Review: No Activity “Breaking Bread”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Cullen and Tolbeck finally reunite in the season finale. As they wait for the raid, Cullen and Tolbeck soon realize they have information that could take down The Collective for good.

Our Take: 

The endgame is finally here, and what better way to celebrate than by getting the old gang back together. That’s right. After being separated since the beginning of season four, Cullen and Tolbeck are finally back together for the first time to take down Terry and The Collective. Or so they thought.

The season finale went back to the formula that made the previous seasons a success, and it’s a welcoming return-to-form. One of my favorite parts of the show is the humorous chemistry between Patrick Brammall and Tim Meadows, who play Cullen and Tolbeck, respectively. They’re like a mismatched couple who don’t usually agree on anything and get one of them into trouble. It shows that not all partners see eye-to-eye, which is where the comedy comes from. We’ve seen these two characters go their separate ways throughout the entire season, and the final episode was the perfect way to see them back together again.

The Cullen and Tolbeck segments were just as funny as I thought they would be, ranging from the conversations to Tolbeck’s micro-dosing in the sourdough bread. If you have seen the previous season finales of No Activity, you would have already figured out the outcome in this episode. However, the way they handled this direction managed to keep the formula from getting a bit too stale. This would’ve been the episode where the viewers could finally see Cullen and Tolbeck saving the day for once. Unfortunately, it turns out that Cullen has been drugged the entire time thanks to Tolbeck’s bread, and the FBI was able to arrest Terry during the process. In other words, they wasted their opportunity to be heroes once again. It’s one of those bait-and-switch moments that turn out to be hilarious rather than frustrating.

I also thought the Janice and Fatima segments were pretty enjoyable. Not as much as I did with Cullen and Tolbeck, but they’re entertaining regardless. They’re talking about being independent women and not needing men after Janice hasn’t heard back from her boyfriend, Bobby, in a while. When Bobby came by near the end to explain his absence, Janice gets back together with him and throws that conversation in the trash bin. The segments didn’t affect the main plot entirely, but they did provide some suitable laughs.

Overall, the season four finale of No Activity is a return-to-form in terms of the show’s reliant formula. It is also a worthy conclusion to another abridged arc packed with humor and effective chemistries between the main cast. As for the entire season itself, I would say that it was a decent experience from start to finish. The show’s animation style was undoubtedly a hit-and-miss, with the main issue being the choppy frame rate. However, I appreciate the direction it went with story-wise, even though some of the moments weren’t as stellar as the previous seasons. If they were to make a season five with the same animation style, they should fix the frame rate to make it more appealing than distracting. This is another enjoyable season of a surprisingly solid comedy series that’s as entertaining as watching the cop action unfold.