Clarence: Neighborhood Grill
A
“I love seeing a teacher out of school, its like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs”
Let me first say that I apologize this review a week later it was due. I lost track of the time and time lost track of me. Hopefully this will not be ongoing pattern. Life! Stop being a nuance! Anyway lets continue to what I think was very sweet and adorable episode of Clarence. It is a nice recurring theme I see going on through all the shows I watch to review (Regular show, Steven Universe) that all have a keen focus on their secondary characters as much as their main ones. Since Clarence has such a relatable setting to normal life, it is easy to identify with characters we might encounter in our regular day. (Also I will dedicate a paragraph to a frame? that has garnered a bunch of attention..but since it is a key plot element I will write the review first).
I tip my hat off to teachers. Not only do they have to craft and shape the young minds on a regular basis on a penniless salary but they also have to juggle that with a normal life as well. I personally could not stomach being 8 hours in a classroom with children for five days a week. Not that I do not love children but as Clarence demonstrates dealing with the youngins is not a easy job! Clarences teacher tries the blind date to much disappointment. Unfortunately for her it is also the same restaurant as Clarence's family decides to eat at. Clarence in all of his prepubescent glory, believes being a teacher is literally like the mechanical arm of the school than a human being with a life outside of the educational sphere. It is a funny episode that hopefully kids will laugh at (I sure did) and maybe leave initiative into leaving an apple on their teachers desk next time they see them.
Now on to that one frame of a scene where what might of been the first gay kiss on Cartoon Network. I could go into a full blown essay on it but I feel people do not want me to give them an editorial review on this issue. But I will say this, in a time where Cartoon Network is thriving in being a unique threshold of originality and acceptance, it would not be a more suitable place to show such a (in my opinion) a monumental event. But this episode should not be defined by that one moment but by its smart ,quick writing and humor.
Cool things Noticed
- I definitely would of defriended that girl who thought I would be interested in a 70 year old man.
- Clarence trying to give hugs in the girls bathroom is adorably cute but probably terrifying for his teacher.
- “Good for them”
I recall an old Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin encounters his teacher outside of class and is similarly gobsmacked. I actually had the opposite problem growing up, as I lived next to my kindergarten teacher and had to get used to the idea of someone I knew from the outside world suddenly being a teacher. I have seen similar reactions in some of my own students though. In high school I was part of a program that would teach simple lessons in a foreign language to second graders. Months or years later I would encounter them at my job and they would react with varying levels of incredulity. My favorite was the kid who seemed to be under the impression that my teaching partner and I were attached at the hip and went everywhere together.
ReplyDeletePoor Ms Baker's blind date was wall-to-wall cringe comedy, both hilarious and painful to watch. I really enjoy the Clarence episodes that end with everyone enjoying each other's company. It always feels more gratifying than any forced awkwardness. Though that poor guy who keeps running afoul of Clarence is going to end up more machine than man if he keeps on appearing in episodes. Fork to the eye: ouch.