The Goldbergs: Brothers at Thanksgiving

Does this look like the face of someone who will a Thanksgiving to pass where things don't go her way?

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I didn't think so. I found a few problems with this episode, like wondering where Murray's parents were if his brother lives in their house, but on the whole, it was cute, and very fitting for a Thanksgiving episode. The kids would rather play games than spend time with their family and acknowledge just how much their mother does for them, which is pretty much like every holiday I spent as a kid. Still, beyond the timeless stuff, there were some quintessential 80s parts, like the pyramid scheme and the DeLorean (which went out of business in 1982, by the way). I really look forward to finding out which 80s fads will present themselves in the rest of the holiday episodes (assuming we're going Hanukkah here?).

The Goldbergs "Stop Arguing and Start Thanking" (S01E09): Beverly wants the kids to be more thankful for how much work she puts in to make things nice for them, but Erica is more or less absent and the boys play a made-up game in the basement. Murray doesn't want his brother, Marvin, coming, but when he shows up, he's driving a DeLorean with the license plate "CHX DIGIT." [did people say "chicks" in 1982?] Murray paid for Marvin to take bartending courses, but he failed out, and that seems to be only one of the times the older brother has bailed out the younger. Marvin has a job selling lotions and soaps, and hits up Murray to invest. Murray gets upset, and the next thing you know, he gets out of the car and it rolls down a hill, hitting a lightpost and bending the frame. [yikes!] And, as DMC went out of business, Marvin can't use their concierge for help. [ha!] Beverly smooths things over between the guys with some lies, but that, too, falls apart when it seems that Marvin's job sells terrible products and is actually just a pyramid scheme. A fight breaks out, and even the return of a childhood baseball proves that brothers will be brothers. Similarly, when Adam beats Barry for the first time, the dynamic between them changes, as Barry may now be lose to his little brother at other things, too. [we played games constantly when I was little, and my brother and I each had our strengths in different activities, so I guess we didn't have this problem?]