The Goldbergs Season 6 Episode 17 Review

This week's Goldbergs features a tribute to the sitcom Perfect Strangers, a new cousin, the Frentas(!), and discussion of Beverly's upcoming cookbook.

Beverly is working on her cookbook, and is testing recipes on the entire family, to an extreme degree. Pops tells the kids to get ready for their arrival of their Russian cousin Gleb, who they've never met. When Gleb arrives, he's a lot different than Pops described him, but Pops tells the kids to try and make him comfortable. Beverly annoys her friends with her constant talk about her cookbook, and they leave following an argument. Using Perfect Strangers as inspiration, Barry tells Adam and Erica they can to use Gleb to their advantage, which they don't want to to at fist. It's only once Barry goes around their back and does the plan anyway that they're convinced that it's a good idea. Beverly invites the Frentas over again, and they challenge her to listen to them instead of spending all of their time together talking about herself. They tell her that if she can withhold talking about her life for ten minutes, they'll let her talk about herself all she wants for the next few times they meet, no questions asked. She doesn't come close.

Gleb tells Pops that the kids have been using him to get what they want, and he's really upset about it. He tells them to show Gleb what America is like, but the end up insulting him further. Pops realizes that he's spoiled the kids rotten, making them selfish. Beverly discovers that the Frentas are having brunch without her and even replaced her with someone else. They talk for a bit, but she gets insulted and storms off. Pops takes everything he's ever gotten for the kids and gives it all to Gleb, and the kids demand that he gives it back. Beverly stops by Bill's house to hang out with him and Murray, but she doesn't fit and and leaves them too.

Murray tells the Frentas (whose names he does NOT know) that Beverly is a really good friend who always talks to the family about her friends, and they go patch things up with her. Beverly is touched, and she even agrees to include their recipes in her cookbook. The kids apologize to Pops for the way they acted. Though he's grateful, he tells them that Gleb is the one that really deserves an apology. They apologize to Gleb, and then take him to the Phillies game.

Wrap-Up:

I really enjoyed this episode, and found it to be one of the funnier recent episodes. While it felt a little outlandish at times, it was good, pure fun and both plots were really enjoyable. I found it hard to believe that Murray and Beverly wouldn't interact with Gleb all week, which did detract from my enjoyment of that story, but it was really funny nonetheless. The ending was particularly rewarding, and it was nice to see the Goldberg kids having some fun together with their long-lost cousin. The plot with Beverly was the standout for me, however. My love for the Frentas has been well-documented in these reviews, and their mere appearance can elevate even the worst of episodes. The most importance re-appearance of this episode, however, is the living room. I loved that episode so much and I was so happy to see the Frentas meeting there this week. Seeing them finally say something about Bev's tendency to go on (and on and on and on) about her family is something that I never really knew I wanted to see, but it was great to see the show shake things up. It was also wonderful seeing Murray have an interaction with the Frentas, and having him be the one to help Beverly and the Frentas fix their relationship was clever. On a related note, it's great to see David Koechner making more frequent appearances on the show this season. Seeing his Bill and Murray get closer over these recent seasons has been a small but very important bit of character progression for our beloved family's patriarch, and it's nice to see them spending time together, however boring that time may seem. My only complaint about this episode is that it was, in some way, yet another tribute episode. While these used to feel really special (the Dirty Dancing episode from season three remains a notable standout), they're now just something I expect from the show, and I'd love to see them used less frequently and be more spaced out.

Score: 8.5/10
Grade: B+

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