Craig of the Creek has offered quite a few story-arcs throughout its run. With the show now nearing its end (there are only a handful of episodes are left to air as of this writing), it’s a good time to review a recent arc: “The Sleepover Chronicles”. This story-line consisted of six episodes, that is three half-hour shows since the show usually produces 11 minutes long segments. As the title implies, the theme connecting these episodes is a sleepover. This is something relatable for many kids, though the ways these stories play out might be a little too bizarre to be considered a “slice of life”. Seeing the home lives of many of the other kids from the creek, also offers some nice insight and adds a bit more personality to these characters.
The set up is fairly simple – Craig’s room at home is infested with bees (for some reason), and he won’t be able to stay there until they are removed. The one who takes on the job is one of the older kids who spent their time at the creek, “Elder” Barry, now known simply as Beekeeper Barry, who works for the company since it belongs to his father. He wants to use humane methods of removing the bees, which will take even longer to carry out, since they include him dressing up like a bee, living with the insects and gaining their trust by reading to them books like “Winnie the Pooh”. As a result Craig has to sleep somewhere else. He refuses to bunk with his older brother, so he decides to spend the nights at a friends’ house.
First stop – Kelsey’s house. Kelsey is one of Craig’s best friends, so it made sense to stay at her place first. She lives with her dad and inseparable companion Mortimor the parakeet. The evening goes smoothly as the two kids play before going to bed, with Craig having to sleep on an old couch. It’s not something he minds, but what bothers him is Kelsey and her dad waking up very early… at 4 a.m., and waking him up as well with their noise. Craig isn’t a morning person, especially compared to them, who start having breakfast or doing some garden work before the sun is even out. Things get even more complicated when a sleepy Craig has to join them on a trip to the dump, where they want to dispose of the old couch he barely slept on. This is because a new, better couch is on its way and they don’t want to pay for the removal of the old one. Craig also has to step in and help Kelsey carry the old couch after her dad’s back can’t take it anymore. In the end Craig is pretty happy with how things played out, and is fine with spending another night at their place, even more so since it’s the weekend. His mood changes soon enough when he learns that on Sunday they wake up even earlier than the previous day, something that prompts him to want and spend next night somewhere else. Overall this was a nice start to the arc.
Second stop – JP’s house. JP is Craig’s other best friend, and part of the main trio
of characters the show has. He lives with his older sister Laura who works as a nurse on multiple shifts and is currently having sore feet since she can’t find her right shoes anywhere in the house. Craig and JP get along well, they watch TV play throughout the evening and eat some pineapple pizza, even though JP warns Craig he gets a little chatty when he does this. They go to bed, with Craig this time sleeping in a sleeping bag (that isn’t haunted, as JP assures him they got rid of that one), but soon wakes up when JP starts sleepwalking and sleep talking, in fact taking on a whole alter ego, that of an old man named “Merl”. Craig manages to wake up JP a couple of times, and even tries tying him up in bed, but to no avail, as Merl still manages to get lose. Merl eventually mentions he knows where a treasure is buried, which sparks Craig’s interest somewhat, and the two set out during the night to find it. Their quest leads them into the neighbor’s yard, who turns out to be another sleepwalker who gets into an argument with Merl, in a pretty amusing turn of events. In the end, the treasure the kids dug up turned out to be the pair of shoes Laura needed. As a whole this was a fun episode with a pretty unique premise. JP being a sleepwalker wasn’t brought up on the show previously as far as I can remember (and I’m fairly certain Merl wasn’t alluded to, anyway) so this was a fun surprise.
Third stop – Toman’s house. Toman is one of the cool kids from the creek, who never seems to stop bragging and gives everyone “a.k.a.” like nicknames. He lives with his dad, who seems calm and collected, and his older brother and sister, who keep treating him like a baby. The two kids spend the night playing a new wrestling video game, so new it hasn’t even been released yet, but it was imported from Toman’s home country of Indonesia. Toman’s dad tells them they have to go to bed early since they will have to go to church the next morning; Toman tries disobeying and continue playing quietly, but can’t get away with it. Craig is convinced he can win the game so the two decide to sneak downstairs and play the game on the TV in the family room. What follows is an amusing scene with them trying to be quiet, where every small sound is exaggerated. Things get worse when Toman’s siblings return home late, making a lot of noise. When they realize it was after their curfew, they fear their dad won’t let them use the car anymore, or have any other sleepovers. With their dad waking up and coming downstairs to see what was happening, Craig is the one who saves the day, I mean night, by pretending he woke up after a bad dream and came down to get a glass of milk. The scheme works; Toman’s dad is convinced, and Toman’s siblings are grateful for the save. Overall this was another nice episode and probably the most down to earth type of story during this arc.
Fourth stop – Wren’s house. Wren is one of the creek’s resident scientists, who keeps conducting experiments and has dedicated her life to science, and she’s still young. She mostly lives with her mom, after her parents divorce. Her experiment here is to use special helmets that allow her and Craig to travel to alternate dimensions to see what their lives would be like somewhere else. While it’s a more fantastical set up for an episode it does deliver some pretty nice scenes, with the kids visiting worlds where the humans have cat heads, and the felines have human heads; a world where they’re living underwater as merfolk and have to evade sharks occasionally; an upside down world; one where Craig is best friends with Slide the Ferret, their stand-in for Sonic the Hedgehog, or another dimension where Craig is filthy rich… But Wren isn’t satisfied with any of these results, as all she really wants is to find a world where her parents are still together. She does eventually find one such world, but the catch is this world’s version of Wren is quite different, and isn’t interested in science at all. Wren realizes there’s only one of her and her parents, even if they broke up, wouldn’t want her to change, so they all go back. It’s a more emotional episode overall with a nice message of being happy with what you have, being delivered rather well. Plus, there’s a lot of fun stuff with all the dimension hopping.
Fifth stop – Bobby’s house. Bobby is a kid apparently addicted to candy who visits the creek quite often. Much to Craig’s (and presumably the viewers’) surprise, Bobby is on his best behavior at home and his parents don’t know about his obsession. He hides his candy all over the house, as he isn’t allowed to have much sugar. He confides in Craig about his secret love of candy and invites him to have a taste of his “ultimate candy bar”, which results in the two boys passing out. Craig wakes up alone in Bobby’s room, unable to remember much from what happened the previous night. With Bobby’s dad preparing to take Bobby to a dentist appointment, Craig is now in a hurry to find his roommate by trying to piece together his brief memories affected by the sugar rush. Thanks to some flashbacks Craig recalls he and Bobby decided to quit being “good kids” and set out to cause mischief all around the creek, including a scene where Craig offered to help Bobby cancel his dentist appointment by knocking out his teeth with a tree branch. Ultimately Craig manages to find Bobby outside the house, and gets him ready in time for his dad to pick him up. There’s not a lot to comment on this episode, Bobby was never really one of my favorite characters on the show, but seeing this different side to him did make for an entertaining enough episode.
Final stop – Eliza’s house. Eliza is the leader of the Tea Timers, an elite society of rich,
snobbish kids from the creek. She usually loves to treat others like dirt and make others argue among themselves just for fun. She decided to have her own sleepover, and invited Craig, Kelsey, JP and a few other kids to her house, to play some wacky games and have a chance at winning a special surprise prize. But the losers will be punished and thrown into the basement. The games organized include dancing, pillow fights and a “truth or dare” round; all the kids are eliminated one by one, until only Craig, Kelsey and JP are left. Their dare is to pick their favorite friend out of the trio, something they refuse to do so they are sent to the basement as well. Which works out for the best seeing that the basement was in reality a recreation room, where the kids can actually hang out and have some fun or rest. The actual prize for the competition would have been an offer to join the Tea Timers club, something that no one there was really interested in, anyway. Overall this was a pretty fun final stop for this whole sleepover arc.
And to wrap things off, Craig is now back home as his room is bee free… apart from Barry, still wearing his bee costume, who is exhausted and still sleeping there. So Craig still has a sleepover of sorts, but he doesn’t mind this one as much seeing as he’s now back in his own bed. All things considered, the Sleepover Chronicles was a fun idea for a story arc. The premise was simple but enough to connect the following episodes. There’s not a lot of continuity between these episodes (but as is often the case, having watched the show previously would help enjoy these stories a bit more). Seeing the other kids’ lives at home provided some neat story ideas.
Craig of the Creek is currently airing on the Cartoon Network and should still be available to stream on Max. There are only a handful of episodes left to air now, so the show has basically ran its course, but it’s been a pretty wild ride.
