The Goldbergs – Game Night

By starrymag | January 29, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

In the 1980s families loved to play board games as it was the perfect family bonding time, according to Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Unfortunately, the rest of the Goldberg family was not as into it. Adam (Sean Giambrone), Barry (Troy Gentile), Murray (Jeff Garlin), Pops (George Segal), and Erica (Hayley Orrantia) are each tricked by Beverly into showing up for game night. She just wanted one evening where everyone got together for at least seven hours, but they can never agree on a game. Murray decides to go watch TV and everyone else but Beverly comes up with an excuse to leave. Barry suggests that Beverly flip the board game over to release her anger. 

 

At school Science class got interesting for Adam who was partnered with Brea Bee (Sadie Stanley), the most popular girl at school. Adam is trying to be chill about it, but he can’t contain his enthusiasm when she says she knows who Neil Simon is and quotes Matthew Broderick. As is his experience with other popular kids, Adam expects to do all the work but Brea insists that she wants to help out, too. Adam tells Dave Kim (Kenny Ridwan), Carla (Alex Jennings) and Dan (Nate Hartley) about “vibing” with Brea, but they don’t believe him because someone can’t be “nice and hot.”

 

It isn’t until Brea says Adam’s name that Dave, Carla and Dan believe that they’re friends now. But when Adam tries to go sit at the “cool people” table Johnny Atkins (Sean Marquette), Brian Walls (Theodore Barnes) and Brian Corbett (Zach Callison) stop him from doing so. 

 

Erica and Geoff (Sam Lerner) are still hiding the fact that they are living together in Erica’s dorm. So, when Beverly shows up looking for Barry they enforce their plan to make it look like Barry still lives there. While Geoff hides in the bathroom playing a pre-recorded tape of Barry, Erica tries to get Beverly out of the dorm. 

 

Adam rushes home to ask Pops for advice about Brea, but he tells him to be himself. It’s not the type of advice that Adam is impressed by and feels let down by Pops. So, he then goes looking to the guidance counselor Mr. Perott (Anthony Michael Hall) for help. He doesn’t hesitate to call Adam a nerd when they sit down to talk because as he shows Adam that he was a nerd once, too (showing him a photo of the real Anthony Michael Hall from the film Sixteen Candles). 

 

Mr. Perott gives Adam some advice on what he should do to be cool. He says he always keep sunglasses on him so he can throw them off casually. Next, he says “ABCG” – always be chewing gum. According to Dr. Perott it makes you look busy and laid back. Lastly, he says never give anyone your full attention and walk around like there is a song playing in your head. 

 

After the close encounter with Beverly we see Erica and Geoff go to Barry’s place to tell him they need to come up with a game plan. At first Barry doesn’t care about their concerns, but after they point out that that he will have to move out of the JTP apartment he decides to help. The best way to get on Beverly’s good side is to initiate a family night, so Barry, Geoff and Erica plan just that. Beverly is ecstatic that they want to have game night and forces Geoff to stay back for it as well.

 

After getting all the advice from Mr. Perott we watch Adam show up to school wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. No one recognizes him and even the “cool people” table lets him sit down with them. Once Brea realizes that it’s Adam she asks him to hang out with her and her friends later. Johnny says they’ll pick him up at some time, but doesn’t clarify when. 

 

At the Goldbergs’ home game night is on and Beverly starts pulling out all the games to decide on one (Guess Who, Bed Bugs, Mall Madness, Life, Girl Talk, etc). All the while Geoff is having a hard time keeping it together and keeping their big secret. 

 

He runs away to the bathroom to hide out but Erica assures him that soon game night will be over because they can never pick a game. However, when they come outside to the dining room they learn that they are going to be playing Family Feud – with Geoff’s parents, Lou (Ken Lerner) and Linda (Mindy Sterling). Geoff gets nervous and runs off to the bathroom again because he doesn’t want to lie to them.

 

After waiting outside for hours Adam gets picked up by Brea, Johnny and the two Brians. He’s not entirely sure what he’s in store for until Johnny stars damaging mailboxes and then tells Adam he’s next, even though he doesn’t want to. When Adam tries to hit the mailbox he misses and breaks the side mirror instead. Realizing that in an effort to to impress Brea, it’s not worth changing who he is.  

 

Erica, Geoff and Barry soon learn that Beverly knows Geoff and Erica are living together. It was obvious because Geoff mentioned it three times. Beverly is furious but Erica is quick to say that she and Geoff are adults and can make their own decisions. But it’s not just that Erica hid the secret from her that hurt Beverly, it’s the fact that she went to such great lengths to hide it. 

 

While Adam is cleaning up the mailbox mess, Mr. Perrot shows up and says he’ll drop Adam home – on his motorcycle. While Adam is freaking out on the bike, he explains to Adam that being cool is different from being happy and that feeling comes from being good inside.  He also says that Adam has a lot to feel good about. It turns out Pops was right all along! 

 

Thanks to Murray, we see that Beverly finally understands that she shouldn’t be upset with Erica. She and Geoff love each other and even Murray says he likes him. And he doesn’t like anyone! Erica is very happy and Beverly should be, too. 

 

After the mailbox debacle Brea apologizes to Adam for what went down. She doesn’t like the things her friends do, but she just tags along. Luckily for Adam she wants to be friends with him! 

 

Barry and Erica decide that Barry will move back into the dorm, but when Beverly shows up she tells them they don’t need to. She just wants Erica to be open and honest with her and understand that as a mother it’s a difficult adjustment. 

 

Looks like game night is back!