SpongeBob SquarePants (Seasons 12-13) Retrospective: The “Other” Bad Era

Well, I guess good things can’t last forever……again. If my reviews on Sponge on the Run and the Sandy Cheeks movie is any indication, you could probably guess that I don’t have very positive thoughts about the current era of SpongeBob SquarePants we are currently in. Or at least with Seasons 12 and 13. While Season 14 and onwards remains to be seen (with that being the final piece of this retrospective/perspective), it feels like we are in the era where it seems like the young sponge we all know and love has officially flamed out.

There are of course many reasons as to why SpongeBob SquarePants has fell into the same trappings he did between Seasons 6 and 8. From Nickelodeon once again milking as much SpongeBob content and merchandise as possible in order to keep itself afloat to unfortunate passing of Stephen Hillenburg to the show just more than wearing out it’s welcome, SpongeBob has officially entered another bad era. The only slight glimmer hidden within these two seasons is a handful of standout episodes that was likely still in production before we all lost Stephen.

What’s most interesting is how this “other bad” era of SpongeBob is ENTIRELY different reasons than the original “bad” era. Seasons 6 through 8 suffered mostly from ill-conceived writing, the characters being unrecognizable from their original self, and way too much gross out humor that is disgusting to watch and cringe inducing to see characters suffered through it. When it comes to Seasons 12, 13, and (perhaps) 14, the main issues in lies in the fact that it’s just…..complete and utter nonsense.

There is little to no coherent storylines, random gags constantly happen out of nowhere just because, there is so much “fan service” and easter eggs that just exists for fans to point their fingers at the screen Leonardo DiCaprio style, and the animation has gotten so ham-fisted and over-the-top you could swear half of the crew was on cocaine while animating it. It may not fall under the mean-spirited tone and unpleasant characterization that the middle seasons did but it still can’t shake the feeling that everyone has run out of ideas for the show and are now just throwing whatever at the walls to see what sticks. Even in the worst episodes of the original “bad” era, you could at least understand the well intended point the writers were trying to make here. Here, I could barely tell you what exactly they were trying to get across with the majority of the episodes.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into these two seasons!

Season 12

I will say, between the two seasons, Season 12 is definitely the better one in quality. After all, this was the last season which Hillenburg was involved in before his unfortunate passing. And there are sprinkles of his influence throughout the season. This includes episodes such as Plankton’s Intern, Dream Hopers, The Krusty Bucket, and The Ghost of Plankton. Of course, there is also the very special episode, designed to celebrate over 20 years of SpongeBob SquarePants, known as SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout, that basically acted as an anti-thesis of the controversial 10th anniversary episode known as Truth or Square. These were all episodes that were able to follow the strengths of the previous three seasons without going too far in the other unintended direction to make for a nice transaction phase after the middle seasons. Unfortunately, the rest of the season in not able to keep up that consistent level of quality.

Episodes such as Jolly Lodgers, Boss For a Day, The Nitwitting, Hiccup Plague, Who R Zoo, and Sandy’s Nutty Neices were all factors into the decline of this modern era of SpongeBob we are living in. It’s takes an idea that might make for a decent short at BEST and then stretches it out for as long as it can with uncanny animation, repetitive gags, and chunks of filler just to justify the episode being at least 11 minutes long. The plot barely has any coherent follow through, you get so much returning characters from the original three seasons that they don’t know what to do with, and it just seems to lack the heart and passion that the best SpongeBob episodes and seasons have.

And there was even an episode called Kwarantined Krab, which (NO JOKE) revolved around a pandemic that hit Bikini Bottom. It was originally meant to air in 2020 but due to the real life Covid-19 pandemic, it was pushed by Nickelodeon to 2022, right around the time where everything was starting to get under control. The episode would not be included as part of the Season 12 DVD box set and was taken down temporarily on Paramount Plus. I couldn’t find out if this episode was made before COVID hit or during it but that was just…..unfortunate timing.

And that is one thing that can basically be said about Season 12 as a whole, unfortunate timing. From coming off the highs of Season 11 to Hillenburg’s passing, it could not have come out at a worse time and the quality of it certainly didn’t help in aiding it. Even so, this season isn’t so bad compared to Season 13!

Season 13

It’s hard to say for certain if this is the worst season of SpongeBob SquarePants or the one that did the most damage to the franchise but no doubt, but this was no doubt the one that showed just how much this series is running on fumes. Not only did it suffer easily the worst tv ratings of any season (barely able to reach 500K an episode), but this is the season that suffered from having the lowest amount of creativity thus far.

To be honest, I could just copy and paste almost everything I said about Season 12 and that’s what you get here, except there is much more bad here. It’s all just so random, so all over the place, and just not SpongeBob. This season doesn’t so much feel like it was written and animated by an A.I. but more of a simulated conveyor belt. At best, this season is full of episodes you can watch with a headset while playing a game and makes for decent background noise. At worst, it’s just completely generic and utter nonsense.

One episode in particular that is the perfect example of the modern era of SpongeBob in a nutshell is FUN-Believable. It’s an episode that has no plot, clumsy animation, overlong and unfunny gags, returning fan favorite characters from the original three seasons that it has no idea what to do with, and just dials into complete nautical nonsense (no pun intended). The worst part of it all is that I couldn’t tell you what the title, FUN-Believable, is suppose to represent in this episode. Nothing that occurs in this episode felt fun or believable to me and not even the characters in the episode. If I can’t tell you what it means, then there’s a good chance that the creators of that episode couldn’t either.

I would say more but that’s the best description I got for Season 13. It’s basically Season 12 but on steroids, with much more of the bad and much less of the good. Are there a handful of gem episodes scattered throughout? Sure! Is it anywhere near enough to save this season and other “bad” era of SpongeBob? Absolutely not!

In Conclusion

While Seasons 12 and 13 of SpongeBob SquarePants are far from the worst things that I’ve ever seen, it really does represents the show on it’s very last legs. The clever ideas that the show has had for years in regards to it’s humor, characters, world building, and meaningful messages are barely to be seen here. It’s now nothing about utter nonsense, unearned fan service, and tons of filler that’s good enough to justify an episode being 11 minutes long. While it does seem like the current writers understand why fans didn’t like the middle seasons of the show, what they DON’T understand is why fans liked the original seasons and the era in between Hello Bikini Bottom and SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout. Aside from a handful of enjoyable episodes and a solid anniversary special that could be seen as the true epilogue of the series outside of the first movie, it’s sad to confirm that SpongeBob has entered another bad era.

Unfortunately, unlike the last bad era he was in, Nick can’t rely on Stephen Hillenburg to help get them out of their slump again. It’s only a handful of creators that were there from the beginning such as Tim Hill, Derek Drymon, Mr. Lawrence, and Aaron Springer that can do everything in their power to return this series to a new good era. While Hill failed miserably with Sponge on the Run, Drymon, Lawrence, and Springer are currently working on new SpongeBob movies such as Plankton and Search for SquarePants to hopefully provide some sort of spark left to this franchise.

Despite the recent decline in quality and television ratings, it doesn’t seem like Nickelodeon plans on ending the show anytime soon. The merchandise is still going strong, the spin-off series in Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show have expanded the brand even further, and this is basically all that Nickelodeon has left to thrive on or else they will basically be dead. No amount of Paw Patrol, Fairly OddParents reboots, or constant tv re-runs of the Sonic movies will be able to save them this time! Unless the folks that work on SpongeBob now are able to find some sort of creative spark in spite of Nickelodeon’s constant micromanagement, it’s hard to imagine another successful era on par with the original three seasons and Seasons 9-11.

However, there is at least one episode from this era that I genuinely believe could have worked as both a proper ending and even epilogue to SpongeBob SquarePants as a whole. That one episode of course is SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout! And I will talk all about why next month!

Next Month: Why SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout Should Have Been The Ending of SpongeBob SquarePants

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!