The Golden Girls Season 6 (1990)
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The Golden Girls Season 6 Review
The sixth season of The Golden Girls is a strong penultimate season of this iconic sitcom with many classic, memorable episodes in its roster.
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“Blanche, my mother is missing, it’s the middle of the night,
you have to excuse me if I don’t have the rolling gait of a nymphomaniac“
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Blanche Delivers revisits Blanche’s fraught relationship with her daughter and her choice to have artificial insemination to middling results. Once, in St. Olaf is also not great. It did have a sweet Sophia subplot, but the one with Rose was soapy and odd. If At Least You Do Succeed featured a terrific usage of the Stan character, who was at his best during this particular season. The humor here was strong and Dorothy’s dynamic with him was so much fun. Snap Out of It has a strange Dorothy storyline, but Blanche and Rose fared better. It is always hilarious when the girls try to find out Blanche’s real age.
Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy! is fantastic! This is by far the funniest episode of this entire season as it hit all the notes that you expect from this series. Blanche being visited by her former mammy led to a very interesting examination of her family’s past while the comedic meat was found in Dorothy’s subplot as Sophia hilariously tried to find her a date. We here got some of the best and most brutal jokes made at Dorothy’s expense yet.
Feelings is an overly serious episode that deals with two different issues (school corruption and sexual harassment), losing the comedy in the process. Zborn Again focuses on Dorothy’s sudden growing emotions for Stan to solid results. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia? sees Sophia join the convent, leading to both a funny and moving arc for her.
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Mrs. George Devereaux is another rare five-star Golden Girls episode for me. This show is throughout a funny sitcom meant to make you laugh, but once in a while they do something like this, which is a very amusing episode at first, but it ends up being quite dramatic and even heartbreaking in its incredible twist ending that honestly got me and I rarely get tricked like that. It’s a phenomenally written and acted episode that to me was deeply relatable as I’ve lost a special person recently. The ending made me cry so much and it will always stick with me.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun… Before They Die is a somewhat forgettable episode. Stand By Your Man is also not great, though it has its moments. Ebbtide’s Revenge, unlike the above heartbreaking classic, is very odd and problematic. Dorothy’s brother Phil dies and instead of making a moving episode, we still get to hear jabs at his cross-dressing habits while the ending saw Sophia in her worst light. The fact that she couldn’t accept his lifestyle even though he is straight all the while she is accepting of gay people seemed inconsistent to me and this is a rare episode of the show that was not progressive at all.
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The Bloom Is Off the Rose is a fine episode that deals with abuse through an important story where Blanche is verbally mistreated by her boyfriend. Sister of the Bride again focuses on Blanche’s homophobia as her gay brother is getting married to her partner and she has to get used to it. Miles to Go sees the end of the Miles character, Rose’s boyfriend who wasn’t all that interesting to begin with.
There Goes the Bride is a very good two-parter. Both Part 1 and Part 2 are pretty solid as they focus on Dorothy getting married to Stan. We all know that she will eventually call off the engagement, but in the process her relationship with Sophia was tested in an interesting, dramatic manner. Older and Wiser is just okay, Melodrama is also solid, but forgettable while Even Grandmas Get the Blues is one of the weaker episodes of this season.
Witness is at its best when focusing on Blanche’s heritage that is surprisingly Yankee. Whenever the show tackled her problematic upbringing, it excelled and here we got a terrific message at the end. What a Difference a Date Makes has a solid Dorothy dating arc and a great subplot where Blanche tries to lose weight.
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Love for Sale once again has Dorothy ending things with Stan. This storyline is so well handled that it never felt repetitive. Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home is a clip-show episode, a boring two-parter that did not have the guts to make Sophia a fire starter. Henny Penny – Straight, No Chaser is an odd finale where the girls star in a cringey play, but it is amusingly silly in its own way.
Overall, the sixth season of The Golden Girls has its lackluster episodes and a rather unfortunately utilized Rose throughout, but the stories starring the other girls were great, especially Dorothy who was the star of this season. Tackling important issues way too often, this season was not as comedic as I wanted it to be, but still they did both the funny and the serious episodes mostly right.
Worst Episodes: Blanche Delivers, Ebbtide’s Revenge and Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home.
Best Episodes: Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy!, If At Least You Do Succeed, Mrs. George Devereaux and There Goes the Bride.
