The Great North - General Discussion

[Girl in a Cardigan]

6 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I don't have a problem believing the snow was so heavy they couldn't see beyond a couple feet.  I do have a problem believing they don't have a system (hang on to a rope that's actually attached to something stable) and apparently didn't even have gloves, hats, in some cases warm jackets.

YES! I also thought of Little House on the Prairie and didn't understand why they didn't have a rope system between the houses, especially now that Honeybee and Wolf live in the guest house more permanently. Not having ever lived in a place that gets snow like that perhaps there is a good reason, but it seems odd for a place that gets snow at least 50% of the year to not have some sort of emergency kit/system/secret passage/whatever in case someone is out there when the blizzard starts.

I mean, yay for Honeybee being resourceful, but it felt completely contrived that none of the Tobins had any idea what to do in this instance, especially Beef (even if he's hopped up on cold medicine).

[tennisgurl]

Even if it was a quick snow storm, come on guys wear a scarf! Or a hat! Have some kind of system! They live in Alaska, this cannot be their first blizzard. 

It was nice seeing Honeybees brother again, his career as a bigfoot seems to be going pretty well. I also really like that Honeybee was so resourceful finding the toolshed and putting things together. She's a bit of a Honeybeef. Also cute how everyone was so excited about game night, its quite sweet how much they all like hanging out. Even though I think its perfectly understandable that Honeybee and Wolf want some time just the two of them. 

"I haven't seen this much white since I first met your family." 

[Galileo908]

Oh man, I was surprised to see that Kathleen RSVP'd to the wedding. I was hoping we'd finally see her. For the best, I guess. I bet she'll show up next season.

Liked that Alanis made a few jokes at Dave Coulier. That's still weird to know that "You Oughta Know" was about him.

I loved the wedding, those two dorks were really made for each other. An acapella parody cover of The Monster Mash? That's so great. I liked that Ham is still seeing Crispin.

[DoctorAtomic]

It was great that Honeybee's parents came up, and they seemed to like the tour. 

Wolf was right though. You can't go into your wedding on a lie. 

My friends met on fark and talked about it in their vows, so I liked this. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[Izzy85]

Omg, I actually shot soda out of my nose with the "breath mint deodorant" 😂

This is such a funny and sweet show

[DoctorAtomic]

That looked like a great wedding. 

[callie lee 29]

This may be the sweetest, kindest show I've seen in a while and I am 1000% here for it. 

[Girl in a Cardigan]

That wedding was so fun! I love that this show comes up with the harebrained scheme, but doesn't actually need to do it. Wolf and Honeybee are so perfect for each other and I really need a SnackTitanic in my life RIGHT NOW. I'm sad that their mom didn't show up, but I love that she didn't because that makes the most sense. No one sucks on this show and that's so rare. Just what I needed to perk up my Sunday!

[joanne3482]

12 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Oh man, I was surprised to see that Kathleen RSVP'd to the wedding. I was hoping we'd finally see her. For the best, I guess. I bet she'll show up next season.

I wonder if she'll be like so many other talked about but never seen characters on TV. I think I'd be okay with that.

I love that they got the baby Cal saved and that she was Wolf's second favorite background character, but that the Irish woman was his first. I knew exactly who he meant! 

[DoctorAtomic]

The funniest thing about the mom was the blog. She wasn't posting on Facebook or Twitter. It was a blog. 

[juno]

Great News!!!

FOX has renewed The Great North TV series for a third season ahead of season two's debut. The first season finale aired last night.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-great-north-season-three-fox-animated-series-gets-early-renewal/

 

[ShortyMac]

2 hours ago, juno said:

Great News!!!

FOX has renewed The Great North TV series for a third season ahead of season two's debut. The first season finale aired last night.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-great-north-season-three-fox-animated-series-gets-early-renewal/

 

Yay! I love TGN!

[tennisgurl]

I did expect Kathleen to show up, but they might be saving her for later in the show to really build up what a hot mess she is. I am so glad nothing ruined the wedding, it looked amazing, so perfect for Wolf and Honeybee, from the Billy Zane axe throwing to the vows in movie quotes, they are just so flipping cute. "Show me the money! And by money, I mean understanding." Also very happy that Ham and Crispin are apparently still dating.

I like that the kids all admitted that they were sad that their mom never showed up, even though they also know that its a good thing. Its sad, but also normal to still feel disappointed by a parent disappointing you, even if its fully expected. Also nice seeing more of Honeybees family, who are also quite quirky despite being very well dressed. "She keeps saying she's the Zodiac Killer. The timelines don't add up but she insists." 

Great news about already getting a third season! I love this show and its sweetness, and am excited for more. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by tennisgurl

[SherriAnt]

On 4/12/2021 at 12:52 PM, tennisgurl said:

Its nice to have a little bit of childlike wonder in your life, even if its just a "I know its really not likely, but what if?" 

I absolutely agree. I'm in my 50's, been driving through B.C. my whole life, and I still look for sasquatch! 

[SmithW6079]

I watched the series on Hulu, and for the most part, I enjoyed it, but I have to feel that the Tobins would get to be a bit too much at some point. I get that they love each other (and, like the Belchers on "Bob's Burgers, it's reassuring to see a cartoon family whose members are genuinely fond of each other & look out for one another), but I think I'd end up feeling suffocated with so much togetherness. At least in "Bob's Burgers," they all have outside interests (even if the kids do spend a lot of time together despite their age differences), The Tobins are just together all the time, and Beef doesn't really encourage independence, despite them living in rugged Alaska.

[DoctorAtomic]

That's fair, but they did at least address Wolf and Honeybee wanting to do their own thing sometimes, in the one when Beef was worried about them missing game night. Right off the bat they showed that Beef wasn't dealing with the wife walking out on them at all, so it's at least consistent. There were some episodes like the school dance, the avacadoes, and the cake that wasn't just all Tobins. The sasquach episode had a lot of scenes with the kids at school too. 

They had the episode where Beef went to speed date at the bar, and I think that's the only time we saw the bar/restaurant. It's not like the kids can't go there, and it's probably the only gathering place in town. You'd think they would go back a little more. It's an easy way to world build the characters. 

There's reasonable criticism in that I don't think they've developed the townspeople as well enough as they did on Bob's, and I think the episodes on both shows where the kids go on adventures themselves are the more entertaining. We've seen plenty of side characters pop up, but they're not super involved in the plots, like a Bob's episode about the mentoring where it was all the kids, but we already knew them well enough. 

It's refreshing that these aren't cynical characters for a change. 

[SmithW6079]

On 6/29/2021 at 12:02 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

There's reasonable criticism in that I don't think they've developed the townspeople as well enough as they did on Bob's, and I think the episodes on both shows where the kids go on adventures themselves are the more entertaining. We've seen plenty of side characters pop up, but they're not super involved in the plots, like a Bob's episode about the mentoring where it was all the kids, but we already knew them well enough. 

I think a good show takes time to develop the secondary characters/townspeople in an animated series, so that could be why "The Great North" seems to be "all Tobins all the time." On the "Bless the Harts" thread, I noted that that show tried too hard to establish an entire town from the get-go and it was just too many characters at once. (Having said that, I really started to like the show, and I was sorry it got canceled after two seasons.)

[Gharlane]

Quote

"Pride & Prejudice Adventure". Judy asks her crush to the most romantic dance of the school year, not realizing he's got eyes for someone else. Meanwhile, Beef's Brother, Brian, comes up for a visit from Anchorage.

Great ep! When did Ham become gay? I'm not a regular viewer but did not get that impression the other times I watched.
 

[DoctorAtomic]

Ham said he was gay as an aside in the first episode. Everyone was like, 'yeah we know', so it wasn't meant to be a huge revelation. 

[Gharlane]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Ham said he was gay as an aside in the first episode. Everyone was like, 'yeah we know', so it wasn't meant to be a huge revelation. 

I must have missed that because I have no recollection of it.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Gharlane

[ShortyMac]

Season 2 premiere tonight at 8:30PM ET!

S02.E01 - Brace/Off Adventure

Judy embarks on a journey after getting some unexpected news from the dentist.

Edited September 26, 2021 by ShortyMac

[Galileo908]

It's good to be back.

Man, the songs were great in this. We just had a musical Simpsons episode and wow, I thought this was better.

Judy's anxiety about getting her braces off was relatable. I, too, thought my teeth would fall out when I got them off.

Wolf REALLY wants to toast his penis.

Beef is a really good dad. He didn't even bat an eye when Judy admitted to wanting to sneak into Dark Side of The Mug.

Aww man, Judy DIDN'T get her braces off, and the kids weren't at the real Open Mic Night the entire time? Honestly, didn't see that coming.

[DoctorAtomic]

This was good because we saw a lot of the townspeople in the songs. 

Brace yourself / Pace yourself was a good counterpoint. 

I noticed the scene after the theme song was new. 

tbh, basement open mic night for the kids sounds like a great idea. 

Edited September 27, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[tennisgurl]

Nice to have this great hour of animation back! Great start to the season, the songs on this show really are great, I especially loved the end song and the increasingly creepy teeth song. We also got to see a lot of the kids and townsfolks during the songs which I really liked. 

Judy being freaked out about getting her braces off seems like a very real fear, although now it looks like she's going to have them for the foreseeable future. Beef is such a good dad, he was just down for whatever Judy was feeling. 

Dark Side of the Mug is an awesome name, having an open mic night in a basement sounds fun. "I still have to get drunk to go to the DMV."

[PinkRibbons]

I know they didn't want to mess with Judy's design and I don't know if "crazy teeth" are a real thing, but a friend of mine had to have her braces put back on for six months and they HAD to be on at coincidentally exactly during the time of her wedding. She was still a gorgeous bride but she's got her mouth closed in all the photos, which is a shame, her smile is lovely.

Pace Yourself was my favorite song, definitely.

[Machiabelly]

I am so happy to have this show back. It is so enjoyable. 

[P2C2E]

I've been singing the toast song ALL DAY

[Galileo908]

"JK, I just learned about JK. Joshing kindly." Oh, Beef. He's a Dust Diva that loves to make Lettuce Salads.

Loved how lame the punks were, Ham's idea of rebelling was placing his coat on the floor and not washing his hands. He's a very good boy who loves his dad, he was definitely channeling Tina Belcher. Ham and Beef have a good relationship. Heck, all the Tobins are good, pure souls. Again I say Beef is a great dad, he was honored that Ham wanted to act rebellious.

"I guess I am hardcore about hard chores."

I also loved Beef singing wholesome punk rock.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Galileo908

[DoctorAtomic]

Doing punk stuff was petting the puppies. I totally lost it. 

 

[rmontro]

7 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

"I guess I am hardcore about hard chores."

I wish I was as enthusiastic as Beef and Ham about cleaning and doing chores.

I don't watch Bob's Burgers, but when I watch Family Guy the end credits of it is on the recording, and they are always singing some silly song.  I've liked watching The Great North, but I kind of feel like it is morphing into Bob's Burgers because they're inserting more and more silly songs.  It may put me off the show at some point if it keeps up.  That said, I did enjoy all the punk songs, including "Butternut Squash".  But with the punk band storyline, it made sense to have the songs.  Without that context, it could get tiring.

[tennisgurl]

Nothing more punk rock then petting puppies and taking two newspapers instead of one! 

Love how harmless all of the "punk" activities of the punks were, and that even with Beef's support Ham had to write a punk song about how awesome parents are...which actually is kind of punk in a way. And that everyone in town loved the movie because they recognized places in it. "Its the gazebo! I've sat in there!"

Beef is such a great day, or should I call him Beef Jerky?

[DoctorAtomic]

I kind of figured that was going to happen, so I don't know why Honeybee and Wolf didn't just go around the town and reenact things like, 'this is where Ham made the cake' or something like that. Being such movie buffs I guess it was inevitable they'd go overboard. I am glad it turned out how it did though. I do the same thing when they show places in my town on the local news. 'We were just there yesterday!' 

 

 

[Galileo908]

Halloween episode!

“It’s just ice fog. Early settlers called it ‘white death.’ That’s also what native Alaskans called the early settlers.”

Oh man, I cried when Wolf ruined the Shrimp Pimp shirt. I liked that storyline, laughed at the Shrimp hallucinations. Those were great designs. I also enjoy eating challenges that have a Rhonda to help them. And apparently "reversals of fortune" are fine, as long as you eat the 200 shrimp.

Ham and Crispin meet in the science closet to make out. And agreed to get married at the first opportunity. That's great.

[DoctorAtomic]

How are Ham and Judy in the same class? 

"She's from a different generation."

Edited October 11, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[Galileo908]

21 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

How are Ham and Judy in the same class? 

"She's from a different generation."

They're Irish Alaska Twins and maybe they were technically born in the same year, and were able to be in the same class? Also, the school doesn't seem very big to begin with, it's probably a small class.

[PinkRibbons]

I loved the world building of Judy and Ham having taken up places as Moon's parents, because of course Kathleen would dump her youngest on her next two youngest. Beef is a great father but he probably spent a good amount of Moon's life so far distraught over Kathleen leaving, and I suspect Wolf handled the worst of Beef's emotional breakdown. It makes even more sense that Ham and Judy would cover as parents for Moon during that time.

Also Bette Davis Eyes is an amazing song for any occasion.

[DoctorAtomic]

They totally nailed the inflection on 'precocious' too. 

I didn't think that Judy and Ham had to really raise Moon themselves, but it makes sense to me. I did like that Moon didn't flip out on them even though he was getting really annoyed. 

[rmontro]

My favorite part was Beef's dreams being dreams about doing chores.  And it was kind of sweet that Wolf and Honeybee were willing to go through the shrimp ordeal to replace his shirt.  

The idea of lumber zombies was kind of funny, but I didn't really care about the school adventure.

[SoMuchTV]

48 minutes ago, rmontro said:

My favorite part was Beef's dreams being dreams about doing chores.  And it was kind of sweet that Wolf and Honeybee were willing to go through the shrimp ordeal to replace his shirt.  

Doing chores in the sunlight!  And I was really worried that when they were 99% through the shrimp challenge, they would find out you could buy the same shirt at the gift shop.  Glad they didn't go there!

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

Doing chores in the sunlight!  And I was really worried that when they were 99% through the shrimp challenge, they would find out you could buy the same shirt at the gift shop.  Glad they didn't go there!

I had to admire how supportive the waitress was.

[tennisgurl]

Its a Halloween episode! With shrimp hallucinations and zombie lumberjacks! Wolf and Honeybee's shrimp hallucinations were amazing, and I really appreciate how supportive their waitress/guide was on their journey through shrimp. 

Love that Ham and Crispen were down to get married. Judy got officiated online for her art project! 

[Galileo908]

50 minutes ago, rmontro said:

I had to admire how supportive the waitress was.

I laughed at "DO YOU WANT TO BE A SHRAMP PAMP?!"

[rmontro]

On 10/11/2021 at 8:36 PM, Galileo908 said:

I laughed at "DO YOU WANT TO BE A SHRAMP PAMP?!"

I don't know why, but the more I think about this, the funnier it gets.

[Galileo908]

Looks like we're in an anthology episode, this time it's stories about Delmer. I think the only real weakness of this episode is that Delmer wasn't a well developed character until now. Is this the second episode he had a substantial role in, total? But we also got some insight into Beef. His parents were never around, so Delmer was his surrogate father. It's sweet.

The story about the Bork aliens wanting to feed poop to all the humans but die when doused with pee definitely seemed like a story Gene would've come up with.

Of course Wolf and Honeybee tell a summer camp slasher story, and narrate it like a movie. Pointing out where the Checkov's guns are, the dumb 80s teens, adding kills to keep the audience interested.

And of course Beef tells giant lobster stories that mostly list outdated maritime laws. Love that his idea of a rager is a quiet lunch and a day out on the boat.

Edited October 18, 2021 by Galileo908

[DoctorAtomic]

Weiner shivers is a real thing. 

I liked the 80s being the 50s.

Did they ever say Beef's parents were checked out? 

Edited October 18, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[PinkRibbons]

I'm not crying, you're crying!

No, I'm a bit weepy. We lost my grandmother a few months ago, and stories about wonderful older people are hitting harder.

Also I am so glad to have a round-a-bout explanation for why Beef of all people would marry a trainwreck like Kathleen: dude was marrying someone just like his parents. Yet another bit of good worldbuilding (although I could swear Beef had another brother, the one who traded the avocados to Wolf. Then again, he could just be one of their dad's friends that the kids call Uncle).

[DoctorAtomic]

That was the kid's uncle that they first went to iirc. He wanted the bike seat for the avocados. 

[joanne3482]

23 hours ago, PinkRibbons said:

Then again, he could just be one of their dad's friends that the kids call Uncle).

Delmer speaks Yu'pik. I was tickled to hear him use two Yu'pik words (anuq -shit and waqaa - hello) . I'm going to interpret that to mean Delbert is a Yu'pik Native Alaskan which means the use of uncle is honorific. One of my college friends is Yu'pik and she calls all her elders in the village auntie and uncle.

[DoctorAtomic]

Is Alanis not on anymore? 

[tennisgurl]

Everyone's stories weird time periods that matched the genre and not the actual timeline were really funny. "How old do you think I am?" All of the stories were fun and very on brand for the characters, the kids have the goofy poop story, Wolf and Honeybee narrate their story like a movie complete with describing specific writing conventions, and Beef tells a story involving fatherhood and maritime laws. We have met Delmer before but not a whole lot so it was nice to flesh him and his relationship with the family out more. 

This certainly explains why Beef would marry a selfish irresponsible mess like Kathleen, he married someone like his selfish irresponsible mess parents. I really like how the show adds in backstory elements slowly that make complete sense when you look at the bigger picture.  

Edited October 19, 2021 by tennisgurl