Review: Bless the Harts “Nose Bud”

 

 

Overview:

Brenda is hosting a bachelorette party, and there is no way she is going to let Jenny sit it out. Meaning Wayne is going to be responsible for watching over Violet.

Wayne tries to make the best of the opportunity by bonding with his common-law girlfriend’s daughter. But being the cool parent goes too far when he allows Violet to get a nose piercing. And when Jenny finds out, he is in more hot water than he realizes.

Meanwhile, Betty has given a man at church a heart attack with another one of her pranks. But when she goes to make apologies, she ends up falling for the local strip club owner. Though for things to work out between them, she is going to have to cover up the fact that she nearly killed him.

 

Our Take:

Bless the Harts may be in trouble. It sounds as if we are getting closer to a King of the Hill revival. If such does occur, it does not leave much room for Bless the Harts. The latter takes much of its theme from the long-running series. Add that to an Animation Domination that is already spilling over to a second night, and it is up to this show to prove itself.

Unfortunately, Bless the Harts continues to struggle in defining itself. It is hard enough to move past the fact that there used to be a talking Jesus painting in this show. A Jesus that Jenny would ask to borrow money from has been written out of the show completely ignoring the fact it was ever there.

Maybe more detrimental to this series thus far is the traditional sitcom format. There is not much that separates Bless the Harts from a standard run-of-the-mill primetime sitcom, other than the fact that it is animated.

This episode holds a prime example of a plot that has appeared in sitcom after sitcom for decades. 

Wayne, in the mentor role, is responsible for the underaged and influential Violet. Though in an attempt to build a closer relationship with her, he is susceptible to being taken advantage of. The teenager capitalizes, and both end up paying the consequences. A classic familial plot that has appeared in everything from the Brady Bunch to whatever sitcoms are currently airing during primetime Thursday nights.

Bless the Harts does have a couple of things that other shows don’t have that help to separate it from the pack. They come in the form of Kristen Wiig and Emmy award-winning voice-over artist Maya Rudolph. Unfortunately, both are dulled down versions of themselves during this episode.

Betty, typically the wacky comic relief of the series is stifled in a standard romance story. Much of the boisterous and over-the-top dialogue we generally get from the character are absent. And how she handles the situation is out-of-character in normalcy.

Meanwhile, this could have been a stand-out episode for Kristen Wiig, whose character is free to let loose and play more of a supporting role. Though her performance came off as lacklustre and tame. There was much potential for how Jenny’s adventures at a bachelorette party could have gone. Instead of being the highlight of the episode, it was not given much attention or effort.

Thankfully, this is not the standard for Bless the Harts and more the victim of inconsistency. Some episodes get ambitious and take on subjects that other shows shy away from. But the series struggles to keep up the momentum, and this is the product. An episode that feels like it was patched together and not given the same care and attention as others.