Review: The Great North “Code Enough Said Adventure”

Overview:

As the Tobin family enjoys a movie night with their friends, the town of Lone Moose is hit with an enormous blizzard, trapping them all inside the Tobin house for several days, making them all somewhat crazy. Beef insists on watching the movie Enough Said ad nauseam, much to the annoyance of the rest of his family. When Beef goes to retrieve a new computer to continue watching the movie, he returns to find the DVD smashed to pieces with Ham babbling incoherently. Thus the Tobins launch into a family criminal trial, with their guests stuck with them for the ride.

Our Take:


Legal episodes in a show that normally doesn’t tackle the law are always interesting things to watch. It can be fun seeing the strict rules and regulations that normally go into a criminal trial flipped on their head, and that’s exactly what’s done here. The sheer depths of absurdity this episode goes to would make even Harvey Birdman do a double-take. There’s nothing serious here of any kind, it’s just jokes stacked on top of each other, and I absolutely love it.

Moon absolutely steals the show here, serving as the judge of the trial. He offers insane directives and mandates to the family and their guests, that they are nonetheless forced to adhere to. If he orders the jury to gasp, they have no choice but to comply. He abuses his position to force the family into compromising positions constantly, something that always got a chuckle out of me.

Another good source of humor for the episode is that it dives deeper into the weird practices and regulations of the Tobin household. The trial is the obvious one, but they also obsessively track the location of every item in their house, and they have a post-it note on their fridge that reminds them that during an ice storm, they are ordered to not go insane or eat people. The episode really sells the terror of the family’s guests, as they see just how crazy the Tobins can be when you’re locked in a house with them, and want nothing more than to leave.

I also really liked Judy’s subplot. She’s the court’s stenographer, but she’s also writing a steamy novel on corruption in court, mining the trial for inspiration. She just so manages to butt in at the most inconvenient of times pestering everyone else for information on the trial she can use in her novel. It’s another wacky idea, and I really liked seeing it blow up in Judy’s face.

“Code Enough Said Adventure” is probably the wackiest episode of the season by far, not that I’m complaining necessarily. Quite the opposite, I loved this episode and laughed at it constantly. There’s just so many batshit turns this story takes that it will leave you staring in disbelief. I wouldn’t mind more episodes that are the family in 100% wacky mode. The show does sincere heartfelt moments well, but it also does sheer insanity amazingly. Kudos to the production team.