Steven Universe Review: "Fusion Cuisine" (Season 1B, Episode 6)

"All comedy is derived from fear." - Garnet. It's as close to a description of this episode as I can come up with.

Airdate: November 6th, 2014

Written By: Lamar Abrams and Hellen Jo

Plot: Garnet screws up royally while on the phone with Connie's mother. Incensed, she requests to see Steven's mom and dad for dinner. Funny thing, though - Steven's mom is sorta dead, and all of the Crystal Gems have flaws that could screw up a potential dinner. Steven, however, has a trick up his sleeve - have the trio fuse into Alexandrite. Hilarity ensues... and by hilarity, I mean a dinner that makes the ones attended by Frank Reynolds look professional in comparison.

Review:

There's a thin, fine line between "characters engaging in momentary idiocy" and "characters becoming around as naive as Ralph Wiggum". Remember back when I reviewed "Keep Beach City Weird", a few days ago? Well, no need - I just reviewed it a few days ago. One of my chief complaints about that episode was that at least two of the characters were turned quite stupid in order to aid the climax - crossing the line, or at least, toeing it.

Which brings us to "Fusion Cuisine", the episode on tonight's menu.

Opinions on this episode range the gamut from "ingenious comic romp" to "waste of 11 minutes, who wrote this crap" (Lamar Abrams and Hellen Jo, for those wondering). A lot of this deals in the more "awkward" comedy found in this episode - a good chunk of it, frankly, based on the characters being dumbasses or otherwise irritating.

Taking Another Brief Break

Just letting you know ahead of time that the next review (either "Fusion Cuisine" or "Make Room for Lisa") won't be posted for at least another couple of days or so, possibly a week. I'm starting a new school year, and am dealing - mentally and otherwise - with some of the transitional aspects, given that I've transferred from a community college to my local four-year university. (Thankfully, I'm living at home, so the transition is a bit easier, but still.)

Sorry for the inconvenience.

On an unrelated note, despite the Summer of Steven ending, new episodes are still airing weekly, for those unaware. Thursday night's episode, "Mindful Education", was easily one of the show's best episodes - containing both a thought-provoking plot, awesome character development, and what I consider to be my favorite song from the series so far. (Yes, I prefer it to "Stronger Than You" and "It's Over, Isn't It".) Standout effort all around.

Steven Universe Review: "Keep Beach City Weird!" (Season 1B, Episode 5)

"Snake people, or sneeple, control our government at the highest level!" - Ronaldo Fryman. If this man took a government course in high school, he must've been very disappointed at the curriculum. Or satisfied.

Airdate: October 30th, 2014

Written By: Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco.

Plot: Steven stumbles across Ronaldo, in the hunt to validate his own conspiracy theory. He has compiled the various strange events going around across Beach City, and has come to his ultimate conclusion... the world is ruled by otherworldly snake people! Unfortunately for him, a pretty valid counterargument comes up - there are these three aliens who happen to live in the town, and get on to various misadventures. Once Steven disproves Ronaldo's theory, he suffers an emotional collapse. Steven, feeling bad, tries to fix what went wrong... only to see Ronaldo at his most insane.

Review (SPOILERS):

We all know the reason for Steven Universe's existence, right? Well, it's the result of Rebecca Sugar's deal with the Illuminati, a group of freemasons led by Preston Manning and Bill Shorten, who power the megabanks that engineered the Allen Gregory false flag, to power the sale of propane and propane accessories, all to line their pockets so that they can financially appease their sentient god, the Great Computer.

"He gets all his information on astronomy, phenomenology, and physics from a single reference book - The Junior Encyclopedia of Space. It's the only one he could find with pictures." - Queeg, Red Dwarf.

Yeah, that makes no sense, right?

Conspiracy theorists generally have stretched things really far to determine that certain world events are all part of this idea to start a new world order - whether it be the September 11th attacks, the election of Barack Obama as President, the rise of Donald Trump to the GOP nomination, even the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings. (Really? Arguing that an incident where children got shot was fake in your attempt to prove that the world is controlled by bankers? What the hell?)

While Steven Universe largely takes it's social commentary on a larger level (analyzing authoritarian governments and the role of "eye for an eye"), this episode decides to take a targeted look at the conspiracy theorists - what makes them tick?

Steven Universe Review: "Island Adventure" (Season 1B, Episode 4)

It could be worse. You could be trapped on a shuttle that crashed on an ice planet.

"I'm the warp master!" "That's nice, Steven." - Steven and Sadie, the latter starting to sound like she knows where her life is going, and ain't liking it.

Airdate: October 23rd, 2014

Written By: Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco

Plot: While bragging about his ability to warp to Lars and Sadie, Steven realizes that the two's relationship is down in the dumps... to say the very least. He suggests the trio go to the island that he and the Crystal Gems were on just before. Lars doesn't want to stay, but the Warp Pad goes missing, thus stranding them on the island. There, Lars's emotional defenses begin breaking down, leaving him vulnerable, and bringing him closer to Sadie.

Review (SPOILERS):

Last we left the tragic saga that was the relationship of Lars and Sadie, the former was breathing fire as a result of the latter's act of revenge. Said revenge was caused by Lars betraying Sadie's trust, after (apparently) they slept with each other. Yeah, those two get on like water and oil, and still work together. Get these two to Corrie already.

Personally, while not as interesting as the sci-fi antics of the Crystal Gems, I do like these two characters. They serve as Steven's connection to the human world that the other Gems have a tenuous grasp on. And as the Gem sphere of Steven's little life prepares to catch fire, the sparks are flying at the Big Donut.

Red Dwarf XI: First Preview

Image taken from the Red Dwarf website.

"Kryten, set a course for Red Dwarf. The slime's coming home!" - Rimmer, at the end of "The Beginning".

Finally!

This September, Red Dwarf returns for a new batch of episodes. Red Dwarf XI will mark the first series in four years, after Red Dwarf X's run on Dave led to rather high ratings and overall good reviews. General consensus of Series X was that, while not as sublime as the earlier series, it was a return to form compared to the controversial previous three series.