Review: The Great North “Poetry Of The Penals Adventure”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Wolf may be the oldest of the Tobin siblings, but that doesn’t mean he’s not one of them anymore, right? When Judy, Ham, and Moon start to make fun of his age, he decides to prove that he’s still one of the gang. During a class field trip to a prison, he leads his group on a secret tour that winds up putting them into danger—and Wolf has to learn that trying to be a fun adult comes with consequences. Meanwhile, Beef meets a poet named Greta…and tells her that he’s a poet, too!

Our Take:

The Great North has graced us with a pretty good episode tonight! Poetry Of The Penals Adventure is the nineteenth episode of this season, but it’s near the top of the list for one of my favorite eps in this batch. It’s a Wolf centric episode that focuses on the fine line between being fun and being an adult—plus we get to hear some of Beef’s poetry.

Wolf’s dilemma isn’t uncommon, but it’s a new thing for him. The Tobin siblings are so tight knit that it’s easy to forget that Wolf’s a married man with a mustache. But once he gets insecure about his age, he can’t help but notice how it differentiates him from his siblings—and the newfound responsibilities of adulthood come with challenges of their own, like having to miss out on TV show time.

The way his attempts at being cool coincide with his chaperoning of Judy and Ham’s field trip makes for some funny banter. Wolf’s constantly awkward and inappropriate sounding names for things is great, as are the visions he has of his older self warning him of the dangers of aging. Not all of the action with the kids and the flooding cell is as well executed as it could be, but overall it makes for an interesting plot line that allows for some introspection as well as humor—although I’m not 100% sold on Theodore’s conclusion that being fun and being an adult chaperone are mutually exclusive.

The other parts of the episode are dedicated to Beef and his new crush. He meets a weird woman in the woods while birdwatching with Moon and when she invites him to her poetry group, he accepts. What follows are plenty of fun scenes with Beef trying to become a poet, from dressing in odd mismatching outfits to trying to compose a poem out of random notes. While I wasn’t sure how it would end up, I like the sweetness of Beef actually confessing in his poem, and hey, it worked out! Hopefully Greta sticks around in some form or another, because she’s a neat character.

Poetry Of The Penals Adventure ended up being a pretty darn solid episode for me. I’m not always the biggest fan of storylines starring Wolf, but I think this one fit his character particularly well and felt really natural, even if it lagged a bit during the tour part. And Beef being all romantic is fun to watch as well. (Maybe we can get a scene of him discussing his new crush with the Mom’s Night crew  from earlier in the season?) Overall this ep definitely felt like poetry in motion.