Month: March 2025

This week on Animal Control, a final attempt is made to secure funding for a much-needed kennel while a relationship is tested by a lie, Elsbeth runs headfirst into a cold case at a hot dinner, and Severance goes on a road trip.

Meanwhile, on Going Dutch, Denis Leary’s three ex-wives (Lisa Edelstein, Deirdre O’Kane, and Dennenesch Zoudé) visit while Danny Pudi and Sergeant Conway try to fix the base’s faulty electrical wiring.

Dutch Notes

• The wiring story I can totally ignore, though part of the setup for it is they can’t call an electrician, because it’s Vlaggetjesdag, the first day of herring season. Real thing, but electricians would not have the day off for it, and if they’re meant to be somewhere in Gelderland, they’re nowhere near any of the major harbours, anyway, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It’s definitely not “a national holiday.”
  • Half of the laundry story is Sergeant Conway and Papadakis both have a crush on the same girl. I don’t like how the show obviously doesn’t see Papadakis, being a heavier-set gentleman, as a serious participant in the love triangle, they clearly think any success he has is funny just on its own, which it’s not, but I’ll take a bi love triangle.
    • This resolves with Conway seeing the girl’s Instagram and learning she’s a flat-Earther, which Papadakis does not see as a dealbreaker. Papadakis, man, you could be a catch, have some self-respect.
• Of the ex-wives, Dennenesch Zoudé only ever speaks German, Deirdre O’Kane has an Irish accent, and Lisa Edelstein has a famous radio voice. If these are problematic, they’re not my problems. Not my circus, not my monkey. The Exes go on vacation together, and Denis Leary wants to join them because he insists he’s changed.
  • Him proving he’s changed is composed exclusively of dinner with the Exes and Catherine Tate at the brasserie.
    • It’s Vlaggetjesdag, so naturally they go in for some herring. You can probably get herring at this kind of place in certain areas, but the traditional way is to get it at a stand or cart, because it’s not really a restaurant food, it’s culturally closer to, like, getting a hot dog, it’s street food.
      • “They gut the fish, but they keep the pancreas.” This is Wikipedia speaking. We wouldn’t talk about it like this, they’re just saying it like this to make it sound gross to the high and mighty American man.
      • Also, jeezus, I don’t know what this is, but it’s not haring. It’s way too flat, way too thin, and the texture is “quickly painted fabric prop,” not, you know, fish skin, scales.
      • They all eat it wrong. You’re meant to do it, think of sword swallowing, but they all fold it up. Which I guess you would do with these disgusting-looking slabs.
    • The Catherine Tate character still isn’t a thing. The Kamer van Koophandel does not have the position an American Chamber of Commerce apparently does, and the owner of the local brothel would not have this position if it did. Sex work is generally regarded by the establishment as a nuisance.
      • She decides to play couples’ therapist between Leary and the Exes, which, look, this is an informal thing, she’s not an active therapist, but still, she’s his current girlfriend, that’s not the most ethical configuration, is it.
        • “You have the emotional intelligence of a shoe.” This is true.
    • They decide to invite him to their next camping trip, because the episode needs closure. The end.
• In the stinger, he decides to learn Dutch from Jan, who he hates and who is played by an Icelandic actor. They do the basic gag of, Jan say a word in Dutch, Leary thinks he’s repeating it right but isn’t quite getting the nuance of it, Jan repeats it, Leary repeats it, which might be funny if JAN WASN’T MANGLING THE WORD WORSE THAN LEARY DOES.

Mostly Going, barely any Dutch, but whatever it does touch it mangles as always.