‘Review’ Begins Its Final Season By Making Forrest’s Dream Come True

A few quick thoughts on last night’s final Review season premiere coming up just as soon as my body instantly knows something is wrong…

It’s been over 500 days since Review last graced our lives, and while the creative team didn’t know the show would be gone for this long, “Locorito/Pet Euthanasia/Dream” works as an effective refresher course in all things Forrest MacNeil: a Greatest Hits collection where he endures some very familiar (and funny) mortifications in pursuit of what he describes here as “this extraordinarily important work.”

So “Locorito” is a spiritual sequel to the two pancake reviews, as Forrest once again has to eat something he really shouldn’t, and pays the price. (It also reflects season one’s Batman review, since he winds up pooping his pants, and throwing up, in court in the middle of jury selection for his murder trial.) “Pet Euthanasia” recalls “Blackmail” and other reviews where Forrest was forced to do harm to someone or something he cared about deeply (and also to 15 pancakes and other reviews where Grant pushes him to keep going when he understandably doesn’t want to), while “Dreams” evokes “There All Is Aching” and other reviews where Forrest took his instructions far too literally, blowing a chance at an easy, rewarding review in favor of trying to actually reproduce the feeling of one of his nightly dreams.

But it all feels darker and sadder and more Review-y than ever now, because we know how much Forrest and the people around him have suffered. You can tell that AJ has developed protective feelings for Forrest after all he’s been through, and is trying really hard to keep him from doing the pet euthanasia review, while Grant’s hatred of Forrest and desire to see him suffer has only increased since the fall off the bridge left him paralyzed. And where the show once tried to skirt around the question of what Suzanne knows, and why everyone in Forrest’s life doesn’t just assume his latest erratic behavior is due to the show, one of this episode’s most stinging comic moments comes when he tries to steal his son’s dog to euthanize it and Suzanne asks, “What’s the review”

So R.I.P., Beyoncé (or, as Forrest first pronounced it, “Bee-aunts”) and Deyonce. And welcome back, Forrest, Grant, AJ, Suzanne, and the rest of the gang. It’s been too long, and this season’s going to be shorter than usual, but I’m just glad to have any more Review at all.

What did everybody else think