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The Golden Girls Season 2 Review

The second season of The Golden Girls has its terrific episodes, but it’s overall not as strong as its predecessor.

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“Jealousy is an ugly thing, Dorothy.

And so are you, in anything backless“

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End of the Curse is one of the funniest episodes of the season. Dorothy and Rose starting their mink-breeding business produced some hilarious results while Blanche coping with aging was both amusing and deeply heartfelt. Ladies of the Evening is a hilarious episode with the jail moments being laugh-out-loud funny. Sophia getting the better of the three gals made my day.

Take Him, He’s Mine features a fraught relationship between Blanche and Dorothy, but eventually it’s revealed that Blanche isn’t sleeping with her ex-husband, thus proving to us once again how good-hearted she is. It’s a Miserable Life is an absolute masterpiece. Only The Golden Girls would know how to make light and fun of the subject of death and funerals. The girls being annoyed by this horrible neighbor only for her to die after Rose yelled at her led to a lot of hilarious situational comedy gold.

Isn’t It Romantic? was a groundbreaking television episode in its positive treatment of gay people. Dorothy’s friend who is a lesbian comes to the house, which hilariously leads to her developing feelings for Rose. Not only was she treated with respect, but the episode still did not forget to be funny as Rose’s cluelessness was so amusing and Blanche’s reactions throughout were priceless. Big Daddy’s Little Lady is this strange music-heavy episode that is not particularly funny in the Blanche subplot, but it’s sweet. The comedic highlight was Dorothy and Rose making up songs and eventually creating one great number.

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Family Affair is one of those family-centric episodes that were abundant in this season, but in reality these women do not need other family members to dilute their time. Vacation is also not particularly funny and it felt cheap in the beach setting. Sophia’s romance with her Japanese gardener was sweet, though. Joust Between Friends focuses on Blanche and Dorothy’s friendship and the results are delightfully endearing. Love, Rose has a standard situational comedy narrative, but it’s well executed and it has a lot of heart.

‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas is a forgettable Christmas episode while The Sisters is one of the season’s highlights. Sophia’s sister, Angela, arrives to the house and the two argue over a big misunderstanding. Their biting insults were consistently funny. The Stan Who Came to Dinner is also a wonderful episode as it gave Stan the best arc so far. Him learning to be responsible and mature was quite moving. The Actor is a silly episode about this actor who gets every woman in town going crazy for him, and it just wasn’t that funny unfortunately.

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Before and After has Rose leave the girls only for her to realize that they are the best company that she could wish for. It’s a very moving episode. And Then There Were None was this very odd babysitting episode that did lead to one very touching finale with Blanche speaking with her daughter. Bedtime Story is one of the many episodes in this season that resembled a filler. It’s a reminiscence episode that was amusing to a degree, but lazy. Forgive Me, Father features Dorothy having a crush on a priest, which produced so many amusing moments.

Long Day’s Journey into Marinara brings back the Angela character and once again the results are hilarious. That final chicken reveal was hysterical. Whose Face Is This, Anyway? is all about plastic surgeries and Blanche’s fear of aging, which once again led to wonderful character growth for her. Dorothy’s Prized Pupil features a solid guest turn from the very young Mario Lopez and Dorothy is very sweet and motherly in this otherwise overly serious episode. Diamond in the Rough hinted at Blanche’s classism, which made her quite unlikable.

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Son-In-Law Dearest is a rare episode featuring other family members that worked as it focused on Dorothy having to grapple with her parenthood responsibilities. The ‘I Love Lucy’ subplot with the other girls was particularly funny. To Catch a Neighbor is a silly spy episode that didn’t quite work, but A Piece of Cake is a rare filler episode that really worked. The flashbacks to different birthday parties were consistently charming and funny with the highlights being Dorothy having the worst time at a children’s party and Sophia dealing with her turning 50. Empty Nests is a very weak episode that ended the season on a sour note. It’s an experiment with one-off characters that of course didn’t function at all.

Overall, the second season of The Golden Girls is not quite as strong as the first. It had too many filler as well as extended family episodes that featured too little of the titular characters, which is never a good thing for this show. However, it also has its classic episodes with the highlights being situational comedy stories and those focusing on the girls’ friendship. Dorothy was still the funniest, but Rose telling her ridiculous stories from childhood was also quite funny as was Blanche dealing with her advanced age.

Worst Episodes: Vacation, ‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas, The Actor and Empty Nests.

Best Episodes: End of the Curse, Ladies of the Evening, It’s a Miserable Life, Isn’t It Romantic?, The Sisters, The Stan Who Came to Dinner, Before and After and Forgive Me, Father.