Review: The Great North “Pride & Prejudice Adventure”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s the big school dance, and Judy is determined to make the most of it this year. Instead of asking the same old platonic male friend, she’s got her heart set on Crispin, the hot older mall employee who hails from out of state. But when he isn’t able to accept her romantic feelings, she’s got to put aside her adoration and do what’s best regardless of tradition.

Our Take:

The sixth episode of The Great North is one of the first episodes yet to focus on Ham, Judy’s older brother, for such an extended period of time. It’s a episode that also gets little bit deeper than usual as it plays with old school traditions and the barriers they can create.

It all starts, as usual, with some big idea of Judy’s. Her plan to invite Crispin to the dance is peak teenager, something that you can only expect to pull off with a healthy dose of hormones and a lot of wild berry smoothies. For the first half of the episode, it all comes across as fairly standard stuff, with Judy crushing on an older guy who doesn’t have much interest in her. That changes once Ham comes into the picture, however.

Ham and Crispin are obviously super gay, which makes it all the funnier that Judy can’t seem to see that. I’m not exactly clear on if she knew previously about Ham’s orientation, but even if she did, her naive optimism is enough to blind her to Crispin’s true intentions, which are to romance her brother while using her as a sort of human shield to provide cover.

You see, the school dance is based on an old traditional tale passed down through the generations about a man who tried to brave a winter storm to be worthy of a woman he loved. The festivities are based on this story, as girls come up and select a guy to play the role for them. Only the version of the past we’re told isn’t always non-fiction, as Judy finds out when she catches Crispin and Ham smoochin’ it up and is visited by the man the original tradition is based on, who informs her that he and his lady friend were actually both gay and using their love as a cover story.

In the end, what started as a typical dance date plot turns into something more special as Judy has to set aside her crush on Crispin and set him free to go get some Ham on his plate, so to speak. It’s a sweet moment that cements the relationship between brother and sister in a way that hadn’t really come across for me before.

Pride & Prejudice Adventure is one of the better episodes of The Great North so far. It continues the tradition of giving Judy the spotlight (she’s still hilarious) while also bringing Ham onto the stage for some time to shine himself. Plus, Honeybee and Wolf’s startup ideas are some of the funniest bits in the show yet. (I’ve gotta get me one of those lapkins — did you hear there’s also a social network aspect?)