Season 3 of The Goldbergs Continues with a Bang
The third season of The Goldbergs got off to a fantastic start with last week’s premiere, setting the stage for a season filled with entertaining stories. This week’s episode, “A Chorus Lie,” is no exception.
Adam’s Puberty Struggles Take Center Stage
The main storyline in the episode revolves around Adam’s adventures with puberty. Along with a newfound smell and expanded interest in women, Adam has to find a way to handle a solo in the school musical. Even though he’s been wanting a lead role forever, he realizes that this…maybe isn’t the best year for it. Beverly decides that she can “save” Adam from puberty, and he lets it happen since he really has nothing to lose. She manages to cover his acne with concealer, but they just don’t know what to do about his voice.
That is, until news breaks that Milli Vanilli didn’t perform live at their shows. This gives Beverly the idea of having Adam lip sync his solo in the school musical, and that idea is just as amazing as it sounds. The music teacher, surprisingly, agrees to the plan, because of course she does. Pops ends up advising Adam to embrace his change, though, because he understands that ignoring it will make it worse in the long run. In the end, Beverly finally realizes that Pops was right and people want to see “a chorus line, not a chorus lie,” (THEY SAID THE THING IN THE THING), and the boys put on the absolute worst musical in the history of school musicals. And it was so very fun to watch.
Erica’s Homecoming Dilemma
Elsewhere, homecoming is nearly here, and Erica still doesn’t have a date. Barry’s friend Jeff decides that he really wants to take Erica to the dance, and he tries as hard as possible to impress her enough that she’ll go with him. Unfortunately for him, Erica is becoming much more like Murray than any of them expected, and Murray takes it upon himself to prevent this from happening. This leads to Erica taking a chance on a band kid, but Murray isn’t happy with it because he doesn’t get to actually choose who he dates. It turns out that Johnny Atkins is more over-confident than Erica thought, though, and that plan also falls through. After a really special heart-to-heart with her father, Erica and Jeff end up having a great time together away from the dance.
A Chorus Lie: A Worthy Successor to the Premiere
I really enjoyed last week’s premiere of The Goldbergs, but “A Chorus Lie” managed to be even better. All of the little elements seemed to work really well, and Erica’s storyline in this episode may have been my favorite one that she’s had so far in the series. Really, really great episode for one of the best comedies on TV.
Other Notes and Favorite Quotes:
- “You choose Milli over Vanilli? He’s got the body AND the moves!”
- The JTP is one of the best recurring elements of The Goldbergs, and their appearance here was just as good as ever. Let’s get the JTP and Mr. Glascott in some scenes together and watch magic happen.
- God bless the phrase “the pubening.”
- “He’s still going.” “He means well.”
- The scene in the car where Murray tries to convince Erica to not close herself off is brief, but it’s one of my favorite Murray/Erica moments ever. There wasn’t really anything that unique about it, but seeing Murray try to take such an active role in his daughter’s life is really special. The scene between them at the end is also incredibly well-written.
- I really hope Johnny Atkins does “saxophone” Erica at some point again in the show. I was a band kid myself, and Johnny reminds me so much of a saxophone player I actually knew that I’m almost convinced I wrote the character. Almost.
- We got a little more Pops than usual in “A Chorus Lie,” and it was just as much of a delight as it always is.
- “I’m sweating right now and it’s fifty degrees in here.” – Adam’s friend/me(????)
- I absolutely loved Hayley Orrantia’s performance at the end of the episode when she shows up at Jeff’s house. Again, it was nothing really unique, but a very short scene that managed to be incredibly powerful because of the emotion the actors bring to their characters.
- Not much Lainey in “A Chorus Lie,” but that’s fine since I know we’ll get a lot more of her through the season.
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Goldbergs? Let us know in the comments below, and tune in next week for another review!
[Photo credit: Isabella Vosmikova/ABC]
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