Review: The Great North “Look Who’s Squawking Adventure; Am I The Ice Hole? Adventure”

Overview

When the eagle Moon is pet sitting escapes, he enlists Beef and Wolf to go searching for it; Honeybee and Beef bond on an ice fishing trip and try to find a compromise between quiet fishing and fun games.

Our Take

After a couple of weeks of Judy (Jenny Slate)-starring episodes, The Great North ends the show’s fourth season with a dual serving of Honeybee (Dulce Sloan) episodes that sees Wolf’s wife becoming a more integral part of the series. Personally, I’m a fan of this character growth and with it coming the likes of her brother Jerry (Ron Funches) getting more appearances. As much as I love Will Forte (the voice of Beef), there was a time where THIS guy was just up and down the Animation Domination lineup having been on other animated series like Housebroken, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and even the occasional stop off at Krapopolis, so I’m totally happy with Honeybee getting her groove on trying to ingratiate herself in Alaskan society and that being a go-to benchmark for the series.

I’m also enjoying Moon’s (Aparna Nancherla) growth as a character with her love of local wildlife but I’m still waiting to see a true separation between him and Bob’s Burgers’ Louise (voiced by Kristen Schaal). Right now I think the two characters are almost identical in terms of their assertiveness and even a lot of their respective stories kind of set up and wrap the same way, typically with the adults becoming understanding of whatever struggle the kids are dealing with.

Another area I’d like to see growth in is Ham (voiced by Paul Rust). For my money, he really just acts like a younger Wolf with the exception of his sexual orientation, the latter of which I’d like to see more exploration of instead of being just a cute feature. Otherwise, we pretty much get two identical brothers and when the focus is on Wolf, Ham typically just stays quiet and attempts to lob one-liners almost like a Tina (Dan Mintz) but because The Great North sees their characters travel in bigger groups it can be difficult for everyone’s one-liners to truly land. I AM enjoying seeing Aunt Dirt (Jane Lynch) becoming a bigger part of the series that I think she must have graduated from ‘recurring’ to ‘main’ cast by now.

When he wants to be, Beef Tobin (Nick Offerman) is the bedrock of this show and by far the most layered which I think really came out in both of this week’s episodes. Whether it was possibly trying to sabotage Moon’s growth as an individual or his attempt to bond with Honeybee over ice-fishing, Beef is in constant conflict with being alone (which he seldom ever is) as a result of his divorce from his wife. Offerman’s warm hug of a voice during these times helps melt the ice that is the show’s setting and is very much presented differently than his much more famous mustached roles in series like Parks and Rec where the delivery is more poignant and sharp.

As we get ready for a fifth season of The Great North, it will be interesting to see if the series continues to grow and take chances. As of now, I think the tables are very much set for this, but the execution isn’t always there, and I don’t how much more time this show is going to have to truly separate itself from the Bob’s Burgers comparisons. Setting alone isn’t going to do it, it’s going to have to come from continued character growth and being more assertive in the writing department.