Before you ask, someone else here covers Bob’s Burgers, so I did not cover this week’s episode. However, they have announced their retirement, and the episode that aired tonight would be their last. I’d be open to taking over reviewing the rest of the season, but don’t want to take it away from anyone else who wants to do it. So if you want me to review the upcoming Bob’s episodes, you can drop a comment down below. They’d also be included in this page, if so, as I don’t want to clutter the site.

BLESS THE HARTS – “The Dogchurian Canadidate” Review

Episode summary (spoilers): When Mayor Webb is sulking at the Last Supper, Jenny decides to cheer him up. He makes her his campaign manager. Betty has some suspicions about Webb, so she gets a dog named Root Beer to run against Webb for mayor. The stakes are high for both candidates, but who comes out on top?

My thoughts: Bless the Harts finally decides to tackle politics up front, kinda, with re-election for mayor in the open. They kind of did a similar plot with Jenny trying to appease both political sides to land tips in the season 1 episode “Jenny Unfiltered”. And this episode itself is again another solid one. Betty’s personal vendetta against Webb for her own mistakes is classic her. And it’s even better when she decides to be the campaign manager for a dog running for mayor against Webb. Honestly what made this episode for me was the entire idea of a dog running for Mayor. It’s just a really silly concept that ends up working.

And Betty is not a good person for office, so seeing her taking bribes is fairly expected, but enjoyable; and the promises she tries to make end up backfiring on her later on. Jenny deciding to go dirty to win the election is more of a sign of this show taking more risks. While season 1 Jenny was more reserved in nature, season 2 Jenny isn’t afraid to show her more malicious side, as we’ve seen from episodes this season. She definitely inherited some from her mother, but I wouldn’t say she’s a full copy-paste of her mother. Jenny kidnapping the dog was very unexpected for me. I did not see that coming. The change in heart is a little forced but it had to come eventually. It’s a sitcom. Wayne’s joke about wanting only a single candidate to run was really funny when Violet pointed out that he was supporting fascism. I also liked how Mayor Webb was eating a 2-piece chicken nuggets. For some reason, I just had to laugh at that.

“The Dogchurian Canadidate” lands for me in several areas, most notably the idea of the dog running for Mayor. It’s funny and intriguing and I’m just surprised how consistent season 2 is. And even if most of the episodes aren’t “must see” TV, I can guarantee you’ll at least have a good time watching this season.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

THE SIMPSONS – “Yokel Hero” Review

Episode summary: (spoilers) After getting arrested for being drunk in public, Homer gets a change in perspective when Cletus plays him a song in jail. He decides to be Cletus’ manager, but when Cletus gets big in Hollywood, he fires Homer, and falls into the typical “Hollywood star” trap.

My thoughts: The Simpsons usually doesn’t have a lot of funny jokes but I was surprised with how much I did enjoy the jokes. The fourth wall break was unexpected and hilarious. The joke about Barney being a Uber driver was silly to me and got even better when he thought he was a customer for Uber, and gave Moe 5 stars for “getting there” on time. The social commentary jabs at CBS All Access and Ellen DeGeneres were fairly accurate. It was also nice to see Al Brooks voice characters (I miss Hank Scorpio too).

The story though was pretty weak in general and uninteresting. I wasn’t too sold on the idea because I did know exactly what was going to happen. The story itself was very predictable and didn’t do anything that they didn’t do in previous episodes. They did this exact plot in the classic “Colonel Homer” about 25 years ago, as the concept of a hillbilly being a singer was more interesting than here. I don’t really have a lot to say about it.

“Yokel Hero” is a little bit disappointing, but reaches passable levels simply because of the jokes. It felt a little Family Guy-ish in nature because of how the jokes are better than the plot itself, but it doesn’t at the same time because Family Guy levels because the story does have a clear start and end. It’s just not very interesting to me.

Overall rating: 5/10

THE GREAT NORTH “Curl Interrupted Adventure” Review

Episode summary: (spoilers) Beef decides to enlist Judy to help coach his failed curling team, since his daughter is a natural at the sport, but only if Judy promises to not be mean to the teammates. However, she shows her more competitive side while coaching and demoralizes all the teammates. Wolf, Honeybee, Ham, and Moon decide to turn the family boat into a sunset cruise, but it doesn’t end up well for them when the customers get bored.

My thoughts: The Great North has only been airing for about a month now, but I think we’ve gotten a pretty good idea on the main characters in just about five episodes. And while this one is another Judy-focused again, it proves that the writers know that she should not be one-dimensional. And yes it does seem out of character for her while you’re watching it the first time because of just how it unexpectedly shows up, but then, characters are allowed to have multiple traits. Otherwise, they’d be so boring and uninteresting. And for that I’m willing to give the unexpected personality change a slide. The main plot seems to be fueled on anger though and I think that’s the episode’s main problem. I kind of saw it coming though. It’s nice to see Beef and Judy continue to expand their bond, as I do think they will be the Bob and Louise of this show. However, I feel the pacing of Judy’s character is a little poorly done here, even if it does make her character less one-dimensional, which is why I can’t criticize this to the fullest extent. It was sweet, however, seeing Judy and Beef try improv at the end, and how Judy actually supported her dad in the right way.

The subplot was fine but it didn’t really do anything that really interested me. It’s nice seeing Wolf try to make money off an idea, but it doesn’t really do anything that is funny. It’s pretty slow, but I did enjoy Moon’s singing quite a bit.

The scenery continues to be amazing. You guys can criticize these adult animated shows for their “ugly” artstyles and how they don’t end up like Primal or other more serious toons, but you have to admit the backgrounds for these shows are incredibly well done and show a lot of effort put into them. The sunset background was so nice to look at.

“Curl Interrupted Adventure” may be the weakest episode of the series, but it certainly is not bad. If this is the show at its worst, then I’m certainly super excited to see the upcoming seven episodes of the season. Next week’s sounds really good since it’s about a school dance. And sure it’s been done in many other sitcoms, but it’s interesting to see how other characters react and behave in those sorts of situations. I’m really looking forward to next week’s, and even the rest of the season.

Overall rating: 7/10

FAMILY GUY – “PeTerminator” Review

Episode summary: (spoilers) When Stewie designs a Peter robot to destroy Lois for feeding him broccoli, things go horribly wrong and it turns into a chase that could result in Stewie being taken away. On the side, the real Peter tries to jump high enough to reach a branch.

My thoughts: Family Guy isn’t known for doing story-driven episodes, but when they do, they’re always guaranteed to be a solid watch. The entire story is pretty interesting and the action scenes are great. The cold open of the show leading into a spooky futuristic version of the theme song was also great. The entire story kept me interested, as it is another Brian/Stewie episode. Those tend to be some of the best in the show, and while this is not nearly as close to those, it’s still good. The friendship thing is a little overplayed but it’s a reminder of how strong their bond is. I like it when Family Guy leans more into sci-fi concepts and this is no exception to that either.

Now let’s get to the jokes. A few of them work but most of them were pretty weak though. The reference to “cool hwip” with “Uber” was a funny bit and I like how they referenced Big Mouth and Rick and Morty. But a lot of the episode was not funny. Stewie trying to kiss Brian was flat out disgusting. The real Peter’s subplot of trying to reach a tree felt like a waste of time to me. The cutaways were very little, but none of them were memorable either. The episode also just kind of ends with Stewie and Brian kissing and doesn’t go back to it. I wish they at least showed how they ended up instead of Peter trying to reach the tree.

And while I’m not a fan of the general animation of this show, I would be lying if I said this episode was not well animated. A lot of the stuff in this one was great and I really like it when the animation on this show gets more than just the generic movements.

“PeTerminator” is a solid episode of Family Guy. The only problem I really had was it wasn’t really funny and a lot of the jokes just fall flat, but it’s somewhat enjoyable because of how action-packed and story-driven it was. This is certainly one this season I’d revisit at a later point, as I quite enjoyed it. It’s certainly much better than last week though.

Overall rating: 6.5/10