Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for Phineas and Ferb Seasons 1-6.
I wasn’t planning to do individual episode reviews for Phineas and Ferb, but it’s Halloween – and the latest episodes to be released are Halloween-themed! So I thought it could be a bit of fun to go through them together. This’ll probably be a fairly short review; there are only two standard-length episodes, after all. But there’s enough to get stuck into for a little while, at least.
As always, my regular caveat applies: everything we’re going to get into today is the *subjective, not objective* opinion of just one person. If you don’t agree with my take on Phineas and Ferb’s latest outing… that’s okay. There should be enough room in the fan community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreement.
I’ll very briefly recap my thoughts on Season 5 – the first of these two new seasons – before we get stuck into these two new episodes. On the whole, I thought Season 5 was pretty good. There were more hits than misses, and the revival’s creators and writers seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do with the show and its characters. Compared to some other revivals, sequels, and reboots, Phineas and Ferb’s return was fantastic, and even though I didn’t enjoy every single episode, there were plenty of good ones to get stuck into.
If you want to check out my take on Season 5 in more detail, I have a three-part review. You can find part one by clicking or tapping here, part two by clicking or tapping here, and part three by clicking or tapping here.
These two new episodes – Night of the Living Candace Suits and Terrors of the AltSpace – are officially considered the first part of Season 6, though at time of writing no airdates have been confirmed for any others. I’d hope there might be a batch of new episodes sometime soon, but there might also be other holiday-themed specials and that could be what we’re waiting for! In any case, we’re now officially into Season 6 – and unless anything changes, this could be the show’s final season. Though there is still a new film in early development which will follow up Season 6, so we’re not going to be short of Phineas and Ferb content for a while!
I like a good Halloween special. I’m not the world’s biggest horror fan, so these kinds of Halloween-themed but not-too-scary TV specials are a bit more my speed than, say, a truly terrifying horror flick. And Phineas and Ferb has already had several really well-done Halloween specials earlier in its run; Night of the Living Pharmacists from Season 4 still being the standout pick.
For me, these two new episodes were… of varying quality, let’s say.
I wish I understood why the show’s creative team have latched onto the “Candace suit” idea *so heavily* that they’ve now made three standalone stories with them. The original one-off gag back in Season 3 was a funny little non-sequitur, but as I said in my Season 5 reviews… it was never something that had either a ton of narrative potential nor a lot of humour, either. It simply isn’t an idea that can sustain even a single full story, let alone three. And I felt this latest Candace suit story has stretched the idea way past its breaking-point.
The humour in the original gag was that a random character – Buford – has these life-size moulds of people, and that was so completely out of left-field that it was funny. It plugged a narrative hole in an episode where Candace needed to be put back into her original shape, and it did so with humour to boot. But it wasn’t meant to become an integral part of Buford’s character; the fun came from the fact that it was a random throwaway joke. I didn’t like it when the Candace suits returned in Season 5, and I didn’t like what this Halloween story did with them, either.
Even down to the title of the story, Night of the Living Candace Suits was a far less-enjoyable version of the Season 4 Halloween special that I mentioned a moment ago. There was less humour, the setup was derivative, and because it’s a ten-minute episode instead of a feature-length special, there wasn’t adequate time to build up any real stakes, either. Despite my feelings about the Candace suit storylines overall, I really did try to give Night of the Living Candace Suits a fair shake. But I felt the final product was particularly weak.
Any show that runs for a long time is inevitably going to have to repeat themes and ideas – and that can be okay. But when you’ve already made the perfect zombie story homage, going back to that same well in such a blatantly derivative way was always going to lead to something that was inferior at best. The inherent narrative weakness of the Candace suit didn’t help, of course, but I don’t really think Phineas and Ferb could’ve made this work if it’d been “Night of the Living Monograms” or “Night of the Living Platypuses” either. That particular story has just been done already, and it worked so well the first time that there was no way to top it.
The kids’ Halloween invention was kinda samey, too, and nothing special. There could’ve been value in the idea of Candace and the sentient suit teaming up, but the scatterbrained story had too many characters and so much going on that even that didn’t really feel all that special. And, again, we’ve been here before – just last season, in that case.
Terrors of the AltSpace was by far the better of the two Halloween offerings. I’m glad that I watched the Backrooms film not that long ago; I’m more familiar now with the concept than I had been from just general internet browsing! For a kid-friendly take on this “Creepypasta” type of thing, I think Terrors of the AltSpace got a lot right. I can see some folks wanting to criticise it for being a bit *too* toned-down compared to its source material, but for the show’s intended audience, I think it stayed on the right side of the horror-versus-Halloween-fun line.
The stuff with the professor was something and nothing; the real stakes of the story came from Buford and Baljeet being trapped in the titular AltSpace, and I think it worked pretty well. There was enough weirdness to the imagery to evoke the likes of Backrooms or Stranger Things without crossing a line into being too scary for younger viewers, and the AltSpace still managed to feel unsettling and otherworldly even before the monster emerged.
I think, though, Terrors of the AltSpace would’ve benefitted from being a double-length episode. There’d have been more time to build up the tension with Buford and Baljeet being trapped in this strange dimension; as it is, they barely spent any time there alone before they were being chased and then rescued. The best spooky stories – even those aimed at younger kids – need time to really establish and explore a setting, and one as potentially tense and frightening as the AltSpace really needed a bit more time in the spotlight.
A longer story could’ve also spent a bit more time with the other kids, building their dimensional rover, and with Candace and Stacey as they watched their horror film. Doof’s inator was also an interesting idea that we could’ve explored more of in a double-length episode; I liked the visual of him staging his own funeral, but aside from that, his scheme this time wasn’t especially memorable.
Of course, a double-length Terrors of the AltSpace would’ve meant Night of the Living Candace Suits would have to be cut… but I think I could live with that!
I was a little surprised that we didn’t get a new or remixed opening title sequence for this pair of episodes. They’ve been broadcast as a standalone pair, not immediately preceded or followed by any others, so there was the potential to make the opening titles Halloween-themed. Heck, the show already has Halloween-themed opening titles from back in Season 4 that could’ve been recycled; I just think it would’ve made these new episodes a little bit special, given the rest of the Halloween theming.
I don’t think either Night of the Living Candace Suits nor Terrors of the AltSpace are among the very worst that the show has to offer. One is clearly a lot better than the other, and I think, on the whole, I’d have preferred a double-length Terrors of the AltSpace rather than this duo. But there are better Halloween offerings in earlier seasons, and the whole “Candace suit” idea has been done, done, and done again – so I really hope this’ll be the final time we have to see it!
Musically, both episodes’ scores were fine, but neither of the main songs really stood out for me. Having seen both episodes twice, I’m genuinely struggling to call either song to mind – and I just finished my second viewing literally a few minutes before writing these words… so that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, I guess. Phineas and Ferb songs can be like that, and “not very memorable” is not the same thing as “out-and-out bad”! But I thought it was worth remarking on, in any case.
I’ll be curious to see where Season 6 goes next. Will there be more holiday-themed specials? If so… it’s not that long till Christmas, so maybe a new Christmas episode is on the agenda. The Christmas special from Season 2 was so good, though, that it’ll be really hard to top!
Thanks for joining me for this admittedly rather short review. I considered holding off until more of Season 6 had been broadcast, but since that could be weeks or even months away… I decided to jump in with just these two Halloween episodes. After all, it’s that time of year!
Happy Halloween!
Phineas and Ferb Seasons 1-5 and the first two episodes of Season 6 are available to stream now on Disney+. Phineas and Ferb is the copyright of Disney Television Animation and The Walt Disney Company. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
