1x14 Really Small Problems

[7.4/10] You’re not going to go wrong with an episode focusing on the adorable, playful friendship between King and Luz. Centering the episode on King having grown attached to his human pal, and missing her as she gets more occupied with Hexside and her friends from school, adds a nice undercurrent to the wacky proceedings at a fantasyland carnival.

The site is a great setting for a lot of silly fun and good puns. (“Scare-is Wheel”, Gus’ explanation, and Luz’s description of herself as “Trauma Mama” got a particular laugh out of me.) The ins and outs of a carnival are ripe for both great gag work and clever uses of the distinctive setting. For example I like that after they’re shrunk, Willow and Gus use traditional carnival foods like cotton candy to lure a fly over as their steed and create a path, and their use of the traditional hall of mirrors to get Luz’s attention. The setting and ensuing hijinks alone are worth the price of admission.

Eda’s B-story was fine. It was mostly for the purposes of comic relief, and while it didn’t really go anywhere, the concept of super serious “fun police” who look like clowns is out there enough to tickle my funny bones. And there’s at least some connection to the main story with her scamming people with crab apples that help deliver Tibbles his comeuppance.

Speaking of which, I got a big kick out of Tibbles. It’s funny because Li’l Gideon, Tibbles’ rough equivalent from Gravity Falls, didn’t do much for me. But something about the conniving/adorable little operator trying to best our heroes through clear traps and the guise of “Obvioso the Fortune Teller” get the laughs out of me.

My one problem is with how the main plot proceeds. I like the idea of King being tempted by the devil in some way. He’s offered a spray that he thinks will temporarily make Gus and Willow disappear. It’s attractive to him because he feels squeezed out of his day of fun with Luz once her two school friends arrive. So you can see why he’d try to get them out of the picture, only temporarily, so he can bask in his time with Luz.

But the show chickens out. It has him only “disappear” Willow and Gus by accident, rather than choosing to do the bad thing and dealing with the consequences of it. He does lie about it to Luz, which is something. And a familiar posture for the show already is a character fibbing or covering something up only to later come clean and explain the sympathetic emotional reasons behind their bad choice. But it feels a little cowardly to me, especially when they already established that King thought the disappearance was only temporary.

Likewise, the show never really addresses the fact that Willow and Gus were excluding and infantilizing King. If you wanted to go this route, you could come up with ways for King to feel left out that don’t make Luz’s other friends seem like such jerks to King. Maybe that helps breed sympathy for King stepping into the protagonist's role for the episode, especially when he’s lying and considering somewhat extreme actions. But it makes two of the regular characters seem rude at best, and never really addresses their behavior.

That said, I like the climax of the story where the four of them are shrunk down and have to fight adorable mini-mythical creatures in Tibbles Tiny Circus.s The four working together shows what they can achieve as a group. And dI appreciate how the symbolism of King's friendship bracelets, broken trying to attack Tibbles, eventually become tokens of a friendship all four of them can share It’s a nice outcome, even if the path to get there is a bit shaky

Overall, the comic exploits of the characters at the carnival, their amusing villain, and some humanizing/sweet moments for King and Luz make this one a winner, even if I might asasaks for more from the narrative on a nuts and bolts level.