ALL IN THE FAMILY-Edith's Class Reunion, Hot Watch, and Everybody Tells the Truth

ALL IN THE FAMILY-EDITH’S CLASS REUNION, HOT WATCH and EVERYBODY TELLS THE TRUTH

 

“What am I eating over here?”

“It’s called Yankee Stew.”

“Well, the Yankees struck out.”

 

At last and “ahh, that’s more like it.” Three hilarious episodes that have less annoying people (though the lady using the eye thing on Archie at the reunion WAS horribly annoying), less frustration for Archie (though some is probably part of every ALL IN THE FAMILY), less controversial serious issues, and more funny lines than maybe the entire season and a half. These might be the funniest episodes up to now.

 

REUNION does feature the return of Ameila who is at best, an okay character and annoying at worst. BUT if features some of the best lines from Archie himself. HOT WATCH has many great lines and more prejudices from Archie. The fact that he thinks he says “Chinese” when in fact he said, “Chinks”, shows that he doesn’t really know what he’s saying that is mean. He sort of does some of it innocently and unintelligently. Mike is shown to antagonize Archie just to antagonize Archie. EVERYBODY has a brilliant idea: that Mike and Archie tells a story with their exaggerated POVs incorporated into the narrative. It’s basically RASHOMEN but ALL IN THE FAMILY style:

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon

 This features the dishonest (or in this case, without realizing it) retelling of the events in which everyone shows his or her ideal self by lying. It’s a brilliant showcase for the talents of the entire cast. Again, Mike is shown as being “as bad as Archie.”

 

Mike IS an annoying but necessary character.

 

A word about Edith. She really is a saint and it runs deeper than just her loving everyone. In REUNION, she sees Buck’s soul through his eyes and where Archie sees a blimp (“Is she in there wid ya?” and “What the hell happened to ya?” “Don’t let anybody move ya!”), she sees a beautiful person and even Archie sees that about Edith, who sees him as a beautiful person, too. In EVERYBODY, she is the only one (not sure Gloria had any hand in telling the story but it seems like she did and it was sort of “off” too) who tells the complete truth to the story without judging, without embellishments, and even tells what Jack said to Archie that had no menace in it but that he had to prove he was a man (maybe one of the only social commentary in these three eps).

 

In one of these episodes Archie tells Mike he’s not prejudice that way, “I’ve never judged any man because he’s the same color as me.” It’s hilarious.

 

In fact, almost everything Archie says in these three episodes is funny in one way or another.

 

As I recall, ALL IN THE FAMILY can be hilariously funny. And these three episodes prove it.