And then, there was one—the final day of the year and the final spot of the countdown of 2025. And yes, either simultaneously posting on the same day as the episode review of the newest Bob’s Burgers episode or this ends up being the final post of 2025, making the review of “Heist Things are Heist” the first post of 2026, it has been a pretty long ass year. And now, we have reached the finish line. And so, why not give it a send-off? And what else than the number one spot of the Top 12 Countdown of 2025 for this particular series, and yes, I am aware everyone is giving me the stink eye for placing it and calling it me bias and shit, but it is my list. So, take it or leave it, bitch. We’re going to give this show its flowers before the end of this year. And that would be “It’s a Beef-derful Life Adventure”.
It sucks that this got denied a sixth season. It really sucks that it had to end this way. And if we have to end this year’s countdown, we might as well give this show a send-off before we say goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. And the final episode of The Great North might as well be the episode to do just that. The episode's premise is that Beef had a near-death experience. Nearly died when trying to bring home a dead moose for the town of Lone Moose to eat after getting their turn for LERK. And this is not the typical near-death experiences we see in episodes past with either of the Tobin family; it’s more of Beef nearly getting sent to meet with the big man upstairs, up in the upper room, when being crushed by a dead moose.
All of that stemming from Beef wanting to be the hero in all of this. Lone Moose was excited to have their turn in the event and had to feed on dead moose, since LERK works this way: Lone Moose and the neighboring towns each take turns participating in the event for their cities. And this year happens to be Lone Moose’s turn to go on the hunt to bring in some roadkill. The bad news for the citizens of Lone Moose, the location of the dead moose is in a treacherous spot miles away from town, Absalom’s Pass, and by the edge of the cliff. Not to mention, treacherous weather conditions are hurling in the direction, which would make it difficult for the retrieval straight out of a reality show about truckers driving around the mountain. And for one, Beef Tobin, when hearing and seeing the disappointment from the town after having to wait for a while for their turn to arrive, only to find out that retrieving the dead moose is too dangerous to retrieve it to the town...
Taking the stage and deciding to play the hero. Out here thinking that he’s LeBron James, like in that one meme above this paragraph. He has been ready for when Lone Moose would get a turn, and it’s the gratification from the townsfolk, not just his family, in what he is going for as if he were fishing for compliments. And despite the risk that Beef would have to put up when having to play hero in getting the moose to town, he doesn’t want to let his community down and would do anything to give Lone Moose their dead moose to feast on.
Of course, the Tobins originally threw their support for Beef no matter the situation because they wanted to support him as much as they wanted. This is not one of them, as they began to have second thoughts about all of this. Mainly because of how treacherous the landscape is, and the incoming inclement weather for the area isn’t going to do the Tobins any favors. But that’s not going to stop Beef from taking risks in hopes of becoming the hero of LERK.
If only he had listened to the warning, both in his head and from his family. He survived the first fall, sure, but the second fall… that is what puts Beef on the verge of getting packed by having a dead, heavy moose crushing his body. A few cracked ribs at least, but with the addition of the injuries from the fall, he knew that what he was planning on doing was going to put him in harm’s way, but instead, he decided to let his ego get the best of him. And you know, anything about egos: it can lead to one’s downfall. Putting the rest of the Tobins in sheer panic, and that would result in calling up a search party, getting everyone involved, in search of Beef.
All except for Dirt and Jerry. We got a subplot with them and chose the perfect time to have them together, with this being the series finale of the show. Better late than never, I suppose. And the reason for that is because they, along with Honeybee, don’t even know about LERK, especially with Honeybee getting an alert on her phone, Jerry noticing people being gone, and Dirt thinking that the apocalypse had begun when seeing the mess in the dining room. At least Honeybee was given the down low on what LERK is about by the Tobins on their way to city hall. Dirt and Jerry, on the other hand, not so much. With Jerry, he was supposed to meet up with Honeybee to get some coffee at Maude’s before noticing everyone disappearing, though you’d think that he, like every other citizen of the town, would have the alert ringing on their phones, even though it would confuse the crap out of him, like with Honeybee earlier in the episode.
Dirt, on the other hand, saw the mess that had been caused on her way to the table, also not knowing what was going on, and thought that the apocalypse had arrived. Hence, she has to dress up in apocalyptic gear. Locked and loaded. And also, handed Jerry a gear of his own. Having an adventure of their own. Once again, interesting to have a Dirt and Jerry plot where you have them together at the final episode of the series, no less. But, once again, better late than never. So, it was just those two out in the woods, searching for something that would pose a threat, like zombies, even though they only spotted a drunken Jim and Dorothy Tuntley coming out of a city hall meeting with their bodies painted green. Just those two. Just Dirt and Jerry wandering the forest in apocalyptic gear...
Before coming across an old familiar face that Dirt knows all too well, also donning apocalyptic gear. Revealing that it's Gloria. And you can really tell that those two, being Dirt and Gloria, are truly meant for each other, as she, too, was unaware of what just transpired throughout the day. Also, she lives in a cave. Yeah, these two are pretty much made for each other, alright. Even if it is a faux apocalypse, good to know that Gloria isn’t a one-off following her debut episode, “Can’t Hardly Debate Adventure”, earlier in the season, as the two, along with Jerry, decide to take a nice, little stroll and pretend that the world did end. And got to get this out of the way, and I said this in my review of this episode, when Beef was crushed by the moose, on the verge of death, I thought they would be the first to find Beef in the situation they’re in. They had a tank, yes, they had a tank, and thought they would roll up to where Beef was at and waste no time alerting the townsfolk and the rest of the Tobins through a blast. Speaking of the townsfolk and the rest of the Tobins (sans Dirt)...
It can’t be the final episode of the series without having to see the cast one last time, whether it’s at city hall earlier or seeing a select few when having to conduct a search party for Beef before things get bad in one fell swoop. And you know small towns, especially those in America, with a population of less than a thousand, it’s no person left behind. Going thick and thin to find Beef around the surrounding area where the fall took place. The scenes with the search party are pretty much the viewers seeing the characters for the last time, except for a few either absent in this episode or absent in this season, as if they had an ACL tear during production. But it does feel like with the search party, it does feel like this, alongside earlier in the episode at city hall, or later at the end of the with the entire town showing up for a potluck party, is the show’s way of saying that it’s likely going to be the last time you would see everyone. Whether it’s Judy talking to Alanis during the search or Santiago being dramatic as if it’s the only way to get the show just one Emmy nomination. Just one. At least a nomination. At least.
Of course, we have this scene with Ham and Crispin during the search. I talked about it in the episode review back in September. I mentioned it again earlier in the countdown with the number 11 spot (Bots on the Side Adventure). Because, despite that they broke up at the start of the season, three episodes in to be exact, that is his friend, and he should have the right to be concerned about all of this stuff. And stepping up to aid in the searching efforts would do just that. Even if you have them hold hands as a result of all of this, as if the writers were considering having them back together… if it weren’t for… You know… no sixth season. Fanfic writers, this is where y’all come in.
But, might as well get to the kit and caboodle of all of this that landed the number one spot in the countdown, aside from giving the show a sendoff to close out the year, and that would be Beef’s character progression right as he was about to meet with the big man upstairs. We have the return of the two snowflakes that we haven’t seen all the back in Season 1, Denny and Tanya… or rather, just Denny, because Tanya had to dip because she got tired of playing the waiting game for when Beef becomes unconscious. And since the episode title is a play on the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, then it might as well be the case for Beef when having to go through memory lane. Beef tries to brush it off when being helpful across town, whether it’s fixing a faulty water fountain at city hall or shoveling snow from the driveway, resulting in Londra giving Beef a thank you card, he brushes it off and thinks that what Denny is showing him is nothing more than a nothing burger when trying to get him to learn a valuable lesson.
Having to up the ante by showing Beef memories of him with his family. And it’s not just the present timeline, like Beef watching the sunset with Delmer, meeting with his family at Maude’s, or watching TV with Wolf and Honeybee, that should get you, which it should, but it’s the few scenes of the flashback with a young Judy, Ham, and Moon that should get you. Treating it as if it’s the Molyneuxs’ way of going all out with this episode to close out the series as if they knew right away that it would not get renewed for another season. Whether it’s Judy making an ice cream sundae, watching nature with Ham that paved the way for Ham to collect leaves and create a scrapbook, or a baby Moon resting on Beef’s arms, it’s moments like these to show the character progression of Beef since the very beginning of the show. Especially with this episode, when it comes to the topic of being appreciated by everyone. And that is exactly the lesson that Denny is showing Beef throughout the second half of the episode when going through memory lane a la “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Corny messaging, sure. But for someone who has to raise all four kids on his own and had been appreciated by some of the townsfolk for the work he did for the community, you’d think that he already got the appreciation that he got from his family and the community altogether. But mostly the family since their inception, since, once again, having to raise them all by himself. And for someone who is from a small ass town like Lone Moose, where everyone knows each other, you take what you can get. No overboarding whatsoever, like what Beef was trying to do earlier in the episode when trying to get the dead moose that nearly cost him his life. Just take what he can get just for being around without having to do anything reckless just to prove himself to the public, like he was going for a warm hero’s welcome.
I mean, what else? Once the Tobins and the other people who were a part of the search party finally located Beef after the card that Londra gave to him dropped to the ground and opened it, causing the audio recording of the Alanis Morissette song “Thank U” to play, which got everyone’s attention. A group effort for sure once they finally locate Beef crushed by the dead moose and could be moments away from being GGs.
Did I mention that Dirt, Jerry, and Gloria all rode on a tank when coming up to this exact spot? They had a tank. Don’t question how they got it. All we know is that the town needs something that should move the moose away from Beef so he can go and get treated for possible broken ribs, which is surprising how Beef didn’t end up wearing a cast after this scene, once being pulled out of the dead moose. That had to be a few cracked ribs as a result of that when being trapped under a dead animal, a dozen times more weight than that. The good news for the town is that Beef is freed from the moose. The bad news… yeah, the town will not be getting the moose anymore because it got blown into chunks by the tank when trying to reverse it. At least Beef is alive, so hooray for silver linings.
But the day isn’t a total loss for the town going into the final scene of the series, because even though Lone Moose did not have their dead moose to eat like it's a Christmas dinner, that won’t stop everyone from visiting the Tobins and throwing a potluck party and serving their respective share of roadkill meat. An Arkansas, Tennessee delicacy when serving dead wildlife animals. All this to celebrate Beef for not becoming a statistic from what just happened in the episode. All that matters is that Beef wanted the appreciation he wanted from the community, despite being unable to bring home a dead moose to town; being alive and being a part of the community is all that matters to everyone in Lone Moose. And especially to his family. And it ain’t a finale without a line from Beef for things to come around full circle, which is him looking at the Alaskan sky and saying “hot dog”. A line he said back at the end of the very first episode of the show. And yeah… hot dog indeed.
You can me bias all you want, but I had to give The Great North a send-off to close out the year. And this episode was it. The point is that it sucks that it’s not going to get another season. And that saying from someone who watched the show since its humble beginning back in 2021. January 3, 2021, the day the show first came on, as it was advertised as a special preview despite that being the first episode. Mere months after Central Park had their premiere, though on a different platform, of course. And this upcoming weekend, the first weekend of 2026, will mark five years since the show first aired. It’s crazy how time flies when realizing that time is slipping away right before our eyes.
But next to Bob’s Burgers, The Great North had quickly become a staple here on this page. Took its place while Bob’s Burgers was on that long hiatus back in early 2024, when doing the full breakdown style to keep things running when Season 4 was around. Okay, so 18 of the 20 episodes from Season 4 that I did and should’ve done the remaining two that were missing, sue me. The majority of Season 3 was sandwiched into a Bob’s Burgers review because the first eight episodes of Season 13 were pure turbulence entering the post-movie era of the show. Just be lucky that I did the whole episode list for Season 5.
The point is that it’s going to feel empty without the show around going into the new year. Sure, all 97 episodes of The Great North are there on streaming sites like Hulu here in the States (Disney+ for the international audience), and hoping for y’all to give it a try, but there’s that feeling where you just wanted more out of this. More stories. More development from the characters (even though most shows that are long-running might deal with characters undergoing personality changes). Or, as Wolf puts it at the start of the episode regarding the show Alf, as if it were a dig at us fans with The Great North, we should have questions that should be answered.
So, it’s sad to see this show go and wish there were more of this, a Season 6 or at least a movie, but at the same time, might as well cherish this show for what it has shown us. From the LGBT and indigenous representation to showing the viewer outside of Alaska what it’s like, even if I would probably draw criticism from calling Alaska trying to be the “Florida of the North”, for the people who say that it’s nothing more than a “Bob’s Burgers clone”, well, while sharing the same character style, it has an identity of its own. I don’t see y’all calling Bob’s Burgers a “Simpsons clone” when it first came out back in 2011. I said this in my review of the episode, and I’ll say it again: a huge thank you to the Molyneux sisters, along with Minty Lewis, for a few seasons, for bringing this to life. The same goes for the hardworking cast and crew members of the show. As well as the cast members who voiced the show, whether it’s the main cast or the recurring cast members, it was quite the blast, and hopefully, this won’t be the last time doing this. Rest now, Great North. We have the watch, and we’ll see you in Valhalla.
And so, that concludes another season of the Top 12 Countdown, with 2025 coming to a close, already 2026 on the other side of the world as this post is released. But might as well get this out of the way: and with that, the 2025 season comes to an end. What do you think about this episode? Should it be perfect the way it is, or should it be lowered on your list? Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. Live blogs return for the weekend of January 3-4 with Toonami. Bob’s Burgers, who knows God knows when for the next episode to air, since we already have fewer than five episodes left, since it is the first of the four seasons renewal to have 15 episodes per season. So, who knows where this goes for the blog post while playing the waiting game… y’all already know what it is: it’s the discussion series on the Tobin family. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. And y’all should know the drill by now...
- PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/yahoo201027
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yahoo201027
- Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/Y8Y8K4OP
Donate over on PayPal, Patreon, and Ko-fi pages to help your boy out in both improving the page and paying the bills to keep the lights on. Here comes the sappy moments from yours truly. Would probably save this for when the episode review of “Heist Things are Heist” comes out, though that depends on whether that’ll be the last post of 2025 or the first post of 2026, but regardless, despite that 2025 feels like the year from Hell, which it is that almost feels like it was giving 2020 a run for its money, it was… a year. Turmoil, for sure. Some signs of burnout from here to there, but I made it through to the end. The Bob’s Burgers reviews. The Great North reviews. The voting tournament. The year-end countdown. This should really tell you that I really need to expand my horizon when it comes to shows. Mainly because of Doctor Who not coming back until Christmas, The Great North is pretty much dead, and who knows how long until we get Season 3 of Fionna and Cake to drop. Should probably get onto that. But other than that, it has been somewhat of a productive year for yours truly. Not a lot, but still going at it. And let’s see where 2026 goes from here. As long as we don’t have to deal with any more real-world bullshit that would result in a world war. At least get us to GTA VI first!? So yeah, out goes 2025 and going into 2026. And until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask, get vaccinated, register to vote, and a reminder that you are loved, you are beautiful, ignore the haters, and Happy New Year, everyone. And cheers to a hopefully not-crappy 2026.
No comments:
Post a Comment