User Reviews

So do Grandpa, Ben, and Gwen have an uncanny knack for turning up where trouble is brewing or do they bring it with them? Do Ben and Gwen's parents have any idea what their little darlings are doing? And what's this about Grandpa learning folk remedies from a Chinese monk coupled with his intricate knowledge of nuclear reactors?

Those were just a few questions that came to mind whilst enjoying "Side Effects" this morning. A few more: Can a city councilwoman unilaterally condemn a building and order its demolition? Shouldn't they have ensured the building was evacuated before crashing in the wrecking ball? And if a barenaked Miley Cyrus were sitting astride said wrecking ball, would this be a top-rated episode with ten stars? Why is fanservice literally a foreign concept to American cartoons?

Anyway... Yes, Clancy coulda/shoulda pursued proper channels to protest his home's demolition. But as an eccentric recluse, he certainly lacked the wits and the wherewithal for navigating the bureaucracy of city hall. I mean, didn't you feel for the guy when he said his father built this building? And now some soul-patched psycho is giddy about getting paid to reduce to rubble the only home Clancy has ever known. Sad.

And even though Bugbrain was going to nuke the city and murder multitudes, I admit I found the poor sap sympathetic. He didn't choose this path. Clancy was at best a mutant and at worst demon-possessed. If left alone to his own devices in his ramshackle roost ruling his insect legions, I don't think he would have hurt a fly let alone a person. He wasn't evil... until provoked.

Speaking of mutants, like an earlier reviewer noted, my favorite part of the show was seeing Heat Blast go Freeze Blast, basically playing Iceman from the X-Men. Very cool effects and exactly the superpower the situation required.

Conversely, I shuddered and winced watching Gwen frantically sweeping away the cockroaches that were closing in on her from all sides. That scene triggered my suppressed memory of CREEPSHOW and that not-for-the-squeamish segment with E. G. Marshall overrun by cascading cucarachas. Yecch!

And wasn't that yecch-factor cranked up with all the gratuitous mucus? I mean, did Four Arms really have to splatter the lady with his Hurricane Hippo Howler-sneeze? Didn't Ben learn to sneeze into his elbow? Well, now we know alien boogers are a black widow repellent (put that in your utility belt and snap it, Batman!).

Hey, is this BEN 10 or ARTHUR? Gwen's data dump on how much ants can carry was so PBS. I thought only the network cartoons with their child psychologists and Department of Education watchdogs required the shoehorning in of public service announcements and such "redeeming value" as a YouTube Shorts'-worth of insect lore. C'mon, Gwen, get off Wikipedia and surf TikTok like every other ten-year-old.

Oh, I think we can all agree Ben blowing his nose in Gwen's "new blouse" was just an excuse for her to keep wearing that cat shirt. Grandpa, Ben, and Gwen were sure ahead of the curve on this current capsule wardrobe craze. (And yes, for my fellow old-timers, Gilligan and the castaways and the Scooby-Doo crew were light years ahead of that curve!)

And now, back to our show. Clancy's Goldfingeresque grandstand play in the epilogue was eminently effective. But how did Bugbrain uncover Ben's secret identity and find the RV? Don't ask questions, right? Just enjoy the ride. And I did, although at the end of it I again felt sorry for Clancy, sitting alone on the curb utterly defeated and abandoned by his fairweather friends while Grandpa ruthlessly declared, "I'm calling the police." I think what Clancy really needed just then was... a hug.