Review: Corner Gas Animated “Zip-A-Dee-Broom-Bah”

It’s a Corner Gas – Battle Bots crossover that ends badly for everyone.

Overview:

Karen and Davis are trying to get the town to stop leaving their free junk on the street. When Davis gets excited about the opportunity of free stuff he brings it all back to the police station until the mayor shuts him down. Emma was quick enough to pick up a free robotic vacuum cleaner which Oscar takes in as a pet. After Wanda gives the machine an overhaul they realize they may have been in for more than they bargained for.

Meanwhile, Lacey and Brent are disputing over who should help Hank with his next big idea. After giving up on compromising Hank splits off on his own. His brilliant idea is, to build a zip line from the towns grain elevator. Which of course should end badly, but does it?

Our Take:

The season finale was a return to old form as this episode shared glimpses of the magic that was the original series. Brent actually spent most of his time manning the gas station. Hank is up to his old hair-brained schemes. Wanda is showing off her unfocused genius. And, everyone else has their own things going on to help anybody else out. Very much a throwback to old-school Corner Gas.

Oscar’s adoption of a tiny robotic automated vacuum cleaner was surprisingly sweet for the grumpy old man. His pure love for a robot that likes to snack on crumbs was more caring than he shows his wife or child. In fact, watching this made me want to find my own robot vacuum to keep as a pet, and you know, clean up for you. Plus, Wanda going all battle bots was definitely the highlight of this episode.

The idea of the police force attempting to clean up the town’s junk is pretty fitting for a city as small as Dog River. One road trip through Saskatchewan and you are sure to find piles of junk like this one in towns all over. It is a bit of a time honoured tradition to leave your stuff out for people to grab, so I don’t know what their problem is. I lived in a city that would have a day dedicated just for leaving old junk out and you would be surprised at the treasures you would find in the nicer neighbourhoods.

One thing that threw me back in this episode was mention of Wanda’s child. I had completely forgotten that Wanda was a mother and it has not been mentioned once during the animated series previously. Which leaves me questioning continuity. If Wanda has raised her child for eight years, shouldn’t she be pursuing her doctorate as mentioned in the original series? Up until now, I figured the animated series started somewhere near the beginning of the original show but with modern takes. Where does this all fit in with the Dog River timeline?

Also, I for one thought that Hank’s idea was brilliant. A town like Dog River would do good to add a tourist attraction like a zip line. Given the never-ending flatlands of Saskatchewan don’t really condone a high flying zip line, but a grain elevator is a viable option. It would be pretty awesome to zip down one of those now that I think about it.

This was a fun and simple episode to top off the season. I am excited that they have secured a second year and with some of the kinks worked out now, there is a lot of promise moving forward. Keeping with the small town themes and problems like this episode offered there is still plenty to look forward to. I am glad that this show finally aired after a long lead up, and this was a great way to end a solid season.