Sample Essay On Television Show Evaluation

For ten years running, “SpongeBob Square Pants” has been a popular children’s television show. In addition to new episodes being shown, Nickelodeon frequently plays re-runs of various episodes. The Episode “SpongeBob, You’re Fired” is one of the episodes, which I recently saw in the afternoon while watching children’s television.
The plot of this episode is that SpongeBob’s employer, “Krusty Crab” decides to fire him from his job as a fry cook. SpongeBob decides that he will stay and work for free, but Mr. Crabs says that this would cause him to lose his license, so raising his voice, sends a sad SpongeBob on his way. He is depressed the entire way home.
His best friend Patrick tries to convince him that being unemployed is a good thing, but SpongeBob is determined to get a job. He applies for work at a hotdog stand, they do not hire SpongeBob because he altered the food. He goes him to prepare his pet some food, and then the doorbell rings. SpongeBob answers and in an act of violence is stuffed in a body bag by an unknown pair of hands. He is taken back to the hotdog stand since customers liked his creations, and is then forced to work for free, under, presumably, the threat of violence if he refuses to work. Eventually, Krusty Crab, who started the situation to begin with, since the quality of food has taken a dive since he left, rescues him.
What appeals to preschoolers in SpongeBob is obvious; it is SpongeBob himself. He is a quirky character, with a funny voice that is always making light jokes. His zaniness is often humor that preschoolers enjoy, such as walking into walls, falling, etc. This character though, because it is a cartoon, makes like of what in the real world would be a serious situation. He is kidnapped and also in a forced labor condition in the episode. But none of these things seems as serious as they are because of SpongeBob’s light demeanor.
Another children’s show on a different network is Adventure Time, which airs on cartoon network and has been showing for five seasons. In one episode I watched, “Billy’s Bucket List” the character Fin discovers the character Billy’s bucket list and decides that he will endeavor to complete the items on the list. The episode starts with a rap battle between Fin and Rap Bear in the Candy Kingdom. The character Party Pat tells Fin that Billy is his hero and Fin tells Party Pat that Billy is dead. When they embark to compete the list, Fin encounters a Gnome King who halts his progress and responds by chopping off the king’s head with his grass sword. While attempting to complete the item on the list in which Billy wanted to lie in an ocean, Finn is knocked unconscious and falls into the ocean where he has a strange dream and then is woken up on the surface of the ocean. He then faces the Fear Feaster, and kills him. The episode ends with him completing the last item on the list.
What would be appealing in these shows for kids is embedded in the name of the episode, “Adventure Time.” These adventures seem to be rather formulaic and they often involve persons as obstacles, and physical force is used in overcoming these obstacles. Unlike SpongeBob, the humor element is played down and the adventure element is played up. While these shows are entertaining to preschool aged kids, it also introduces violence to them as a regular part of existence.