Review: Big City Greens “Greens’ Acres; Dolled Up”

Overview

“Greens’ Acres”
A flashback of Bill’s childhood on the farm, and unfortunately the beginning of the end for the Greens’ ownership of said farm. When young Bill attempts to help his overworked mother, Alice, to keep her from selling the farm to a neighbor, he narrowly avoids disaster and is banned from farm work. Distraught, he attempts to help by making money, leading him to a temporary life of crime, where he meets Nancy for the first time.

“Dolled Up”
The family heads to The Little Ladies Doll Palace for Tilly’s doll, Saxon’s birthday. Tilly and Nancy head to the fancy in-store tea room for lunch, while the rest of the family is left to their own devices. Chaos ensues for both parties, as Cricket’s shenanigans to escape from Gramma land him in a doll box, while Nancy and Tilly start a food fight, Green style!

Our Take

Things get a bit intense this week for the Greens as we get some Bill-centric backstory and a double dose of Nancy, who’s entrenched herself as my favorite character. The Houghton brothers get an opportunity to show off their farm boy credentials by giving Bill a close encounter with the baler he volunteers to do more adult chores to help his Mom. She mutters that he’s gonna lose a finger someday, which we see is indeed the case in later episodes, before banning him from farm work as punishment. Determined to save the family farm, he sets off to do odd jobs, eventually finding a “work” opportunity in the Sunny Days Estate trailer park. Young Bill is voiced by guest star Andre Robinson (you may have heard him as Clyde McBride on Nickelodeon’s The Loud House), while Candace Kozak (Ruth Buth on the Disney Channel live-action comedy, Just Roll With It) brings life to young Nancy, and their arcade-scheme centered “meet cute” is truly adorable.

The storyline in “Greens Acres” touches on some tough financial situations, which this show seems to like to do lately. I was surprised to see that, despite the show’s younger audience, they don’t shy away from the difficult choices money woes force folks to face. It’s refreshing to see the actual effects of things not working out how the characters would have liked. Despite her and Bill’s hard work, Alice eventually has to sell the farm, which she regrets, while Nancy’s life of crime starts early, because, as she says “we’ve just got a lotta bills to pay.” Of course, the ending plays up the fact that family is all that really matters, but it’s nice to see some reality, even if it has to be animated to sweeten things up.

After the slightly serious tone in “Greens’ Acres”, the ridiculousness returns in “Dolled Up” when Tilly treats her burlap doll Saxon to a fancy lunch for his birthday. Nancy and Tilly wait in line for their chance to dine, while “prestige member” Cantaloupe Sinclair and her clique breeze into the restaurant ahead of them. Nancy is annoyed, but Tilly is enchanted by the fancy kids, and eventually gets offered a seat at their table. However, the saccharine Cantaloupe (fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Santiago will recognize Melissa Fumero’s voice) reveals herself to be a manipulative anime-style villainess, requiring her real life friends to act like dolls to win her favor. This is a fascinating take on the normal bully storylines you’ll see in similar shows, since Cantaloupe is not outwardly mean until the last moment. I appreciated the more subtle representation of a typical Mean Girl situation, as well as showing the necessity of standing up to this particular kind of bully.

Overall, these two installments serve as further character development for the Greens family, notably Bill, Nancy, and Gramma. Although a few lines from a young Officer Keyes (voiced by Jason Maybaum) give us his backstory as well, which more than warrant a chuckle. A few bittersweet moments, but as is always the case with the Greens, things turn out ok in the end.