User Reviews

This episode focuses on Richard's father, Frankie. It even has a great opening where the Watterson family all have on mouse noses and sing about the vermin man. Here's another one where the jokes just keep coming. The funniest bit is probably when Anais says that she's worried about their dad eating all that food. An ambulance appears, but then she says she was worried more about the staff. Then we see Larry on the stretcher.

It's complete hilarity when Frankie then tries to bond with Richard. Every joke about him being a con man just escalates and it's completely unpredictable. The best part about this is probably the very, very last joke. Richard steals Frankie's wallet. Frankie says he's proud of him and then says that's not even his wallet. I guess it wasn't that heartwarming, but boy was it funny! ****

This is no better than the Family Guy episode Brian's a Bad Father, which also had a salvageable story and a good idea that it totally butchered out of refusal to have the father change while the son gives him a third chance that goes horribly wrong. Frankie Watterson is just like Brian Griffin, only much more criminal. He only wants Richard Watterson back in his life for his own selfish ends. Everything they do together either helps Frankie commit more crimes or gets Richard hurt. This episode is slightly better than Brian's a Bad Father because Richard at least stands up to Frankie for being a bad father in the end while also giving him an encouraging speech to be a better father "the future starts NOW!" but it is almost instantly ruined by a joke where Richard steals Frankie's wallet, and Frankie says it is not his wallet, just to prove that nothing about Frankie has changed and he will always be a con man who left Richard because that was the best thing he could do for Richard to grow up to be a slightly better father than he was. Wow, I guess I really was right about Gumball being just as horrible as 2010s Family Guy when it fails. When it comes to bad or good episodes, both programs almost always meet the same kind of lows and highs in quality. I commented in my Brian's a Bad Father review about Friendship is Magic and Family Guy are not so different when they forgive a protagonist or antagonist too easily, but they are usually different shows otherwise. However, if there was any cartoon for children that was more like Family Guy in both their successes and failures at comedy at different times, it would be The Amazing World of Gumball. They are good at surprising us in the best of times, and they are kind of disturbing, gross or sadistic in the worst of times, but never to the extent of Big Mouth or Stressed Eric.