Review: Blark and Son “Immortality Project”

“Stop being so weird and sad.”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

In this episode, Blark is inspired by a musician documentary to think about his legacy. This same day, Son reports that he is to write a paper on someone in his family. Immediately, Blark sees this as an opportunity to reflect upon his family’s contributions to the world so far, which we learn are few and far between.

Blark finds what he believes to be a box of family photos and bursts into son’s room to share. After confusing him with some extremely niche erotica, Blark delves into the family’s finest moments, which include facilitating some of the world’s worst tragedies. Son is horrified and decides this project is going to be harder than he thought. Son lets his father know that he will be writing about his hermit crab, who is ‘technically’ a member of the family. Blark’s usual sadness sets in.

Handsome Stacey makes another appearance when Blark decides to visit his psychology practice to talk about what his legacy could mean to him. A room cluttered with unsold copies of Stacey’s book “24-hour Millionaire” provide an appropriate backdrop for this discussion. Stacey tells Blark to think of his legacy as something that will outlive him, and immortality project.

Blark takes Stacey’s advice, and bursts in on Son to show him his immortality project – clearly thrown together with scotch tape. Son blows up on his dad, telling him to stop trying to force things that don’t work together – like the two of them. Dejected, Father wastes no time throwing a pity party for himself and exiting the room furious.

We next see Son coming home to report to Blark that he had a change of heart, and wrote the report on his Dad. The way he sees it, his accomplishments also belong to his father. Blark immediately identifies that – of course- Son is his immortality project. Son realizes he’s probably made a mistake.

Our Take

Unfortunately, this episode lacks just enough humor to make it tiresome and predictable. We know in every episode, there’s going to be a crisis of identity with Blark, whose happiness depends on Son’s love and approval. When there aren’t enough laughs, this just becomes a weird codependency story that is, well, awkward. Their relationship is hilarious when situational humor underlines it, but ‘just a regular day’ in the Blark household had us cringing.

If viewers are asked to take the arc of the episode seriously, then there are more questions than answers. The writers miss an opportunity to let us know how Son’s change of heart came about, and Blark’s reaction to the paper doesn’t let us know what its contents really were.

We continue to see great work by the production team, though, ever expanding the set locations and characters, which this week included Stacey’s home-office and the two members of the band that changed Blark’s view on life (and nipples). The flashbacks into Blark family history let us see where in the world Blarks were in years past, which builds upon last week’s foray into exploring Blark’s identity outside of his son.

Overall, though definitely worth a watch, this episode doesn’t measure up to the standard set by previous episodes. We look forward to seeing what next week has in store for the family, and what other celebrity guest stars may make an appearance.