At this time of year life starts taking a hold of us, which results in spare time whittling down and as a consequence another double review of two great episodes. Like with any comedy The Goldbergs is going to go through sour patches every now and then but “The Living Room: A 100% True Story” gave us the golden trio of Beverly/Adam/Erica and some heartfelt Barry/Murray moments, and “Bachelor Party” reminded me of why Murray/Beverly are one of the best couples on TV and I barely even noticed that Erica didn’t feature much in the episode.
“The Living Room: A 100% True Story” provided us with more continuity in Barry’s future career as a Doctor. It also touched on the unhealthy lifestyle that Murray lives, and instead of trying to change himself for the people around him, he instead manipulates them with praise into falling into his bad ways. This results in Beverly getting a lobster dinner and fitness fanatic Coach being broken, which I didn’t think possible. By the end of it Barry had to resort to some pretty desperate measures; being honest with Murray about his love for him.
Depending on your family, being real with your parents isn’t easy. There’s just something a little bit strange about declaring how much you love them, want them to be around forever, to better themselves and support themselves more than they already do and vice versa. We’ll basically do everything we can to avoid talking about the elephant in the room, because once you do? It can’t be undone. Ironically enough though the scene in which Barry professed his true deep feelings for his father and Murray didn’t know how to react, is probably up there with one of the best moments of the season so far. Troy Gentile like the rest of the actors on the show has a real knack for comedy, and it serves him well playing Barry, but he can also pull off the more emotional moments without coming across as cringy or cheesy. The same goes for Jeff Garlin who doesn’t tend to be utilised much since Murray’s usually on the periphery of storylines, but when he is called upon he always rises to the occasion.
Whilst we had this heartfelt storyline going on and Murray and Barry eventually reaching a compromise, Beverly/Adam/Erica were caught up in living room hijinks. It turns out that the Goldbergs have a living room which we rarely ever see, because it’s out of bounds except for when Beverly has friends over to sit in fancy chairs and enjoy the collection of items she’s built up over the years. Beverly sees her collection as being rare treasures. Everyone else, including the auction house, just views them as junk and Beverly isn’t happy to see that Adam & Erica feel the same way. She’s left saddened to know that when she dies, her children won’t be carrying on her legacy with her collection and that leaves them with food for thought. I’m sure we’ve all been in situations where you’re rummaging through the attic and discover an old item from 1994 which your parent claims is a priceless antique, whilst you just view it as a piece of tat.
Adam & Erica do eventually come round to see Beverly’s point of view and repurchase the items from the auction and put them back in their rightful place, whilst Beverly decides that the living room should be used as an actual living room and opens it up to the family to sit, relax and make memories together.
On “Bachelor Party”, Barry and Lainey are gearing up for their respective hen and bachelor parties, with Barry wanting to go completely wild to prove he isn’t a kid anymore. Unfortunately that doesn’t go so well as he finds himself not really enjoying Uncle Marvin’s wild plans, and discovering that a night out at the arcade with the JTP and Adam? Exactly what the Doctor ordered. Following on from the previous episode we get another emotional moment as Adam and Barry reveal their love for each other, and of course coming across the moment Beverly is armed with a first aid kit believing someone has gotten injured but instead they’re all drowning in feels.
Meanwhile Beverly and Murray had a nice little storyline of their own, as Beverly forced Murray to buy a new car for the family to use. He was extremely reluctant to do this, but found himself falling in love with a shiny new car and enjoying all the praise for it being such a rarity. Unfortunately he quite soon came crashing down to earth as the car promptly broke down on him, and with it being such a rare car from overseas? Impossible to find a repair shop with all the parts needed to get it up and running again.
Murray was then annoyed with Beverly for daring to try to make him feel good about himself by persuading him to spend money, and was convinced that he deserved the absolute minimum. He complained to Bill who rather surprisingly took Beverly’s side, pointing out that Murray has a wife who loves and is completely devoted to him and his every whim, whilst he has no idea where his wife even is.
It left Murray with food for thought and he was soon trying to make things right with Beverly by taking her for a picnic. Whilst the car couldn’t be fixed, Murray still kept it on the drive way as a reminder of the things in life that are important and from all of this, we were treated to Adam & Barry trying to climb out of the broken car and Barry then trying to slide through the window and completely failing.
The festive season being upon us means that it’s time for shows to deliver their annual Christmas themed episodes, and The Goldbergs will be doing that this Wednesday on ABC.
