User blog:AustinDR/Review: The Whole Picture

Welp, this was a thing. The episode begins with Lincoln and Clyde taking a pic of his first mustache hair (which is apparently white as well; what are they doing with this kid). When Lincoln was going to upload the photo to his computer, he unwittingly deletes all of his childhood pictures. Fearing that he may lose all of his precious childhood memories, Lincoln and Clyde decide to retake each one. In typical Loud House fashion, hilarity ensues. Now, you may remember earlier how I said that I wanted to see an episode that was a flashback to the Loud kids' early childhoods? Well, I somewhat got what I wanted. Yeah, they were moments, but at the very least I got to see what some of them looked like when they were younger. That, and it answered my suspicions that some of the kids had their personality traits even at a young age. Several of the photos shown were pretty cute one in particular being Lori feeding Lincoln his first ice cream. Lori just seemed so happy to be feeding her brother in that picture, that it's somewhat jarring to see that stark contrast. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Lynncoln shippers had a field day with this episode given how Lynn shared the bathtub with Lincoln once.

Now, this episode was okay to me. There were some things that I really liked: the girls each sharing memories of Lincoln's antics as a kid being one of them, and Clyde pretending to be each sister, and taking his role a little too seriously I might add. Though with him masquerading as Lori and using all of her lipstick....writers, please just give Clyde a new love interest, please. Let the running gag die. However, I didn't laugh nearly as much like I did in yesterday's episode "Lock 'N Loud." Now, I've mentioned this in the comments section for "Whole Picture," and I feel it necessary to expand on my points. The humor this time around felt a little forced. Sure, there are some laughable moments, but some of the jokes either fell flat or were tired. Take Clyde getting injured repeatedly whenever Lincoln attempted to remember what happened during one of his birthday parties. Clyde getting hurt several times stopped being funny around the third time it happened, and it just comes off as slapstick comedy without a punchline. I also found the main plot slightly too absurd even for the Loud House. I mean, Lincoln's photos immediately disappearing whilst being sent to the trash bin seems contrived. Whenever I accidentally delete something, there is a suggestion on my computer to restore an image. It just seems that Lincoln's computer would have that function, but I digress. I also liked how it referenced a few past episodes. For instance, Clyde wears the exact Luchadore mask that Lynn wore in "Space Invader" during their effort to recreate one of his birthday pictures, or Mr. Grouse dressing up as Santa Claus much like how he did in "11 Louds a Leapin'."

To sum this up, this episode was enjoyable. It satisfied my inquiry of seeing the Loud kids as younger kids, though I'd still appreciate an episode that was an actual flashback, it was funny in some places, and it's heartwarming in some areas. A great episode to start the week with.

Final score: 4 1/2 stars out of 5