7.5/10. I have to admit, for a good chunk of this episode, I was planning to rate this one fairly low. Much of the episode falls into a familiar formula -- Orel takes some religious lesson and goes overboard with it, gets corrected by his Dad or someone else, and then goes overboard with it in the opposite direction. To boot, the examination of the whole "turning the other cheek" idea wasn't especially deep.
But man, this one turned me around when it subverted the show's usual format. Having Orel turn his newly pugilistic ways on his parents is a pretty dark place to go, even for this show, and I particularly enjoyed how it looked like we were heading to the usual ending where Dad once again corrects Orel and provides the usual corporal punishment, but instead Orel just wails on him before he gets the chance. It's that type of subversion that keeps viewers on their toes. Plus, I absolutely loved the anti-comedy of there being no lesson in the study (with Clay's explanation for why) and the two of them just standing their for a literal minute. Again, nothing particularly deep, but some neat narrative and comedic tricks to bolster things.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-07-15T15:38:28Z
7.5/10. I have to admit, for a good chunk of this episode, I was planning to rate this one fairly low. Much of the episode falls into a familiar formula -- Orel takes some religious lesson and goes overboard with it, gets corrected by his Dad or someone else, and then goes overboard with it in the opposite direction. To boot, the examination of the whole "turning the other cheek" idea wasn't especially deep.
But man, this one turned me around when it subverted the show's usual format. Having Orel turn his newly pugilistic ways on his parents is a pretty dark place to go, even for this show, and I particularly enjoyed how it looked like we were heading to the usual ending where Dad once again corrects Orel and provides the usual corporal punishment, but instead Orel just wails on him before he gets the chance. It's that type of subversion that keeps viewers on their toes. Plus, I absolutely loved the anti-comedy of there being no lesson in the study (with Clay's explanation for why) and the two of them just standing their for a literal minute. Again, nothing particularly deep, but some neat narrative and comedic tricks to bolster things.