Everyone knows this family is crazy, so nobody should expect them to suddenly gain some sanity at dinner. They do quite the opposite of that, with all of them acting even more insane than usual. Barry and Murray are both terrible at ordering, with one ordering the wrong thing and one not knowing what to order. Adam struggles to eat an adult meal after eating off the kid's menu for so long. Pops tries to make friends with everyone. Beverly worries about the family filling up on bread, but also won't let anything go to waste. All of these things seem very in-character, as the family members all have their fair share of quirky traits. We've seen them go to dinner at restaurants before though, and we haven't seen them act quite this crazy. I'm guessing they were just on their best behavior then or something? Either way, it still made for a wholly enjoyable episode.
The actions of all of the characters here could have easily been annoying, but they really weren't. I found the whole episode to be very, very fun. From the reactions of the guy who wasn't actually their waiter ("Just go") to the guy who actually was their waiter to the families that Pops undoubtedly annoyed, everything here was hilarious. Beverly tabulating the "true" cost of the meal and Murray being hopelessly unhelpful was another highlight. My favorite quirk here had to be Pops though, who kept hilariously popping up at various other tables. Though if I was at "dinner with the Goldbergs", I'd want to get as far away as possible, too.
The real heart of this episode, despite the crazy actions of our beloved Goldbergs, was the relationship between Erica and Geoff. It was the framework for this episode, as well as the emotional heart. The main conflict here was that Erica didn't want Geoff to see her family act so terrible at dinner. I'm not sure why she was so worried about it, because he already knows the family is crazy (Barry is one of his best friends!), but it set up the episode well enough. Eventually, after some minor food thievery, Geoff has had enough and he tells the family off, as he probably should have at the start of dinner. This ends with an emotional moment, but not just between "twins" Geoff and Erica, but rather Geoff and Murray. It's all very sweet, and it was nice to see Murray play a major role this week.
In the end, "Dinner With the Goldbergs" is another home run for the series, which has had a true creative renaissance this season. The episode had countless laugh-out-loud funny moments, as well as a nice emotional heart with the Geoff and Murray conversation. This show is really great at those emotional moments, but this one really got me. I rarely rewatch episodes (of any show), but this is an episode I will almost-certainly revisit sometime in the future. Now if you excuse me, I have some purse rolls to go eat!
My Score: 10/10
My Grade: A+
