Every Haunting Hour Ever #66: Uncle Howee

Season: 3

Episode: 26

Original Airdate: December 21, 2013 

Director: Ken Friss

Writer(s): Rick Drew

Ladies and gentlemen! We are at the final episode of season three! Woo hoo! So without further ado, let's dive right in! 

Jared is stuck babysitting his younger sister, Cynthia, who's been watching The Uncle Howee Show, a kids' show hosted by a loud, energetic man, featuring a puppet rabbit named Loomis, nonstop -- and learns a hard lesson in caring for his sibling when Uncle Howee and Loomis begin talking to Cynthia and plotting their escape from the television.

One of the things I liked about the episode was the balance of details. There's enough information to allow the audience to understand what's going on but there's also enough mystery to allow the audience to come to their own conclusion about how Cynthia was able to call upon Uncle Howee. For me, I have thought of two possibilities. The first is that Cynthia has an ability similar to Danny from The Shining where they can call upon another person with the same ability for help. The second is that this is all a fantasy in Cynthia's head that allows her to cope with her bully of a brother.

Another thing I liked about this episode was how they handled an unlikable character. Unlike in an episode like Bad Egg, this is a character who is intentionally unlikable and they really go out of their way to show how much of a jerk Jared is. As somebody who has experienced something similar what Cynthia went through, I also think this is a pretty realistic portrayal of sibling abuse. Because of this, the scenes where Jared is getting his comeuppance by being tormented by Uncle Howee are very effective. 

But by far the best part of this episode has to be Tom Kenny as Uncle Howee. Oh my god, you couldn't have asked for better casting! He's kind of like Yzma and Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove in the sense that every second he's on screen, he's having a ball. I think this is most prominent in the scenes where he's tormenting Jared in a goofy and over the top way, such as when he imitates a cop answering the phone when Jared tries to call the police. Hell, even his bunny pal Lumis (who is voiced by Tom Kenny if my information is correct) is great because his Ed Wynn impression is solid, as it comes really close to sounding like the actual guy. Despite this, he can still pull off the parts where he has to be unsettling in different ways. 

I think my only major complaint with this episode is Jared's acting. This isn't the worst acting I've seen but it definitely needs some work. I think the problem here is with the delivery of the lines. I understand that he's supposed to be this impatient deadpan jerkward kind of character but it falls flat because most of the time, he seems a little too deadpan and there are even parts where the inflections are rather odd. In all honesty, I think the episode more than makes up for this but I still felt like it was something I needed to point out. 

Overall, Uncle Howee is an imperfect yet fantastic episode and it was certainly one hell of a way to wrap up the season! If I were to make a Top 13 Best Haunting Hour Episodes list, this would definitely be somewhere in the top five!

Overall Grade: A

Well ladies and gentlemen, I've done it! I've not only reviewed every episode of season three but I've also reviewed about 75% of the entire series and I think that certainly calls for a celebration. I won't give away too much about the next season but let's just say that it's a lot shorter in comparison.

Overall Season Grade: 

Studs: 22/26

In-Betweeners: 4/26

Duds: 1/26 (This is for the original ending of Spaceman, which got an overall grade of D-.) 

While this season had more In-Betweeners and Duds compared to the last season, I still think season three was rather solid, mostly because the episodes that were good were extremely good and it really felt like they kicked it up a notch in terms of quality. So until next time folks, this has been Azu signing off!