Every Haunting Hour Ever #12: Best Friend Forever

Season: 1
Episode: 12 
Original Airdate: March 5, 2011
Director: Jason Furukawa

     Remember when Sea Monkeys were a thing? Remember how they rarely worked or came to life? I don't. But for those who do, I apologize. To be honest, I think they would've been better if they were robot sea monkeys anyway. 

     Jack (Nolan Gould) accidentally raises a zombie (Chris Cochrane) from the dead, but instead of getting help, he keeps it as a pet. In the end, the zombie kidnaps Jack and Jack becomes the pet of the zombie.

     One of the elements that holds this episode together is the likability of the characters. Much like Lilo and Stitch or Elliot and E.T, Jack and Cheeky the zombie play off of each other rather well as far as human-pet relationships go. Part of what makes this ring true is the fact that Jack is an only child who seems rather lonely. Because he's so lonely, he constantly keeps asking his mom for a pet to which she declines as his previous pets have died. When he finally does get a pet, he's happy but at the same time he's frustrated when trying to keep Cheeky under control. Cheeky, while being restless and destructive, doesn't really know any better. With that said, the two still really care for each other as shown in various scenes such as when Cheeky finds and returns Jack's glasses and when Jack and Cheeky work together to put Jack's scientific rival, Mitch, in his place. 

     Another element that holds this episode together is the comedy. For one of the first comedy episodes of the series, the humor is actually not that bad. For one thing, some of the jokes are kind of clever. For example, when the girl in Jack's science class asks to go to the bathroom for the second time in the episode, the teacher acts all surprised that she needs to use it. She replies with a snappy comeback about how a person who teaches science should know a thing or two about a person's bodily functions. For a comedy episode in a horror show, you'd kind of expect it to be cheesy but surprisingly it never really dips into that territory. 

     The only issue I had with this episode was that I found the ending to be a bit predictable but honestly it still works as a good payoff. 

     Overall, Best Friend Forever, while not being the most atmospheric, plot driven, or scariest episode of the series, still has a very likable charm to it that I think comes from the overall simplicity of everything. If you like stories about comedic human-pet relationships, this is a good one to check out. 

     Overall Grade: A-