Green Eggs And Ham: The Second Serving

Not remotely on-board. The show was pretty near-perfect last year. It was the last show that needed a major retooling.

They created that jaw-dropping cliffhanger that Sam was the bad guy in last year's finale, and not only was that dropped here, but the endangered bird isn't even MENTIONED, much less wrapped up satisfactorily.

The new spy theme song is a major downgrade from the bouncy "Watch Me Backflip."

Do the producers understand how long we've been waiting for this show to return and address that awesome cliffhanger? And instead they act like it never happened. I'm actually really angry about it. **.

I don't like that Pam doesn't actually seem to like Sam very much. He's not exactly the type of character I enjoy seeing their heart stomped upon.

They are sort of doing a loose adaptation of The Butter Battle Book here. Personally, I think Ralph's Bakshi's version was absolutely perfect, the second best Seuss project after Chuck Jones' version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and literally the most faithful Seuss adaptation of all time. Seeing the Yooks and Zooks here was sort of nerdy, I guess, but Bakshi already had me totally covered there.

I will say this. The character animation and facial expressions on this show continue to be amazing, even if I don't like the story.

And I don't really like the story. **1/2.

I don't feel as sorry for Sam as the show thinks I should. Yeah, he's cute, but he's also annoying and a liability. The producers are essentially asking me to feel sympathetic towards Shortround. I not only don't have that in me, I think it's an unreasonable ask of me.

The Narrator wonders who the bad guys are with the Yooks and Zooks. The whole idea is that both sides are equally misguided. The Butter thing is the thing that makes that clear in the book.

I'm not loving this season. **1/2.

E.B.'s new boyfriend is annoying.

I like the Narrator being offended at the shots being taken at rhymes, lamely finishing his sentence with the word "rabies", and then conceding the kids had a point.

It was all right, but I'm still not on-board. ***.

Maybe I'm misremembering things, but I honestly don't recall the show being this bad last year. Am I wrong? Am I the only one thinking this? It's not just the retooling that's the problem. The writing is actually much worse. And that's weird.

The sermonizing in this episode was beyond hamfisted. What bothers me is that The Butter Battle Book is potentially Dr. Seuss' most preachy, political book of all time. But it doesn't really feel that way. Because the awful cliffhanger ending suggests no easy answers, and the book's cynical about not just the futility of war, but the inevitability of it too. Seuss is speaking a harsh truth to children about the subject parents would refuse to unless it was an allegory using something as silly as butter for the central conflict. This season of Green Eggs and Ham is going against that. And you can argue that's an important tone for today, and more consistent with this show. I would argue the entire PREMISE of The Butter Battle Book is inconsistent with this show, and should never have been attempted.

I'll tell you why I think the writing is worse. The Narrator accuses the viewer of also finding Michelee's stuff boring. I don't like being accused of that, because once she was in the doctor's office I understood exactly what was going on. I don't like the Narrator acting like the show put one over on me when it didn't. That's actually insufferable.

The show actually DID put one over on me last year with the surprise cliffhanger. But because the show did nothing with it, it gets no credit from me for doing so in hindsight.

I understand the importance of female representation in kids shows, especially for modern takes on things like Dr. Seuss, which had negligible female representation at the time. The thing is, it's not even GOOD female representation. All E.B. does this season is moon over and worry about a boy. Not a single scene for that girl this season would remotely pass the Bechdel Test. And that's a problem.

I really think that was a bad episode, and that this is shaping up to be a bad season. I don't get it. *1/2.

Sam is a cute baby for sure.

But truthfully, I think the season has gotten so far off track because Sam and Guy have been separated this entire time. Their relationship was the heart and soul of season one, and the writers don't care about it anymore. If there is any specific reason this season is worse than the last, it's not the cringe preachiness, it's not the ignoring of continuity, it's the fact that the show has abandoned the exact thing that made it great. I've very unhappy about it. **.

I didn't like the episode at all, but I'll tell you this: It was the first episode this season that was actually interesting.

Guy was one of my favorite characters last year. And his actions in this episode are despicable and unforgivable. And the Narrator being alarmed Sam chose his Mom over him is the wrong reaction. Sam was actually right to do it. And I'm a person who doesn't actually trust Pam at all. But because Guy is turning Sam against his mom without even talking to her, I can't forgive that character.

He says the Butter thing is important. It's actually not. That's the entire point. And I was angry at him by the end.

So I didn't like the episode, and I hated Guy by the end of it, but it's the first episode this year to get a strong reaction out of me, good or bad. I won't dismiss that. **1/2.

On some level the pathos here feels right, on another it feels a bit overwrought. Maybe that's okay because it's a kids show, but I think the pathos of the recent She-Ra cartoon felt genuine and not over-the-top. I don't know if "It's a show for kids," really flies there.

The episode was all right though. ***.

I did not like that here or there. I did not like that anywhere.

The teenage angst is so bad and cringe it would painful if it weren't so laughable.

And the "mislead" at the beginning and end sucked. I knew the writers were screwing us around the entire time, and that's no way to deliver a "surprise" plot twist. I freaking HATE that crap.

Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but the Narrator is being used far too much. He pulled focus away from the story during important moments at the end. Speaking as someone who has their own obnoxious Narrator, I think the series overstepped his bounds here.

That sucked. *.

This show has entirely lost its way. I don't feel like doing a point-by-point deconstruction of how that finale and that season utterly failed this show's fans. But whatever faith and trust fans put into this show last season turned out to be entirely misplaced. I am beyond disappointed.

I'm not saying it was a perfect show last year. But it was a damn good one. And now it's a bad one. That's the thing that pisses me off the most. It didn't HAVE to suck this much. It simply chose to. And that's the thing that's unforgivable. *.