Review:
The Cleveland Show: Episode Eight

108: From Bed to Worse

But the bed is where we do things to each other. Disgusting things. Disrespectful things. Things that make it hard for me to look you in the eye the next day.’ – Cleveland Brown

Like the previous episode, this week’s instalment is something of a disappointment, though not nearly to the same level. It’s more a bag of mixed blessings in a story that saves all its big punches for later on.

The storylines are split three ways, with each strand focussing on the theme of reunion. The main arc centres around Rallo and Cleveland, as the young step-son begins to feel that his role as man of the house is under threat. This leads to a battle of wits between the two as Rallo goes to extreme lengths to keep Cleveland away from Donna.

Meanwhile, Roberta and Cleveland Jr. go on a class trip to Washington D.C. Initially, Junior is reluctant to go, but after Roberta is offered forty one dollars to watch out for him, he agrees to it. Unfortunately, Roberta goes back on her offer as soon as cool deaf kid Oliver Wilkerson puts pressure on her.

Finally, the always reliable Tim and Arianna Bear chaperone the class trip, only to discover that the spark has gone from their marriage.

It’s an odd episode in that the first act is almost entirely laugh-free. While the humour builds quickly and arrives in a flurry of quick-fire gags and one-liners in the rest of the episode, all the set up for the plot is without comedy. That said, it’s great to see an episode that focuses on Rallo’s character, instead of using him as a source of humour.

The second and third acts bring on the fun in such a way that it seems the writers knew the first act just wasn’t up to scratch. Seeing Rallo and Cleveland at war over a woman is highly amusing and works well as an allegory for a child struggling to understand change. This continuing allegory works well for Roberta and Cleveland Jr., too, considering they didn’t even know each other just a few scant weeks ago. Although, to be fair, that could just be reading slightly too much into an animated comedy that uses farts and vomit as a source of humour.