Mike K reviews Who's Who

[froodle]

This is pure speculation, but I sort of suspected Broken Record got aired out of order due to having relatively dark themes of parental abuse, so now it seems like they’re taking a different potentially dark family situation and portraying it in a deliberately over-the-top, comedic way to offset things. Girl of the week Sarah Bob is belittled by her father and little brothers and expected to wait hand-and-foot on them, but her family are such buffoonish stereotypes that it feels less like a harmful environment for a child to grow up in and more like a variant of Cinderella’s wicked stepmother and stepsisters (I’m mainly thinking of the Disney version of course). Still, I had enough emotional investment in the plot just because Sarah herself is a pretty sympathetic character.

It’s sort of interesting how at one point, this episode seems like it’s heading towards one message, but ends up someplace different: Sarah Bob finds that by signing her drawings, she can make them into reality, so she brings idealized versions of her father and brothers to life, then since she can’t remember her own mother, she draws Marshall’s mom. Marshall gets her to undo everything, and instead of just wishing things away, she finally stands up for herself… It doesn’t work, and ultimately the solution is to wish things away, but make different wishes.

Side Notes:


Sarah’s family all have the middle name Bob - accordingly, everyone in the end credits also has “Bob” inserted into their name.

Comments

[sagittariusbun.livejournal.com]

That Bob thing is like Monty Python for some reason.

[froodle]

I've seen very little of Monty Python so the reference must have gone over my head. What's it calling back to?

[sagittariusbun.livejournal.com]

Do you want to know something? I don't either. It is in my head but I can't get it out. @_@

[froodle]

i need to show that episode to some python fans over christmas, i think

[sagittariusbun.livejournal.com]

https://youtu.be/LzXGhZebNOo

That isn't it.. but it is funny..

https://youtu.be/anwy2MPT5RE
I think this is it.