Is the north really that great? - The Great North (Spoilers)

Hello whoever might be out there,

The day has arrived that you have all been waiting for, or perhaps only I have been waiting for it, but I am extremely excited regardless. I have officially finished the animated TV show set in Alaska; "The Great North". This review has been just under three months in the making, just because that is how long it took me to finish the show. This is your very final warning that if you ever intend on watching The Great North (TGN) and do not want any spoilers of any variety, click off now, although it makes barely any difference because there aren't many plot points that span across more than one episode so there is actually very little to spoil.

I am going to start this out by saying that I am not going to compare this show directly to Bob's Burgers. It makes no logistical sense. They are different shows with different characters who happen to share an art style. Yes they have some similarities which I may explore, but fundamentally they have a lot of differences and it's unfair to drag a show down just because another is better. Yes, I do believe that Bob's Burgers is better but I still don't think they are comparable.

There are ninety-seven episodes of The Great North totalling to many more A and B plots, including one two-part special. The plots range from wholesome stories about making art or school or starting a band, to taking drugs or being kidnapped or having a hallucination of your penis demand sex. Having a very prominent episode about the complications of coming out as gay in the same show as erotic throuple fishing felt... wrong. I started this show expecting a comforting, down to Earth, slice of life animation about an Alaskan family and that is what I got, for two and a half seasons. And I am going to be bold and say an episode. S3 E13, Sister Pact Too Adventure. The B plot with Zelda told me one very clear thing - this show is now over.

I called this show my comfort show, because that is what it was. I was comforted by an unapologetically woke show with a slightly complex but unconditionally loving family. Their situations were trivial and I knew everything would come to a nice conclusion in the end, but Season 5 lost this. Dramatic changes were being made left, right, and centre. A new boat, Ham breaking up with his boyfriend, the cabin, Beef both entering and ending a relationship. Suddenly nothing was certain by the end of the episode. Episodes felt half-finished, credit songs rolling with unresolved plots which never were finished. My comforting show was suddenly unpredictable and unstable, to the point where I couldn't call it that anymore. I am trying to portray this show in a positive light, I did give it four stars after all, but the ending genuinely dropped off so differently that it makes it hard. I think I rated the final season too highly. They were all about the same rating, but that rating is "meh". 

The characters are what got me through this show, and if you have read any of my TGN reviews you will know that that is the one and only Judy Tobin. I like to think I relate to a lot of characters, but never have I watched a show and the only thing I can think of is "That character is me as a blonde Alaskan." She is sixteen, so am I. She has issues with braces, so do I. She loves journalism and art and drama and music and debate, so do I. The only difference is that she isn't lesbian, but she is definitely LGBTQIA+ and I am not taking objections. She is the embodiment of "make bad art" and I just feel so seen. She will be the character I will be using for any "Which fictional character are you?" questions for the foreseeable future. She would make anti-AI pins and go to Palestine marches and volunteer at the food bank. She is a character that so many people my age need to see, need to be. How I love you Judy Tobin.

I love the other characters too, but they are much less certain in their own identities. Ham is simultaneously a goodie two shoes and extremely laid back about schoolwork. Beef is family dedicated while chasing several women all at once. Both Honeybee and Wolf felt Flanderised in their own way and I don't wish to elaborate. The side characters have a tendency of blending into one due to the word "reoccurring" being taken too loosely. And I don't even want to think about what happened to Alanis Morissette (her cameo character, the woman herself is fine). By the end of the show, I wasn't invested in anyone's story but Judy's. I need a spinoff where it is all Judy. It got to a point where every character was involved in a "I've been so selfish, I have forgotten about the rest of my family" plot, so to compensate the lack of emotional development, the plots took control and became increasingly insane to compensate.

Beef and his relationship drama made absolutely no sense. I thought the point was that he was in a split decision between three women that were all introduced relatively early on, but then he went for Moon's bully's Mum? That is the person he ended up in a serious relationship with? (For a few episodes, until the plot ideas ran out for them). The fact I cannot remember any of the women's names (apart from Alyson who was the only one with character outside of being a love interest) suggests that their characters really were plastic and shallow. I did like one of the women in particular, Dell. But upon exploring Reddit, I have discovered that Alyson's first voice actor and Beef's voice actor are married so I think I am going to have to change my answer, because what do you mean Alyson's VA got switched and then they didn't get their happy ending. Suddenly this is far more tragic than I ever thought it was going to be. Their characters did not match at all in my opinion, and S5 E17 Serendipi-Beef Adventure made absolutely no sense. There were so many instances across the show of "oh my gosh, all my potential love interests are in the same place at the same time, what do I do?" and I honestly did not care very much for it. Part of why Beef's character was so loveable is because he was a divorced man focusing on his kids rather than other women, and yes I understand that it was supposed to be character development but I simply didn't understand it.

I also have beef (pun intended) with the Ham and Crispin situation, because what the hell? It was the whole joke in S3 E3 Autumn If You Got Em Adventure that them breaking up was absurd, so why on Earth would they end up taking a break? All because Ham had a crush on a literal animatronic in S5 E3 Bots On The Side Adventure. It just made zero sense, and S5 E10 Ham To Lose A Guy wasn't even worth it! If anything I wanted to see more of Crispin, not less. TGN made a lot of rash decisions and ultimately, they didn't work out, and that brings me on to my next point.

I see why this show was cancelled. I was still in my Season 2 honeymoon phase when I found out that it had been cancelled, so I was obviously devastated, but now I have finished the whole show, I think that was completely warranted. You can always tell a show is dying based on two things, and this show had both of them. Firstly, as I have previously explained, plots became insane in an attempt to stay entertaining but original. But secondly? They were using an alarming number of extremely recent references as opposed to sticking to proper Pop Culture. Skibidi toilet and Scrub Daddy come to mind almost immediately, as well as a fourth wall break mentioning Hulu in S5 E1 The Lies Aquatic Adventure. These references will become outdated so quickly, and the fact I was watching this show on Disney+ due to being a Brit just made it even... unfunnier. It felt like a desperate clutching at straws attempt to remain relevant and funny, but it shows the last main gripe I had with this show.

I didn't find it funny. And that may just be my humour, and that is okay, but for a show labelled as a "comedy" and a "sitcom" there were simply not many moments I actually laughed at. I do think that is just a me thing though, I don't laugh at a whole lot but I can appreciate the comedic writing. The only time I notably laughed was S5 E4 Silence Of The Dams Adventure, and that was because Beef hit the beaver. Not a funny line, just classic physical comedy. I am sure there will be people out there who laugh at this kind of humour, but I just must not be that person. Don't let me saying this put you off the show though, because maybe you might find your next laugh out loud show.

Yes I still rated this show four stars. I take great joy in criticising and picking apart things, even things I love. There's only so many ways I can say "I like this" compared to exploring and expanding on every minorly negative thought I have. My Judy paragraph is relatively short for a character who is the main reason why I continued watching the show. I might explore this show more if new ideas come to me, which they inevitably will. I have been wanting to write this since I started the show, but you know how it is; you sit down to write and suddenly you've forgotten everything.

I doubt I will do a full rewatch of this show, so maybe not longest night to longest day? 

Yours faithfully,

MD