The Great North

The construction of the song lyrics were very elaborate and clever and much better than Bob's Burgers.

I also liked the resolution that the club was actually fake and in a kid's basement (with the Mom's permission). I saw Judy still having her braces on coming but that was a funny surprise.

The scene with the giant talking teeth on the bus was crazy, funny, and scary in equal measure.

It was a good first episode back for the sophomore season. 4 stars.

I have no notes. Only compliments.

Yeah, I like this show now. It's found its voice. The Tobins are a happy well-adjusted family, which is refreshing.

I like that Wolf and Ham worry that the song will "crush" Beef. That's the concern. Not that he'd be furious. He's such a nice and understanding parent that he actually discusses punishing Ham for disobedience as a question, partly to gauge if that's what Ham actually wanted. I love that.

And I like Ham is not kicked out of the band at the end, because the band leader's mom liked the song, and "she does a lot of stuff for him". That says volumes.

And I knew I was going to compliment the Tobins on being a happy family even before this. Once Honeybee declared all of the Tobins' various silly ideas were "Golden" I was like, "This is a family that actually likes each other." It's kind of silly but it's also refreshing.

I'm fully on-board this show now. 5 stars.

The kids are dumb because the explanations at the end should have been self-evident, but this is a good show because the show got to all the explanations anyways. It doesn't matter that the kids are silly, all of the i's being dotted and the t's crossed makes for a more satisfying story.

The dark days and light days in Alaska was one of the more interesting elements of Northern Exposure. I wish that show had explored them more. Hopefully this show will.

Pretty dumb. But all the kids besides Moon are ridiculous. 3 1/2 stars.

Never heard of the "Tickling the baby" trope, but it sounds like a thing.

For the record, The Cabin In The Woods was NOT a horror film set at camp. Not even close.

Delmer's voice interests me. He doesn't sound like a professional actor at all, which makes him sound weirdly realistic, even if his line readings are dry, and sound like they are being read off cue cards. It's the weird accent that makes him credible, I think.

All right. 3 stars.

It was good but perhaps not good enough to do a whole recap. There was one part I thought was funny and worth mentioning though. When Judy sees the fisherwomen down at the docks and finds them sexy, she decides to file that idea away for later and declares that she loves being 16. Stuff like that is why I love Judy.

It was a solid week. 3 1/2 stars.

I was glad to see Alanis Morrissette. Not because I think she as a concept or a character works. But she hadn't appeared yet this season, and I think if the show had simply dropped the idea, it would show weakness in the premise, and suggest the writers didn't believe in the quirky Judy-focused Pilot deep down. Frankly, that Pilot wasn't great. But the Alanis thing was unusual and I like that the show simply decided to bill her as a regular cast member for season two when she appears, instead of getting rid of her.

The mystery was classic Bouchardverse stuff, and not a particularly well-crafted or thought out one at that. But there were cool things in it.

For example I don't remember the name of the pizza girl, but I love that she asks the right questions and Judy immediately puts her charge of the investigation. My favorite bit of her backstory is that her mom homeschooled her because she didn't feel comfortable with the idea of her being surrounded by all those white kids. And then they hit trig and her Mom's all, "Nope. Not doing this." I like the backstory the more I think about it, especially because she shares it. Because it says something about the kids on this show that should be true of all kids. But Alaska is a pretty red state, very susceptible to grievance-based populism. By all rights, pizza girl's story should offend the kids. It would have if she had said it within earshot of a white adult. But red state or not, kids there think their parents messed up racial beliefs are stupid and pointless, so pizza girl correctly surmises this group of kids would sympathize with how dumb that is instead of being mad. Is it true to life? Maybe not. There are some ugly kids being raised in red states. Is it believable on this specific positive show, where Judy's best friend is allowed to actually like and care about her and want her to throw a great party? Where Pizza Girl sees Ham's note of appreciation for his dad on the fridge and thinks he's awesome for it? Definitely yes.

Beef's stuff with the woman crushing on him didn't resonate with me pretty much because we are still in a holding pattern about it. That's fine for now, but the status quo about that specific thing will not be tolerable indefinitely. I sincerely hope the show knows what it is doing there.

And no kid, we're NOT gonna talk about how the guy likes keeping his grandma's underwear close to him at all times. Although I agree with him that we probably should have.

One of the things I liked about Season 1 is that Judy seemed to be the central character. The season 2 premiere was about her, but the rest of the season has sort of been stepping away from that. I very much would like to see the show continue having her be the viewpoint character for the audience. Not just because she is more relatable than Beef, but because with the exception of maybe Bless The Harts, none of the adult Fox toons seem female centered. And Bless The Harts, was a pretty crappy show when all was said and done. I LIKE and am rooting for this show. I'd love to see it made into a female led animated adult-oriented comedy that actually works. That would be great.

The episode was technically only okay, but things are headed in the right direction. 3 1/2 stars.

That restaurant is so gross. It made me ill just thinking about it. Frankly all of the compliments the Toobins were giving it at the beginning of the episode struck me as serious faults, and that the Toobins were doofy for liking them. It turns out they were actually red flags.

I liked the play-acting bit with Moon, Bethany and the pirates. Honeybee saying she was going to use her cutlass to cut them stern to anus was great. I love Honeybee.

I think the episode was a little too gross for me. Sorry. 2 1/2 stars.

The idea that Beef considers the Pilgrims self-involved freeloaders is a pleasantly unexpected surprise.

Also so is the idea that Judy is such an Alanis Morrissette fan that she knows her history on You Can't Do That On Television.

I like that Moon's word was bleeped.

Toilets DO look like pelicans.

My biggest complaint is that it is not remotely credible that Beef was able to build that huge sprawling ice maze, somehow identical to one Ham and Wolf had for their mice as kids, on the spur of the moment. It's such a foolish notion that I outright dislike it. This show should not be permitted to be that stupid. I'd only accept it if it were worse. Because it's not, it pisses me off instead.

Beef only uses the toilet every 4 days? Weird, but also not unexpected.

It was all right, but the ice maze bugged the crap out of me. 3 stars.

I laughed at the innocuous questions turning out to be porno names. Good comedy there.

I love Tusk telling Dan he could have gotten five grand from the smugglers because they really hated him.

I continue to love Honeybee.

Refreshing that Tusk wanting to turn over a new leaf was genuine. I was surprised, but it's actually very consistent for this show.

I love the reason Moon apparently now hates music.

The twincest smugglers were the one thing in the episode I didn't like. Creepy.

Everything else was good. 4 stars.