Main cast: Amos Crawley (Eddie), Stuart Stone (Sheldon), Judy Marshak (Mom), Noah Plener (Horace), and John Kassir (The Crypt Keeper)
Director: Laura Shepherd

Poor Eddie Gruff. He’s bullied by a psychotic older brother Horace, who would no doubt end up taking a few mugshots over the next decade, and his oblivious parents blame him for every mishap that is perpetuated as pranks on him by Horace. Eddie only has a gerbil to keep him company—eeuw, not in that way, people, this is a family-friendly show—and the kid is sad.

If that’s not bad enough, there is also this bridge that is said to haunted, and naturally Horace goes missing, probably abducted by the troll living under the bridge. What, you think this episode is called The Brothers Gruff for some other reason? 

Instead of cheering for the brother going missing, Eddie and his BFF Sheldon naturally decide to try to get him back. We all know how these stories go: they get the brother back, the brother is miraculously repentant and becomes nice again, and all is well in happily ever after land.

This Goosebumps-reject of an episode won’t be so bad if the whole episode hadn’t been dialed up to over 9,000. Everything is exaggerated to an obnoxious degree. For example, just mention “bridge” to Eddie and he immediately acts like he’d been electrocuted by 100,000 volts of electricity, shrieking and stumbling backward before crashing into his wardrobe. Everyone talks in a super high quivering pitch all the time, as if they are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The whole thing may be fine for kiddies, and they may be scared by fake jump scares such as Eddie tripping and falling for the hundredth time, but I’m way too old for all this nonsense and this episode is a painful aural assault on my sensibilities. Ugh indeed.