Hi, everyone! It's me, Doctor Patrick, and today, I am going to review a season which is honestly the most forgotten season of the entire show: Season 9A. And if you are kinda confused about what I just stated about this season, let me explain. So basically, Season 8 is the season which is generally referred to the most forgettable and dull season of the series. However, at least with Season 8, people tend to remember just how forgettable it can be as well as its absolute worst and absolute best episodes. This season, however, is probably the one people talk about the least. Sure, there is Squid Baby, Little Yellow Book and especially SpongeBob You're Fired that people seem to mention as bottom of the barrel episodes that are honestly among the worst of the show, but other than those episodes, barely anyone seems to discuss this season when it comes to the show. This kinda applies to Season 9 in general, as people tend to gloss over that season quite a lot, but at least with Season 9B, people tend to remember it as the start of post-sequel and maybe even the point when the show got good again, but this season is almost completely left in the dust, with barely anyone seeming to mention it aside from the three infamous episodes and maybe a few of its best episodes, like Plankton's Pet. So my opinion on this season will probably be even more interesting than usual, as there isn't a general reception of this season, and not even because how mixed the reception is. Mostly because whereas I normally see people rating this season around the meh or decent, maybe even good range, there is usually a lack of explanaton for that and they just tend to focus on Season 9B when it comes to Season 9. So what do I personally think of this season? Is it as good as the first 7 seasons, is it as bad as Season 8 or is it somewhere in between? Well.... that is what we will see today. With that said, though, let's get to it!
History[]
This section is honestly quite fitting because similarly to how nobody seems to really mention this season when it comes to SpongeBob, I personally have barely any history with it. When I watched SpongeBob as a smaller kid, there are a few episodes that I might have watched but I just don't remember them. However, I am fairly certain that I watched no Season 9A episodes back then. Like I mentioned before, I have basically given up on the show when I saw some S7 and S8 episodes that I disliked, but even though Season 9A or maybe even Season 9B was airing at that time, I just simply wasn't curious to check out the new episodes. Even when I returned to the series in 2016 and became interested to rewatch some old episodes that I barely remember, watch some new episodes and watch those older episodes that I haven't seen yet, the seasons that mostly caught my interest were Season 10 and 9B as I have heard more praise towards them than towards Season 9A, so even when I decided to return, I basically still wasn't interested in this half-season. I admittedly heard really terrible things about the infamous trio, especially about the notorious SBYF, but for some strange reason, even those episodes didn't seem to make me that interested. That is not to say that I haven't really seen any 9A episodes around that time because I did watch a few episodes like Patrick-Man! and Eek, an Urchin!, which actually did make me somewhat interested in this season, but I basically just watched the rest of the episodes to watch every episode in this show, and frankly, I don't even remember my reasoning for some of my old opinions. I do remember really despising SpongeBob You're Fired on first watch, but for episodes like Evil Spatula and Little Yellow Book, I honestly still don't know why I used to rate them the way I did. So yeah, even when I was already a member of ESB, I didn't really care about this season at all and this was easily one of the seasons where my opinions were the least stable. So when I finally decided to rewatch the series, this was one of the seasons that intrigued me the most. So, my previous question that I asked still stands here. Was this season actually really good or was it just like the previous season and now, it is obvious that the show is declining in quality? Let's just see in this review. Now just sit down and watch me expressing my thoughts on the first half of the 9th season of the series SpongeBob SquarePants.
Man, this sounds really professional.
Animation[]
Honestly, I find it incredibly strange that for the first ever season to have HD animation, it manages to be a DOWNGRADE in its animation once compared to Season 8. Yeah, I am insanely shocked too, but if I wanted to tell you the truth, I expected way more from the animation of Season 9A. Now, to clear things up, I am obviously not as harsh on this animation as I previously was and call it straightup mediocre, since it does have its positives that we shouldn't ignore. However, it is still just really strange that the animation which is supposed to be a technical upgrade from S8's animation manages to be the complete opposite. Let's get the most positive thing out of the way at first: on its own, the colouring looks AMAZING. Yeah, when I kept saying what I want the colouring to be like in my season reviews, THIS is what I was referring to. Because man, even if I liked some of the colouring in the previous seasons, this season by far outdoes almost all of them. Season 5 is probably the only season thus far that has better colouring than this, but that season seems to be more like a one hit wonder inits batch of seasons as none of the previous or even the next seasons are quite like it colouring-wise. Well, that is until we hit post-sequel, but still. Seriously, Season 3, a season that I ADORE animation-wise (and in every single other level too, but we are not here to talk about that), has a colouring which is honestly inferior to this, and I am really surprised how that happened. The colours in this season are almost just like how they were in Season 5: they are really bright, bouncy and just look extremely pleasing, and they PERFECTLY fit the style that the show has. I always thought that the wacky, zany tone of most episodes of SpongeBob are way better with really colourful animation, and this season is just what comes to mind when I think of the colouring that I would like to see in a SpongeBob season. Well, again, until post-sequel. So really, if the colours in this season are this awesome, then what can possibly go wrong? Well, if you read my previous reviews about the previous seasons, then the answer should be obvious. Because no matter how amazing the colours are, how pleasing and fascinating they look and how much they fit the show as a whole, when you have designs that don't fit them, it downgrades the animation A LOT. And sadly, this is exactly the case with this season. Unlike Season 6, though, it isn't the designs themselves that I don't like as even if they could be a little more expressive (more on that later), but it is the textures of them that look especially awful. And what I mean by that is that the textures and the lines of the characters in this season just look really washed up and even nonexistant sometimes, which hurts the animation so much. I don't know what caused this, but the animation of this season just has this unfinished feeling about it, and thanks to that, even if the colours themselves are great, they look extremely strange and off with these weird textures. I am sure that a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but I really think that if this season just had better textures and lines, then its animation would have looked way better because as it stands, it honestly just looks really off-putting.
But of course, what are the seasons without expressions. And let me tell you, these might be the absolute worst expressions in SpongeBob that I have ever seen. Like, I know that I bashed S11 a lot for utilising expressions which are mainly just used to distract the ausdience from the lackluster writing, but at least you can say that the expressions themselves still look kinda pleasing, at least when taken out of context. Here, however, I feel like I said something in the S8 review that I really shouldn't have and it just backfired. What I am referring to is that I bashed S8's animation for not being more expressive when it clearly could have, but after I look at it, it was probably for the better. Sure, I was mostly referring to the character movements themselves when I talked about exaggerations and I did say that the actual expressions, at least the facial ones, wouldn't have looked really nice because the season still had similar animation to S6 and S8, but I honestly regret saying anything about that because this is way worse. This season is just as stiff and wooden in its animation when it comes to expressions as Seasons 6 and 7, but whereas those seasons didn't feel the need to create a bunch of visual gags, this season puts many of them into episodes and they just fall flat on their face because of them looking so lackluster and mediocre. It is even worse when the season decides to not even try wacky faces and just have completely random and off-putting gags that lead to nowhere, because it somehow feels even flatter and there I say, L A M E. You know that you really fail when I use the word lame for you because that is the word I describe Season 8 with on a regular basis, so that is like.... definitely not a good sign, right? Ugh, this season's animation just makes me feel weirder and weirder talking about it. It just gives me the feeling that I should really LIKE this new HD animation, but it clearly isn't advanced and well-made enough to be anything above average. The colouring honestly really saves the one as well as some new experimentations with the animation that are mostly in the sequences that are supposed to be the most exciting (as mediocre as Extreme Spots is, it was a good start to 9A from an animation perspective, since it really shows off the HD animation nicely to the epic sports that the characters play), so this season's animation at least still manages to be better than Season 7 and definitely Season 6, but I honestly prefer Season 2's animation to this one, and you just know that you aren't doing something right when one of the most bashed pieces of animation in the show is something that I like far more than the new HD animation.
Stories[]
I will give this season credit: unlike Season 8, it doesn't turn the most interesting plots into something completely dull and lifeless that is just absolutely boring to see. However, I am still not sure how big of a blessing this is, because despite this big positive, it just happens to have other issues. Honestly, the actual concepts themselves in this season are quite mixed. And I don't mean it in the same way as Season 8 where the concepts themselves were either good or bad, but almost all of them were executed in the same dull way, but rather in the way that some of the plots sound really unique and creative whereas others just simply don't sound like they would be enough to fill a whole episode. Still, though, the plots that are bad, at least are not executed in a really lame and uninteresting manner, but rather in a way where they just feel absolute disasters in every way, which technically makes them more enjoyable to watch, even if they are just as flawed when viewed critically. What I noticed is that this season tries to utilise various different satires into itself, and honestly, it works best with those kind of episodes. Episodes like Little Yellow Book try to obviously make a parody out of hypocrisy, but they surprisingly really work because they are able to create some really great jokes out of the situations themselves and even if you don't care about the particular subject the episode is supposed to be a satire of, it can still be entertaining as it offers other great things as well. Speaking of Little Yellow Book, that is probably one of the best examples here as even if you don't really care about its hypocrisy, it offers various other kinds of entertainment as well like the absurd humor which is mostly utilised when SpongeBob's secrets are revealed and the general theme about how you shouldn't make fun of someone, especially about their secrets, even if it is clearly done in a more funny and satirical manner. It also has constant great energy to it and the way the plot progresses is also really interesting to see, so even if you don't really want to see an episode about hypocrisy, there is a great chance that it might amuse you as well. Another example for this is Safe Deposit Krabs, which try to do a more unique plot and even some sort of parody about Mr. Krabs's regular money obsession and it surprisingly works really well, because of it feeling a lot more unique and outstanding compared to other Mr. Krabs episodes, thanks to his various fantasies about money which are able to expand his obsession and the really creative setting which allows for an atmosphere that most Mr. Krabs episodes don't have. It also has a really interesting subplot to go along with it where SpongeBob and Patrick try to break into the bank to rescue Mr. Krabs and even if that subplot admittedly does feel a bit like wasted potential, it provides some great humor as well as a more interesting tone and style when compared to the most typical Mr. Krabs being greedy episodes. Possibly my favourite of these and my favourite of Season 9A as a whole is Gary's New Toy. That episode clearly parodies the typical "pet or friend starts to like something other than its owner/friend so they part ways, but he starts missing him", and it does a really great job at that. Unlike an episode like Dumped which has no idea whether to be serious or funny providing an absolute mess of an episode which tries to be serious but absolutely fails due to its poor writing as well as having almost no sign of humor aside from a few gags, which is weird because it clearly tries to be comical in some places. That episode, however, perfectly knows that itr wants to be a satire of these cheesy stories and it just does all it can with it, providing a really fresh plot that no other episode in the seris has, some extraordinary and hilarious humor and some really unique characterization from SpongeBob and Gary. These are all episodes that you just cannot see in Season 8, because even if that season occasionally has episodes that do really shine, the episodes for the most part tend to lack uniqueness and creativity, so this alone makes it look like that the season will be a lot better than Season 8.
Of course, though, this is only half of the episodes here, and the other half obviously doesn't succeed in this way. In fact, the other half doesn't even succeed at all, because its plots just feel absolutely off and not enough to fill a full 11 minute episode. Have you ever wanted to see an episode where all that happens is Sandy breaking records in a really uninteresting way where there is absolutely no conflict and most of the records are just simply lame, consisting on either the same things happening with barely any variation, or the most boring and uninteresting sequences the show could come up with for a concept like that? Well, guess what, this season has that. Have you ever wanted to see a FIFTH ripoff of Hooky which misses any substance, creativity or entertainment and just boils down to SpongeBob doing chores which are not even interesting and pleasing? Well, guess what, this season has that. And my God, everyone already mentioned this before, but SpongeBob You're Fired is truly an absolute disaster of an episode just by its main plot alone. It is clear that SpongeBob getting fired is NOT enough for a 22 minute episode and it becomes really obvious in the episode where several scenes are just dragged out or repeated for no other reason than for the episode having to fill those 22 minutes. I am not even kidding, the episode has SpongeBob crying for 3 minutes straight without any type of humor or comedy about it, but if that wasn't bad enough, it freaking repeats the same scene 4 times, and that is just extremely infuriating. Yeah, after SpongeBob tries looking for a job, all that happens in 4 different restaurants is that he applies, gets hired, ends up making a krabby patty instead of the food that he is supposed to make, and gets fired. Seriously, I understand that the episode needs to fill up 22 minutes, but at least try to be more creative, because these sequences, other than maybe the actual krabby patties themselves looking different which is a very minor change and not enough to justify the repetition, have absolutely no variation about them, and it baffles me that they sank THIS LOW just to have filler. At the very least, try doing this in the form of a MONTAGE. Yeah, it would most likely still be rather unfunny and stupid, but at least it would waste less of our time and would be less noticeable filler. But believe it or not, as bad as SBYF is, it is actually not my least favourite episode of this half-season. Bumper to Bumper, an episode that I find extremely underhated, has all of the issues of this season writing-wise and just goes all out with them. Its plot is clearly not enough to fill 11 minutes so it has to utilise a beginning which is nothing but useless filler, several scenes, like the "Focus on the road" gag are repeated over and over with not enough variation for them to stand out or be anything amusing, a climax that just feels wasted potential and outright LAME, and a resolution, which despite having some nice ideas, is still extremely stupid and forced. By the sheer amount of problems it has, it is already one of my least favourite episodes ever, but the fact that it offers no real entertainment and just bores me with its writing through it makes it even worse. And yeah, I haven't even talked about the most annoying factor of the writing in this season, have I? Yeah, for some reason, almost every 9A episode feels the need of dragging out sequences to an ETERNITY, and it is just annoying. I have mentioned this in my SBYF section, but that is not even the only episode guilty of that. Even some of my favourite episodes, like Little Yellow Book, have some really dragged out sequences where basically all that happens in the beginning is Squidward finding SpongeBob's diary, but it is done in a way that is full of needless filler and it is obvious that it could have been cut shorter. Yeah, NOW it sounds like Season 8, doesn't it? I mean, I guess the stories themselves are better than those of Season 8 because they are at least more interesting, but with this many writing issues, I still can't help but feel that the show lost the great storytelling it once used to have and now is just kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Humor[]
To put it simply about the humor section of this season, I really, really dislike it. Half of the time, the comedy in this season feels the most generic and simple type of humor executed in a really bad way, and the other half mostly boils down to some really flat and dull visual gags, with an occassional clever gag here and there. I already mentioned how much the visual gags fail to amuse me, but it is even worse when the season decides to utilise them as their more main source of comedy and decides the dialogue humor to take a backseat. Yeah, if that didn't already sound bad enough in my animation section, then get ready, because half of the season is full of jokes like that. These gags barely ever work and even when they do, they honestly just give a slight chuckle, but almost never a full laugh, bexause they are just so limited in their animation and therefore feel so lifeless and dull as a result. I already think visual humor shouldn't be the show's main source of humor as it works a lot better when it is combined with dialogue gags to make them work even better, but a different season with different animation could have pulled these jokes off so much better that I am kinda saddened that the visual gags started in this season instead of in Season 10 or 9B. What I also dislike about the jokes in this season is that most of them just feel incredibly stale and predictable. Squid Baby is probably one of the worst examples of that, as that episode just commits every single cliché that a typical babysitting episode has and just expects you to laugh at them alobe while making some really dried out and stupid jokes that are either already done to death or just come off as afterthoughts, because the episode doesn't have enough effort put into the jokes for them to truly work. Half of the time, I am wondering what the jokes in the episodes are supposed to be, because in episodes like Yeti Krab and Squirrel Record, there seems to be a total absence of comedy and it just really baffles me because it is clear that the episodes themselves, despite still being very bad, at least would have AMUSED me more while watching them, but because they are almost completely empty, they just have no sort of entertainment whatsoever. But my least favourite joke in this season is by far FOCUS ON THE ROAD, THERE IS NOTHING BUT THE ROAD. That joke is repeated for more than 1 and a half minute STRAIGHT, and even it has a few neat visuals along it, it just still fails to work because SpongeBob just says the same sentence with the same tone. Seriously, people give My Leg! a lot of flack for it just kinda repeating the catchphrase over and over but at least it sometimes manages to surprise the ausience with Fred saying something completely different, in a different tone, or the joke general happening in a really unexpected and unique way, like when the hammer falls into that prisoner's foot and the words "My leg!" appear in white text. This episode, however, just has the same line repeated over and over AND OVER, and it just really, really triggers me.
That being said though, there are some good jokes in this season. As I said, this season seems to work the most when it utilises some satirical gags, since they work in surprisingly unique and interesting ways, which are really fresh for this season. What I also noticed is that jokes similar to the ones from pre-movie, or even Seasons 4-5 seem to return. This is the most noticeable in the episode Patrick-Man!, another one that I personally really love, where Patrick really acts like his pre-movie self and creating a lot of trouble with his stupidity, but it is more amusing than really dumb because it is never really annoying to the audience and they clearly have a limit with these type of jokes. Another episode that I personally find hilarious is Squid Defense, as that one manages to make some fresh and unique jokes out of the already well known karate concept with utilising Squidward and his usual personality in it, which goes really well with the karate part. Aside from these examples, though, not even the characterization is really that good in the season, as it is just mostly reminiscent to the characterization of Season 8, with them feeling more generic and one-dimensional than anything. Yes, it can be occasionally clever as proven by these examples, but it is still not the same characterization that I used to know and love the show for. I could say more, but it honestly isn't even worth it anymore, as neither of the characterization nor the humor really amuses me, even if it does admittedly work a few times.
Verdict[]
Yeah, Season 8, just in a better addition. This is the best way to describe Season 9A. This season manages to take the absolute worst season in the show and slightly improve over it, but it still has way too many issues holding it back, and there are just as many cons here as pros. Yes, the episodes are no longer as dull and uncreative as Season 8's. But they still have some rally bad pacing issues and commit a lot of similar flaws as that season did. Yes, the animation is trying more. But it is honestly a step back from something that wasn't even that great to begin with. Yes, the humor and the characters do occasionally amuse me. But like I said in the Season 7 review,. something mildly entertaining shouldn't be the goal of the show and the fact that this season cannot even be that half of the time really says a lot about the quality of this show now. Yes, there is the OCCASIONAL good episode here and there, which can be even really great and dare I say, amazing, but the show has done so much better than that before than I just honestly feel like it is not worth bothering with anymore. It is more interesting and not nearly as forgettable as Season 8, I will give it that. But it still only makes me entertain with 50% of its episodes and even sheer entertainment isn't really enough because of the high bar that the show set up. Yes, sometimes it does meet that bar, but it is very rare and most of the good episodes aren't even above simply entertaining, which really makes me feel like that I am not watching the same show that I used to love. I am giving this season a slightly better rating as Season 8 as I do think that it is a lot less boring and dull to watch and the statistics themselves are a lot better, but this is still not a good season, and the fact that I am praising it for being better than SEASON 8 out of all things says a lot about the quality of the show nowadays. I sincerely hope that Season 9B will be better, but as for now, Season 9A is just a Tolerable (2.75/5) season, and I am fairly confident that the show can do better than this. Stay tuned for next time when I will review Season 9B in a similar style, and until then, take care of yourselves.
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