Review: The Great North “Blood Actually Adventure”

Overview

When Honeybee’s plans to fly home to Fresno for Halloween get ruined by a storm, she decides to bring her family traditions to Lone Moose which is good because the Tobins are pretty lame around Halloween and are just debating who gets to be a cat. 

We essentially get The Christmas Carol, but with a horror toy, Guy Fieri, and Death helping Honeybee move through her Halloween sadness given this is the first time she’s been away from her family’s traditions. After her premonitions, Honeybee opts to bring her traditions TO the Tobins and threatens to throw a party. Jerry visits and we learn he doesn’t like Halloween anyway the way Honeybee does, and really do none of the Tobins.

Our Take

Anything with Guy Fieri in it is going to score extra points from me because I’m a fan of DDD. 

In any event, the majority of the episode falls flat for me. Basically re-constructing the classic The Christmas Carol tropes but for Halloween, obviously not original and the show acknowledges this, but I think The Great North works best as an ensemble piece as opposed to any plot focusing on one character.

“Blood Actually Adventure” feels a lot like the Sara Bareilles track “Love Song” in that the backstory of the track revolves around the fact that the record label was pressuring Sara to write a love song so that she can get a hit song on radio. Being the punk rebel that she is, Sara writes “Love Song” which is essentially an anti-love song. I’m getting similar vibes from this week’s The Great North because I’m feeling like the network is asking everyone for Halloween episodes, and the writers led by Caroline Levich, came with this. A Halloween episode that is less about anything really Halloween and more about the continued challenges that Honeybee is facing living away from her family and the fact that she has to take more onerous on bringing her personality and influence to Lone Moose instead of just going back to do the things she used to do when she wasn’t married. Anybody who has been in a relationship with someone where they had to move TO a location where your significant other’s family is based  (myself included) can relate, personally, I think the premise lends itself better to a Thanksgiving episode than a Halloween episode, but then again, Caroline Levich isn’t just going to write you a Halloween episode just because you asked for it, because you need one.