Review by Andrew Bloom

Adventure Time: Season 4

4x17 BMO Noire

8.1/10. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for BMO episodes. Seeing the tropes of film noir filtered through BMO's garbled, child-like understanding of everything is a superb conceit. Setting up an entire noir mystery purely through some random animal actions and BMO's imagination works like gangbusters. The character and mysteries BMO creates are amusing in the kid-logic spin of the hard-boiled detective bit, and there's some visual flair from the black & white setup and imitation of noir cinematography and editing techniques.

But the two most revealing parts to me have little to do with the mystery. The first is NEPTR telling BMO that they should hang out more because "we're both robots" and BMO responding "No NEPTR, I'm not like you." BMO definitely has Pinocchio syndrome, wanting to be a real boy, and it adds an interesting dimension to her playacting. The second is when Finn and Jake return (with some nice continuity vis-a-vis "Princess Potluck") and BMO reveals to them the "mystery" of the sock BMO clearly hid in the first place. Finn is nevertheless supportive, cheering BMO on and celebrating the "solving" of the case. It's a Bob's Burgers-esque "be encouraging of your family, even when they're being really weird, as long as they're being themselves" mentality that's endearing and refreshing for what is nominally a kids' show.

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