User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/The Mad Scientist: A Reaction.

The Mad Scientist

This is serviceable television. It has its fair share of entertaining moments. It certainly provides Lisa with a further dose of character development. The story cements how Lisa, despite being a super intelligent scientist, is still a 4 year old and a member of the Loud family. While she initially relishes the opportunity to work at a professional institute away from home, and claims she only has 1% emotional attachment to her family and it pales in comparison to her interest in science, it is concluded this is not true and she in face values her family the most.

But while this is character development, it is redundant development since these are aspects of Lisa’s character which we already know about. These elements to her characterisation have already been explored previously. This story proves that Lisa values family more than her scientific pursuits. We already knew that. Before being a scientist, Lisa is a Loud, and her countless adventures with her family have proven how much she cares. This episode begins by showing Lisa to be a seemingly cold person (Luna even calls her out on this after Lisa explains to them her pie chart to the family). The episode ends with it becoming apparent she isn’t an emotionless robot and that she is a human being who wants to be with her loved ones. We already found this out about her in Friend or Faux through her whole relationship build with Darcy. Not to mention the instances where she would say “normally I don’t care for inane emotions, but…” and then subvert her usual demeanour. This episode also shows how Lisa is a normal 4 year old in spite of her intellect, having nightmares, being read goodnight stories, etc. But again, this is character development she has already received. Even small moments such as Lisa being addicted to the chocolate fountain in Party Down. While character development is hardly a bad thing, this is incredibly redundant. And that is the episode’s biggest problem. While an admirable attempt, the writers obviously didn’t think when writing Lisa’s character arc in this narrative that already know this about her.

Because all in all, the episode is a success. It is quite entertaining and distributes its share of laughs to the audience. Even just moments like Lisa first arriving at her new lab and ecstatically soaking in all of its wonders, or her acting like a typical 4 year old in the later half of the story after she spent the first half trying to prove she is beyond family and wants to be left alone in an institute to study, can be considered humorous in context. The story knows what it wants to be and has a clear sense of direction and destination. By all standards, it is a solid piece of television. It’s just the fact that its re-treading old ground and doesn’t really accomplish anything above being just “good” that holds it down a bit. Even the new scientist characters from the institute aren’t really much home to write about. They’re just one-note plot devices who only seem to be interested in science and that’s it. I guess that was the point of their existence (to show how Lisa contrasts from them because she actually has aspects to her character divergent from just being into science) but it doesn’t really make them especially interesting, likable or memorable.

Another factor about this episode, and one which people may find either cool or offputting, is the climax. While The Loud House is a children’s cartoon, filled with zany antics and over the top scenarios taking place, there is a certain sense of reality (hyperreality?) and realism in place when it comes to this show. What I mean is, certain things you just wouldn’t expect to happen in this show, because it is grounded in a certain sense (to an extent) of reality, like an alien invasion occurring, or Satan rising from the ground and devouring an entire city, or an instance of time travel taking pla… oh, wait. That just happened. Lisa used time travel to return to a day earlier in her perspective timeline and change things so she never left her home to work and live at the institute in the first place. This is something some fans might find annoying and unfitting for an episode of The Loud House, as especially surreal scenarios like this playing out are not the norm and not necessarily something that makes sense here. While previous uses of surreal concepts (like the giant monsters that Lisa has created in previous stories or how her inventions made other members of the family turn radioactive, etc.) have appeared for cameos or quick gags, this is the first time a surreal idea has been used for such a crucial plot point. They very conclusion (and also undoing) of the narrative is based on Lisa travelling through time. Before this story, this sort of thing would only be expected in a dream sequence story like One of the Boys or Butterfly Effect, but now, this episode has changed the boundaries of what can actually happen in a typical episode of the series (for better or for worse…).

It is fun, enjoyable enough animated entertainment and does portray Lisa in a positive light (in the end), but that’s it. The story is redundant and only achieves its bare minimum to pass as good TV. Still, I guess not every episode can knock it out of the park.

Final Rating: 6/10