Vice Principals: “The Field Trip” Review

‘Vice Principals’ forgoes the gimmick that makes it funny in this week’s episode.

“How Dare You Make This Trip Sexual?”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

“The Field Trip” took the focus off the dark race for the principal throne and put the spotlight on Gamby, a mistake in this week’s Vice Principals. What made this show worth watching was the sassy bickering of Gamby and Lee Russell. It’s always nice to get bottle episodes for the sake of fleshing out a character or an idea that could not fall in the main storyline otherwise, but neither of those were effective here.

Gamby is an idiot, that’s known, but what made him fun in the previous duo of episodes was that he was a tinge likeable. Here, we just get equal parts annoying and pathetic Gamby. In our introduction to Bill Hayden—a fun, hip teacher who’s in touch with the youth in a non-sarcastic way—we get the discovery of a class field trip via Gamby. In Gamby’s crooked approach to Ms. Snodgrass’s heart, Gamby gives the implied ultimatum of either coming along or cancelling the trip.

Usually the immaturity is funny. Here, it’s a nuisance. Unless the show can pull out more physical gags, this episode really ran the “I’m a grown man who acts like the kids I guard” gimmick was nearly tapped out here. The writing was lacking, which I honestly credit to the lack of Goggins’s Lee Russell. I’m confident the show can revive itself, but this episode proved Gamby needs Lee to be a fun/funny character.

We were teased with the pairing before all the proceedings, with the two awing over a mentally wounded Belinda in result of their arsenic first blow. We even got another backwoods (once again, literally) meeting between the two. The end result was Gamby’s request of Lee’s file on Ms. Snodgrass. While my focus was on how creepy Gamby was for bringing his binder on the trip, I had to think back to the source: Lee. Last week proved Lee was a sinister snake, and he created this folder. And to think he has a file on all the staff, chock full of Instagram posts, Facebook timelines, name origins and pictures galore makes his character all the more disturbing.

THE BREAKDOWN

“The Field Trip” proved that Vice Principals is an unsolvable equation when it’s missing its two factors. This episode had barely funny bits, with the spotlight on Gamby proving to be quite annoying. What was a plus this go-round was the introduction of more of the staff, with Edi Patterson being a fun standout wanting to do everything Gamby wanted to, with her only fault being that she was not Ms. Snodgrass. I’m appreciative of the one-off distraction from the real story, but this showed me the show is at its best when the main plot is used as a guidance device.

Did you find Gamby tolerable? Is this show unwatchable? Tweet me @NerdDot. Also, be sure to follow us @YouNerded for more ‘Vice Principals’ reviews.

---

*We do not comment on anything relating to previews for the next episode and beyond.