TV EPISODE REVIEW: Goosebumps: Don't Go to sleep

Hello, Spongey here.

Okay, today I will do something different. I won’t review an entire show, but an EPISODE of a show. Why? This episode is so…weird, so insane, so messed up, it must be reviewed. The nice man over at the “ToonCrap” blog (look it up, it’s great.) did a review of this as well….but I’ll give you my POV on it. Plus, his was negative. Mine…is positive. If you’ve seen this episode, or read his review, this might seem odd, but trust me, you’ll see.

So…Goosebumps. I’ve talked about it enough. It got a TV show, it was good, in a cheesy way. I loved it. And it had 4 seasons, and about 72 episodes. This episode looks regular. However, it’s anything but..

This, is “Don’t Go to Sleep”.

INSANELY SHORT SUMMARY;

The Episode starts out fairly normal. There’s a kid named Matt, and he hates his life. His brother and sister get all the good stuff . Phones, staying out late, all that good stuff. And add a small bedroom, and you get a tolerance that lasts shorter than Kim Kardashian’s marriage.

….Sorry.

He wants to sleep in the attic, but Mom won’t let him. When she goes out, he does it anyway, just for kicks. Just before doing so he says “That’s reality, max. Bah, I hate reality”.. Then he goes to sleep. As you would expect. He’s taken to a BRAND NEW REALITY, A BRAND NEW REA-*Shot*

…Anyway, he finds that he’s in a reality where he is a huge hockey star, with people stalking him like stars get . He is forced to play a game…and gets ass handed to him. Fail?

Then these men in black (Seriously, they aren’t named. The credits list them as “Man in black #1” and “Man in black #2”. In the book…well we’ll talk about that later). Show and bug him, and act scary. Also, they laugh. Seriously, they laugh more than they talk normally. Are they high?

So suddenly he’s taken to another reality, where Matt is a doctor doing surgery on the predient. This bit’s less insane, and I have no joke here. Plus, no men in black! Lame. NEXT!

Matt is now being forced to diffuse a bomb. Again, no weirdo men in black, but the guy forcing matt to pick a wire, is funny as fuck.

“That’s Matt Amsterdam, seconds away from being blown to bits, and he still has time for a joke…CUT THE WIRE!:” And the bomb explodes, leading to another reality! Man, this episode jumps around like…something that jumps a lot.

Next, Matt is getting married….i really don’t want to make a pedo joke right now. And he’s bride is a old fat ugly woman! What. Uh….REALITY SWITCH!

And now Matt finally meets these men for real. They are…the reality police. Matt committed crimes against reality, and now he must go on trial. That…sounds kinda cool. Interesting concept, let’s see why they want him jailed or whatever.

He’s taken to court *INSERT FUNNY COURT JOKES HERE* where the judge tells him what I told you, sorta. He informs matt of what he did. His crime? Saying “I hate reality”.

No, really.

Because there’s no jury, or lawyers, he is declared guilty. Then some portal sucks him in and…he wakes up in the attic. It was all a dream.’

I’m not angry, I’m glad. Only a nightmare could produce what we just saw. Plus, it could explain why everything feels freakish. It was meant to be done as a weird nightmare you would have. Matt is a scared 12 year old boy. He sees things scarier than they are. Everyone talks normally, and he just sees the freakier stuff, and we see his POV. This episode was meant to get with you on a subconscious level.

…nah, that’s fucking retarded.

So anyway, Mom shows up and, Matt learns his lesson about accepting reality and whatever. Mom tells him to go to the attic to get his stuff, and he reluctantly does so.

He is glad to be back, and says “Well, back to reality. Nice safe…boring reality”

Then…the reality police show up, showing it is not a dream, and then the weird spinning thing that happened when he first warped, shows up. THE END.

You got all that?

DIFFERENCES FROM THE BOOK;

I haven’t read the book since 5^th grade, but I remember most of it.

This is not like the book at all. It’s in name only ,at its finest.

The main difference is…it was a guest room in the book, the sister is younger, He warps reality every time he sleeps in that room, there’s tons more realities shown, the leader of the reality police is a girl, he’s warping because he caused a disturbance, he really learns a lesson, and there’s a real storyline.

Yes.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This episode….is crazy. That’s all I can say it. The plot shows promise, but it starts to become jumbled near the end. Nothing makes no sense, a moral is trying to be present, but it becomes lost. No one acts right, and the ending makes no sense.

This episode was written by rick drew, who also did some perfectly normal episodes…by goosebumps standards. So what happened?

Every actor is weird in this. They all speak forcefully menacingly, even when saying normal things. Everyone is over the top for no real reason, and everyone laughs too much. Seriously, in every scene they laugh like their high or something…

Wait, that makes sense! They read the plot of the book, got high, than made this episode. It would explain everything!

So, what did I honestly think of this?

I loved it.

No, really.

This is one my favorite episodes.

Yes.

This episode, is so bad it’s awesome. It’s so stupid, crazy, over the top, and nonsencial, that you can’t help but love it. Everyone seems to be having a ball while doing this, even if it makes no sense.

It’s just a real joy to watch. It’s riffable as hell, and it’s almost as enjoyable bad as films like plan 9 from outer space. It’s bad, yes.

But yet, so good.

GRADE: B+ (And that’s on the Goosebumps scale)

Book Review: Gooflumps Stay Out of The Bathroom

Hello Spongey here. Sorry if you were expecting the Villain songs thing, but I wanted to do this.

Hello and Welcome to my first review.

Before we start the review, let’s look at some backstory.

In 1992, R.L Stine, author of several Horror novels, including the Series Fear Street, decided to write a children’s Horror series known as Goosebumps.

The series was VERY successful even spawning a Tv Series in 1995, which ran for 4 Seasons. There were several spin off series, including Series 2000, Give Yourself Goosebumps, and recent Goosebumps Horrorland..

Now let’s talk about another popular thing: Parodies. Even since popular works have entered the world, people have been mocking them trough parodies time and time again.

So naturally, Goosebumps got one. Which brings to today’s Subject: Gooflumps: Stay Out Of The Bathroom.

In 1995, a man named Robert Huges took the penname of “R.U. Slime” (Get it?) and write a 2 part parody series of Goosebumps. The 2^nd being “Eat Cheese and Barf!”. But I haven’t read that one so here we are.

So, is it a good satire, or a bad one? Let’s take a look.

Plot: Joe is a regular kid, but then one day, he breaks the toilet, so they gotta buy a new one, from a strange man. Then, odd things happen, such his family acting batshit insane. Soon, he finds out that the toilet is actually a transporter made by aliens, so they can kidnap humans and replace them with androids do they can- you guessed it, take over the world. (OF COURSE!). Now, Joe must stop them before it’s too late.

Final Thoughts:

Now, I’m gonna judge this both as a satire, and as a book by itself.

As a attire, it’s decent. It doesn’t parody any specific Goosebumps book, but the series itself, and Stine’s writing style. It feels like an actual GB book at some points, but when something un Goosebumps-like happens, it feels out of place. Example: A short rap. No I’m not kidding.

But it goes hit several Goosebumps elements: The stupid chapter breaks, the parents being scientists, supernatural things happening to normal kids, the stupid parents, the bitchy siblings, and of course….the things jumping out that seem like a monster, but is really something normal.

Anyway, this is decent satire. It makes fun GB, in a affectionate way. But I wish they had referenced other aspects of the series, and parodied specific books more often.

As a book itself, it’s pretty good. The jokes are usually funny, and story is silly, but interesting. Some parts were kinda stupid, and some things didn’t work too well.

But overall, it’s nice, funny story. My main complaint, is that it feels more like a parody of kids horror in genral, rather then goosebumps. But, if you look it at like that, it’s much better.

I give Stay out the bathroom as 8 out of 10