Review: The Loud House “The Winning Spirit”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In order to get her PE coach off her back, Lucy and her goth friends summon a long dead student from her school in order to finish a fitness test.

OUR TAKE

Huh okay, looks like we’ve got an episode just about the goth kid of the siblings, Lucy Loud, no doubt named for Lucifuge Rofocale, a lesser demon from the 16th century black magic grimoire The Red Dragon AND NOTHING ELSE. And with that, we’ve had episodes in this batch that have focused on six of the siblings individually in at least some capacity. Maybe if we did two more weeks, we could get the other five! God, my booster card collecting past is catching up with me. But yay, we get an episode about Lucy, as opposed to just one of her weird friends like that one with Rusty and Morpheus. And hey, it’s reminding me of the Goth Kid episodes of South Park, just without all the swearing and cigarettes (though I’m sure they could work that into later seasons if the show goes on long enough). I imagine this can be pretty fun for the voice actors among this group that play other characters but now get to bring their voice down really low and pretend to be super serious. Even Lucy’s actress, Jessica DiCicco, known for Flame Princess in Adventure Time, is also Lynn Loud (Jr.), so she too gets a bit of range in this show across her performances.

As for this episode itself, it’s pretty fun. There’s a lot to like, from the aforementioned funny goth (maybe emo? Definitely not scene) kids, but also how their muted acting serves as a foil to the outgoing coach and the athletic ghost that helps Lucy out. Plus, there’s also the fun contrast of (gasp) the weird non-athlete kids have to EXERCISE? I mean this isn’t the most nuanced kind of story, as there are many reasons why a kid may not be able to do a standardized fitness test, but it’s clear that’s not the reason here. It’s just that they don’t really put a lot of effort into their fitness because of all the dark magical stuff they do, and also they’re just not interested in it. Which is fine, not everything is for everybody. But that’s the fun of stories like this, where characters who don’t normally choose these things have to dive in head first and learn how to become a better version of themselves. I mean, it’s not like we’re going to start seeing Lucy do more jogging (although that would be a fun bit of character growth if we did) but it’s still a good lesson for those who watch and hey, if it gets a kid watching to go on a regular running routine, that would be cool. Anyway, two more episodes to go! Could we get another episode about one of the five siblings we haven’t given the spotlight to? Only time will tell, but I’m willing to bet my remaining credit card debt!