Review: The Great North “Judy Presents: The Staircake”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Ham has to travel to a cake competition, so the family tags along in an old bus. Antics ensue.

OUR TAKE

Hey, it’s the third ever episode that doesn’t have “Adventure” in the title, with the only other ones being the third season finale two parter! Does that mean anything significant? Did someone just forget to add it in before it was too late to change the title? Does this add to the word count so I don’t have to talk as much about the episode? To answer all of these pressing questions: No, Maybe, and Absolutely Yes. Anywho, we have our first Ham focused episode of the season! Yeah, he was technically the focus of the first episode but that was really just a device to have the movie parody sketches happen. And after everyone else has gotten an episode in the season so far, it’s really overdue for him. This time it’s all about Hammin it up, though oddly without his boyfriend Crispin who probably would’ve been a big help in keeping some things together. Ham’s confectionary talents have been a recurring part of his character for awhile, but now we get to see him put that to the test in competition. Or at least, the episode is about getting him there, but is really about testing his patience and ability to tolerate his family’s craziness taking priority over his needs.

Being the middle child typically leads to a child feeling passed over or fading into the background, which definitely feels apparent with Ham (and to a lesser extent Judy) in many of his focus episodes. He lives with a weird family, or at least as weird as families get, but he’s more than willing to be a supporter of other stuff they’re doing over his own. Now, in this episode, he is going to be in the spotlight, and so hopes that the Tobins will be there for him to make the most of that. As it turns out, they end up prioritizing their own things before his, with Wolf and Honeybee getting into hard to walk in Shrek costumes for what turns out to be an orgy, Judy focusing on making a faux documentary, Dirt wanting revenge on an old rival, Moon wanting to buy fireworks at shop nearby, and Beef depriving himself of sleep when trying to watch a baking reality show. That last one turns out to be a bit more altruistic, but it still ends up causing problems, leading to Ham needing to drive a huge bus to disastrous results. Still, I’d say this was an above average episode, if only for how much it manages to balance while being pretty dang funny. No episode next week for some reason, but we’ll be back in April for the final stretch of episodes this season!