As a whole, Season 3 of The Goldbergs seems to get better and better each week, maintaining a quality of greatness that few shows on television can reach. Let’s see if things held up in this week’s episode, “I Caddyshacked the Pool.”
The main story in this episode deals with Adam’s hatred of having to swim in the pool during gym class, something I think many of us can relate to. The Goldbergs has always done a phenomenal job of crafting stories that are relatable while also hilarious, and the pool storyline here continues that trend. The story weaves in Adam and Beverly with everyone’s favorite coach, and it manages to be so much funnier than you could expect with such a played-out sitcom scenario. The thing that makes The Goldbergs so great is the way it makes any storyline its own, no matter how many times you may have seen something similar before on television.
Speaking of seeing something on television, though, Adam comes up with a plan to get out of swimming after catching Caddyshack on TV. This, of course, ends badly, but we get a great Adam Goldberg monologue at the conclusion that reminds us just how realistic the characters on this show can be.
Elsewhere in “I Caddyshacked the Pool,” Erica decides to change the world after realizing she’s tired of trying to fit in. To accomplish this goal, she starts up a social awareness club at school and decides to write a song as a fundraiser. Barry, however, sees how many cool kids join the club, so he also joins (much to Erica’s chagrin) so that he can fit in. The club doesn’t at all pan out the way that she had hoped, largely because of Barry’s scheming, but of course, things work out in the end.
I liked this story a ton, but the highlight was definitely the musical moment we got about halfway through the episode. Hayley Orrantia and AJ Michalka are super gifted musicians, and I love when episodes of The Goldbergs give them a chance to highlight these talents. This story also gave us some really strong and heartfelt emotional moments between Erica and Barry, and it’s nice that we get good moments like this that don’t directly involve Murray or Beverly. The Goldbergs is definitely a family comedy, but it’s good when we can focus as much on interactions between the siblings as we do between the kids and their parents.
The writing in “I Caddyshacked the Pool” is absolutely fantastic. While it isn’t my favorite episode of the season (which, honestly, isn’t at all a criticism, since this season has been so incredibly strong), I definitely think that it is the most well-written.
Overall, “I Caddyshacked the Pool” was an incredibly strong episode of an incredibly strong season of an absolutely wonderful series, and I think the thing that we can most appreciate is that we get to see something like this on television each week.
What did you think about this week’s episode of The Goldbergs? Did “I Caddyshacked the Pool” stay as great as the other episodes this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo credit: Carol Kaelson/ABC]
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I really enjoy your reviews. The Goldbergs continues it’s incredible run again this week. Just wanted to let you know that I share your enthusiasm for this show’s greatness and will continue to read your reviews.
Thank you so much!