The third time is the charm it seems. We’re entering the late portion of the month of December and with the year known as 2022 ready to come to a close in about...11, 12 days. And of course, the next few days in the remaining days of the year, I might as well do this again for the third year in a row. The Top 12 Countdown is back and ready for action and man, oh man...the selection process was not easy to do when making this countdown but we’re here and ready to rock and roll. The start of the year wasn’t too kind. Sure, The Bob’s Burgers Movie got its trailer back in January alongside an explosive start to the second portion of Attack on Titan’s final season. The Georgia Bulldogs won the championship back in January also. Even though I got sick at the start of the year. Thank a lot for causing me to not do anything in during the hiatus between January and February, Corona-chan.
Other than that, 2022 is about to come to a close and despite that the pandemic isn’t even out of our lives and on the verge of nuclear annihilation, if the world does end sometime next year, I might as well say that it might as well say that it’s been fun while it lasted and I’ll probably see y’all in Hell. The good news about the Top 12 Countdown this year is that a new episode of Bob’s Burgers is not standing in the way like with last year’s version. Because the recent review for “The Plight Before Christmas” is already out alongside the mini-review of “Xmas with the Skanks Adventure” for The Great North nudged into the Bob’s Burgers review, so check that out if you like. At least with last year’s countdown, there’s a null between the numbers 9 and 10 spots because of the episode review. Giving yours truly some time to recover before resuming. This year’s countdown, much like 2020’s version, is full steam ahead to New Year’s Eve. That being said, it’s time to get the Top 12 Countdown for 2022 rolling. So coming in with Number 12 and speaking of The Great North, it’s “A Knife to Remember Adventure” to start the countdown.
Yeah...much like with Bob’s Burgers last year, it almost didn’t make the cut. Not because of quality, nothing wrong with The Great North. It’s just the selection process was not easy to do when picking just one episode to get into the list. Going from number 4 last year to number 12 in a year’s span...it’s a drop, sure. But blame the other shows for having black air force energy with their episodes. And The Great North did their part. Besides, it came down to this episode, Season 2’s “Say It Again, Ham Adventure” or even Season 3’s...I guess “Autumn If You Got Em Adventure” despite giving it a score of a 7 out of 10 the same way how in the hell the Philadelphia Phillies even made it to the postseason. But that being said, let’s get to The Great Nor- sorry, I mean the now reigning defending Battle of the Week champions Great North. Champion Judy Tobin...it happened. It’s now a thing. What happened? Chaos...and also Black Clover capitulated throughout the last two weeks. But here we are. Judy Tobin is the champion. And we’re starting off the countdown with The Great North with “A Knife to Remember Adventure”.
The start of the show’s third season and unlike Season 2’s premiere despite being a musical episode, it was not a bad episode to start off the show’s third and current season. The plot is pretty much simple. Wolf and Honeybee encounter an Australian-themed restaurant, which is pretty much what would’ve looked like if Outback Steakhouse and the Rainforest Cafe had a baby, after getting a flat tire. However, the restaurant has some sort of history for the Tobin family. Mainly because Crocodile Rob’s, the name of the restaurant, is on the Tobin’s no-go place list by Beef. Mostly due to...wouldn’t you guess it? Kathleen for fucking up the family’s experience whenever they head out. So it’s no surprise that Wolf and Honeybee, and later Judy, Ham, and Moon keep the visit to the restaurant a secret from Beef. It’s mostly due to Kathleen’s antics that pretty much left a huge scar on the family to the point where they can’t ever return. For Beef to declare the place as a no-go because of the memories, rather, the nightmares that caused him whenever there’s a family outing back when Kathleen was around. Already adds to the notion, and it’s not even an argument that Kathleen is not mother material.
Sure, the rest of the family got caught later in the episode when the two plots of the episode intertwine with each other once arriving back from the restaurant and broke Beef’s rules and of course, upsets him with them going into a place where the experience had been ruined by Kathleen. And the Tobins and Honeybee do have a point when visiting almost every place that Kathleen ruined their experience in one of the musical numbers of the episode. Sure, their mother ruined their experience. The scar that the Tobin family had to deal with after Kathleen’s departure is there and is never going away at any time. But they can’t stay in the past. They can’t stay out and live in shame for what Kathleen had done to not make them return. Or as Honeybee put in during the musical number, you’re not her and she’s not here. They can’t live in the shame that was caused by Kathleen. That’s her problem, not the family's.
So it would make sense for Beef in the final minutes of the episode to face his demons and enter the restaurant for the first time in forever. Not to tell everyone to get out. But to accept the facts that they can’t stay in the past and live in shame whenever they’re across a place where Kathleen ruined their experience. Hell, there’s a song number in all of this. To the show’s credit, it did tackle the issue of divorce and how it left a huge scar on the family. Sure, in the first-ever episode of the series, the kids just brushed it off with no negative impacts on their lives but Beef...yeah, it was pretty much a lasting impact. But he did hang on with the help of the kids. Kathleen almost paid a visit to Wolf and Honeybee’s wedding when she RSVP’d the invitation but gets stuck in Tulsa. Finding out the person who Kathleen cheated with being Wolf’s old dance instructor. The point is that Kathleen is not family material and left a huge scar on the family following Moon’s birth. And the family shouldn’t even bear the burden that was left by Kathleen whenever or wherever they go, even if it means going behind Beef’s back. They did in the episode when ending the second or third act but the family and Beef did agree at the end of the episode to not stay in the past and instead, create new memories. Even if it means doing it by song to close out. Oh yeah, and you can thank Londra for helping Beef to come to terms while helping him to deal with small talk conversations.
Oh yeah, that’s a subplot. That is the subplot to the episode while the family was doing fuck all in going behind their father’s back when going to the restaurant. Sure, it felt like filler, to say the least when describing the subplot. The subplot is simple, Beef has some trouble getting into small talk and asks for some help to overcome his fears of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not too big of doing small talk. I’m not considered the social type. I’m not too big a fan of small talk. Mostly because the conversation you’re in would most likely lead to results being 50:50 whether it’ll be good and everything goes well or ends badly and you’ll probably end up getting canceled. In Beef’s case, he’s not good at small talk because he’s the type of person who isn’t too good at creating or being a part of small conversations. To the point where he’s on the verge of getting kicked out of the knife club by Londra because of him being horrible at doing small talk. Just as he is about to host the meeting at the Tobin household.
Leading him to come up to Londra the next day to help out with him coaching to do small talk. As I said, it felt like filler with Londra helping Beef create the perfect small talk without messing things up. Some trials and tribulations in the mix with Beef messing things up while at the post office and everywhere else across town before getting things settled once he got reinstated into the club...well, until a car shows up, thinking that it’s the pizza he ordered and instead it’s the family backstabbing him wearing souvenirs from Crocodile Rob’s. You know, disobeying his orders and becoming heartbroken.
Again, you have to thank Londra for getting Beef out of his comfort zone after that little confrontation to close out the third act of the episode. Telling him about the universe and such as an example to get Beef to head over to the place he shouldn’t visit after what happened with Kathleen. She knows what she is doing to comfort Beef after seeing his family coming back from one of the places where Kathleen ruined their visit. She knows that Kathleen leaving the family hurts him. Hell, Londra did help Beef in getting him to confront his demons, confront his family, accept what happened, and not let him or the family stay in the past in shame because of Kathleen’s actions. I’m saying that Londra carried the subplot. Maybe the episode but that’s mostly Wolf and Honeybee’s doing.
As I said, out of the episodes that aired in 2022 for The Great North to be put into the countdown, this was the best one out of the rabbit’s hat. Compared to Season 2’s premiere, which was a musical episode, it wasn’t predictable like with the situation regarding Judy’s braces whether she’ll take it off or not. We knew that it ain’t going to happen. We knew that Judy was going to keep her braces on because come on? Do y’all really think that Judy was going to have her braces off for the rest of the series? In the show’s second season? Yeah...I don’t think so.
This one has to be the better one of the season premieres. And yes, I may have to drag “Sexi Moose Adventure” because it’s not a bad episode to start the episode. It’s just that this episode may have been the best out of the three. I know that Season 4 has already been greenlit and a word of a Season 5...well...you guys won a championship title...so uh...let’s pray that Season 4 or 5 won’t be your final season. But leave it to the show where they have to continue what they’re doing that often times touched upon a certain topic, that being divorce and the harsh reality of a single parent taking charge of the family. Especially when paying a visit to the restaurant or various places across town where the kids had to shed the shame that their mother caused.
The songs are alright when the family paid the visit to the restaurant. Going from Wolf and Honeybee at the start of the episode to dragging Ham, Judy, and Moon along before Beef steps in at the end of the episode. Different rendition and much like the previous season’s premiere episode. It’s not a bad start to the season. The main plot isn’t too bad to watch over. The subplot did feel like filler but it did intertwine with the main plot once we get to the end of the third act and going into the fourth, but Londra did somewhat carry this subplot with her helping Beef how to make small talk but also getting him out of his comfort zone to take a visit to Crocodile Rob’s and accept what happened. You can’t stay in the past for too long. Those demons needed to be exorcised for the Tobin family when visiting the restaurant and at the end of the episode, with some help from the family doing the decision-making and the help of a friend, they can at least breathe a sigh of relief and live on what is happening in the present and not in the past.
Day 1 of the Top 12 Countdown of the year 2022 is in the books. Again, wasn’t easy when doing the decision process of what to put on the list as we prepare to close out the year. What do you think about this episode? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 11 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Which episode and series will be taking the eleventh spot? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Mastodon, and Instagram for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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