Season 3

**Season 3** is the third season of *SpongeBob SquarePants*.

* Doc's
* Egor's
* 9/17's
* BSponge's

Hi, everyone! It's me, Doctor Patrick, and today, I am going to continue my review series with the third season of SpongeBob SquarePants. Season 3 has always had a weird history in the show. The series was probably at the height of its popularity when the season aired as the episodes got really high ratings that only some later TV movies like Truth or Square or Atlantis SquarePantis, the episode with the most amount of viewers in the show, could surpass, and it was also the point when it was revealed to every single one of the show's fans that there will be an actual movie based on this beloved TV show, which will be released in THEATERS. It is also well known that this was supposed to be the last season of the show, but as we can all obviously figure out, it didn't happen in the slightest. No, the show went on for multiple different seasons, and it is even running today with the 12th season. These seasons all had their very high highs and their insufferable lows, but today, we are not here to talk about that. No, today, we are here to see if Season 3 was really worth its huge popularity which was going on at that time, or has it aged very badly and we are lucky that it was not the point when the series ended. With that said, though, let's get to it!

## Review

So even though I have already told some things about this season, I think I should still talk about the reception of it to begin my review. Season 3 has a very important place in the show for sure. Even if we exclude all of the high ratings, the popularity and the movie which came after it, this season has commonly been regarded as the absolute best pre-movie season and even the absolute best SEASON of the entire show, and even though that title is kinda taken by Season 2 nowadays, people for the most part still really love this season. Of course, there are some people who don't like it and even go as far as stating that it is one of the worst, if not the worst season of the show, but for the most part, this season's reception is more similar to Season 2's than Season 1's, so people normally really like this one and there isn't a huge debate over whether this season actually is amazing or very overrated and not even that good, like what's the case with Season 1. However, as you may have figured out already, the receptions are not really that important here considering that my overall thoughts and rating on the season is fully based on my own opinion and not on the opinions of others. So just as I said with Season 2, there is a chance that I might not like this season that much, right? I mean, there were already some rather unpopular opinions of mine during these rewatches, so there is a slight chance that I will find this season weaker than most people and maybe even something not really that good, right? It might not be my favourite pre-movie season.... right? Well, my answer to that is a very clear GOOD LORD NO, THIS SEASON IS THE BEST OF THE PRE-MOVIE ERA, HANDS DOWN, LIKE IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION. Like man. I would want to surprise you people as much as I can, but honestly, there is literally no other option for me here other than to praise this season as the absolute best of the first 3 seasons and a fairly great contender for the absolute best season of the show. There is literally no other choice for the best of pre-movie, and there will never be, because Season 3 succeeds in everything, writing, stories, animation, comedy, pacing, characterization, Geppetto. Most importantly Geppetto. So this will be a different review this time. Instead of seeing IF this season succeeds in all those categories, we are gonna see WHY this season succeeds in all those categories. Let's see!

So, like with my previous reviews, we are gonna start this one with the animation. And oh boy, let me tell you, that even by looking at the animation alone, I can tell that this season is a clear improvement from Seasons 1 and 2, seasons which have already been pretty great, by the way, because this season has the best animation in the whole pre-movie era, hands down. And before you say, yes. That includes the amazing cell animation in Season 1 too. It is honestly rather hard for me to talk about why the animation in this season works so well for me. I mean, it clearly wasn't as different from Season 2 as Season 2 was from Season 1, and it didn't give such a fabulous atmosphere as Season 1 did with its very nostalgic animation. However, this season still has my favourite animation in the era and honestly, it has one of my favourite animations in the whole series. And I think the biggest reason for that is the usage of colours in the season. Now, I have made it really clear in my previous reviews that thanks to the fact that this show is supposed to be a rather zany and wacky cartoon, I am not really the biggest fan of darker colours, because the brighter colours fit the tone and the style of the show much better. This was by far, my biggest problem with Season 1. While its animation is obviously very nostalgic and did a lot of things very well, I think nobody can deny that its colouring was honestly kinda dark. It just felt sorta unfitting for the tone and the style of the season itself, and while I am not really blaming the season for that as it's obvious that they had to experiment with their animation to truly see what will work and what won't, looking at Season 3 is still a better experience colouring-wise. And I know that Season 2 also has brighter colours compared to Season 1, but that sometimes went in the opposite direction and became too pale that some of the characters, like SpongeBob legit started looking like they were white, which really bugged me about a lot of episodes, even if it wasn't in all of them. The colouring, however, is absolutely perfect here. It feels a lot brighter than in Season 1, making us feel the style of the season in a better way, but it isn't too bright or too pale to the point that it gets distracting.

Another thing about this season that I like is that its animation allows it to have bouncier expressions, and it really goes out with it. I said it before and I will say it again: SpongeBob has always had exeggerated expressions and no matter how often they were used, they were always a major part of this show. I think that in a wackier and crazier show like that, exaggerated expressions are needed to emphasise the comedy and even though I myself criticised some of the later seasons, especially Season 11 for relying too much on their expressions, I think that taking away the expressions is a worse thing to happen. But to get back on the main topic, I already complimented Season 2 for using its animation a lot better than Season 1 in terms of its expressions. However, now, I will admit that thanks to the weirder colouring in some episodes, the expressions can look kinda off, and considering that the season was experimenting with digital animation, it is even somewhat expected. This season, however, exactly knows how to use its digital animation and because it also has way better colouring, it just goes all out with its exaggerations and they don't disappoint in the slightest. The expressions are always used to either make funny jokes even funnier or to help us truly feel the situation. For example, in Wet Painters, the animation can often get very exaggerated to show us the wacky situations SpongeBob and Patrick got them into and to show us how dangerous the whole scenario is for them. Or The Camping Episode, which tells us funnier and funnier jokes as the episode goes on and kinda uses its expressions as some sort of secondary humor to make the dialogue humor a lot stronger. It also has some insanely great colouring: the way the darker colours of the night blend together by the brighter colours of the characters creates such a great atmosphere, making us feel both the camping atmosphere and the show's usual atmosphere, to the point when it is honestly one of my favourite animations used in the show. Like legit on par with something like The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom, Plankton Paranoia or Karen's Virus (why am I listing Season 11 episodes there). So as you can all see, I outright adore the animation of this season: it has very great expressions, well-used colourings and honestly, even better designs than we already got before, which is saying a lot considering that the designs were already some of my favourite things about Season 1 and Season 2. It is such a joy to talk about and such eye candy to look at. I love everything about it.

But now that we are done with the animation, let's move on to the stories and the writing.... HOLY FISHPASTE, WOW. JUST WOW. A MILLION WOWS. WHO IN THE WORLD ASKED FOR THAT. WHO ASKED FOR SOME OF THE BEST STORIES IN THE ENTIRE SERIES. THIS SIR, IS PENOSTEROUS. I DEMAND RESTITUTION. But seriously.... wow. Did I seriously praise Season 2's stories for being very creative and complex sometimes, while also working perfectly with their humor? Well, guess what, I feel very silly now, because compared to this season, S2's stories can go watch The Night Patty. Almost everything about these stories works in literally the best ways ever. Like, they are not good. They are not great. They are not even great. The stories in this season can almost be considered perfect. Oh boy, wehere should I start. Oh, I know, let's start with THE 37 EPISODES OF CREATIVITY. Like, literally, I am not kidding. Every single episode, even the worst ones, are insanely creative. The writers who worked on this season must be one of the absolute best writers in the history of ANIMATION, because the concepts we get are concepts we would have never seen in Seasons 1 and 2. Heck, these are concepts we would never even see in SEASON 4. NOT EVEN SEASON 10. I WOULD SAY I WAS KIDDING, BUT I AM SERIOUS. Like, come on. I would list examples here, but I can just list the whole season here, honestly. But to still name some examples, here we go. KRUSTY.... KRAB.... TRAINING.... VIDEO. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA, OH BLESSED GENIUSES. A literal TRAINING VIDEO about the entirety of the Krusty Krab, showing us how the Krusty Krab functuates, while also adding in some really nice new ideas and demonstrating how all of the different characters behave in all of the different situations THROUGH all of that and even through some phenomenal jokes, which blend together with the episode perfectly.... who came up with a genius idea like that? It literally sounds like just an average training video, but the way they combine all elements like telling us the hsitory of the Krusty Krab, showing us the different objects there and how they truly functuate in the ways we have never seen before, showing us how the employees behave in different situations, adding some great gags, some actual lore in the shows, even some business parodies, it is all insanely creative and I cannot praise it more. OR FREAKING CLAMS, WHO CAME UP WITH THAT. An actual parody of JAWS, which can still be enjoyed by people who don't even know Jaws all that much is an insanely genius idea alone, but the way it combines its story with a really menacing and intimidating main conflict which is built up in both an exciting and a hilarious way and with some fantastic interractions between SpongeBob and Squidward, adding even more to their characters compared to what we have seen before is legit jaw-dropping (get it, jaw). Or even The Camping Episode. **The Camping Episode**. **Even a freaking episode about a camping is the most creative thing in the world, what the heck, writers**. Yes, even an idea as simple as an episode about CAMPING is executed amazingly. It shows us literally everything that can happen to us during camping, including cooking marshmallows, setting up tents, singing campfire sings, being afraid of all of the wild animals or just goofing off, having fun. It literally shows EVERYTHING which can happen in just 11 minutes, and it spends a perfect amount of time on all of these, making everything memorable. I cannot believe that I am saying that an episode about CAMPING has one of the best plots in the show, but here we are. This is genius Season 3, everything is possible.

The writing and the stories here are so good that I am not even bothered by the simplicity of the plots in this season at all. While I complimented Season 1 and 2 a lot for taking very simple stories and executing them in the best ways possible, here, the executions are so top-notch that I don't even notice the plots are simple. Just look at Idiot Box. It is so imaginative and creative with its setting and has so many amazing jokes that I legit cannot notice that its plot is one of the simplest stories in this show. Yeah, as I said, the previous seasons also did a great job with their simplicity, but even there, I could see that they were trying so hard on executing them well, so I somewhat appreciated the effort more than what we actually got. Here, however, they work so naturally that I cannot even notice how basic the plots are, which just shows how professional the writers are at this point. This is the best way to describe this season, it feels so... professional. It feels like a show which knows that it is on the top of its game so instead of getting more lazy, it decides to truly celebrate that and make as many good plots as possible. I know that some of the plots don't work out that much, like for example, New Student Starfish is an episode I really dislike mostly because its different plotpoints are all very predictable and can be seen coming a mile away and all just feel like excuses to throw in many unfunny jokes, but even the worst episodes are better than the worst episodes before. Yeah, New Student Starfish is a huge stinker and all, but aside from that, the rest of the worst episodes are so obviously better than the worst episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 that it is incredibly and even that one is honestly the best out of the Number 1 worst choices of every season in the pre-movie era. I could praise the writing all day for so many reasons, like with how complex some of the plots can be in episodes like Rock-a-Bye Bivalve, where they do such an amazing parody at parents raising their children with also making the episode very emotional despite all the humor there because the episode perfectly knows when to throw in jokes and when to have more emotional moments, but honestly, I think I told everything now, because these plots are awesome, will always be awesome and there is no way that Season 2 has better plots than this season. Season 3 is amazing, and the writing alone proves that. Wow.

And now, let's get to the comedy, and I am laughing now because this season does a fascinating job at that too. Yeah, to no one's shock, this season is very funny. Like, super funny. Like, it is the type of funny where I am wondering why didn't even more people in the wolrd notice how amazing the jokes were and the type of funny when I start to feel kinda pathetic because it is obvious if my jokes or this season's jokes are better. The style of humor here is almost exactly the same as in Season 2. This season utilises random humor a lot, which is basically about things being funny (examples for this are the ending of I Had an Accident, where literally everything is really random and out of nowhere, but in a good way, the I once met this guy gag from The Camping Episode which really works for basically coming right out of nowhere and just going on and on, but not to the point when it gets annoying, and of course, the Get out of here, you stupid, dumb animal gag, which is a present sent by God). It also has some more ironic humor, like the job gags in Can You Spare a Dime?, some of the gags involving Mary's mother in Chocolate with Nuts and the gags aboit Squidward being a bad employee in Krusty Krab Training Video. BY THE WAY, WE FINALLY ARRIVE TO THE LONG WAITED GET OUT OF HERE, YOU STUPID, DUMB ANIMAL GAG. LET'S ANALYSE WHY THAT GAG WORKS.

1. The appearance of Patrick is completely unexpected and random in that exact situation. You have absolutely no idea that he is going to be there, but it doesn't feel random for the sake of being random, because the scenario Patrick was in was built up in the episode before, but in a way which didn't make this show feel predictable.

2. The way SpongeBob says "Stupid, dumb animal" to Patrick is something which completely applies to Patrick due to his weaker intelligence levels compared to all of the other creatures of the Pacific Ocean, but since SpongeBob SquarePants is generally portrayed as a more forgiving and gullible, rather nice fellow, saying that sentence is completely out of character for him yet it works because we know he is telling it to an animal named after mysteries in the genus of Hyppocampus, so it makes perfect sense in that epic context of the situation, yet we all know that Patrick appeared in just the right time to misunderstand his debatably best friend, the yellow sea sponge, who is a very famous and beloved cartoon icon.

3. The way he reacts with absolutely nothing and just walks away strengthens the gag baceuse having him run away crying or screaming at SpongeBob would make us both feel sorry about him and would make the joke seem kinda more obvious and predictable. Here, however, it works wonders, because he just simply walks away, like SpongeBob said, adding to the already very genius joke.

Oh man, and that is just the start. Almost every single joke is on the same levels. Even in some of the worst episodes, like Krabby Land or New Student Starfish, there are at least a few really memorable gags, like Patrick climbing the lightbulbs and the Life, death gag in New Student Starfish, or Mr. Krabs screaming NOOOOO when he sees the playground in Krabby Land. While I do think Season 2 can be funnier sometimes, I prefer this season's style of comedy, because unlike Season 2, which sometimes just stops the plot to tell otherwise really funny jokes which don't really relate that much to the rest of the episode, the jokes here blend in with the episode PERFECTLY, and there is just no other way for me to say that. All of the jokes are exaggerated enough to make us feel them, have really great twists about them and use their styles in the best ways possible. What an absolutely hilarious season.

And to close off this season, let's talk about the characterization. I will say that this is probably the weakest thing that the season has to offer, but that still doesn't mean that it's bad at all. In fact, the characterization in this season really works, just not on the same levels as the comedy or the stories. I think that the biggest problem here is that the characters can act unusually mean sometimes. Episodes like Krabby Land bring a similar version of Mr. Krabs to what we see regularly in the show, but kinda exaggerate his character too much and make him this one dimensional jerk who only cares about money and is willing to do everything to earn it, no matter how awful some of the things he does for that are, removing all of the other traits of him and just focusing on this one trait, which is exaggerated in possibly the worst way possible. Another example for this is New Student Starfish, when Patrick turns from a loveable goofball to a jerk for no reason halfway through the episode, which is not funny at all, especially considering the fact that SpongeBob, who did absolutely nothing wrong and only tried to help Patrick before, has to suffer a lot because of that. However, if we look aside from these examples, the characterization here works really well. One of my favourite things about this season is that it can put various twists on the characters' personalities to make them more enjoyable to watch. The best example for that is Can You Spare a Dime?, when the episode starts with the kind and gullible SpongeBob we all know, but as the episode goes on, he kinda turns into a Squidward-kinda like character because unlike what usually happens, he gets annoyed by Squidward for very obvious reasons, which are both built up well and progress really greatly, not feeling forced at all, in fact, feeling more like a natural progression of the events which is even interesting to follow. I love how the plot and SpongeBob's characters also progress throughout the course of the episode, while Squidward mostly remains the same with a few differences from his beginning self. It makes perfect sense and the episode does a splendid job at executing it, which is just simply phenomenal. Another great example is As Seen on TV, where thanks to the plot progressing, SpongeBob turns into this more jerky and selfish person, caring mostly about himself and bragging about what he can do, but thanks to the progression of the events there, it doesn't feel forced or out of character at all. The character interractions are also fantastic, bringing the characters into a lot of different situations and having them interract in similar ways as before but letting the environments and the scenarios somewhat affect that, like in Clams, where SpongeBob and Squidward behave in similar ways as before in the beginning, but thanks to the danger of the clam and Mr. Krabs going insane, their interractions have to somewhat develop. Overall, the characterization is not the absolute best the season has to offer, but they still work really well and sell the point that this season is the best one so far perfectly.

So, now the only thing to do is to find the rating for Season 3. Considering how much of an improvement this season was from the already really entertaining and rewatchable first 2 seasons, going by the mean rating, which is not that much better than the mean rating of Season 2 and Season 1 would be inexcusable. This means that we should go by the median, which shows that even if barely, this season somehow managed to make it to a Marvelous. If we take the fact into account that this season is way better than both Seasons 1 and 2 and the fact that even Season 2 made it to a Fascinating, which is just one rating lower than Marvelous, I think it is obvious that this season clearly deserves that rating. Maybe I could give it a high Fascinating and still make it better than Season 2, but considering that I don't like overruling ratings, that will definitely not be the case here. So I think that at this point, it is obvious that Season 3 is indeed a **Marvelous (4.75/5)** season. Stay tuned for next time when I will review Season 4 in a similar style, and until then, take care of yourselves.

## Bottom 5

**#5. The Bully**

I am kinda mixed about this episode. It does have some really good comedy and I understand what it tried to do, but unfortunately, it all just feels really cruel towards SpongeBob and even if that was the point of it, I feel like they went too far with that sometimes, making it feel somewhat uncomfortable to watch. The ending is also pretty bad and while I know that it was supposed to be a joke, I just found it rather unfunny and I think they could have gone with a better ending here.

**#4. The Sponge Who Could Fly**

One of the rare examples where the Patchy segments are way better than the SpongeBob ones. Similarly to The Bully, I understand this episode's main goal, but I still think it could have been executed a lot better as its plot kinda feels confusing and not too stable and some scenes, particularly the ones in the beginning, are just really repetitive without having any good variation to them. Not a bad episode, just kinda mediocre.

**#3. Party Pooper Pants**

Easily the worst pre-movie special by far. While the concept itself sounds really cool, most of this episode does nothing with it whatsoever and just boils down to SpongeBob expecting everyone to do the things he himself demands them to do, which they don't like because they want to party. Top it all off with some really boring Patchy segments and you get a completely wasted episode with a repetitive structure that is just simply too tedious to watch.

**#2. Krabby Land**

An episode with a messy pacing and a really terrible portrayal of Mr. Krabs, who despite being treated as the antagonist, almost gets no comeuppance whatsoever and just feels like an incredibly horrible character just for the sake of the plot. It also has some of the worst jokes in the whole pre-movie era, like a scene which boils down to nothing but just SpongeBob getting tortured in the most uncomfortable and painful ways imaginable.

**#1. New Student Starfish**

Easily the worst episode of the season and also the only one which truly feels like it is just as bad as the worst episodes of Seasons 1 and 2. With a completely forced resolution that is just way too convenient, a cnfusing characterization of Patrick where he just turns really mean because the plot demands him to and some really unfair treatment towards SpongeBob, which even feels repetitive and predictable, this is just an episode that I despise, and I wonder how it is even in this season.

## Top 5

**#5. Chocolate with Nuts**

A truly hilarious episode which, while not one of the ABSOLUTE best episodes of all time, still manages to serve as a truly unforgettable classic, doing a fantastic job with a simple plot and bringing some really unique and classic background characters who I will always remember.

**#4. Krusty Krab Training Video**

An episode with one of the most creative and iconic plots in the whole series that is executed in the most brilliant way possible. The idea of a training video in the Krusty Krab already sounds perfect, but the way this episode manages to execute it somehow makes it even better. This is just an episode that I cannot praise enough.

**#3. Clams**

Similarly to Krusty Krab Training Video, this one has one of the most genius concepts in the whole show, but what it excels at even more is that it also has an incredibly amazing atmosphere to go along with it and one of the best and most logical Squidward and SpongeBob teamups in the whole series. Just an underrated masterpiece.

**#2. I Had an Accident**

An episode which has one of the best morals in the show, but also has some of the funniest jokes I have ever seen, especially the ending, which just made me laugh for minutes straight. If you combine this with the fact that it also makes the best use from its simple plot, having some really creative and hilarious ways of Sandy and Patrick making SpongeBob come outside, this is an episode that I just simply cannot find anything wrong with.

**#1. The Camping Episode**

Let's take all of the things which worked about all of the episodes in my Top 5, like an iconic and unique plot, some phenomenal humor, fantastic character interractions and just an astounding amount of creativity in its execution, mash them all together into one episode, and somehow make them a thousand times better. If you do that, you will get an episode which is somehow still inferior to this one. Seriously, this episode is just a gem that has to be seen to be believed.

## Season ranking

**3/9 - High Meh**

 #11
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## Review

Season 3 has its renowned reception as being regarded as one of, if not, THE best season of the entire show. I can definitely agree with that to some extent, this season has so many things that make it an extremely enjoyable watching experience. The season utilizes a balance of great plots and great humor, and ultimately, that makes this season among my favorites. While some of the plots in this season are really simplistic, they manage to be complimented by either amazing humor, great suspense, and/or clever writing.

The humor in this season is phenomenal. There are some episodes that manage to include jokes after jokes, such as The Algae's Always Greener, Wet Painters, Krusty Krab Training Video, Chocolate with Nuts, and The Camping Episode. These episodes manage to keep me laughing a good majority of the way through. So many episodes from this season have really memorable lines that remain iconic to this day. I also really enjoy the plots from this season. Certain episodes use the concept of "Squidward turning down something SpongeBob and Patrick are interested in, but gets more obsessed than them later in the episode." This applies to Just One Bite, Idiot Box, and Snowball Effect, and as seen by my episode rankings, I love all these episodes. There's others that are worth mentioning, such as The Algae's Always Greener, which features Plankton switching lives with Mr. Krabs, and Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V, which features the main characters becoming superheroes. Even the more simplistic plots are executed creatively. Idiot Box goes in such an interesting direction, with SpongeBob and Patrick making things happen inside the box, but we can't actually see that, we need to utilize *imagination*. Wet Painters manages to be really enjoyable with so much suspense of SpongeBob and Patrick trying to rid a drop of paint off of Mr. Krabs's first dollar, knowing the possible punishment. I just really love how the plots were executed here, for the most part.

If there's any weak aspect of this season, it would definitely be the specials. I don't know why, but the specials are so... underwhelming in this season. None of them are bad by any means, they just don't live up to this season's standards. Party Pooper Pants just doesn't really work with the 22-minute length. The concept of SpongeBob throwing a house party is great, but the episode isn't really that exciting for the most part, not even the Patchy segments. It's only a few little things that I like to the point where I don't consider it bad. Even the best one, Ugh, is pretty weak in comparison. The main problem with that episode is that it consists of very little dialogue. This isn't a problem with Reef Blower, since that episode is only 3 minutes long, but the SpongeBob segments in Ugh take up about 16 of the 22 minutes. Then there's The Sponge Who Could Fly, which its mediocrity comes from its confusing plot and lackluster writing of its characters.

Anyways, season 3 is absolutely stunning at its best. Most of this season's best comes from the balance of great humor, plots, and writing. Seasons 1 and 2 are already very entertaining and rewatchable, and season 3 manages to be that and even more. I really enjoy this season and I definitely recommend it.

The mean rating for this season is **Superb (16/20)**, while the median rating for this season is **Sublime (17/20)**. As seen my episode rankings, a great amount of this season is amazing (18/20 or higher), and there's very few episodes in this season I actually dislike, with only two episodes in the bad range. Season 3 definitely deserves the latter rating, a low amazing. Therefore, I consider season 3 to be **Sublime (17/20)**.