Balancing Act (101 Dalmatian Street)

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"Balancing Act"
"Oh...what shady pup among us would do such a thing?"
Series: 101 Dalmatian Street Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 21a Air Date: February 6, 2020 Writer: Kirsty Peart & Jess Kedward Director: Jez Hall Previous episode: The Longest Night Next episode: Dawkins Strikes Back

Balancing Act is the first half of the twenty-first episode of 101 Dalmatian Street.

Plot

When Dolly gets to the top of a crate that was later picked up by a crane, Dylan must save her before she falls off.

Why It Should Fall From the Crate

1. Awful writing from both Kirsty Peart and Jessica Kedward, both of whom have already wrote much better episodes like, "Boom Night", and, "Fear Window".
2. Dolly is extremely unlikable and out-of-character here. She went from being a chaotic, yet respectable babysitter who cares about her siblings and relationships with others, to a reckless jerk who always wants to be cool and hip with the puppies, and barely learns from her mistakes. She ripped Doug’s face off the family portrait, and climbs up to a crate, resulting in her crashing buildings, and can't handle calming down. Even worse, she didn't get punished for her actions. She also screams constantly throughout. The screams sound annoying and tiresome, almost as if Michaela Dietz didn't care about her performance.
   • Clarissa is no better, as she attempts to get Dolly to fall off the crate, by throwing her steak at the latter, due to her being hungry. In other words, Clarissa tried to get Dolly KILLED!! How cruel is that?
3. The climax is a rehash of the storm scene, from, "A Summer to Remember". Similar to the mentioned episode, a storm is threatening the characters. But this time it is Dolly while still on the crate. Dylan tried saving her but he got stuck as well. Then, the man who operates decides to lower the crate down, and the rain for some reason stopped.
   • What also makes this ironic is that it also rained at the beginning of the episode when the pups are inside. Here's how to fix the problem: make it rain throughout to add more intensity!
4. It has a poor concept about Dolly getting trapped on a crate, and its execution is no better.
5. The extremely unfunny poop joke about Dylan and Dolly's childhood, also known as, "Toiletgate". Granted, Dylan only says, "not Toiletgate!", but even that name alone is disgusting both in universe and out.
6. Dreadful ending: When Doug comes home to see his face messed up in the family portrait, he asks about what happened to his, "schnoz". Dolly replies with, "what shady pup among us would do such a thing?" and runs off, with Dylan yelling her name afterward, and the episode ends right there, with Dolly learning absolutely NOTHING whatsoever! What a failed attempt to get Dolly to learn her lesson, guys!
7. False advertising: The promotional episode synopsis would make you think that it was about Dolly skateboarding somewhere she isn't allowed to, but the actual episode is WAY different from that.
8. Dante is pointlessly shoehorned into one of the screaming scenes, where he is screaming along with Dylan and Dolly. He is never seen again afterward, which means that he's only used for filler here.
9. Abominable moral: Teaches viewers that lying to your parents solves your problems. In reality, however, that is wrong.
10. Poor directing by Jez Hall, with dull blue-tinted colors scattered throughout most of the episode.
11. Similar to, "Jungle Jitters", some animation was reused. For an example, Dolly riding down the stair railing at the beginning was reused from, "Dog's Best Friend", which was the first episode of the show.
12. Overall, it’s just a filler episode that barely has any impact on the show. You can skip this episode, and nothing will be lost.
    • Some may even write the episode off as non-canonical.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Dylan, Dawkins and Doug are the only likable characters in this episode.
2. The scene where Dylan forgives Dolly is admittedly heartwarming, despite the poop joke. Plus, we also finally get to know that Dylan and Dolly grew up in London together, as Dolly said that the aforementioned incident happened when they were, "really little".
3. Dolly getting trapped atop the crate, could be seen as a comeuppance for her blaming Dylan at the beginning.
   • Clarissa also gets her comeuppance for her actions, as she is nearly crushed by Dolly's crate.

Reception

"Balancing Act", received a negative reception from fans and critics. It currently has a 7.4/10 in IMDb, because it was paired with its more famous sister episode, "Dawkins Strikes Back". 101 Dalmatian Street Wiki admin, BaldiBasicsFan despises the episode, and considers it their least favorite of the show. Under their Dorothy Dalmatian Twitter account, they claim that the director of the episode, Jez Hall, blocked them on Twitter for criticizing the episode, showing that he can't handle criticism.

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