The Goldbergs - Spaceballs - Review

This weeks ‘Spaceballs’ themed episode was a strange bag for me. Part of the episode I really liked, found funny, and quite emotional and the other part of the episode I was completely lost.

There is a possibility when I was younger I watched ‘Spaceballs’, but that’s an extremely minor possibility. I certainly don’t remember anything about the film, nor do I really know who Mel Brooks is or about Ronald Reagan.

So an episode that had it’s a storyline centered around those three subject matters is going to be extremely confusing. At the beginning of the episode they did shed some light on he subjects, but it really wasn’t enough for me to make heads or tails of.

The only things I really took from the story was the awkwardness of Adam thinking Mr Geary was talking about Star Wars the movie, when he was actually talking about some political event, laughter is a thing that does bring everyone together, Barry thinking Adam’s drawing’s were fantastic whilst Geoff had to give him a crash course in politics, and different social groups of the school threatening to come to blows.

The other storyline of the episode, and the one that was far more compelling for me was Erica. Following on from her decision to leave college last week, she had to break that news to her parents. After all her room was packed, meal plan packed in and she was basically flunking out. When Pops, Murray and Beverly came to visit though, Erica struggled with how to break the news.

Whilst Murray was distracted by shrimp, she broke the news to Beverly and Pops and it was absolutely hilarious. Over the course of these last 5 years we have seen Barry, Adam and Erica pull some wild moves, that have driven their parents rather hilariously to the point of breaking. But the bombshell that Erica had dropped out? That rendered Beverly Goldberg speechless and her face spoke a billion words. She and Pops were soon proclaiming that Erica was going to kill her father, but when Murray was told the news he reacted calmly because as far as he was concerned, she was not flunking.

Dad mode was soon activated as Murray marched off. We’d never seen him walk so fast let alone go up a flight of stairs without stopping for a moment, but he was a man on a mission. Soon Erica was reinstated, her room unpacked, and everything was seemingly great again, except Erica really didn’t want to stay on at school. Music is her passion, and starting a girl band with her friends is something she was extremely excited over, and unwilling to just let go of.

Both of her parents wanted Erica to stay on at school, due to the mistakes they’d made with their own life. Beverly is now watching her children become all grown up and moving on to the next stage of their lives, whilst she’s still desperately trying to figure out what she’s doing with hers. Murray is somewhat settled into a comfortable existence now, but we’ve seen during times of the show that he has regrets over how his college journey went. Whilst they were obviously exhibiting parental concern in not wanting Erica to make those mistakes, they were unfortunately missing the most important duty of a parent’s life; listening to what your kids say. Erica is by far the most sensible of the Goldbergs. Since the show began she’s had a passion for music, and it has always seemed to me that her insistence of going off to college was more to do with getting away from her family than actually wanting an education. After all she did fight to attend a school that was a safe distance away from her hometown.

I was slightly afraid the girl band was just going to be a plot of the episode, but it seems as though this is something Erica, and the show itself is set on her pursuing. How exactly this girl band with Lainey and other Erica will work out in the long run I don’t know, since AJ Michalka will be on the spin-off show soon. Being on two shows at the same time is more than possible, especially when they’re both comedies, run by the same Network and same showrunners. However character wise being on two shows may be a little confusing for viewers. But whatever happens, as long as Erica continues to get a good amount of screen time I won’t complain.

Special shout-out to the song the band chose for their demo being The Goldbergs theme song. It was an absolutely beautiful version of the song that most definitely got my emotions going, and if they did decide to release a full length of their version I very much wouldn’t be against it.

What did you think of ‘Spaceballs’? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and next week of course sees The Goldbergs wrap its 5th season!