Bless This Mess Review: The Visit (Season 2 Episode 6)
With a visit from Rio’s infamous mother and the impending addition of piglets to the Levine-Young farm, one might think Bless This Mess Season 2 Episode 6, “The Visit,” would be a momentous affair.
It is, at least on paper: with Season 2’s increased focus on Rio and Mike becoming full-fledged members of the Bucksnort community, the culture shock of Donna’s arrival should feel like a big moment for the series. And yet, “The Visit” is surprisingly muted, a lackluster offering that stumbles its way into a few simplistic resolutions.
As a pure experiment, “The Visit” is an interesting episode at least: to this point, Susie Essman’s Donna’s been relegated to cutaway shots, exaggerating the cultural chasm between Rio’s New York upbringing, and her current Nebraska settling.
Bringing her into the fold for an episode is a natural shift in Bless This Mess‘s tone; or at least it seems, until Donna begins making her way around town and interacting with the Bucksnort regulars… most of whom she already knows somehow.
As “The Visit” reveals Donna is already friends with most of the people in Bucksnort, it kind of pulls the rug out from the dramatic arc of her forcing herself on Rio’s life; she seems a rather natural integration into the small community, her acerbic ways dissolving into pleasantries and inside jokes about her monitoring Rio’s state of affairs.
Her friendships with Constance and Beau soften the ripple effect of her arrival; which leaves “The Visit” with nothing but the mother/daughter conflict to justify Donna’s sudden presence in the episode.
And that turns out to be a dud; it’s a classic “Mom just wants the best for her kids” kind of material, which makes Donna feel like a one-dimensional imitation of Bobbi Wexler, Essman’s motherly character from Broad City.
It’s surprising how little “The Visit” tries to expand on the conflict between Donna and Rio; it feels explicitly like a showcase for Donna to do Donna things, like bring up her daughter’s high school nemeses or make financial arrangements for Beau to give them an acre of land for rent.
Bless This Mess‘s second season has refined its premise and expanded its focus in really interesting ways; Donna still feels like a rough draft from season one, thoroughly predictable and lacking in real emotional depth.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Donna and Rio’s “her-vest” that feels slightly undercooked; “The Visit” is meandering to a fault, barely setting up stories like Brandon and Constance’s relationship or Mike’s anxiety around Portia giving birth, before stuffing in half-hearted emotional or plot developments in the final three minutes.
Strangely, it makes “The Visit” feel like a filler episode, even though it is ostensibly an important moment for the series; Rio showing her mother that Nebraska’s become her home, and somewhere she doesn’t have to fight to feel important, or necessary.
Instead, “The Visit” spells that out in very overt dialogue, rather than letting the natural inter-generational conflict to brew and develop in meaningful ways.
The same goes for Constance and Brandon; there is a lot of characters talking at each other in “The Visit,” a marked change from some of the fascinating, emotional exchanges from characters this season.
Instead, “The Visit” offers a half-developed conflict between the two, where Constance is frustrated at her son until Rudy reminds her of the obvious fact that he’s just returned from war.
It does hint towards a much more deeply rewarding emotional arc, centered around mother and son trying to fit back into each other’s lives as they grapple with major life changes; Constance’s burgeoning romance, and Brandon’s abrupt reintegration from war to regular society.
There are moments where this is distilled beautifully; but they come in isolation from each other, which leaves the inevitable resolution feeling a bit sanitized and constructed.
The foundation is there, but the pieces are never connected in coherent ways; and that absence robs the arc of some of its potential emotional impact.
If there’s a benefit, it is the small, contained feel of “The Visit”; with Donna on a plane back to New York, Bless This Mess will have more room next week for some of its more enjoyable dynamics (there is a major lack of Kay in this episode, for example).
It amounts to a small, though surprising, misstep; while it is disappointing to see Donna’s impact on Bucksnort is so incidental, it helps frame what Bless This Mess has done so well in expanding on its simplistic premise.
Bless This Mess is not just a pure fish out of water story anymore, as it leans more into more rewarding stories of love and community, of the big meaning of small gestures — Donna’s presence commits to neither end of its creative evolution, and ends up a forgettable middle chapter in what’s become a rather rewarding journey.
What did you think of this episode of Bless This Mess? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Bless This Mess airs Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.
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Randy Dankievitch
Randy Dankievitch is a TV critic living in Portland, Maine, whose obsession with pop culture began as a child, watching reruns of The Muensters while listening to Paul's Boutique on repeat. A writer since 2011, Randy is currently the writer of TV Never Sleeps, TV Editor at Goomba Stomp, and a columnist for Up Portland, with previous bylines at Sound on Sight, Processed Media, TV Overmind, and many others.