Owo Doctor Patrick's least favorite episode.
The Grill is Gone[]
An episode about the grill? Damn, this show's going way too far with its concepts.
This episode starts with about one minute of SpongeBob cleaning the Krusty Krab. There's really no point in this because SpongeBob's cleaning skills aren't brought up later again in the episode, and the reason why the grill was outside doesn't relate to him cleaning, because he said he needed to air-dry it. I guess this filler segment was meant to LEAD UP to the grill being missing? But I still don't think they needed to spend an entire MINUTE on just that, though the dirty Krusty Krab does look good visually, with all the creative-looking stains. Another thing I'm not a big fan of is how insane the expressions in this episode are. Most of the season has done a good job keeping the expressions under control or at the very least, the expressions were used to make scarier scenes more scary or something like that. Here, the expressions are essentially slammed all over the place and this might be the worst example of the expressions being used since SNOOZE YOU LOSE. This episode's expressions aren't as bad though, because while they can be annoying due to how often they are used and how ridiculous they are, they at least have some creativity, more so than just the characters screaming with random expressions slapped on. Yeah, it's kind of like that too, but the expressions definitely have more effort put onto them, even if they weren't use for a very good purpose.
Anyways, for the most part this episode just bores me. When Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob confront the kids, it takes WAY too long for them to get to the actual race, due to the episode spending tons of time on just Mr. Krabs lecturing the kids. Though, I did find SpongeBob being able to talk to these kids normally pretty clever because obviously, he's a kid at heart (the episode even states this), so he knows how kids are like and how they act. Anyways, that stuff's not too important, because the main part of this episode is definitely the race, which is the main highlight of the episode. I was honestly disappointed a bit with the race, not gonna lie. When the episode shows the visual of murder hill, it makes the audience think this will be an EPIC race, but instead it ends up being just a regular race through town. Why even show how crazy it is when none of that crazy stuff will be ran through during the race? There's also this really bland Plankton joke where apparently he finds out about the race and comes up with an excuse to be in it so he can steal the formula. All he's here for is a really stupid joke that goes nowhere and adds nothing to the episode, heck it PADS the episode due to the episode spending 30 seconds on this joke.
Anyways, the race itself is pretty good, and I do think this race comes off as a lot better than the race in Pat the Horse. While that race was essentially shoehorned into the episode just for entertainment sakes, and there was really no stakes in it at all, and rather was just a bunch of random action, this episode actually has a conflict within all the action, that being if they lose, they'll lose THE GRILL. Plus, there's a lot of clever stuff that goes on during this scene, most notably the moral that it's ok to be a kid sometimes, because I actually find this to be a great moral. A lot of the time, grown-ups act insanely serious and usually never actually have any sort of fun, and throughout this episode, Mr. Krabs acts WAY too serious about a lot of things, including this race. Since SpongeBob told him to act like a kid, he stops thinking about losing and thinks about WINNING, which leads to him actually finding out ways to do stuff. You see, if someone were to have FUN doing something, then better things can come out, because rather than something that's sloppily done due to someone being uninterested, someone who IS interested can get something more meaningful and inspiring. That's one of the key takeaways from this episode and I'm surprised people don't talk about this episode more for this great moral.
Overall, the moral is great and all, but it doesn't save a rather boring and fillerish episode, so it gets a high meh as a result.
Episode Rating: Ok (6.5/10)
The Night Patty[]
This is probably one of the most mixed episodes of the show. Lots of people hate it, lots of people love it. I find it to be in-between.
One of my biggest problems with this episode is the structure, because it sucks a lot. This episode tends to change plot pretty randomly, mainly in the second half. At first it just seems like SpongeBob checking out the night shift and what it has to offer, but then suddenly the plot changes to SpongeBob WORKING at the night shift, then randomly this fisherman character comes to add some sort of conflict, but it turns out he's not bad at all, and then turns out the night shift is all part of the Tidal Zone? Oh yeah, before I continue, let me just talk about that. Yeah, the Tidal Zone isn't as well used here as it is in No Pictures Please. While that episode was really clever with its usage of the Tidal Zone and didn't feel completely forced, this episode essentially forces the whole idea just to kind of give this episode some more essence. I guess it's still kind of clever because the fact that there is a night shift at the Krusty Krab the whole time and SpongeBob never noticed is pretty weird, and in no other episodes was there any night shift. But unlike No Pictures Please, this episode makes that really obvious so it doesn't come off as super clever or anything. I don't know, the Tidal Zone just feels kind of forced in here, even if it makes sense and is a nice callback to a previous episode.
Anyways, because of the complete lack of structure, I don't care much about what actually goes on. For example, there's the whole fisherman scene, which the episode makes you think is this great villain who will be the main villain in the episode, but the episode suddenly decides that this guy is actually a good person and apparently they have a tradition where he steals their money every night? That doesn't really make sense because they're essentially letting a guy ROB them just because that's tradition. This episode is also really slow-paced. It takes around half the episode just to get to any sort of conflict in the first place, as most of it is spent on SpongeBob and Patrick checking out the night shift. It kind of reminds me of Lost and Found, where the episode spends tons of time checking out the place before actually getting to any sort of conflict. And just like that episode, I'm disappointed because I'd rather the episode check out the place WHILE the conflict is going on, rather than the other way around. That being said, just like Lost and Found, the visuals here are STUNNING. In fact, these might just be the best visuals in post-sequel. It's mostly thanks to the brighter animation of this era that makes all the characters really stand-out, but a lot of the character designs are also really great, such as Squidina, who is essentially the night shift's Squidward, several of the monsters, and even a giant spider. Similar to Bottle Burglars, this episode also has a ton of references to previous episodes, such as obviously Rock Bottom where they actually utilize the Rock Bottomites again, or Nosferatu, who works really well here and the fact that he's the manager of the night shift is also clever and a nice way to have him appear in this episode.
This episode also reminds me a lot of The Incredible Shrinking Sponge, and just like that episode, this explores the night shift and a lot of the different things that make it stand out from just a regular shift at the Krusty Krab. The different menu items are very intriguing and like I said, a lot of the different characters, both working at the place and eating at the place, are all very interesting. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm praising this episode so much for what should be small aspects like animation, character designs, references, etc, but I think the main reason why I'm talking about this stuff mainly is because of how light the episode's plot is. The completely nonexistent plot is used to showcase more about the night shift and what it's about, though I do think this episode fails at that starting with the second half as that's when the episode gets a bit more into the conflict and I don't think they mixed the story with the exploration of the night shift very well, and therefore the entire thing just becomes a jumbled mess. Another small problem I have is the lack of humor. While I'm amused by a lot of the different customers and how weird they are, I didn't really laugh at that and there isn't much else when it comes to memorable humor, aside from SpongeBob sitting on a hook.
Overall, despite a bad story, the many smaller good qualities like the interesting characters, the relatively solid exploration of the night shift, tons of cool references, practically more than even most of post-sequel that are used somewhat effectively, and more, combine to level out the episode and make it one... averagepiece?
Episode Rating: Meh (5.5/10)