Review: Bless the Harts “Can’t Get There from Here”

 

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Violet submits her artwork to her school’s art show, which the rest of the family is thrilled by, so much so that they think she should be going to the High School of Arts in Winston. Unfortunately, the tuition is…a lot, so Wayne HATCHES a plan. Specifically getting Ostriches to lay eggs that will hatch them a bunch of money to go towards Violet’s tuition. The problem with this, as Jesus points out later, is that they’re two guy Ostriches, meaning that while their mating will probably be more accepted than a few years ago, it shall spawn no eggs.

While this is happening, Jenny gets reprimanded at The Last Supper by her boss Louise for being too sexy at work (despite only wearing her normal uniform) and ends up moonlighting at a strip club (manning the buffet) to make some extra cash when the ostrich plan goes beak up. But once her boss gets word of this, she’s fired for violating the “Christian” image of the restaurant. With only the strip club left for income, Jenny tries for a “Flashdance” style non-stripping dance to avoid showing the goods, but the crowd unsurprisingly does not go for it. Luckily, she spots Louise in the club after meeting for booty call, which gets Jenny her job back at The Last Summer.

Violet wins an $800 scholarship, which she offers to Wayne in order to get a lady ostrich, but Wayne insists she keep it for art school tuition.

OUR TAKE
Okay, now I’m feeling more confident about Bless the Harts’ chances. This episode gives me the impression that they’re finding their stride in balancing the comedy and family values that many of the show’s promotional videos claimed it would have. Compared to the pilot, which felt a bit awkward in getting the audience acclimated to this new take on an animation style that has long since been run into the ground, here we seem to be finally tapping into what might help it carve out its niche to stay in the running for at least one more season.

First of all, the ostrich plot is just about the right amount of grounded and ridiculous for this show’s set tone. And I know this because it plays on a lot of the humor King of the Hill did when they had a sort of similar subplot involving emus, but just because it reminds me of something from a different show doesn’t automatically damn it right out of the gate. It doesn’t need to get super fantastical like The Simpsons or Family Guy or American Dad because it can work within the realm of grounded comedy this sort of setting provides. There’s a reason King of the Hill ran for as long as it did and Bob’s Burgers is still going strong, and that’s because they were able to make that sort of humor work without needing to pull something out of their ass for the sake of the plot or the joke…aside from the whole Jesus thing, but I’m still figuring out how I feel about that.

Though the big part to talk about would be Jenny’s plot at The Last Supper, which might be a look into the kinds of stories a show written now and starring a mostly female cast might be able to do that others couldn’t. That being showing the confusing judgment that Jenny goes through being an admittedly attractive woman who is judged for her appearance looking even slightly suggestive. This episode helps us to get to know her boundaries in showing herself off on her terms. Even though there really isn’t much of a lesson to it by the end, it’s certainly an interesting way to play around with that and how it reacts to their home’s “Christian” sensibilities. So, overall, I think Bless the Harts is figuring itself out at the right place to keep hope alive for a second season renewal.