Review: Mother Up! ”Invasion of the Hipsters”

Spoilers Below

Apple is concerned that her mother smokes too many cigs and fears for her health and begs her to quit. After scoffing at the notion at first, childrens’ tears seem to convince Rudi to quit smoking once and for all. Right away Rudi starts experiencing withdrawal and it gets worse when she has to help Sarah organize an assembly at school for Health Week. Eventually, a bunch a NYC hipsters come by that used to work with Rudi at her record company and she decides to invite them over so that she can inhale all of their second-hand cigarette smoke.

Rudi gets so preoccupied with the hipsters that she forgets to meet up with Sarah to help at the Janitor Store. Worse yet, the hipsters get a bit too out of control and start to tease the life that Rudi has been trying her best to live and it gains the ire of the other neighbors including Greg and Sarah. Eventually, Rudi’s lies start to surface and the NYC hipsters literally tell her that she’s no longer one of them. This causes Rudi to hurt the feelings of both her kids and neighbors in the process which means she’s back to square one.

Dick brings home this old guy from school that he has to take care of for class until the Health Week assembly. However, he eventually becomes a reminder to Rudi about all of the health problems that smoking and drinking causes including quickening the aging process, heart problems, and death.

Mother Up! just NOW starts to hit its groove even with only a couple of weeks left in its first season. For starters, we get an original concept that really has never been seen on broadcast television…smoking. Yea, how many animated shows can claim they had a lead character with a cigarette smoking problem that became the focus of an episode? King of the Hill had ”Dale”, but I can’t recall his smoking really being the focus of anyone network, more over , involving kids that are actually concerned about the well-being of their parents. Having lived forty minutes or so outside of NYC all my life, I can definitely attest to the douchey NYC hipsters roaming about NYC, and yea this episode nailed them RIGHT on the head (and to the wall). The arrogance, the witty banter, the constant need to convey being retro all showcased beautifully. And last, but now least…the head explosion near the end.

This could be the episode that gives the show a good reason to be picked up.