The Goldbergs - The Hooters - Review

After 5 straight weeks of quality episodes, ‘The Hooters’ was unexpectedly not a hoot. I rarely laughed throughout the episode, let alone found the storylines engaging.

The main storyline this week was Adam messing around in woodshop class, which resulted in his teacher almost being injured. Murray is called into the school, and he, Adam and the Principal are forced to listen to Mr. Crosby’s stories about being out in the jungle and respecting the wood. Clancy Brown and Stephen Toblowsky were honestly the best thing about this storyline. The way Mr. Crosby just kept going on despite Principal Ball saying he could stop, then telling Murray and Adam they could go as Mr. Crosby demanded that Adam apologize to the wood as well as him was mildly humorous.

The story of Adam being the funny man really wasn’t though. I feel like the show has explored this type of storyline before and whilst his attempts at making Murray laugh were amusing enough, and it was good to have some Murray/Adam screen time again, the storyline just didn’t do anything for me.

Erica returning to college and joining the other Erica in becoming a snob was slightly better. It gave us some fun interaction with the two Erica’s, Beverly, Geoff and Barry. Beverly and Geoff have been sharing more screen time together of late, and I did love that they both pointed out that it was weird but still joined together to try and become more cultured so Erica wouldn’t abandon them. Their disgust over Erica’s pronunciation of water was funny as was Barry teaching them how to be cultured. Like Murray, I laughed when Barry put a mouthful of caviar in his mouth and was then horrified by how disgusting it was. Barry, Beverly and Geoff being dressed up in fancy clothes and Barry teaching them how to speak posh, and informing them they shop upstairs now was again amusing.

I don’t know if it’s that last weeks episode was so good, but ‘The Hooter’s’ just felt like it had something missing. It wasn’t as engaging as I usually find The Goldbergs to be. Dare I say it felt very much like a filler episode? As someone who herself wasn’t very good at woodshop and couldn’t understand being allowed nearly screw drivers and saws, the episode opener should’ve been funnier than it actually was. Erica coming to the realization she could be a hometown girl and explore new things should've been heartfelt, and Beverly interrupting her moment with Geoff should've been amusing but it was all just really flat.

Next weeks episode is the backdoor pilot that didn’t make it to series last year, and I’m really intrigued to see how the episode does. Nia Long is currently ruling the roost on NCIS: Los Angeles but will be starring as Lucy Somers, as the action picks up at William Penn Academy in 1990. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey has said the spin-off could get a series pickup if the pilot episode does well and is warmly received, so I really hope people tune in because from the description it seems like it could be really good.

What are your thoughts on the episode? Share your thoughts in the comment section down below.