The Loud House Nickelodeon
There's another The Loud House road trip set of episodes and I am going to combine talking about them into one post, and as one episode since my numbering for this season is already screwed up anyway.
Episode 10a: A Knight to Remember (double length episode)
Compared to the last road trip, this one doesn't do a set up episode in the same way, it gets out the clutter of the family traveling and just gets them straight to London. This episode still sets up the trip as they will be rewarded with the rest of the trip at end of this one. There is kind of a shame that they picked London, for their England part of the journey. There are many fun cities and towns that American shows could try for and it would be different and fun, but it does make sense of the story here at least to have it sense they are meeting Mick Swagger who is getting knighted by the king. The king? Well, does that mean the Queen died here too?
It's a nice touch that they have Mick remember the Louds, and he should since he's showed up and met them before and later met Lincoln's friends. The Louds have a double decker bus because London. Giving the reason that it's because they have a large family is fair enough and if Mick is paying then umm sure. (It would be like if this show was British and the family came to America and they were in a Ford F-150, America's Truck.)
Lori has been learning about England (not Wales ,sadly) from a reality show. The show made up an English Football Club called the Chuffbottom Chips. Other shows would say don't use reality shows to figure how another country works , otherwise they'll think America is whatever the heck the Bravo network does. (and it is ) Here it comes into play, very effectively.
Anyway, oh the plot. Mick Swagger is getting knighted. Lincoln meets up with the spy woman named X (formerly Twitter). This also means that "No Time To Spy" is part of the show fully. She tells Lincoln is that something will be stolen while Mick is at the castle. I wonder what could be? The spy agency isn't very good if a child could figure out where they were hiding and who they are. (This is how [insert country people here] wins).
The Louds, thanks to Rita being really excited, end up helping with the mission to figure out what might be stolen. It is fun to see them interacting and doing little things as they help spy. They couldn't figure out that could be happening as they only have snippets of information. They end up getting all the spies protecting the jam and the paper shredder because those really need to be protected and this causes the old lights out trick and the actual thing taken was Mick Swagger. (Mick was Nicked as the English say on "Eastenders" )
X isn't happy as this mistake has happened. Lincoln isn't either and he and the family try to re-prove themselves by finding Mick themselves. I do like how things come into play in this half, like Luna re-reading the book. They go on the chase and find a man showing how privacy is dead. He's an Earl, and they made up a town for England to make sure no real Earls are harmed.
Episode 10b: Europe Road Trip: Nonna Your Business
An episode about pizza taking place in Italy, how original. This episode is very simple and very contained. The Louds have a pizza they like, they want more and want a woman's family secret recipe. She doesn't have to give them her recipe and she should have asked them to leave. Beyond on that, she sends them on a mission to get ingredients a special way.
The episode has the family working as one unit with the plot having different ones do something to move the plot. The only conflicts are like a cow, or an (rightfully) angry wheat farmer chasing them for stealing his wheat, a volcano because the went to and looked up fun facts about Italy and went they have volcanos. If this was the Simpsons or something they'd be talking about wine and the mob. There is a charm to seeing the family working together and those kind of episodes are fun.
We find out that the woman (who again, is rightful in not wanting to share her recipe she doesn't have to) tells them that her mission was to make them quit and give up because she didn't want to share her recipe. I'm glad the episode didn't make her the bad guy for a reasonable thing, but she decides to share it because the family needed a win and almost died . She liked their dedication.
Episode 10c: Europe Road Trip: Alpining Away
In terms of this set of episodes using the settings they are placed in or not, it's not that strong. I can maybe give that "Knight to Remember" could only be a plot that takes place in England because of knights and the most famous spy character being an Englishman. (not in New York) "Nonna Your Business" is debatable in that it needed to take place in Italy, but at least it didn't bring up ancient Rome as a plot. (uh oh) This one, takes place in the Swiss Alps, which at least from looking up could have snow in the summer time, could. The plot really doesn't need the setting for anything in it to work.
The episode focuses on a romance plot too, but this time with Lynn, which is different but same. The show does more romance episodes like its Hallmark Channel and did story based on Lynn not feeling romantic at a specific time. Here she sees a boy named Henrik and seems to fallen for him at first sight .
I think it was also good to have a way to include Leni and Lori in the episode as crush coaches without... and I say without... doing something like in "Back in Black" and tried to make Lynn not act like Lynn to appeal to the boy. Lynn works on the idea of doing a "meet cute" with him like this is a Hallmark Channel movie.
That's not the entire episode as it does seem to work and they get along well. (The boy yodel laughs because Switzerland?) and it's sweet, but we need a new conflict and that is.... The episode didn't mention earlier that Lynn is entering a competition. (What great timing!) She finds out that Henrik is also competing and when she thinks he hates it when someone beats him because he has a "beef" with a boy named Hans for beating him. She worries that he'll hate her if she beats him so does the logical thing of... pretending to be someone else. She pretends to be a girl named Helga and competes that way.
The scenes are funny and pretty enjoyable as "Helga" wins and Lynn gets away with not having the boy hate her, in her mind. She tells him the truth because reasons and that whole line of he likes that she's herself. She finds out he hates Hans because of he hates Hans not because he hates losing.
The episode is sweet and follows some typical beats at the end, but nice.
Episode 10c : Europe Road Trip: A Bite in Transylvania
I think the weakest part of the road trip is how they do the locations. This one goes with the old trope that Transylvania, a real place, is the deep spooky place you see where vampires like Dracula live, uh un-lives? Guess what this episode is also about? That's right, vampires. It is kind of a shame there's no episode about the the region in a realistic way.
The episode goes for the message "don't judge a book by its cover" thing where Lucy is telling the parents isn't that what they always teach them? This is like in the early part of the episode, because the couple has a spooky appearance and everyone else believes they could be vampires. The man is named Nos F Ratu, yes. (His wife is named Ulla)
Here's some weird things. They did an episode where Lucy and her friends thought a man who plays a vampire on TV was real vampire. [Season 5, Fright Bite] so I guess she learned a lesson from that. They did that thing where apparently EVERYONE else believes that this couple could be vampires. There's no instant questioning from anyone, that's not Lucy. The parents? Nah. Lisa? Oddly no. Like ok cool. Lucy also states that vampires were there, but got ran out a long time ago. So I think the show is saying that in the world where they've said there is ghosts and aliens that vampires are real, just that these people aren't vampires because they aren't.
Most of the episode is everyone , not Lucy, freaking out and thinking Ratus are vampires. Then Lucy gets irritated and goes to interact with the couple. Then the Louds decide to go on a vampire hunt, think they are hurting Lucy, then find out they acted like idiots and destroyed stuff. Then make up, then it's over. There is a werewolf at the end because sure there is.
The only good thing really with this episode is Lucy. She acts rationally, she thinks everyone else is acting foolishly and gets tired of it after awhile. It's only good for the Lucy stuff. The idea of using a trip to Romania, but then doing the tropes and stereotypes of like it's the creepy place from Dracula, is a shame really. It's like using Italy, a couple episodes back, there to just be like Italy is pizza land. This story was weak and it didn't do anything interesting with a location or make a fun story. Twelve Louds were mean to a couple for a chunk of time then it's all fine at the end.
Episode 10d: Europe Road Trip: Greece is the Word
Same problem as before where the setting here is actually useless. They went to modern Greece but didn't find that interesting to do a story, so this episode actually needed to do time travel to ancient Greece, which seems to be the only Greece writing cares about. (Except Mama Mia) . I harp on the location usage in this because they put these episodes as a road trip in Europe. It's like they just took a very superficial view of Europe and called it a day. I'm not asking for accurate travelogue with giving tips about the best places to visit in Europe, but this should have been a little fun about the continent and better way to tie stories to the locations. This one even decides that it would rather do ancient Greece, but also says ancient Greece isn't even interesting, we have do mythical ancient Greece.
The family is at Parthenon as a tour. I do have to point out that the stuff from inside or found would be kept at the nearby Acropolis museum not in the open air building because that would be stupid. Apparently, no research is done for this, that explains things. Anyway Lincoln grabs a helmet goes back in type, meets not Clyde, but looks like Clyde. Apparently going back in time means that actual Greek mythological beings, forgetting what myth means here, were actually around, and he has to face them to get the helmet back to the rightful owner to get back to current time. The rightful owner being not Rusty, but a guy that looks like Rusty, but remember isn't Rusty because that would be silly.
Lincoln makes it back to current time and things are fine. He also says he appreciates history now. Which well umm what? I guess. Then it's over.
I enjoy history, so this episodes bugs me in that way. I do like ancient Greece and ancient Egypt and yes the myth stories are fun. But (big but) this one felt just off as an episode. It didn't feel like Lincoln was anti-history learning at the start of the episode, and it's just kind of random the apparently the show is implying that in it's own world the myths are real. There again was no reason to do this episode in Greece, even the helmet could be visiting or at a different museum anywhere.
Stripping away the context, it's at least more interesting and entertaining than the previous one, but isn't that strong.
This arc wasn't as strong as the original Road Trip set of episodes. That set was pretty strong, and really only had the weakest episode be the final one. Here, I think the strongest episodes were "Nonna Your Business" because it had a great mixture of seeing a fun mix of the Loud family doing their skills in a common goal and had some fun sequences. "Knight to Remember" was fine that one also really works on your enjoyment of the spy stuff or not. I think it was fine and had some funny moments.
The usage of locations across this really were poor. I'm not asking for a travelogue, but most of these either didn't really need the location they were in to work as a plot or took a the superficial thing about a location and did that. Of why is this a road trip and why in Europe, the episodes don't have any reason to really be either. The America trip did have some of that, but they at least used the locations to fit the story. Here, there wasn't anything of that caliber.
My ranking (Top to Bottom)
1. Nonna Your Business
The episode was fun and had a good amount of family hijinks, and the sillier aspects were still blended well some comedy and worked. 7/10
2. A Knight to Remember
I give it the points for being interesting with a Lincoln story and Luna story, though I think the spy stuff kind of over runs in the series around this point. Whilst tying into the 2nd movie was nice way to show it's part of the show. London as a location is always typical for England visiting and did all the London tropes, but I think it was fine episode. 7/10
3. Alpining Away
I like that the episode didn't have Leni and Lori change how Lynn acts, dresses, or etc. that would have been terrible. The episode gives Lynn a love interest who also accepts her, though I do have my own person biases, but it was still fine. This is also one that doesn't really need to take place where it did for it work, that does take something off it. I think it's fine. 6.7/10
4. Greece is the World. I like ancient Greece stuff, but I do think the episode felt confused. I didn't think there was a part that Lincoln didn't seem interesting, also it feels like they research current Greece to make the present time stuff work either. I think the time travel part was alright, but they called it history too, for some reason. That was weird. I don't think it was that strong, did have entertainment value. 6/10
5. A Bite in Transylvania
The entire episode was annoying. Going beyond the lol Transylvania is vampires thing. The episode has the family , minus Lucy, being annoying for the thing. It probably would have been more interesting if it was an episode where they meet a vampire family with man, wife, and kids, and see how they live etc. Would be out of place for the show now better than what we got here. 4/10
That's it for now, tune in next time we get on a bus and not bother Europe.
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