Review: Big City Greens “Tilly Style; I, Farmbot”

Overview

“Tilly Style”
After one of Nancy’s motorcycle customers calls her a baby, Tilly and her Mom head to the mall to update her look to something more mature. She tries out a few different wildly different approaches to style, hoping to gain respect from others, before ultimately gaining it for herself.

“I, Farmbot”
Cricket hopes to get out of chores by convincing his Dad to try out a F.R.A.N.K (Farm Robot Assistant Networ-K!) for a free 30 day trial. However, helping Bill adjust to his newfound free time turns out to be more work than he’d expected.

Our Take

In a Tilly focused episode, we get to learn a little bit more about our favorite purple-clad “pre-tweenager”, while the following tale of the unexpected dangers of automated labor gives a unique spin to the consequences Cricket’s constant slacking off.

While helping Nancy in her motorcycle shop, Tilly feels embarrassed when a customer assumes that she’s a baby, based on her style. Nancy suggests they get her a more mature look, and the duo heads to Big City Mall (When You’re Here, You’re Shopping) to find her some new duds. For the B plot, Cricket protests his father’s insistence that he continue to eat zucchini, or not leave his chair. It plays out about how you’d expect. Back to the style in “Tilly Style”, the mother-daughter duo enter “flairs”, where Nancy suggests Tilly get her ears pierced, which Tilly deems too subtle to warrant the reaction she desires. She opts instead for a full makeover, which unfortunately doesn’t result in other people respecting her, as she’d hoped. She tries out a new look, then another one, until Nancy is able to convince her that it’s not important what other people think of you, it’s what you think of yourself. Tilly appreciates her mother’s advice, and pig-based tattoos that reflect Nancy’s personal growth, and ultimately opts for a small stylistic change that’s meaningful to her.

“I, Farmbot” reveals the unintended consequences of Bill not having to farm all day, after Cricket convinces him to try out Big Tech’s latest and greatest “foray into modern farming.” The farmbot (which features “Farmers True Grit” programming, “modeled from the DNA of actual human farmers!”) is intended to replace the Green’s homemade tools, which include a goat lawn mower, and a slightly too effective “scare-gnome”. F.R.A.N.K grants Cricket’s wish to get rid of chores, but in a mildly monkey-paw style situation, he’s saddled with the work of teaching his Dad how to enjoy free time. He finally manages to teach Bill how to relax, which also goes too far, resulting in having to break his Dad out of his TV-obsessed trance, which requires taking on F.R.A.N.K., who immediately attempts to take over the farm. The conclusion will feel familiar to anyone who’s worked retail, or had to return something.

In the end, these episodes are two solid additions to Big City Greens canon, with the exception of some mild zucchini slander. The family dynamics continue to develop more layers and nuance as the series progresses, and these episodes do their part to build on the established personalities in new settings.