Review: The Loud House | Season 1 Episode 10

10a: Hand-Me-Downer

Given the emphasis on a large family, it's only natural that we get an episode about hand-me-downs, thus, here we are. Lincoln has had a long and complicated history with hand-me-downs, as presented through four flashbacks. His most recent hand-me-down: a girly-looking bicycle that was once owned by Lori. Three boys ride up and make fun of the bike, leading Lincoln to say that the bike was his sister's, and that he has a cooler bike getting repaired. When the kids ask to see it once it's fixed, he takes Lynn's bike and the kids make Lincoln their new leader. This bit is very interesting; Lincoln was wrong for taking the bike and passing it off as his own, but you can enjoy yourself as you see him having fun with it. However, the bike goes missing, leading Lincoln desperately trying to find it. Now that he's on his girly bike, nobody compliments him anymore, and it was kind of humorous to watch to be honest, especially when the pedestrian mistakes him for a little girl. When he fails to retrieve the bike, the kids from earlier show up, and after Lincoln tells them the truth, they kick them out of their group, leading him to tell Lynn that he lost her bike. After Lynn berates him for taking her bike without asking, it's revealed that a few of the older sisters had the bike before Lynn, leading to some charming scenes of younger versions of Leni, Luna and Luan having fun with the bike. It's nice that the sisters gave him some meaningful advice about hand-me-downs, which makes for a great moment of sibling love. There are a few aspects that lose this cartoon some value: for one, it's never revealed who stole Lynn's bike, and the fact that the biker kids make Lynn their new leader when she's riding the original girly bike Lincoln had earlier in the show that they teased the latter of having just doesn't make sense. Just because Lynn's riding it and not Lincoln, it doesn't make the bike any better because it's the SAME BIKE. Still, in all, it's a pretty good episode that offers a pretty interesting, new perspective on life. 7/10

10b: Sleuth or Consequences

What makes this cartoon so interesting is that it offers some of the best and the worst examples of sibling love. How? You'll see. When the toilet gets clogged, the sisters are quick to blame Lincoln, knowing his history of clogging the toilet, which is aided by three humorous flashbacks. After Lincoln denies the accusations, Lynn Sr. grounds everyone until somebody turns themselves in. This leads Lincoln embarking on a mission to find out who REALLY clogged the toilet. Lucy agreeing to help Lincoln out just adds to the appeal of this aspect. She's already proven herself to be really close to Lincoln, ergo, their time together is always great to see. Throughout the cartoon, we get a lot of hilarious scenes of the duo questioning each sister, some of which have some pretty entertaining values. Eventually, we learn that a comic book was the thing that was stuffing up the toilet, called Princess Pony. It's here that we get some pretty stellar character development for Lucy. It turns out that the book belonged to HER, and that she stuffed the book in the toilet to avoid getting laughed at. This adds some depth to Lucy's character, and proves that even SHE needs a break from the darkness every now and again. Near the end, Lincoln saves her from eternal humiliation by admitting that the Princess Pony book was his. Not only does he prove that he'll do anything for his sisters, him and Lucy's bond grows dramatically by this action, which earns this cartoon some value since this is one of my favorite sibling bonds. Later on, Lucy thanks him for saving her ass by giving him a homemade comic book, a well-deserved reward for his outstanding show of bravery. This cartoon would've been perfect, if it wasn't for the sisters. They were bigger assholes than usual, making fun of Lincoln for his silly Ace Savvy cosplay. There was absolutely NO reason for them to act like that and somehow, they managed to avoid ANY punishment for their actions. It almost felt like the sisters were the main antagonists of this episode. If you can get past the sisters acting like jerks, you have one of the strongest instances of sibling bonding that this show has conceived in it's year and a half on the air. 9/10

Season 1 Ranking

1. Undie Pressure

2. Space Invader

3. The Sweet Spot

4. Picture Perfect

5. Driving Miss Hazy

6. Sleuth Or Consequences

7. Changing The Baby

8. Ties That Bind

9. Overnight Success

10. Sound Of Silence

11. No Guts, No Glori

12. Project Loud House

13. Left In The Dark

14. Hand-Me-Downer

15. Making The Case

16. A Tale Of Two Tables

17. Get The Message

18. Linc Or Swim

19. Heavy Meddle

20. In Tents Debate

Next time, Lincoln's world is turned upside-down as one of Lisa's experiments changes the family for good in 'Butterfly Effect', then watch as Lincoln fights to save his social reputation in 'The Green House'. 

Review: The Loud House | Season 1 Episode 9

9a: Overnight Success:

With ten sisters, life is already chaotic for Lincoln Loud. But this chaos has led to sleepovers becoming a lost cause, a point which is made by three humorous flashback's of his sister's sleepover disasters. Luckily, with a little strategy, Lincoln convinced his dad to let him invite Clyde over for the night. Sounds rad, right? Well, the sleepover has a bit of a rocky start. Lincoln made a strictly regimented timetable for him and Clyde to follow, and he gets mad when he starts playing with his sisters. He even insulted his sisters by calling them "dumb". My point is, this bit could've been done more properly, and it just makes Lincoln come off as an asshat, thus losing this cartoon some value. Luckily it doesn't get any worse than this. The rest of the episode sees Lincoln inviting several of his other friends over to spend the night, but the sisters keep interrupting and things go awry, making for some truly funny scenes. Then he realizes how bad he made Clyde feel and apologizes. The episode wraps up in the living room where Clincoln McLoud and the sisters celebrate a fantastic sleepover. Despite a rough beginning, this cartoon still managed to deliver some good chuckles and a very nice emphasis and Clyde and Lincoln's friendship. 8.5/10

9b: Ties That Bind

This is definitely one of the more underrated episodes of Season 1. But I can still understand the hate for it, and it has something to do with a certain white-haired boy. More on that later.
Anyways, this episode opens us up with a chaotic Saturday morning in the Loud House. The siblings are each adhering to their usual shenanigans, making it all the more promising that we're in for a treat. But all that changes when Lincoln crashes into the bathroom after attempting a wall-jump. He overhears Mom and Dad arguing over getting rid of Lynn Sr.'s ties, but he thinks they were talking about their kids. When the sisters don't believe him, he takes Lori into the bathroom and overhears the conversation, so the kids do whatever they could to change their parent's minds. It's a real shame that these feelings were treated like a big deal instead of a joke because as we, the audience, know the truth, things shouldn't have gotten so apprehensive. In fact, this aspect is the key to the ENTIRE episode. Let's keep moving. So after overhearing another conversation, Lincoln's fears return when the parents decided that they'd only keep 1 tie. (Of course, we all know by now what Lincoln thinks) He cooks pancakes for his father and proceeds to deliver them, but he gets caught by Lola, making for an awkward confrontation. They all go into the bathroom again, and as they do Lynn Sr. chooses to keep his "white-hare" tie. The sisters, believing that it refers to Lincoln, (as he, too, has white hair) are jealous, and then we come to the worst part of the episode. Lincoln's awful fantasy where he imagines life as an only child. Not only does he experience character derailment, it just makes the show look bad. Ties That Bind is a failed attempt at a sibling-bond episode. While I enjoyed it for the humor and the ending (that EASILY makes up for the rocky middle) certain aspects prevent me from giving it a perfect score. 9/10

Season 1 Ranking:
1. Undie Pressure
2. Space Invader
3. The Sweet Spot
4. Picture Perfect
5. Driving Miss Hazy
6. Changing The Baby
7. Ties That Bind
8. Overnight Success
9. Sound Of Silence
10. No Guts, No Glori
11. Project Loud House
12. Left In The Dark
13. Making The Case
14.A Tale Of Two Tables
15.Get The Message
16.Linc Or Swim
17. Heavy Meddle
18. In Tents Debate

Next time, it's up to Lincoln to find Lynn's missing bike in "Hand-Me-Downer", and then, we'll deal out some justice as Lincoln teams up with Lucy to determine who clogged the toilet in "Sleuth Or Consequences".