Review: Grimsburg “Murder on the Splurt Express”

Overview

A swanky murder mystery party turns into a real investigation when the wealthy host is suspiciously found dead; Flute finds himself threatened by Stan’s impressive detective skills.

Our Take

Most of this week’s episode plays a very paint-by-numbers whodunit animated send-up not unlike those done by Rick and Morty and Family Guy in the past. Quite frankly, I was yearning to trash “Murder on the Splurt Express” right up until the climax which showcased a lot of signs of what I think this franchise can be in the future. The episode written by Christina Friel & Connor Wright even managed to ruin a guest spot that’s usually a slam dunk for Tim Meadows which I didn’t think was possible because usually you can give Tim asphalt and he’ll get you gold just in his delivery, but his character was both boring and cliched.

I would’ve liked to have seen the show dig in a bit deeper into the relationship between Marvin (Jon Hamm) and Stan (Rachel Dratch) because I think these two are going to be key to keeping this series afloat, mainly because the rest of the cast is too many, cliched, and unfunny. Far more interesting is the dynamic between father and son and it shows three-quarters into the episode when we come up on mutated send-ups of famous cartoon characters coupled with a few surprise homages littered throughout. That said, I think Grimsburg would do a lot better if it stopped trying with the parodies and homages every week and instead focused on trying to be itself and really getting this dialogue down because it needs a lot of help. The boat sailing into the sunset with everyone reflecting on what went down is another example of the series showcasing some potential of what the show CAN be. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet.

C’mon Jon Hamm, GET IN THERE!