I was going to do my thread "Season 5: Second Thoughts," but now I see this. Compared to the other boards, this one doesn't get too much traffic, so we shouldn't be surprised that posts don't get responded to for a few days.
Well I usually do my scoring out of 10, so I'll continue that here.
Watching this set of Season 5 episodes became a case of the good news and the bad news. The bad news is that these episodes are, for the most part, worse than the ones from the "Friend or Foe?" DVD. The good news is that these actually served to raise my judgment of those early episodes. The scores I gave, for instance, "The Original Fry Cook" and "Waiting" would actually be higher now; as I watched them a couple more times, they're actually quite good.
On to this DVD's episodes (minor plot spoilers):
Boat Smarts: 5/10 I LOVED this one the first time. So why the 5? It had a great beginning with that long acronym. LOL. But every time I'd watch it, I liked it less and less. It's quite violent, and the whole Squidward-seatbelt thing is frankly inappropriate. It actually can serve to discourage people from wearing seatbelts. Indeed, seatbelts can produce certain dangers, as any viewer of the movie Crash can attest. But it's no comparison to the dangers of not wearing one. Anyway...
Good 'ol Whatshisname: 6/10 Some witty parts here, nothing great.
New Digs: 7/10 I feel like I can see the somewhat different style that the new writers (Nate Cash and Tuck Tucker) bring to the show. This one was pretty good. The best scene was when Spongebob realizes he's late for work.
Krabs a la Mode: 7/10 Again, a pretty good episode. That brief conversation between Plankton and Spongebob (about the latter's weekend--losing the net, asking Squidward for one, swallowing a bug) was classic. I wish we'd see more of that.
Roller Cowards: 8/10 Overall good stuff here. I confess to having found the "Mitten" scene really amusing. The look on Patrick's face while they're wrapped up in the tape waiting for the scary ride to begin was also great.
Bucket Sweet Bucket: 2/10 And here we come to (IMO) the first "dud" episode of Season 5. There's very little to be happy about here. I give it a 2 because there are some isolated scenes of humor. But we see some instances of an attempt to resuscitate/recreate that which characterized especially seasons 2 and 3. The writers tried to pull a "Wet Painters" here, with Plankton instead of Mr. Krabs, and to be honest, it just doesn't work.
Breath of Fresh Squidward: 8/10 Not a bad episode by any means. The first half or so of this episode had some great scenes, for example, Spongebob's retelling the story of what happens when Squidwards see them, to Squidward's ranting--"3 hours later"--to Patrick's line about never picnicking on a catapult were some of the funnier parts of this episode. I didn't really like the ending. The way Spongebob kicked out Squidward and none of the other party attenders responding just didn't make sense. When the guy you're celebrating gets kicked out, you don't just pretend like nothing happened.
Still much of Season 5 to go!
