Murphy Brown Season 11 Episode 9 Review: Thanksgiving and Taking
Kim Russell
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On Murphy Brown Season 11 Episode 9, the day started funny enough but took a dark turn when ICE showed up at the door.
Can we talk about the ICE agents for a minute?
We've got the heartless one and the just following orders one. I'm sorry, but nobody is that heartless on Thanksgiving.
Seriously.
Yes, I believe nosey parkers would call ICE on Thanksgiving. Some people are just that way, but for ICE to run out, bust in a food truck, and haul people away? I find that hard to believe.
The whole premise of Thanksgiving started with immigrants arriving in this country and breaking bread with the natives.
Of course, we ended up taking their land, but that's beside the point I'm making here.
That did not happen to my turkey. MY turkey grew up on a beautiful farm in Vermont with its own bed, turn down service every night, free cable and then ... One bad day.
Murphy
The point I'm making is the point of the episode. How ironic that immigrants (illegal or not) are rounded up on Thanksgiving, of all days. A day birthed by immigrants.
I have to admit when Murphy teared up at the end, so did I.
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Her emotion was more than acting. It was Candace Bergen pleading to the nation.
I'll admit the scene inside the food truck was a bit cheesy, though. We had the stereotypical ICE agents who were laughable on one side, and the stereotypical immigrant family on the other.
I felt no emotion when they were cuffed and hauled away, until Murphy started yelling out the back of the truck at the ICE agents, then again at Murphy in the Morning.
The lines they chose to use about giving up everything and traveling to what they thought was a compassionate country to save their son from violence might have been true, but the delivery didn't carry the emotion it should have.
Because she loves you and wants to make you happy, and WE have to pay for it.
Frank
It felt more like an overly dramatized commercial or an on-stage play, so it came off as forced and inauthentic.
That being so, the message was received.
Let's go back to earlier in the episode because there were a lot of funny parts.
Related: Murphy Brown Season 11 Episode 8 Review: The Coma and the Oxford Comma
From the opening of the episode at the station when no one wanted to come to dinner until the lights went out -- mostly funny.
Murphy lost in the kitchen was adorable, and Phyllis' never-ending wine glass made me laugh. What about that orange hair pulled into a top knot? That was, um, different.
Listening to Phyllis reference her time with the NYPD takes me right to Cagney & Lacey.
So nostalgic. Phyllis' character gets better every week.
When I talked about Pat on Murphy Brown Season 11 Episode 8 changing, it was evident this week. I'm hoping they don't keep going down this road with his character. I don't know if this is his character just revealing more of itself or what, but these aren't positive changes.
Thumb? That's not a thumb. Why would an angry wife cut off her husband's thumb?
Phyllis
He's coming off as persnickety, and that's not the Pat we met at the beginning of the reboot.
Another character who I liked, in the beginning, is backsliding and that's Avery. He's coming off as a snob, which is exactly the opposite of who his character is supposed to be. He's supposed to be the one who stands up to injustice. Isn't he?
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Avery's character confusion is less in the writing and more in the delivery, and I like him less and less each week.
The only consistently funny characters on the show are the core group of Miles, Corky, Frank, Murphy, and Phyllis. The other characters need some ironing out.
Hopefully, they can point the other characters in a better direction so we can see another season of this reboot. The audience might not appreciate all the political points poking their heads into a half hour comedy show, but it's a small price to pay for a good laugh.
Murphy: Miles, don't you have any snide remarks to make?
Miles: What's the use? I'm as dead as my Aunt Cheryl.
We need those, and if we have to listen to a little bit of agenda to experience some wholesome funnies, I say bring it on.
What do you think, Murphy Brown fanatics? Was this episode too preachy for you? What do you think of Avery and Pat? Which moment made you laugh the most?
Hit the comments and tell us what you think.
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Kim Russell was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in January 2019.
