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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Each season of Corner Gas has produced at least one timeless classic. �Blog River� ranks right up there with any of them. This episode works phenomenally on every level and is easily in my top five favorite episodes of the 58 I�ve seen so far.
The plots, all of which are played out flawlessly, are as follows: Hank starting a blog that nobody reads, Lacey being depressed because a friend of hers got a high-profile cooking show, and Wanda helping Davis with his taxes. If you can watch this episode and walk away indifferent, Corner Gas is not the show for you.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Seeing Hank in a Krokus T-shirt. Talk about a blast from the past - when I was a teen I went to every rock concert I could and it seemed that Krokus was the opening act for half of the headliners I saw in the 80�s. Still to this day I'm sure I have at least two ro three of the band�s albums on vinyl - not that I still have the means or an overwhelming desire to play them, mind you.
I didn�t even notice the T-shirt until my better half asked if I knew what band was depicted on it, and when I paused the recording and took a closer look the only words I could come up with were �Holy (bleeping) s---...�. When I was of driving lesson age, Krokus was EVERYWHERE - easily the most ubiquitous second-string rock act of the generation, even more so than Triumph, Quiet Riot and Ratt. Among the B-level bands, Triumph was probably the best (Quiet Riot was unequivocally the worst), but Krokus always managed to come up with those particular tunes - good or bad - that would stick in your head for six or seven days running (the passable �Screaming in the Night,� the wretched �Eat the Rich,� etc.). Seeing Hank in a T-shirt like the ones I hate to admit I wore in the mid 80�s absolutely dropped my jaw.
MEMORABLE LINE: �Why is it that people who like to do things always make people who don�t like to do things do things?� from Lacey. Lines just don't get better than this one, and the irritated way in which Lacey uncorked this one was absolute perfection.
KUDOS TO GABRIELLE: Only she could make deep depression this funny, and her horseshoe matches with Hank and Oscar led to some of her best comedic moments ever - pretty high praise, (especially if you�re familiar with the rest of her work), but fully justified and well-deserved. If she doesn�t receive some sort of award for this episode, be it a Leo Award or whatever else she�d be eligible for, consider it an indictment on award ceremonies in general. Although Gabrielle nails everything she does in this episode to the wall, particular highlights include her �You ready to back that up?� to Oscar (her facial expression and movements are both done to perfection here) and her ��then I thought about the infinite blackness of space�� line after serving Wanda a plate of frozen French fries. It�s no secret how much of a fan I am of Gabrielle�s work, but even I can�t say enough about how good she was in this episode.
FUNNIEST LINE IN THIS EPISODE: �Werewolves would trash robots� from Brent.
FUNNIEST SCENES IN THIS EPISODE:
1.) When Lacey excuses herself because she has �goo to deal with.�
2.) When Hank says that he doesn�t know how people eat salad, remarking that �it�s leaves all the way down.�
3.) When Hank clears up a �common misconception� by pointing out that there are only seven bones in the human body.
4.) When Brent blames Wanda and Karen for Hank�s vow to �blog no more.�
5.) Hank�s response to Lacey�s assertion that salad is not foreign.
6.) CTV CEO Ivan Fecan appearing on air to reassure kids that there is a Santa Claus.
7.) Hank�s response when Lacey asks why Oscar is called �The Horseshoe King.� It should be pointed out that the seemingly indifferent way in which Lacey asked the question was flawless given her overall lack of enthusiasm for being at the picnic, so there's another kudo for Gabrielle right there.
8.) Lacey�s reaction when she beats Hank at horseshoes. I love seeing Lacey get obnoxiously competitive like this scene and in the thumb-wrestling scene in second-season episode Smell of Freedom.
9.) The �showdown� scene between Lacey and Oscar before their match.
10.) When Emma refers to Hank�s absurd �glow-in-the-dark points� in his blog as �things that had to be said.� Hank is truly at his obtuse best in this episode, but the idea that he could fall for that is just hilarious.
11.) Lacey�s reaction to Oscar and Emma�s complaints about the soup at The Ruby looking like dirty water. I don�t even get that upset when the Islanders lose.
12.) The scene in which Lacey brings Wanda frozen French fries. This entire scene was killer, from Lacey�s very first step towards the counter to the end.
13.) When Hank goads Lacey into a horseshoe rematch with Oscar (great facial expression by Lacey here), which was immediately followed by...
14.) ...Hank showing no confidence in her whatsoever and Lacey responding by drilling him upside the head with a rock.
15.) Davis �helping� Wanda get Karen to bet on horseshoes.
16.) Lacey�s �cooking show THAT!�
17.) When Lacey gives Oscar the business about the horseshoe match.
18.) The long series of questions at the counter which are all answered with �no.�
NOTES:
1.) This episode has two appearances from CTV CEO Ivan Fecan, who plays himself (in his job, no less) in both scenes. Fecan is the former vice president of creative development for NBC and the former director of programming for CBC. Many American viewers are quite familiar with one of the shows introduced during Fecan�s stint at CBC - The Kids in the Hall, which in one episode features Brent Butt as a barfly and witness to the funniest bar fight ever recorded on any show.
2.) Wanda�s �You�re takin� the fall for Thursby� to Oscar is a reference to Floyd Thursby, a character who never makes it to the screen in The Maltese Falcon (1941, Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor) but manages to get himself killed anyway.