Review: The Casagrandes “Survival of the Unfittest/Nixed Signals”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Survival of the Unfittest

When Arturo realizes Bobby doesn’t have survival skills, he decides to bring Bobby to the woods for training.

Nixed Signals

Frida asks Carlota to spend a spa day with her to enjoy quality time.

Our Take:

The humor in the first episode consists of Bobby learning to survive everything that’s thrown at him, including a blackout, with his father Arturo (Eugenio Derbez) being his teacher. Seeing that Bobby has no muscles and no brain, this didn’t surprise me. Arturo tries to teach him how to build a tent, navigate through instincts, and set up traps. Unfortunately, Bobby fails at all of them. Thankfully, he was eventually able to use Arturo’s teachings and his guitar skills to rescue the subway passengers when the train suffered a blackout.  

This episode is another scenario in which Bobby serves as the Leni of The Casagrandes. While caring at times, Bobby is as smart as a box of clams, leading him to fail at every simple task. Fortunately, his personality resulted in some solid slapstick instead of annoyance. Plus, it’s nice to see Arturo back in the spotlight in this episode, with Eugenio Derbez still delivering some decent voice work. 

The second episode showcases another piece of quality time between the two Casagrande family members. This time, we have Frida and Carlota having a girls’ day together. However, Carlota’s reliance on social media and live-streaming almost ruined their quality time together. Much of the humor in this episode has Carlota relying on her followers’ votes to determine their choices. This consists of which food to eat at the restaurant and which haircut fits well for Frida. Carlota then decides to disconnect to spend the rest of the day at the spa with Frida, although the tables quickly turn when Frida gets distracted on the phone.

Overall, both episodes serve as enjoyable quality times with the Casagrande family. “Survival of the Unfittest” is an entertaining Bobby-centered episode that has him learning to survive the great outdoors and a blackout. “Nixed Signals” is a suitable depiction of Frida and Carlota learning the importance of family time over phone time, with plenty of solid humor centering on the followers’ votes.