REVIEW: FUGGET ABOUT IT “THE FULL MOUNTIE”
Powerful New York mob boss Jimmy Falcone enters the Witness Protection Program and brings his family — wife Cookie, daughters Theresa and Gina, son Anthony, and Uncle Cheech — along for the adventure of a lifetime. Far from New York’s busy streets, the Falcone family arrives in the peaceful town of Oakville, where the pace is far slower and Jimmy doesn’t always get his way.
Spoilers Below
I find it interesting when a television series can make play on words when giving an episode a title. This week’s episode of Fugget About It is brilliantly titled The Full Mountie, and derives from what level Mountie (informal use for Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Strait McCool stoops to in order to get out of his predicament.
The episode begins with a fireside chat with Peter, as he reflects on the events leading up to his life in Regina. We’re only two episodes in, but I have a feeling there will be a weekly episode prologue with each character.
Speaking of characters, we’re also introduced to a new supporting character, Special Agent McCool’s horse, simply named Horse. In the premiere episode last week, Horse came across more as a gimmick for the Mountie, where in this week’s episode, the thoroughbred plays a vital role. He doesn’t speak like the animals of Seth MacFarlane’s world, but he does read the newspaper.
Peter seeks Special Agent McCool’s consent to order a pizza from New York, from a pizza joint that makes the best pies outside of Italy that he and his Mafioso cohorts would consume during their weekly poker games (generating a snowball effect to McCool’s downfall later in the episode).
McCool condemns the idea due to the likelihood of Jimmy’s ex-organization tracking the Falcones back to Regina. This is followed by a lecture of the pitfalls of gambling and a hysterical flashback to McCool’s past gambling problem, which started small (pennies and Gin Rummy) and escalated to betting on, of all animals, pig racing.
Meanwhile, Petey is wary of bringing his Persian girlfriend Rita to dinner, thinking his family is prejudice and will embarrass him. He seeks advice from his inept narcissistic sister Theresa, to no avail. When Rita finally does come to the Falcone’s, Petey reads too deep into his parent’s innocent questions, and it eventually blows up in his face.
Eventually, Jimmy wistfully starts a poker night with Uncle Cheech and a collective of Canadian stereotypes; the Scottish premier of Saskatchewan, a French-Canadian and an Aboriginal Canadian.
McCool eventually joins the game and begins cleaning house, reading his opponents like a book. Though after a bad round, McCool gets in the hole with Jimmy for $ 50 000. Unable to pay Jimmy immediately, the Mountie loses Horse as collateral.
Desperate to get Horse back, we’re treated to a hilarious montage of McCool’s efforts of part-time employment, including posing nude for ‘Huslette Magazine’.
Jimmy laments for the Mountie’s dilemma and tries to wipe the debt, but McCool’s pride gets in the way. So Jimmy and Uncle Cheech devise a plan to put things back in order, which includes a climatic ending at the racetracks, full of sexual innuendos, followed by a denouement that’s an all too familiar parody of An Officer and a Gentlemen. Remember The Simpsons, Season 1 Episode 9, “Life on the Fast Lane”?
I think this episode proves McCool has comical merit and will be a key player in future laughs from Fugget About It. He can be the driving force of many stereotypical jokes. For starters, he lives in a log cabin in the middle of the suburbs.
If you read into character dichotomy, he and Uncle Cheech play as clashing influences – both positive and negative – on Jimmy.
His character is a living incarnation of Jimmy’s good conscience, always popping out of nowhere to convince Jimmy to do the right thing.
Do we know if Hulu will be the only entity to have the dub, or if it will be on other platforms, too? The show in general is definitely going to be on multiple platforms.