It?s certainly one of Season One?s best. As so often with the earliest ventures to any great series, it has the disadvantage of having arrived when the show was still pretty much in its developmental process, which may explain why successive episodes have somewhat overshadowed it in my mind. Season One set the scene up very nicely, but I think that Foster?s really took off in Season Two, when it had had time to truly develop its characters and identity. Of the early episodes, I?d elect Seeing Red as my own personal favourite, and Store Wars as the funniest, but Berry Scary has probably the strongest storyline of them all, being one of the most interesting and cleverly-structured, and certainly the darkest.
There are some neat running gags within, many of which have already been cited - the characters all following their cliché-ridden soap opera made for an effective framing device and, like everyone else here, I found Terrence?s link in that chain to be absolutely priceless. Equally nice was the running gag throughout the first act in which all the background music was revealed to have been supplied by various Imaginary Friends (Wilt with his radio, the violin IF and Ramone). Still, despite all these humorous touches, it?s far from the most frivolous episode. Bloo?s ongoing disregard for Berry provided some amusement but it was hard not to feel pity for her (more than just failing to memorise her name, Bloo wasn?t even willing to pretend to take interest in her many homemade gifts for him - ouch). And of course Berry herself could be rather spine-chilling, particularly when wielding a sharp object (lol). Perhaps due to the rather overwhelming nature of her character, I don?t find her quite as appealing and enjoyable an antagonist as I do Kip Snip, but she?s still a very unique and interesting (not to mention adorable, in her way) character, and I?d be all open for a comeback some time in the future.
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