The only episode without the opening theme song, the episode opens with an irken cruising in his ship to Conventia, the Convention Hall Planet. He teleports down to the surface, and joins the crowd going to watch the Great Assigning, where elite Invaders are given their planets to weaken for Operation Impending Doom 2. All the Invaders have just been assigned their planets, when Zim barges in. After recalling how he single-handedly ruined Operation Impending Doom 1, the Tallest give Zim a sandwich and tell him to go away. But Zim persists, and so receives a "secret mission" (the Tallest just wanted to ditch him) to an unknown planet. Dib has somehow heard all of this, so knows that the aliens are coming...
All of the Invaders receive their SIRs (Standard Issue Information Retrieval Unit), except for Zim. The Tallest make a "top-secret" model for him out of garbage and junk from their pockets. The result is the lovable GIR. With his faithful robot minion, Zim sets out on his six month journey to Earth, while GIR sings the doom song. They arrive, and set up a base, and Zim locates Skool as an effective method of gathering information on the humans. Once there, Dib realizes him for what he is, but Zim convinces everyone else that he's just a kid with a skin condition. After skool, Dib chases Zim with alien sleep cuffs (that probably don't work), and the chase ends with GIR whisking Zim away to the house. Dib follows the vapor trail, and ends up with his cuffs getting destroyed by a gnome. Zim reports in to a pair of very surprised Tallest, and the episode ends.
Humor: 5
Nothing really spectacular here. This episode was really more serious than funny, though it had its fair share of gags (my favorites: Red's "Big... Space ship... Gang...", The "Who wants this one!?!" "I do!" *CHUCK!* "Ugh... Thank you.", and Ms. Bitters' continuing her saying "Doomed... Doomed..." as if she had been going the whole time during Dib's attempt to prove Zim to be an alien. Also "Go home now!" was funny). Still, nothing more than an average score here.
Plot: 7
This episode is quite plot-heavy, out of necessity. Its job is to show Zim begin his "invasion," and it does that quite well. We're introduced to all the main characters, their motivations, and exactly who they are and what people think of them. Still, there was a lot to show in so little time, so that restricts its score at a very respectable 7.
Zimmyness: 10
This episode is The Essential Zim. If somebody can see only one episode, The Nightmare Begins is the perfect choice. There's not much else to say, except that Nightmare Begins defines what a "real" Zim episode feels like.
Overall: 10
Just an excellent episode. The introduction is beautifully done, and everything falls into place. All the important characters are introduced, we learn about the plot to come of the greatest animation series ever, and some good humor is tossed in to oil the joints and keep things from getting too heavy. Masterfully done, IZ cast and crew. My hat is off to you.
As Zim inspects (and is thoroughly grossed out by) peas, Big Moose Kid slips on some mashes potatoes and saves himself from falling by slamming Zim's head into the peas. Zim begins his pained writhing, and Jessica notes that he's weird, and has no friends. After she says it's inhuman for him not to have friends, Zim has a daydream about being captured by scientists who knew he was an alien when they noted that he had no friends. Zim then walks over to the reject table, and tests Gretchen, Melvin, and Keef for their absorbency of milk, their electrical conductivity, and a ten-minute long test involving a toy taxi and a stuffed beaver. Keef not only absorbs all the milk, but escapes unscathed through the other two tests, so is awarded the friendship position. Zim uses Keef to hit the ball in tetherball, beating the crud out of the person they were playing against. The two then make art about how they're friends, then walk through the hall together like they're cool (this ends with Keef touching Zim, and Zim shoving Keef waaaay off screen). Zim and Keef are walking to Zim's house with Keef yammering about going to the circus, Zim dismisses Keef and goes inside. Keef slides a picture of the pair of them under the door, and then calls. While talking to Zim, he calls him again on another phone, and Zim gets seriously freaked and rips the phone cord out of the wall. He looks out the window, and sees Keef riding by on his bike. Then, Keef rides by again coming from the same direction as the first time. Zim shuts the blinds, and tells GIR not to let anyone in the house while he's in the lab.
Keef knocks on the door, and GIR promptly lets him in. When Zim comes out of the lab in the morning, he sees GIR at the table with a heaping plate of waffles, and Keef making bacon. Zim tosses Keef out, and when Keef says they can walk to school together, Zim tells him that he's sick. Then he chucks Keef, and GIR comes outside for bacon. Keef tells GIR that they're going to have a surprise party to cheer Zim up, and GIR meows with excitement. Zim notices GIR bringing in party supplies, and GIR cracks under Zim's powerful interrogation, and says that not only are they having a party, but that GIR is baking the cake. GIR gets to work on that, while Zim gets to work on the eyeball-rippy-machine for Keef, who gathers the rejects for the party. Zim works hard, while once again daydreaming about the horrors that Keef is seeking to bring upon him. School ends and Zim finishes. Keef goes inside (saying "I'm home!"...), and sees Zim standing there with a wrapped present. Keef is very happy, until it rips his eyeballs out. With the power of the machine, Zim hypnotizes Keef into thinking that a squirrel outside is actually Zim. Keef runs out after the squirrel, and the other rejects think Keef is a weirdo. Keef climbs up a building after the squirrel (he wants some of the acorn!), and ends up getting attacked by the squirrel and falling off a two-story building.
Humor: 2
This is not a funny episode at all. The only thing saving Bestest Friend from a 1 for Humor is the way Dirge manages to call anyone a weirdo, and the general funniness of the tetherball incident. Many of the things which would have been funny by themselves ended up being much more creepy than funny.
Plot: 7
Though Bestest friend may be left far behind in the dust for humor, it manages to have a pretty good and substantial plot (as far as twelve-minute cartoons go). Nothing in it makes you wanna say "... WHY?", and it also shows excellent character interactions, and a general air of substance given to it by the consistently devoted way Keef acts towards Zim regardless of how apathetic or hostile Zim is (hey, this penalizes the episode for humor, it makes up for it by beefing up the plot score some).
Zimmyness: 5
The world of Invader Zim is certainly a creepy one. Bestest Friend goes out of its way to make sure that this remains true, and sticks to all general formulas.
Overall: 5
Nothing is particularly exceptional about Bestest Friend, be it good or bad. The episode is a good, solid episode of Zim that neither stands above the (small) crowd, or makes you wonder why it was made. It is a faithful addition to the series that does not disappoint, and you can't ask any more from a Zim episode.
The children are throwing balls at each other during recess, destroying Filler Bunny's jar, and hurting Zootch's and Zim's organs. Dib's personal X-Scope just so happens to be delivered to school at that point, so Dib take a look at Zim's innards, and is impressed by what he sees. Back in class, while Ms.Bitters is lecturing about the Black Plague, a pigeon flies in and sits on Zim's head. Ms.Bitters sends him to the nurse (before the rest of the class gets head pigeons), and gives him the self-destructing hall pass. After being stopped by a hall monitor, Zim gets the idea to take people's organs to seem more human. So, Zim trades his hall pass for the kid's liver.
Seeing that Zim hasn't come back, Dib breaks a pencil in half and sticks a half in his nose, and gets himself sent to the nurse (with a 62-pound hall pass). He goes to the nurse, and she says that nobody has come in with head pigeons, but the green kid sitting in the chair is missing his liver. Dib uses the X-Scope on him, and sees the hall pass in place of the liver. Dib races back to the classroom (as fast as he can with his hall pass anyway) to warn the others, but Zim manages to stick the hall pass into Spoo (though he was aiming for Dib). Dib goes to the cafeteria to find that Zim has worked fast, and relieved everyone of some organs and replaced them with interesting stuff. Dib confronts a hideously bloated and organ-stuffed Zim, and finds that all Zim needs are lungs, which he runs off to find. Dib escorts the only survivor, Torque, to wherever Torque was going to lift things. While Dib yammers about aliens, Zim grabs Torque. Eventually, after a really cool search in a storage closet then an even cooler chase, Zim manages to take some of Dib's organs too. The two are then seen sitting in the nurse's office. The nurse shoos away Zim's head pigeon and compliments him on his plentiful organs. She then takes her stethoscope to examine Dib. The mooing thingy Zim placed in Dib goes off, and she screams in horror, and reporters materialize out of nowhere, and the episode ends with a newspaper describing Dib as a hideous mooing cyborg boy.
Humor: 3
Again, not exactly what I'd call a funny episode. It's a high 3, but it's certainly below average. Like Bestest Friend, Dark Harvest was just too focused on creepiness to make me want to laugh much.
Plot: 3
Plot takes a hit in Dark Harvest because of various weird occurences (magically timed delivery of the X-Scope, the head pigeons, the speed with which Zim removes everyone's organs) and just a general feel that it was all a premise. However, they're all put in seamlessly enough as to appear to be somewhat natural, so they don't drag the plot any further than a bit below average.
Zimmyness: 8
Gaz is very devoted to her Game Slave, capable of playing even if it is inside of her. The air is very creepy, and all the humans who aren't Dib don't have a clue what's going on. Ms.Bitters acts like she always does, and the story manages to creep you out without being overly gruesome. A very Zimmy sample of Zim.
Overall: 7
Despite a lackluster Humor and Plot score, Dark Harvest is an incredibly good episode. The chase sequences are perfect, and the atmosphere of quasi-horror never stops once it gets turned on. The episode did what it set out to do quite well, and is a very enjoyable viewing experience.
Ms.Bitters begins the episode lecturing children about how there was nothing before the Big Bang. Zim, like any skool kid, waits eagerly for the clock to strike 3 so he can go home. The last second seems to take an eternity, because there's a bug stuck in the gears. But the bug gets crushed, and its innards fly all over the inside of the clock, and the clock strikes 3. Zim is about to leave, but Ms.Bitters reminds him that he said he'd bring his parents to parent-teacher night that night (and she taped it too!). Dib triggers a memory in Zim's mind of his birth, but Zim has to forget such pleasant things, and go home to prepare the robot parents, who are busily harassing an Avon lady. GIR chases her, screaming that he needs makeup, and Zim prepares the parents.
Zim makes the horrid mistake of telling GIR to oversee the downloading of information into the parents. After about five or so seconds of learning how to parent properly, the parents are subjected to GIR's mindless TV programs. Zim arrives at the end of the video's length, and the parents act like they've seen the video, so Zim takes them to parent-teacher night. Ms.Bitters is busily harassing the parents of the kids, telling them that she was right when she said they'd amount to nothing back when she taught them. In short order, chaos erupts (including an explosion at the Membrane labs!). The RoboDad loses his squeezin arm (which Zim said he lost in "the war"), and the RoboMom busies herself with the enjoyable task of poking a woman's head. By faking a painful spinal injury, Zim convinces them to go home (after they do their River Dance routine), which they do using the jets in their legs. Dib is highly irked that nobody saw that, and throws his punch to the ground. The entire room manages to notice, and the episode concludes with a very angry Ms.Bitters snarling at Dib.
Humor: 8
This episode is pretty good with the humor. There are too many good gags for me to even start talking about, but they're all put together quite masterfully in a way that could make even the most depressed person crack a smile. For excellent quantity and quality of jokes, I give Parent Teacher Night a very good score of 8 for humor.
Plot: 6
The plot in Parent Teacher Night isn't heavy or anything, but it is very much present, and in a way to keep the jokes from appearing to be mindless. The opening is good and smooth, and everything happens logically. Still, I can't say that the plot is any more than a bit above average.
Zimmyness: 7
This episode looks like Zim. It feels like Zim. It even smells like Zim! Nothing about the formula seems majorly off from what you'd think an episode of Invader Zim should be like, so it has at least five points. The extra two points were gained by continuing the random yet entirely sense-making action that goes on in it, a vital part of the formula for an exceptionally zimmy Zim episode.
Overall: 7
Egad! A perfect average! I'm sorry, but all the pieces just come together in this very nice episode, and they mesh quite nicely with each other to make a very enjoyable episode. I commend thee Zim team, your work is very much appreciated!
As the episode opens, GIR is running about "wheeee"ing gleefully as he runs about the house, and eventually down to the lab where Zim has just perfected GIR's guidance chip. Zim removes the beehive from GIR's head, and inserts the chip. He has GIR locate Skool, then Blorch, then Irk. They then enter the city for a field-test of the chip, encountering a chihuahua with a lobotomy scar and other horrors along the way. Zim gives the order for GIR to guide them home, only to find that GIR left the chip at home in favor of a cupcake. Zim first tries to make a compass, only for it to stick to GIR. He then gets kicked off the bus for not having any money. After trying to determine which way is west by staring at the sun, Zim's eyes are burned out. He sits and rests until night, when the skin on his eyes grow back. At the advice of a heckler ("get a job you bum!"), Zim goes to the park, and he and GIR put on a cool routine for pocket change. One midget dude with a beard, just like Zim, feels a special connection and gives them a roll of bills.
With this money, Zim and GIR head to the bus (dumping the entire hat into the pay thingy). Unfortunately, everyone on the bus creeps Zim out majorly, so he ends up fleeing, and a freaky clown woman with drumsticks in her hair calls him a freak (or at least thinks it). Zim then tries to ascend the bank to find where home is, only to be attacked by cops mistaking him for the previously mentioned midget (who robbed the place). He runs up the stairs with his spider legs, and orders GIR to fly him there. They narrowly escape the police's net, but end up running out of fuel quickly due to GIR's requirement for tuna. Zim then hails a cab, and gets taken to Mexico, where a butcher with a rose in his mouth is dancing to a very catchy tune.
Humor: 3
It was a tough choice on whether to give Walk of Doom a 3 or a 4 for humor, but in the end, I decided that the episode wasn't focused on humor, as much as it was focused on insulting humanity (you tell 'em Jhonen!). There were a few attempts at humor, but nothing really makes you want to laugh out loud. It's just not a funny episode.
Plot: 5
There is definitely more than just a premise for stunts here. Everything is believable, and the plot is "realistic" (well, realistic as far as Zim goes) as opposed to contrived and arbitrary. One major issue I saw was not enough interaction between characters. For the most part, this is Zim and GIR dealing with each other, with another person stepping in every once and awhile. I find this to be on the low end of a 5 for plot, but it did well enough to hang in there.
Zimmyness: 6
In the world of Invader Zim, people are horribly idiotic. In Zim's world, strange people walk the streets and are considered normal. In the world of Zim, Zim is a terrible idiot, who somehow managed to make decent plans which are toppled by GIR and his randomness. Walk of Doom gives us all of these, and perfectly.
Overall: 4
It's not a terrible episode, really. It's a high 4, so it's still average. Still, it just lacks that certain oomph that better humor and more character interaction could have given it. This is probably my least favorite of the earlier episodes, though that does put it up against some strong competition.