English Dub Review: Spy X Family “Part of the Family”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Loid and Bond go on a walk, but Bond’s clairvoyance and prediction abilities pull them into wacky situations, eventually leading to them saving a puppy from a burning building.

OUR TAKE

And that is a wrap on Spy X Family Season 2! Which doesn’t go out with much of a bang, but kind of a whimper, or whatever sounds you get out of a wet dog. It’s another normal situation highlighted with neat and funny spy stuff, but that’s basically all anyone comes for from this show in the first place anyway, so it doesn’t feel at all like a season finale. That’s kind of the overall issue I have with this season as a whole, and may be one for the first season if I ever get around to watching it. The schtick is plenty funny and can definitely bring out some great comedic and ironic situations that are also great for letting the characters be amazing on their own, but then we have things like the story arc focusing on the cruise, where I can see all of what this story could be. Going from showing that off to go immediately back at the comedy vignettes for the last stretch of episodes is pretty frustrating to say the least. It’s hard to tell if any part of that was due to simply going in the regular chapter order or an executive order from on high, but it certainly didn’t end up helping the pacing of the show.

But I can save all of that whining for the Season Review next week. How is this last episode on its own terms? Perfectly fine as it is, plays out the premise of the show adequately with this time being focused on Loid and Bond, the family dog who can predict the future. Of the Forger family members, he’s actually the one who has gotten the least amount of focus and attention this whole season, so I guess it’s nice that he’s getting something of an episode to himself at the end. The problems arise when it becomes apparent that there’s only so much you can really do with a dog who can predict the future. Part of that is what they show happening, like showing that his predictions that he thinks he can prevent or save are actually things he causes by mistake, or that this leads to a Boy Who Cried Wolf situation (or Dog Who Cried Dog, I guess) where the mess ups pile up so much that when an actual problem arises, it’s harder to get everyone on the same page. Luckily things work out when a prediction gets them both to a fire to save a remaining puppy AND find out the culprit. But there, that’s as much as you can really do on that alone. Maybe next season, they’ll find a way to give this old dog new mind tricks. And in the meantime, there’s always the movie to look forward to, so perhaps that will scratch the itch that this season didn’t get to.