Review: Tuca & Bertie “Corpse Week”

 

Overview:

Tuca and Bertie embrace their roots by deciding to celebrate Corpse Week with their families, a decision that’s equally exciting and worrisome for the two birds. Tuca and Bertie have each other’s backs, but their contrasting families only exacerbate the stresses that have bottled up in them all season. Bertie and Tuca are determined to have a healthy weekend with their own kind and prove to their families–and themselves–that they’ve grown. However, family has a funny way of dredging up the past and opening up old wounds.

While Tuca and Bertie open up old wounds, Speckle opens up fresh luggage, but what he finds inside happens to change the bird in very unexpected, cattle-wrangling ways.

Also, Goth Teen Bertie.

Our Take:

Happy Cadaveri, y’all!

“Corpse Week” is one of the better structured episodes of Tuca & Bertie. There’s such a clear and simple premise to this installment, which also allows it to become one of the most emotional and intense episodes of the season. Corpse Week prompts visits to both Bertie and Tuca’s families, which allows the series to further peel back the layers on these characters. There’s an earnestness to “Corpse Week” wherein both Tuca and Bertie are eager to show their parents how much they’ve matured and grown since their last visits, but since this is Tuca & Bertie it should also be obvious that this healthy display of emotions is easier said than done.

Tuca and Bertie struggle with growth, yet the individual in “Corpse Week” who exhibits real change–albeit entirely by accident–is Speckle. Tuca & Bertie has reached that sweet spot where they seem to understand that eccentric Speckle B-plots are consistently delightful. These odd events may now be regular occurrences, but the brief scraps of story that Speckle receives here are so much fun. Speckle’s luggage innocently gets switched with that of a cowboy buffalo, which begins to inform Speckle’s personality in unusual, rustic ways. It’s an easy gag, but one that continues to deliver. If nothing else, it’s very satisfying to just have Speckle in an uncomfortable cowboy outfit for the duration of the episode.

“Corpse Week” is a very contained installment, but it still manages to reflect on Tuca and Kara’s relationship even if they’re apart. It’s appreciated that Kara’s text messages don’t dominate the episode, especially when it’s easy to picture another version of “Corpse Week” where Tuca is incessantly plagued with texts from Kara that pull her out of her weekend–or worse, that Kara actually insists that she tags along to meet Tuca’s family. Their relationship gets put on the backburner this week, which is for the best since both Tuca and Bertie have enough to worry about with their families. Tuca can return to Kara with more clarity and confidence than ever before, which might have been sacrificed if she had also been along for this ride. 

Tuca & Bertie continues its excellent second season with “Corpse Week,” which is another satisfying, deep installment that properly analyzes Bertie and Tuca as individuals, and as a team. Neither of them have kept their pasts a secret, but it’s very helpful to get this extended look into their families and the types of behaviors that they’ve come to internalize. Tuca and Bertie begin “Corpse Week” eager to show their families how much they’ve changed, yet their visits only underscore that progress isn’t so black and white. It’s painful to watch Tuca and Bertie feel like they’ve outgrown their nests to some degree, but it’s a realistic experience that reinforces the journey that they’ve been on this season. Even if they’re not perfect, they’re Tuca and Bertie, and that should be enough.