I still can't believe that The Goldbergs started it's 8th season last night. Seven years have gone by since it started and I think it's fantastic. I'm gonna be talking about the one hour season premiere that aired last night. There will be some minor spoilers just so I can talk a little bit about specific events in the episodes.
Since season 3, the season premiere of The Goldbergs has traditionally been a big '80s movie tribute. Season 3 was Risky Business, season 4 was The Breakfast Club, season 5 was Weird Science, season 6 was Sixteen Candles, season 7 was National Lampoon's Vacation, and this season it was Airplane!. The problem is that, unlike with the previous season opening movie tributes, this one was basically just Adam spouting lines from the movie and so you would be completely lost if you haven't seen the movie or had only seen it a couple of times. I've seen both Airplane! and Airplane! II: The Sequel, and I didn't even know most of the lines Adam was saying, aside from the "don't call me Shirley" line and another gag involving the characters, Oveur and Murdock. So there must've been people who were watching it and had no clue what was going on, since Airplane! came out in 1980, and I kinda feel like that unless they grew up watching it, or saw it when they were kids, people my age don't know what Airplane! is like the people who grew up in the '80s do. But maybe I'm wrong on that.
Episode 2 was better than the first episode was. Yeah, it was formulaic, being that The Goldbergs has been around long enough to have it's own formula now, but it was that formula that made like the episode a lot better. It's your typical Goldbergs shenanigans with Adam trying to bring his old friends, Emmy Mirsky and Dave Kim, together with his new friends like Brea Bee (his girlfriend) and J.C. Spink, while Erica and Barry take advantage of Beverly's smothering nature when they want her to tend to their every need. You know, the usual.
For some reason Adam's relationship with Brea Bee has actually been my favourite one of the romances that he's had over the seasons. Dana was his first girlfriend, and Jackie just seemed to get pushed to the side partway through season 5 until she was written out completely by the end of season 6, but Brea's been fun. I think that's because it took a little bit longer for their relationship to develop, though not as long as Erica and Geoff's relationship did, and so it felt more natural, whereas both Adam's relationship with Dana, and his relationship with Jackie felt very much like first loves that happened almost instantly. So it'll be interesting to see where it takes them during the course of the rest of the season.
I also like how they didn't try to explain why Ren (Barry's current girlfriend) looks completely different like they did with Jackie in season 6. The actress who played her last season, Kelli Berglund, left at the end of last season and was replaced by Carrie Wampler for this season. They just went with it though without going for the typical makeover trope they used for Jackie when Rowan Blanchard left between seasons 5 and 6.
If I were to make any predictions for this season there would definitely be two that I would make. I think that by the end of this season Geoff and Erica will be engaged. They've been together for three seasons now. Well three full seasons and two episodes from season 4, but in TV time that's a really long time. So I suspect that Geoff is going to propose at some point this season and then their wedding will be either at the end of this season or the beginning of season 9 (if season 9 happens). I can't see them getting married much later than that, since we know from Schooled that they do get married at some point. I also think that with Adam being in his senior year of high school this season, this is going to be the final season for the show. It's possible they could extend Adam's senior year of high school into a ninth season, and maybe a tenth, but I can't see them going much farther beyond that if they don't end it this season.
I've also been saying this since very early in season 6, but I think something is going to happen to Murray (Jeff Garlin) this season. He was barely in these first two episodes, and he's started to appear less and less as the seasons have gone on. I don't know if that's because the real life Murray Goldberg died, and so they're leading up to that at some point before the show is over, or if something's going on with Jeff Garlin, which led to him having less screen time than he did in earlier seasons. Either way, it was a little unsettling.
Also we're starting to see the effects of Schooled getting canceled in these first two episodes. AJ Michalka, who played Lainey Lewis on both The Goldbergs and Schooled is back in the list of main cast members for season 8, though she wasn't in either of these episodes. She's probably going to show up in the fourth episode of the season which is called "Bill's Wedding", which is most likely about Lainey's father, Bill (played by David Koechner) getting married. Also, Mr. Glascott (played by Tim Meadows) showed up in the second episode. Which begs the question, will Schooled be ignored in terms of continuity? From all indications, it didn't seem like Lainey returned to Jenkintown after she departed in season 6 of The Goldbergs, except for a late season 7 episode, until the pilot episode of Schooled. But if AJ Michalka is in the list of main cast members again, then is it possible we'll see her in more than just one episode this season? I guess we'll find out. Tim Meadows was never a main cast member so chances are probably good that we'll see him as often as we did before he moved over to Schooled. But the cancellation of Schooled does raise some questions for me about The Goldbergs going forward, for however long it continues to be on for.
Overall this season premiere was good. It definitely wasn't as strong as previous season premieres have been, but it was still solid. I do miss the character growth that Beverly has been showing since the end of season 5/beginning of season 6, and I do hope we see Adam hanging out with his friends a lot more this season, especially Dana, since she's kind of been absent since halfway through last season. Also, I think we need two Emmy and Adam episodes this season, since we didn't get one last season, and I missed that annual Emmy episode. But I am still super excited for this season. The Goldbergs is still my favourite show, and no matter how different it gets this season, it's still awesome to have brand new episodes to watch every week again.
Alright that's gonna be it for me for today. Tomorrow I'll be making a very special post. My buddy, Aaron, is taking over the blog for the day to tell us his twenty movies that he thinks are a must to see at least once in our lives. He e-mailed me the list yesterday so I just have to grab the movie posters and copy and paste his list so look out for that tomorrow sometime. Have a good one folks. Later.
No comments:
Post a Comment