably count the number of them (before this one, at least) on one hand. At least the ones where they actually call themselves "Clincoln McCloud." So, I'm not particularly tired of them. As far as Clyde's character goes, since I've never really talked about what I think of him, well, I don't really care about him. He's almost always just there for the sake of being there, rarely actually doing anything to enhance the plot. I don't think he's ever had a truly terrible moment (aside from his crush on Lori, and I still cringe looking back on my first post and saying it was funny, and maybe his performance in Making the Case), but it kind of feels like the writers are barely trying to build his character. There are some episodes that are exceptions to this rule, but not too many. So, when I started watching this episode I thought, "you know, maybe this will finally be the 'Clincoln McCloud' episode where Clyde does something to stand out. Maybe he will do something interesting.  Maybe there will be that feeling where I actually care about him while he's on-screen." And you know what? For the first chunk of the episode, there kind of was. No kidding.

One thing I was very grateful for was Clyde just casually asking Lincoln how things went with Lori without getting a nosebleed or acting like a robot or anything like that. That's not anything that adds points to the episode, since it shouldn't be a problem to begin with, but it's nice to see nonetheless. He didn't have a great performance in this episode, by any means, but honestly, I kind of laughed at some of his jokes, like that joke about Coach Pacowski needing to be a doctor because he makes a lot of the class get hurt during gym, which actually leads me into a problem with the episode.

OK, seriously, what is with that obstacle course? Barbed wire? A frickin' block crusher? Oh, I'm sorry, is this legal? And there are also several other problems this episode suffers. I mean, why would Coach Pacowski still continue to be a teacher after he attempted to kill, or at least brutally beat, Lincoln and Clyde? What happened to that therapy session that supposedly helped him in Out of the Picture? Now, maybe he wasn't actually going to beat or kill them, but the fact that he chased them and told them he would kill or beat them should be enough to get him fired. Also, the jokes in this episode are very repetitive and kind of predictable. I mean, the joke of Lori saying that Lincoln's "friend" is really Lincoln got really old, and I should've seen the ending where she tells him that over the phone coming from a mile away. Hey, give No Such Luck a bit of credit; at least they went for a surprising ending with that episode. Not only that, but also the joke of a certain game, such as Bingo or Checkers, really being the name of a pet. It was barely even funny the first time, and I really didn't need to hear it again.

So, overall, not a very good episode. The concept was not a bad idea on paper, and it's not that it was executed very poorly, but the surrounding events of the episode really didn't do it for me. This is all just my opinion, it's cool if you like this episode. If you do, feel free to tell me why in the comments below.

Rating: D+

So, that's all from me. See you next week! Hopefully, by then, it will finally feel like Spring! Seriously, is Mother Nature a bear who forgot to wake up from her Winter hibernation? Why is it so cold today in Connecticut? Plus, tomorrow is my first day back at school after Spring break, so I'm really trying to pretend today doesn't exist. Because after today, it finally starts to feel kind of like Spring. Well, see you guys! Take care.