Review: Steven Universe “The Big Show”

Not to be confused with the pro wrestler of the same name.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

Compared to past episodes, this one takes a documentary-style approach with Steven behind the camera, and serves mainly as an excellent continuation to the episode Sadie Killer as Sadie decides to quit the Big Donut and join as the lead singer to the newly formed horror-themed band “Sadie Killer and the Suspects” with the cool kids Buck, Jenny and Sour Cream serving as the other band members while Steven records their “early beginnings”.

Given that Steven’s father Greg knows how the music business works, He takes the offer to be their manager as a good chunk of the episode spends it’s running time with Steven behind the camera throughout the entire episode, while Greg utilizes some past connections he made as a touring musician and manages to set up a gig at a place within “Empire City” and even provides the funding from the money he got during the events of Drop Beat Dad in an effort help them pull off a Grandiose show. But the real subtle focus of the story is Sadie’s the relationship dynamic with her clingy overbearing Mother, Barb. In a nutshell, Sadie has spent most of her life having her mom be in her business and would rather do this band stuff without her Mother’s help. Despite her mom’s heart being in the right place, Sadie just wants to have breathing room to do her own thing. In response to this, Greg gives her an outside perspective that she has it lucky because Greg’s parents were never supportive of his dreams of being a musician, nor did they ever come to any of his shows, which is a decent heart-to-heart convo that begins to affect Sadie’s attitude in subtle ways.

As the band sets up their equipment and gimmicky outfits, Sadie takes notice at an individual in the audience whom she assumes is her mother in disguise and when they later perform their first song, called “G-G-G-Ghost!” Sadie emotionally vents her angst & frustrations into her performance to the point that it leaves quite a positive reaction with the audience. After the show, Sadie realizes it wasn’t her mother she was venting towards, but Greg’s friend Sunshine Justice the venue owner (Voiced by Rock legend Joan Jett) who compliments their stellar performance. The episode ends On their way home, as Sadie admits to Steven that she had gone all-out on stage because she thought it was her mom in the audience, and decides to make make it up to her by having Greg arrange their next show to be in Beach City and inviting her.

Our Take

A decent filler episode that progresses a lot of side-characters within Beach City in ways that make sense. Greg being an ex-musician makes him the perfect fit as a band manager, and his heart-to-heart talk with Sadie was easily the best part of the episode.

Families aren’t perfect as exemplified with nearly every human character on this show, but that doesn’t mean you can let anyone in. Like Sadie, you can decide to let specific people into your life (family or otherwise) once you’ve discovered what you truly want as a person and what makes you happy. And I”m glad that it took some much-needed space away from her mother in combination with Greg’s talk, to help Sadie understand that.

And finally, the song was pretty damn catchy too, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the Steven Universe “Vol.2” soundtrack if one is ever made.