Review: The Great North “Excess Cabbage Adventure”

Overview

Judy investigates a cloaked figure who’s buying her art.

Our Take

It’s been nearly four months since we’ve seen new episodes of The Great North and, after this short run on FOX that goes through September 15th, it will be another few months before the series returns again sometime in 2025.

Technically, this week’s episode is the beginning of the end of The Great North’s fourth season which was abruptly paused during production as a result of the SAG strikes from last year. When the strikes ended, production recommenced, and here we are. Moreover, The Great North has been renewed for a fifth season which is currently in production and will premiere sometime next year.

This week’s episode is a three-fold premise, in it Judy investigates a mysterious cloaked figure who’s buying up all her art, Beef, Wolf, Ham and Moon grow a giant cabbage, and Honeybee and Jerry compete to see who can keep foam fingers on the longest.

Typically when I see a lot of contests in an episode, I chalk it up to lazy writing, but in this episode written by Jay Kasten, they probably come off as more of red herrings as the main focus of the episode has to do with Judy nearly being kidnapped by a crazy lady named “Sherry” voiced by the legendary Cheri Oteri. The romp was pretty hysterical, Sherry runs a cult and one of her cult followers is going on and on about his Beanie Baby collection which I couldn’t stop laughing about.

The cabbage bit was somewhat forgettable, the Honeybee/Herry bit I found more appealing because I’m a big fan of hot dog couture. A premise revolving around the Dodger Dogs and the culture of those having an impact on a local baseball game being played in Alaska is an interesting premise, personally I would’ve liked to have seen Beef have more of a play here possibly defending Alaska’s own local hot dog delicacy, the reindeer dogs. The voice of Beef aka Nick Offerman, has done many debates on different meats during his time on Parks and Rec and to see him take on another one would’ve been more fun than whatever the cabbage thing was.

In any event, the return of The Great North is a welcoming one, one that helps prep us for the eventual return of more and more Animation Domination on FOX in the next few weeks.