Review: Bless the Harts “Pumped”

 

 

Overview:

Jenny is craving some spending money to waste on the nonessentials. With a little guidance from above, she scores big on the lottery winning $2000.

Despite Violet trying to convince her mother to save the money in the bank, Jenny and Betty splurge on a chair shaped like a shoe. Surprisingly, Violet is not disappointed, and soon they are all spending money to match their new décor. That is until greed gets the better of them.

Meanwhile, Wayne lands his dream job of working at Bigsby’s Hardware store. Naturally adept at the position, Wayne soon develops enemies in the other employees. After they sabotage him, Wayne loses the job, only to leave Old Man Bigsby aware that the store is doomed without him.

 

Our Take:

Bless the Harts takes its introspection of the modern middle-class American to new levels with an episode involving the lottery and minimum wage jobs. It is another scarily accurate parody of what life is like for much of the working class.

Who does not dream about winning the lottery? And who wouldn’t be excited by an extra couple grand of spending money? Though the show does not shy away from the fact that the majority of us would quickly waste the spare cash.  

Sure, most of us would not go and buy a shoe-shaped chair to pretend that we live in luxury. However, it is a good metaphor for the splendours that we do waste our money on, from wide-screen televisions to iPhones. The most harmful point though is the fact that $2000 doesn’t stretch very far these days and we quickly put ourselves in debt trying to keep a lifestyle that we cannot afford.

The series does have a way of making these real-world struggles humorous. Watching the Harts quickly lose their money to nonessential items like a shoe chair, an amethyst, and a pirate ship chandelier was a hilarious montage of money exchange. And the gaudy furnishings their adorn their home with was equally clever.

Meanwhile, Wayne’s storyline takes a different approach. Instead of a healthy lump of money, Wayne’s plot focuses on the underappreciation of the working class. Despite his hard work and natural abilities, Wayne goes unrecognized for his accomplishments resulting in him getting fired for something that was not his fault.

However, by the end of the episode, Wayne’s story does deliver a golden message. Passion and hard work do pay off. He has landed himself a regular job at the hardware store, which should remain in cannon moving forward. Not only that, but he is a valued member of the team now.

The only disturbing piece of this episode was the out-of-character actions of Violet. Typically, the voice of reason and responsibility, the young girl falls into the same consumerism trap of her mother and grandmother. 

While that is a more realistic approach considering most young girls, as noble as they may be, would love to go on a shopping spree, this fictional character should stick to her defined traits. Yet, at the same time, it does highlight that Violet very much has the Hart gene.

In the end, this was a defining episode for Bless the Harts. It conveyed all the messages that the show is designed for and delivered it in a fun package. It also managed to accomplish this without the bells and whistles of big-name guest stars and multiple supporting characters. It was an episode that focused on the core family utilizing the shows core messages.