Review: Bless the Harts “Mega-Lo-Memories”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Instead of their usual Black Friday war meeting, Violet convinces the rest of the family to stay in and have a more traditional Thanksgiving. In absence of the battle plans, the Harts flashback to the long ago time of the mid-2000’s, when a more typical Black Friday led to a younger Violet wandering off in the chaos, Betty and Crystalynn joining forces to procure Ugg Boots, as well as the first time Jenny and Wayne met.

OUR TAKE
Bless the Harts celebrates its second holiday of its first season with a glimpse into the main casts’ past. A few things to be gleamed from this holiday special turned framing device: First, Violet’s creepy light gray eyes were apparently NOT part of her emo kid makeover, they are just a terrifying natural part of her design (Wayne also has them but it’s less obvious at least). Second, having period piece episodes set in the 2000’s makes me feel really old and realize that the previous decade doesn’t really have much of a cultural identity (which makes me wonder what the heck 2010’s episodes are going to look like in ten years time). And THIRD, it’s still painfully clear that these characters still have a lot of fleshing out to do.

Violet calling for a normal thanksgiving seems to imply there have been some Black Fridays that have just gone too far for her, but that’s barely touched on. A little montage of the worst moments she recalls could go a long way towards giving us her perspective on why a non-violent alternative was necessary. It’s a similar problem to last week when she and Jenny didn’t really have any personal conflict between them or against their competition in the minigolf subplot. We have opportunities to explore why they do what they do, but they’re basically glossed over in favor of a just barely serviceable plot that lacks any real drive or development. Violet in particular feels like she could be the most potentially interesting with how much she sets herself apart from the rest of her family but it just seems to be a rather benign difference that doesn’t seem to impact anything. Wayne is the more handy of them and comes from a different family, Betty has her many sordid affairs, but Violet AND Jenny really need to work on boosting their unique details pronto.

This is a bit of a sour note for this show to end on before its three week break. Things resume on December 15th as we enter the last five episodes of the season. Though with just about two thirds behind this, I can definitely say that what we’ve seen has been, at best, hit or miss. Not atrocious by any means but certainly nothing to write home about. As a result, I can’t exactly expect much from the last batch, but it might surprise me. Plus, whatever they didn’t quite get with this first season can certainly be learned from for the second.