The Goldbergs: “La Biblioteca Es Libros”/“Just Say No”

It’s back-to-back episodes of The Goldbergs this week. The good news (for me, at least) is that both episodes feature fairly prominent Barry-centric plotlines—“La Biblioteca Es Libros” finds him struggling with first-time employment, while “Just Say No” has him trying out for American Gladiators. Unfortunately, perhaps due to late-in-season exhaustion, the episode’s other storylines don’t quite feel as fresh or hit quite as hard as previous week’s installments.

Let’s start with “La Biblioteca Es Libros.” The Barry/job plotline comes into play after the middle Goldberg feels as though he’s not being respected. The subsequent job search proves fairly fruitless, primarily because Barry is not the best with the whole interview thing. This brief montage proves to be a major highlight of the episode. Some of my favorite Barry-isms include—“my biggest weakness? I’m honest and I’m lazy” and “who do I think would win in a fight between a tiger and a bear? That’s a good question and one you didn’t ask, but I’ll discuss!”

Somehow, Barry ends up finally landing a job as a pizza delivery boy. He’s about as effective as you’d expect, and is soon fired for perpetually getting lost on the way to deliveries. Barry decides to keep up the illusion of having a job, however, after Murray begins treating him better. He even buys Barry his own La-Z Boy. This infuriates Erica, who sees this as a double standard since she’s been working jobs for quite some time already. Erica exposes Barry’s firing and Murray eventually realizes his own mistake and apologizes. It’s fairly straightforward Goldbergs fare, though the Erica element does seem a bit tacked-on for the sake of setting up the episode’s signature heart-to-heart moment at end. In any case, it’s far from the most contrived element of the hour, so I’m perfectly willing to let that one slide.

The rest of the episode, as indicated by the title, concerns Adam’s Spanish class woes. Despite being an obviously bright kid, he’s struggling in Spanish and is about to get kicked down into the remedial level. Hearing this, Beverly’s “mom logic” (an extension of her “mom goggles”) kicks into full gear and she immediately assumes that her son’s failing is the result of an inadequate teacher. Realizing that Adam’s meek Spanish teacher (also his health teacher apparently) is saving up for an out-of-country voyage, Beverly pays for “tutoring lessons” which means that the teacher now has a vested interest in having Adam pass.

It’s a bit of a strange storyline. While Beverly’s underhanded techniques certainly have their roots in previous episodes, it doesn’t feel quite in character for Adam to be so willfully oblivious to the fact that his mother is essentially helping him cheat. Or maybe he does realize it, and is just in denial because he’s getting a free passing grade. It’s kind of hard to say. It doesn’t help that things turn very over-the-top when Adam, taking Beverly’s suggestion, puts on a full theatrical show for his oral presentation and never answers the actual question. The Goldbergs certainly never backs down from big gags, but this felt a bit too broad even by those standards.

The second episode, “Just Say No” suffers from a lot of the same issues as “La Biblioteca Es Libros” (namely overly broad scenarios) but doesn’t have quite as many belly laugh moments to make up for its shortcomings.