User blog:That Engineer/About Really Loud Music...

In spite of many that do like the episode, I'm gonna be one of those guys that explains why I DIDN'T like it.

I caught the episode in a link thanks to a friend of mine since I'm typically at work whenever a new episode airs (thanks again Eps), and looking at how some described it, I wasn't all that into the episode before seeing it due to how it seems like characters were breaking out into song without reason, stuff about how Luna didn't have confidence in herself when she should have, and started to have doubts that this episode would be nothing more than an excuse for this show to say that it did a musical.

And...that's exactly how it played out...

So, the episode starts with Luna making an awesome song that she's about to submit to a show that's a clear spoof of America's Got Talent, where The entire world will love your song. Now of course, anyone with common knowledge of shows like this know this is just a marketing pitch and the only people who will likely listen to the song are most of the US, UK, and some other parts of the world if they can understand English. Not to mention that everyone has different tastes in music, but that's sort of getting off topic.

Anyway, so just as Luna is about to submit her piece, she reflects over the above sentence and starts to worry that her best might not be enough and starts to wonder if she can spice things up a bit. Now, this usually isn't a bad thing because everyone reaches that point where they may have to change something from their usual style. However, what makes this scene bad is that Luna had doubts about herself in this arena before and overcame it, most notably in the first season 3 episode Roadie to Nowhere. There's also another reason, but we'll come to that in a minute.

So, she goes around the house to get some advice from her family about it, and for some odd reason they start breaking out into song whenever she comes upon them doing their typical tasks. I'll admit, the songs were nice and catchy, but the fact you have everyone breaking out into song back to back starts to make the scene go from fun to annoying in a few minutes. Not only that, the reasons for them breaking out into song while in the middle of said tasks is like someone just told them to stand up and start singing the moment the camera landed on them, like Rita and Lynn Sr. doing what I assume are the bills, Lana fixing the toilet, Lisa doing chemical work, Clyde and Lincoln playing a video game (though understandable because some people do sing along to dancing games sometimes), Lynn showing up out of nowhere and dropping a beat...you get the picture. While it does show the various genres of music out there, the fact it comes back to back would make some who are already annoyed by this point to just skip these parts.

I started getting annoyed after the first 3 songs to the point where I started to skip by a minute just to get through all of that because I felt it had nothing major to the plot other than cram a bunch of songs in the episode.

As for Luna, she then decides to try bubblegum pop after seeing the rest of her family (and Mr. Grouse for whatever reason) dancing to a song that Lily was listening to on a radio (you've seen this on Twitter most likely), and it lands her a shot onto the show. However, this also reveals another issue I had with the beginning of the episode: Luna has been working on her original song for weeks. I mean, why would she suddenly have doubts on something she's been aware of for that amount of time? Wouldn't this whole episode at this point make more sense if this occurred the first time she heard of the contest, and her family was offering musical numbers as advice? It just really feels like they made Luna have her doubts at a time when she would've actually had everything figured out, but for the sake of a plot, let's just throw all that confidence out the window for a last minute change.

I'd also like to point out that it's rather wrong to assume the whole world like one type of music. I sure as heck don't like pop music at all (heavy metal fan here), and I know several people both online and in real life that would rather bust their radios than listen to it if that was the only song available.

Next, Luna then goes to the studio for her audition, and of course, the two co-hosts didn't expect her to be a rocker. This gives off the vibe that they are particularly biased towards a music genre Luna doesn't normally work with, and (this is just me) drops a hint that they may not have selected her song even if it was good (TV hosts can be total butts like that). So, they go into another musical number whilst setting Luna with a whole new look. Now, I didn't mind the music number here because the plot was being moved forward instead of being stalled like it was in the first half. Same with Luna realizing that she didn't want to change who she really was.

I'll admit, 'Lulu' was funny to look at, and you can tell Luna herself is appalled at what she's wearing. It's also at this point the co-hosts reveal their true colors by threatening to not let her play at all unless she keeps that atrocious outfit on. Now, it's here Luna learns that very important lesson that you shouldn't sell yourself out just to get fame and fortune. It's one thing to appeal to people interests, but no one should have to live a life as some sort of second person all because of what your boss thinks is acceptable. In fact, truth in television is that quite a few bands quit their producers over this, and if you've seen Bohemian Rhapsody in theaters, Queen went through an issue like this over a song they wanted to produce (which turned into a major hit worldwide).

Anyway, getting back on track, Luna keeps up the act up until she's about to perform, where she finally ditches those stupid clothes and plays the song she originally intended to play. Being petty, said co-hosts disqualify her and try to unplug the amps, but are thwarted by Lynn and Lana. You know, if you were looking for new pop stars, why don't you actually say that in your ads instead of lying to the masses? With that said, the episode ends with a song everyone in the theater enjoyed, with Luna feeling happy that she didn't sell herself out.

Now, this episode would've been much better if it had the earlier segments actually aligned to make sense. Luna would have little reason to doubt herself over a song she worked weeks for, and as I said earlier, had this occurred the first time she started working on the song, it would've made everything that followed make more sense. It just doesn't sound right that she would suddenly get cold feet like that at the last moment over a fact she should've known prior. To that end, if everyone was singing different kinds of songs, it would be on purpose to help Luna get an idea of what she could do instead of trying to play it off like it was in her head.

However, this episode really brought out the reason why I don't like musicals...all of the constant back to back singing. With the Louds literally singing without reason as soon as the camera panned to them made that segment more annoying than enjoyable. And instead of moving the plot forward, we're just stuck with a bunch of music numbers to sit through for 7 minutes. If I wanted to go through that, I'd watch a classic Disney movie. The episode tries to downplay it as hallucinations after the first 3 songs, but it feels like an excuse just to cram more songs in. This felt like it should've been one of those moments in cartoons when if someone starts breaking out into song, another person would immediately cut in asking "What are you doing?", and the song would never come up again. I believe the only good parts were when Luna was the one singing...

Now, from Nick itself, my favorite musical was from the Fairly Odd Parents episode: School's Out. The songs in the special were nicely spaced out to allow the plot to roll on, and even when the songs did come up, it still forwarded the plot and even gave some key information that would be brought up later.

Maybe I set my standards too high, but the Loud House did little on both ends and it just felt like an episode that honestly didn't even need to be a musical, but it became one anyway just to give the show credit for doing one. You might even say it may have been rushed in some way due to how things played out. Not that I had high hopes for this episode to begin with, but I will say (in my opinion) I place it at the bottom of all the specials this show has had so far due to all the issues stated earlier. Felt like I was watching 22 minutes of an episode spinning on its wheels over something that really shouldn't have been an issue from where it was starting...