The Golden Girls Season 3 (1987)
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The Golden Girls Season 3 Review
The third season of The Golden Girls is another excellent season that isn’t quite as strong as the original, but it was an improvement over its predecessor.
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“And horizontal stripes make you look like Roger Ebert!“
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Old Friends is easily the best Golden Girls episode so far. The Rose/Blanche subplot is truly hilarious as it featured an amusingly villainous young girl. But the meat of this episode is Sofia’s story. She gets to meet an older man named Alvin with whom she strikes a meaningful friendship. Eventually, he is hospitalized due to Alzheimer’s and that ending honestly made me cry. It was so powerful and a great example of the show’s tendency to sometimes hint at the inherent loneliness and heartbreak of an older age while still retaining the crucial optimism that defines the series.
One for the Money is just another filler episode where the girls recall their previous adventures. This season had too many of these fillers, which was unfortunate. Bringing Up Baby is absolutely hilarious. The girls have to take care of an old pig in order to get some quick cash and this produces very funny results. The Housekeeper had a solid premise, but ultimately the second half of the episode wasn’t as interesting as the first.
Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself isn’t the greatest episode and again the show made a cheap decision to not showcase another setting, but the plane scenes were still reasonably amusing. Letter to Gorbachev is another strong Rose episode in a season full of them. Her letters to the Soviet and US presidents were so endearing and this showcased just how wonderful her childlike, naïve personality is.
Strange Bedfellows is only really memorable in its final twist ending that was actually surprisingly progressive for this era. It’s a transgender character reveal, which was fascinating to witness in an 80s show. Brotherly Love isn’t the best Stanley-focused episode, though it did lead to a terrific final moment where Dorothy owned both him and his brother. A Visit from Little Sven is forgettable while The Audit is another solid, but far from great Stan episode.
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Three on a Couch initially had a great counseling premise, but the execution was almost entirely devoted to filler material. Charlie’s Buddy was actually quite sweet in the final decision from the girls not to tell Rose that she had met a conman. Their friendship has really become powerful by this point. The Artist is hilarious. The three women compete against each other for an artist’s attention, but it turns out that he’s gay in a very funny conclusion. This episode showcases the different strengths of all three women and how well they complement each other.
Blanche’s Little Girl has a weaker Sophia storyline, but Blanche gets to have a great arc starring her daughter. Dorothy’s New Friend is fantastic. It’s an episode that is predictable throughout, but it was still rewarding when finally Dorothy told off a snobbish “friend” and defended her real friends. Grab That Dough is a quiz show episode that really should have been much funnier given its terrific premise. My Brother, My Father is a wonderful episode that has a familiar sitcom narrative, but it worked as it once again humanized Stan greatly.
Golden Moments is a two-parter that was totally unnecessary. It’s just a filler compilation of some of the show’s funniest moments. It was very difficult to go through these two. And Ma Makes Three emphasized strongly on Dorothy and Sophia’s mother-daughter relationship, hinting at the importance of individuality and separate breathing time in the process. Larceny and Old Lace is another episode that features a weaker Sophia subplot not deserving of her, but at least Rose’s diary storyline was quite fun.
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Rose’s Big Adventure had an overly dramatic Rose story, but at least the one with the girls remodeling their garage was very entertaining. It was great to finally see Sophia make use of her Italian. Mixed Blessings is awesome! This is a very progressive, clever episode about Dorothy’s son dating a much older black woman. It showcased just how racist black people can be while featuring a powerful message about acceptance. Mister Terrific was a very mediocre episode focusing on the dated world of commercials, but Mother’s Day did for once have a solidly realized anthology structure.
Overall, the third season of The Golden Girls is a strong one. Yes, it has its unfortunate filler episodes and many episodes only had one subplot that was truly great, but this season still had its numerous classic episodes with the best ones focusing on the girls’ individuality and their wonderful friendship. Rose and Sophia got the most to do this time around.
Worst Episodes: One for the Money, Three on a Couch and Golden Moments.
Best Episodes: Old Friends, Bringing Up Baby, The Artist, Dorothy’s New Friend and Mixed Blessings.
