The Goldbergs - O Captain! My Captain! / Snow Day - Double Review

Hello readers! I apologize that it's taken me so long to review this show, but I have a double review for The Goldbergs this week! I have to say that I enjoyed both "O Captain! My Captain!" and "Snow Day", and I hope everyone else did, too.

O Captain! My Captain!

This episode was inspired by The Dead Poets Society, and I love that movie. Watching this episode made me realize how much I miss Robin Williams. The episode begins with Beverly substitute teaching and, of course, embarrassing Barry. She wants to be like Robin Williams' character and help her students learn and get excited about school. Unfortunately it's not working as Barry is terrible at science.

Murray knows he has to do something so he tricks Barry into thinking Beverly wants him to fail. Barry actually starts to study and learning just to prove his mom wrong.

Barry aces his chemistry test, but Murray's plan blows up in his face. Barry tells Beverly that he will succeed despite her. At first she's thrilled because she thought she inspired him, but then she learns about Murray. Beverly is clearly hurt, and she thinks she's not a good teacher.

Murray is usually pretty good at fixing his mistakes and this week is no different. He tells Barry that Beverly believed in him the whole time. This leads to my favorite scene in this episode when Barry stood on his desk and thanked his mom. The other students followed and soon everyone was standing and telling Beverly "O Captain! My Captain!" Even the bad students stood up.

"Dude! They're sticking it to Miller by standing on school property!"

"I'm king of whatever class this is!"

Seriously this scene gave me chills and had me cracking up all at the same time. And I loved the scene after it with footage of the real Goldbergs. Barry Goldberg really did become a doctor! That's great!

Adam also learns some lessons this week. He has some trouble with best friend Emmy. The boys all like her and it makes her feel uncomfortable. He doesn't know how to handle this because he has no idea what it's like to be a girl in high school. Luckily Erica steps in and helps. She makes him see that being a teenage girl is hard, and Adam needs to be a better friend. I was so proud of him for standing up for Emmy when she's hit on by those bullies.

I also loved that Adam hugged Erica and thanked her for helping him. I've really like Erica and Adam's relationship and that she's a great big sister. She really did save his friendship with Emmy this week. The Adam/Emmy storyline was a little more serious than we're used to on The Goldbergs, but I appreciated it. These kind of issues are real and happen every day. I'm glad the writers decided to spend some time touching on them


Snow Day

I really enjoyed Snow Day. I love a good snow day and apparently the Goldbergs do, too. Their school is hardly ever closed, but the kids are so excited about their day off from school. They celebrate by jumping up and down and hugging Beverly- you know they much be happy if they let their mother hug them.

Murray hates snow and tries to ruin Barry and Adam's snow day. He wants them to shovel the walkway, but they have a different idea. They end up building a snow fort, and Murray is livid. He decides to go after Barry and Adam in the fort. Unfortunately he gets stuck. I do have to say that it was pretty funny how much Murray freaked out.

Barry loved watching Murray get so worked up that he made a list of everything Murray hates. Barry cranks up the thermostat and they eat Murray's favorite popcorn. They tell him that they no longer fear him. This sounds like a great plan, right?

Murray decides that he will no longer be a father to them and while the boys are excited at first, this backfires pretty quickly. According to Murray, it only took twenty minutes. What happened was Adam went sledding, but the sled was attached to the station wagon. Why did they think this was a good idea? At some part of the sledding, the rope broke off and Barry lost Adam. I loved that Murray automatically knew Barry did something wrong.

"What did you do?"
"I lost Adam."
"Get my pants!"

Luckily they find Adam pretty quickly, and he's okay minus a sore ankle. Murray wraps him and up and puts in in the car. He acts really nice, but then Adam says, "You're going to yell at us when we get home aren't you?" "Oh yeah," Murray tells him.

While Murray is busy being aggravated by Adam and Barry, Beverly is obsessing over Erica's final college essay. First, Erica is upset that Beverly wants her to spend her day off writing. Then she gets mad at her mother when she snoops through her room and finds the essay which is about Erica's hero: Beverly Goldberg.

Beverly is overjoyed that she is Erica's hero, but she does what she always does: goes overboard. She's so excited Erica wrote about her and now wants to go skiing with Erica. Erica is fed up and wants to change her essay and write about a different hero: herself. After Beverly finds out about this, she races to mail her essay first. Unfortunately the walkway is icy (since Adam and Barry didn't shovel it) and the both slip and fall.

This leads to the two having a heart to heart. Erica's essay about Beverly meant everything to her because it proves that Erica still loves her. Of course Erica loves her, and Erica tells her mom that she is her hero and they hug. This was a nice moment.

The snow day ends well for everyone as Barry and Adam apologize by giving Murray his favorite popcorn and part of the thermostat, and the two end up shoveling the driveway after all. I loved that Murray threw snowballs at the two boys and then Beverly and Erica joined in. That was the best way to end the episode and the snow day.

What did you think of "O Captain! My Captain!" and "Snow Day"? Do you love snow days as much as The Goldbergs? There's a bit of a break before the next new episode, but stay tuned for all new episodes in February!