Shalini’s Review - “Little Pink Book”/ “Trip to the Aquarium”

Shalini’s Review - “Little Pink Book”/ “Trip to the Aquarium” 

 

“Little Pink Book”

The episode begins with Helga throwing spitballs at Arnold in class and her playing innocent when Arnold turns to glare at her. When he turns away, she pulls out a little pink diary and writes a sickeningly sweet poem about him that would make first-year Ginny Weasley gag.

The kids head off to board the bus and while she’s waiting, Helga cuts off a bit of his hair to put in her diary. She writes a poem rhapsodizing about (who else?) using the first letter of her name for every line. BIG MISTAKE, HELGA!!!

As she gets off the bus, the diary falls onto Gerald’s pile of books- a fact that she realizes a few minutes later when she searches through her bag. Helga’s face, when she realizes this, is a sight to behold.

                                    See this? This is the face you make when your life is about to end.

Meanwhile, Gerald finds the diary and begins reading the poems aloud in front of the entire neighborhood.  Arnold and Gerald decide to find out whose diary it is by letting Abner (Arnold’s pet pig) sniff it and follow the scent. As they follow Abner out of the boarding house, they miss Helga breaking  into Arnold’s room. She is immediately distracted by the fact that she is in his room. She even smells his pillow and proclaims, “Omigosh, what is that shampoo?!!!” Then, she spots the diary on the bookshelf, but just as she reaches for it, Arnold and Gerald return and she winds up hiding in the closet. 

Arnold and Gerald try to figure it out the diary’s author by testing out various items (like hair and a retainer) against the diary’s contents. Arnold hopes that Ruth McDougal, his sixth-grade crush, wrote the poems. Hilariously, Helga growls ominously every time her name is brought up.

Ruth McDougal-how many times did Helga fantasize about punching her in the face, I wonder?

When their efforts fail to produce any conclusive results, Arnold suggests comparing the handwriting in the yearbook to the writing in the diary. Fortunately, they stop before they reach Helga’s name. Gerald leaves and Arnold gets ready for bed.

Helga makes a call to “Grubworm” (who is really Phoebe) and tells Phoebe to call her mom and tell her that she is sleeping over at Phoebe’s place. She spends the night sleeping in Arnold’s closet.

 After a conversation with Grandpa, Arnold decides that it’s flattering that someone cares so much about him. Unfortunately, this does not prevent him from reading the poems aloud for his classmates’ amusement. Just as he reaches the last page (where Helga wrote her name), Helga, in a moment of sleep-deprived brilliance, rips out the page, chews it, and uses it as spitball against Arnold. She feels triumphant about averting a near disaster and she even managed to save Arnold’s hair.

Extra Stuff: 

 Arnold’s eyes are green, according to Helga’s poem

“Name poems” are actually called acrostic poems (the more you know!)

-           Ruth looks a lot like Arnold’s mom, minus the braces

-           Helga’s codename is “Mighty Falcon” 

“Trip to the Aquarium”

Arnold and the rest of the class are on a field trip to the aquarium. While the rest of his classmates have been to the aquarium before, Arnold has not. They keep going on and on about an animal called Lockjaw, who is apparently the scariest sea monster ever.

Unfortunately, Lockjaw (a giant sea turtle) doesn’t live up to the hype. He looks tired, his shell has been graffitied, and the kids laugh and jeer at him (Harold even throws his ice cream at him). Arnold is clearly shaken by what he has seen.

Back home, Arnold confides to his grandmother about Lockjaw and she is so angry that she comes up with a plan to free Lockjaw. On their way to the aquarium, Grandma (who apparently likes codenames as much as Helga does) calls herself “Chief” and Arnold “Agent 9”. They walk right past the security guard, clean Lockjaw’s shell, and roll him out on a skateboard to the car.

 

Wheeeeeee!!!!

Once there, they push Lockjaw out into the harbor. Arnold tells his grandmother that she is the best and Grandma says that he is too (Awww!). Then Grandma proclaims that she has a hankering for turtle soup… ruining that heartwarming moment. Thanks, Grandma (sarcastic voice).

Extra Stuff:

-          Grandma’s affinity for codenames and sneaky plans makes me think she and Helga would get along perfectly.

-          The AV Club posted two articles about Hey Arnold’s debut in 1996- you can read them here and here.

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Saira’s Review: "Downtown As Fruits"/"Eugine's Bike"

“Downtown As Fruits”

Welcome to my first recap in which I’ll be talking about the first Hey Arnold episode ever – Downtown as Fruits. It’s been a real treat starting this project. I was so excited just hearing/seeing the Hey Arnold theme song so let’s get started. 

I think this episode does a great job depicting the setting of the series. One of my favorite things about Hey Arnold is that it takes place in a city environment. I grew up in Jersey City, NJ and I always loved how Arnold’s city was very similar to my city. I felt that most shows would depict either a suburb or a recognizable city like New York. No other television show depicted a city that felt authentic – a city that was a little gritty or a city that was low-income class. I will obviously be relating to Arnold’s city experiences throughout this recap series.

Hey Arnold starts these city references by taking a public transportation bus to their school play which I love. In 6th grade, I would take the NJ Transit buses with the rest of the Jersey City population to get to my middle school. 

fave fruits

“Downtown As Fruits” is a very catchy phrase just for its absurdity.  I’m not sure if Downtown is supposed to be the sketchier area of town. It seemed like it with the way people were saying “Wow, people downtown sure are friendly.” And, of course, being thrown loads of cash out of the blue is sketchy af. It was incredibly brave and a little stupid of Arnold and Gerald to not get off at their correct stop. If I was in 4th grade I would be terrified of getting lost, not knowing where I am, and having to stay alive in a dangerous neighborhood.

groovy af

I thought it was hilarious how those two older criminal guys were wearing the SAME EXACT costumes as Arnold and Gerald.  What a coincidence – amiright?  At the end of the episode, when those two guys got arrested, you can hear the police radio say “Officer shot in the-“. Very sketchy and very dangerous.

Arnold and Gerald’s banana and strawberry costumes were visually hilarious. So were their funky outfits.

I thought it was great how Helga was so invested in her play. “I ate nothing but dairy products for two weeks!” she says about her role as milk. It shows that right from the beginning, Helga really cares about her art. I was delighted to see that the Helga-punching-Stinky meme was evident as far as the first episode. 

I like how in the end Arnold gives his money to a woman whose car has broken down. I thought that was super sweet and generous. As a 23 year old, I know a broken down car can cause a lot of stress and money problems. 

Arnold/Helga shipper goggles: 😍 when Arnold realized he had hurt Helga and knew he had to go back and make it right 😍

"If I ever get my hands on that Arnold I'll-I'll soothe his fevered brow. Oh my poor lost sweetheart. How I love you. And yet I hate you. And yet I love you. And yet I hate you. And yet I love you" - Helga

Stray Observations:

• Payphones: Every-time I see a payphone in older television shows I’m like omg wow a payphone lol.
• “The journey is the destination, man” – Gerald. He is so cool.
• “Sodas for everyone.” - Arnold. My kind of party.

“Eugene’s Bike”

In this episode, Arnold accidentally breaks Eugene’s bike and spends the entire episode trying to make up for it. I was very impressed with how Arnold took apart Eugene’s messed up bike and rebuilt it so expertly. I think if Abner hadn’t taken away the brake cable, the bike might have been good as new. I was very impressed with Arnold’s kindness throughout the episode. When fixing the bike didn’t work, he tries to give Eugene a fun filled day by taking him out to a ballgame and other fun activities. Of course, Eugene gets hurt in all of them. I’m a sensitive soul so it was discouraging seeing Eugene get hurt over and over again. Like Arnold, I also believe every geek should have his day.

Stray Observations:

• Eugene got his bike for Flag Day? What a hipster holiday haha.
• I never noticed that Eugene underwear sticks out from his pants until today. 
• Eugene got his tonsils AND spleen removed accidentally at the hospital. I cringed the most when this happened.  
• “Stuff like this always happens to the geeky kids.” – Gerald. 

Shalini's Review" “Downtown as Fruits”/ “Eugene’s Bicycle”

Welcome to the first Hey Arnold!  recap! Like you, I grew up on Nickelodeon and Hey Arnold!  was a particular favorite of mine. Not only was it wildly entertaining and hilarious, but it was also capable of tearing your heart right out of your chest (who could forget the emotional “Helga on the Couch” episode ?).

             

So as you can imagine, coming back and re-watching these episodes after the original series ended a little more than a decade ago has been a treat. It also caused me to notice a few things I hadn’t before; for instance, Arnold’s head looks a lot more oblong in this episode than in subsequent seasons. Also, both halves of the episode begin with Arnold daydreaming- I’m not certain, but I think that this happened with less frequency as the series progressed.

            

The storyline in the first half of the episode is centered on a play about the food pyramid that the class is performing later that night. Weirdly enough, Miss Slovak and Mr. Simmons don’t appear in this episode - even though it is a school play. Instead, directing duties fall on the irreplaceable and irascible Helga G. Pataki. The opening moments of the show quickly establish Helga as both a bully (“If anybody is late, they’re gonna have to answer to old Betsy *shows fist*”) and a huge nerd (“I want to hear what’s in your souls!”). In fact, Helga is so invested in this play, I’m going speculate that she probably wrote the play herself (it’s certainly within her capabilities).

She orders everyone show up early so they can have another run-through before the play. Later, Harold and Arnold (dressed as a strawberry and banana, respectively) get on the bus to get to the school. Both Harold and Arnold are less than thrilled with this, so when Harold suggests that they skip out on the whole thing, it’s not surprising that Arnold goes along with it (albeit after a few moments of indecisiveness). They get off on the last stop and realize they are stuck downtown with no money. This problem is easily solved when a random dude (mistaking them for the goons he works with) tosses them a bag of money. They ditch their costumes, get new duds, and let loose.

Meanwhile, the food pyramid play is falling apart and Helga wants to rip them both into pieces. However, she takes a break from her rant to do her standard back-and-forth “I-love you’s” and “I-hate-you’s” speech to Arnold’s picture. And then ends it by punching Brainy in the face. Classic Helga.

Arnold and Harold are chased out of a bar by the goons who should’ve received the money. They run into a fortune teller who asks them if they have wronged anyone. Arnold immediately feels bad about what they did to Helga and decides to fix things. They get their costumes, give the money to a random family, and head back to school. They perform their song and the play is a rousing success.

In “Eugene’s Bicycle” we’re introduced to the perpetually unlucky Eugene Horowitz. In this episode, he shows off the bike he received for Flag Day. However, his moment in the sun is cut short when Arnold accidentally sends Eugene’s “dream bike” into the path of an oncoming street cleaner. The bike is completely destroyed.

Arnold tries to make it up to him by fixing it for him. Eugene is elated- at least until the bike falls apart and he crashes into a car door. Later, a guilt-ridden Arnold visits him at the hospital and vows to make things right. After a trip down memory lane (during which he remembers how he’s indirectly responsible for all of Eugene’s bad luck moments), Arnold decides to take Eugene out for an action-packed fun day. However, Eugene keeps getting injured. He falls down a manhole, gets hit with a baseball, chokes on a hot dog…it’s safe to say that all of Arnold’s noble efforts have been in vain. 

But since Eugene is an optimist who sees a glass half-full, rather than half- empty, he warmly thanks Arnold for giving him such a great day. 

So, based on these two episodes, what kind of person is Arnold? He is a person with a moral compass, who makes mistakes (what kid doesn’t?), but is also capable of fixing them. I couldn’t think of a more worthy protagonist.