"Imposters"

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Ridureyu: I wrote a long, waffly mini-analysis of this episode nearly a year ago in the old, locked, abandoned Goofball topic*, but you've summarised my feelings on this episode there in an infinitely more concise manner; I don't believe that the intent of the episode is mean-spirited, just that the execution is very flawed. For any of the comedy in this episode to work, the audience needs to feel two things: a) that Goofball's antics are funny enough to outweigh their initial apprent maliciousness, and b) that Frankie is acting/has acted in an unreasonable enough way to warrant a comeuppance. If you look at the script, delivery and episode structure, you can see clear evidence of attempts to sell both of these concepts, but they've either been underdeveloped or badly written, so we feel neither, causing the whole episode to come crashing down; Frankie comes across as a mistreated innocent, Goofball as an maddening dimwit, and the episode as a deeply irritating 22-minute ordeal rather than the fun comedy it was supposed to be.

*EDIT: I just realised that this sounds like a line from a (somewhat surreal) cheesy horror movie.
"Don't you kids go explorin' that old, abandoned Goofball topic! There's evil spirits in thar!"