Review: Bless the Harts “Hot Tub-tation”

 

 

Overview:

With their tenth anniversary coming up, Wayne surprises Jenny by installing a hot tub in their backyard. They quickly fall in love with the fast lifestyle of hosting parties and soaking in the warm water. Unfortunately, Wayne becomes a bit too swooned causing him to miss the important anniversary dinner.

Meanwhile, Betty has been permanently banned from her favourite department store. She goes in undercover with a whole new persona and becomes fast friends with the store manager. But even Betty cannot hold up the lie forever.

 

Our Take:

It is hard not to recognize the acute metaphor that kicks off this episode. When Jenny and Wayne discuss their decade long relationship, they realize that they have lost the flare that they once had. Violet is the one to point out that they have sunk into oblivion, and like the butterfly, they should have lived fast and died in their prime.

By happenstance, this is one of the last episodes that we will see from this short-lived series. And like a passionate relationship or beautiful insect, it put all its life into a short period. Soon it will be bowing out before it can become a boring shadow of its past self.

As much as it would be great to say that the show is dying in its prime, Bless the Harts never really found itself. The series has seen many transformations from when it first piloted. And as we near the end of the second season it still struggles to define itself. More likely, we will remember it as the show that tried to blend The Simpsons formula with a King of the Hill theme.  

In all honesty, this was one of the stronger episodes we have seen out of Bless the Harts. Breaking free from the rut of telling derivative stories, this edition went in some fresh directions.

Buying a hot tub and becoming the party house in their mid-thirties goes for Wayne as it would for most of us, with both of them burnt out. The novelty was a spontaneous spark for their relationship. However, maintaining that level of socialization seems like a nightmare for anyone approaching middle age.

Once again, Betty Hart steals the show. The series may have found more life had they had the foresight to make Maya Rudolph’s character to be the star from the get-go. The grandma that doesn’t give a fuck would likely be a household name if we entered this world from her perspective.

This episode once again makes the mistake of having Betty show vulnerability. Thankfully, it is in a more tactful way than some of the other stories we have seen this season. The Mrs Doubtfire storyline was a fun place to take the character. Where it goes wrong is when she makes apologies for her actions. It would have been more entertaining to watch her lose control of the situation. Still, anytime Betty can get up to her own side adventures the show is better off for it.

It could be argued that if Bless the Harts could have maintained this level of humour consistently, we would be having a different conversation about the future of the series. However, this still doesn’t hold up to the quality of content that is becoming more widely available in the adult animation stream. This is the type of episode that would have been more appreciated in the late-90s more so than it is in today’s market.