None of them have any solid personalities - a lot of the time, the episode teleplay is what dictates how they act, rather than the characters’ actions feeling natural to themselves. Speaking of less memorable, the characters now are at their blandest and most forgettable. If seasons one and two of The Cuphead Show felt like looking at moving paintings, season three feels like looking at moving postcards - they’re still great to look at, but they feel a lot less mesmerizing or memorable. The third season still has beautiful animation, but there were no grand moments, no scenes where the animators could truly boast their talents and skills. The previous seasons had scenes that were serious visual marvels - the second season, especially, felt like a big TV screen was a requirement for certain episodes. During an episode involving a play, the minute the theatre director walked in foaming at the mouth, I knew she would reveal that she was just acting.Įven the animation feels less impressive this season. I could see the punchline for many of these jokes from a mile away - the minute Cuphead stepped out of the elevator to get his bike, I knew he would have exaggerated trouble getting the bike into the elevator. Instead, many of this season’s jokes are tame, corny, and worst of all, predictable. It’s a step down from the second season which had a decent number of humorous moments, but a step up from the first season because at least most of the jokes aren’t loud, obnoxious, and in-your-face. On average, each episode has around one joke that works, but that’s about it. It doesn’t help, either, that this season is only occasionally funny. So many episodes are like this: messy, unfocused, and feeling like they end before they really begin. Without spoiling too much, the episode goes from shenanigan to shenanigan with no clear bigger picture to link them all. Now you’re thinking maybe this is the plot, that maybe the rest of the episode will revolve around them being too weak and having trouble chopping a tree, but nope. Instead, Cuphead and Mugman are unable to buy a tree, so they decide to chop a tree themselves. You would think the episode would revolve around Cuphead and Mugman spending just enough to still have change, but nope - Elder Kettle never mentions change ever again. He gives them a ten dollar bill and tells them it’s very important they come back home with change. Here’s a good example: one episode begins with Elder Kettle tasking Cuphead and Mugman with buying a Christmas tree. So many episodes move with no clear direction or endgame, as if the writers could only decide on a setting and characters but not a central conflict. Multiple episodes of The Cuphead Show feel like those first five minutes, only they get stretched out to ten and the main plot never shows up. You know how in The Simpsons, many episodes start their first five minutes with a bunch of seemingly random events that lead to the episode’s main plot, and then the rest of the episode is dedicated entirely to that plot? What started off frenzied, bloated, and irritating now has become stale, boring, and empty.Įasily this season’s biggest problem is how aimless many of its episodes feel. Unfortunately, The Cuphead Show doesn’t have much of these three things, especially with its third season. These shows offer fun humor, creative set-ups for shenanigans, and likable characters. There’s a reason why people have so much nostalgia for cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents. The first season and first half of the second season at least had the threat of Cuphead owing the devil his soul, but now that that arc’s been dealt with and swept away, the Netflix offering has become nothing more than a cartoon sitcom - which isn’t inherently bad. The more The Cuphead Show goes on, the more forgettable it becomes.
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