Review: Bless the Harts “Invasion of the Potty Snatcher”

Overview:

Jenny is hoping to get a raise at work. But instead of asking directly, she tries the more passive approach by putting in some extra work. Things get worse when a woman won’t come out of the bathroom and everyone is too afraid to confront her. If Jenny wants her raise she is going to have to figure out how to ask for what she wants.

Meanwhile, with Jenny busy at work Violet gets Betty to attend her parent-teacher interview. The grandma jumps at the chance to visit the place where she peaked. But when her teacher crush doesn’t remember her it is enough to crush her.

Our Take:

You may think that Bless the Harts missed the opportunity to make another memorable Christmas episode this year. But you would be forgetting that Die Hard is often considered a holiday movie. With a sloppy parody of the famous action film, this could fit into this Animation Domination Christmas-themed evening.

More honestly, this is an episode about the passivity that has been systemically ingrained into so many women. The theme is driven by Jenny’s insecurity in asking for a raise. But it also brought her closer to the strange lady that sat in a bathroom stall for what-must-have-been over an hour. And concluded with a rousing speech from bathroom lady all about her massive dump.

Of course, there are many of us that could use the lesson of being a little more assertive when it comes to our wants and needs. So, it is a good moral to this story even with all of the gender stereotypes. Even then, the message is more aimed at women who are anxious when it comes to voicing themselves.

Add in Wayne’s attempt to fix things by action-hero-ing his way through the air vents and this made for a good little story. Without much happening in the way of plot, it did offer space for some good gags and say a lot about Jenny’s character.

The real joy of this episode came from Betty and Violet’s plot.

Betty always delivers some of the best lines of the show, and her remembering the grand days of high school was a perfect vessel for her comedy. Maya Rudolph is one of the greatest voice-over actors out there right now; she did win an Emmy this year for her work on Big Mouth. You can count on her to deliver her lines in unexpected and delightful ways. And her rendition of Bette Davis Eyes in this episode has been a highlight of the season thus far.

There is a night in January that we can expect Animation Domination to return, Bless the Harts included. Otherwise, Christmas typically marks the mid-season break. How the Fox line-up will look when all of the dust settles is still unknown. There are still 12 episodes in the season 2 order of Bless the Harts left to air. But the network has The Great North to premiere and Duncanville season 2 in the works. So, it’ll be interesting how everything comes together in the new year. And hopefully, we get back to the latter half of Bless the Harts without a hiccup.