Sonic Boom, Episode 1.31: Closed Door Policy

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.31: Closed Door Policy 

Original Air Date: July 17th, 2015

If that title seems nonsensical, don't worry, it'll make sense soon enough. Amy has to cut a battle with Eggman short, because she promised Sticks a night out on the town. Once they're at Sticks' burrow, Amy is overwhelmed by what a hoarder her friend is. She immediately throws a yard sale to sell all of Sticks' useless shit, much to the badger's consternation. During the sale, Amy removes a surfboard from an ominous stone door. This unleashes a race of subterranean frog creatures called Froglodytes, who then kidnap Sticks. This forces Amy, Sonic, and the others to descend into the Froglodytes' lair to rescue their friend. (See, that's why the door needed to be closed.)

You'll notice, from the above plot synopsis, that this episode changes premises like three or four times. The opening scene involves Eggman using spider-bots – which look a lot like the can bots from "Dr. Eggman's Tomato Sauce" – to turn cocoanuts into bombs. "Okay," I thought, "that's a wacky enough idea for this show. You could get eleven minutes out of that." That's before the swerve, where Amy meets up with Sticks. "Oh!" I then thought. "This is going to be another episode about contrasting Amy and Sticks' personality. Maybe, where "Into the Wilderness" had Sticks teaching Amy about survival tactics, this one will have Amy teaching Sticks about how to have a proper night out on the town. To be girly and shit. A nice character centric installment with plenty of potential for gags and funny situations."

That would probably be a good episode but, nope, that's not what happens. Instead, Amy discovers Sticks' pack-rat tendencies and the focus of the episode switches totally to the yard sale premise. "Alright," I said to myself, doubting my intuition by this point. "Yard sales are a totally cromulent sitcom set-up. I can see "Boom" having some fun with that." All of this is before the Froglodytes appear, shifting the premise in its by-far wackiest direction yet. I think the only reason "Closed Door Policy" didn't become about something after that is because the episode only had to run for eleven minutes. If nothing else, I can't criticize this one for being predictable. It's free-association, cartoony writing definitely kept me on my toes.

Ultimately, "Closed Door Policy's" ever shifting concept actually works in its favor. By the end, the seemingly chaotic plotting even starts to build on itself. Many of the random objects introduced during the yard sale portion of the episode are then fashioned into weapons to fight the Froglodytes with. Hey, that's pretty clever! Plus, it leads to a suiting-up montage set to totally-not the "A-Team" theme, a joke I'm always happy for the show to return to. They even bring the exploding cocoanuts back around at the very end. The unifying idea throughout the otherwise unfocused script is that Amy learns to appreciate Sticks just the way she is, which is enough to cause this goofy, short cartoon to still feel coherent and satisfying in the end. 

Of course, that draws attention to a reoccurring issue with this show: Who is Amy Rose? I've noted before that she's the least well defined member of the "Sonic Boom," a show where everyone else fits into easily understood roles. What shape her personality takes really seems to depend on who is writing any given episode. Her straight woman qualities are downplayed here and her girly side is briefly mentioned. (With the prerequisite SonAmy tease.) The manic side of her personality manifests as a desire to micro-manage her friends. The script then proceeds to mock and punish Amy for this tendency, which she's only just begun to display in recent episodes. I don't mind that so much. Who doesn't love to see a busy body brought down a peg or two? But I am a little confused by this show's continued uncertainty with what to do with Amy. 

And as I've said before in the past, "Boom" can get away with these kind of inconsistencies as long as they are funny. The yard sale portion of the episode seems to split the cast into pairs of twos. While Amy tries to sell all of Sticks' useless junk, the badger insists it all has important meanings. This introduces some likably goofy gags, such as ones about a piece of moss. Tails and Knuckles get paired up, the hyper-smart fox and the hyper-stupid echidna having an amusing back-and-forth. Lastly, Eggman appears and attempts to steal a comic book, causing Sonic to harass and haggle with him. Like I said, it would've been really easy to do a whole episode like this. Just letting the established characters play off each other within the totally mundane setting of a yard sale. Other sitcoms, and episodes of this very program, have done plenty with less than that. Maybe Eggman needs to buy something from the yard sale to complete his latest doom machine. Ya know, that would've worked just fine.

However, I am glad those crazy Froglodytes show up. An underground race of amphibious, caveman-like savages only seem like they fit this universe a little better than these hideous pepper people last time. (And it's pretty easy to imagine something like them showing up in early Archie or Fleetway.) They aren't the funniest critters. They talk like boring normal people, which is obviously the joke, but it's not delivered with much comedic spark. Nevertheless, they lead to a number of decent gags. Such as Amy's reaction to the ominous moaning the door makes. Or Sticks pointing out that all these guys live in her basement. Sometimes, you just need something crazy for the heroes to fight in the last act. Cavern-dwelling batrachian Neanderthals are more interesting than just another Eggman robot. 

Though the episode probably could've made more of the fact that one of Sticks' insane conspiracy theories turned out to be real, for once. How exactly did she wrangle all those Froglodytes into her basement? It's pretty rare that this show ever looks back, so I guess that's an answer we'll have to look to the realm of fanfiction to answer. Anyway, despite an unconventional structure, this one is fun and kept me solidly amused throughout its brief runtime. And isn't that what it's all about? Keeping me happy? [7/10]