Aunt Charlie's house burns down, so the Wests move into a vacant water park. John meets his SAR team, and Maddie attends court-ordered therapy.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of Netflix's Northern Rescue.
"Making Lemonade" was written by Mark Bacci and directed by Bradley Walsh
On the one hand, it's a good thing that the audience is no longer in the dark about the massive secret that Maddie is keeping about her mother. On the other hand though, this is yet another episode in which the characters talk around that vague secret in order to prop it up as a major reveal in the end. As such, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of progress is actually made when it comes to Maddie's first sessions with therapy. Both times she mostly talks about her life in the abstract and what the audience should be invested about her and her relationships with the rest of her family. She is angry because she is worried about her father. His job could take him away from the family at any moment. Plus, she is carrying the burden of this secret. Her parents weren't as happy as they have always been seen as. John still lives in that fantasy as well. He and Sarah were high school sweethearts who made an incredible life together. Now, it's all in turmoil because she died way too soon. Everything that is happening in the show is defined by that central act as well. The premiere pointed out that there are many reasons for the family to be miserable with their lives at the moment. Sarah's death can't be the one thing that carries all of the blame for their recent actions though. John can only give so many rousing speeches in which the family must stay strong together because that's what Sarah would have wanted. She actually would have thought it was romantic of Scout to jump on a bus back to Boston to proclaim his love to Alison. Instead, the rational reaction should be terror because the rest of the family has no idea what has happened to him. He is putting them through yet another ordeal in which it's likely that the family could be torn apart once again. And yet, he is able to laugh that off very quickly after returning home as well. It's just important that he's safe and simply doing stupid teenager stuff. There is no reason to worry about him. It's just odd that the show seems to care about some things more than others. Charlie's house apparently burned down because the show loved the idea of the West family moving into an abandoned aquarium. That's odd and quirky in a way that doesn't really define a whole lot else in the show. But it's going for that feel good sentimentality of small town USA. It's weird but it shows how the town comes together after tragedy happens to one of their own. Of course, no explanation is given as to how Charlie's house burned down. It's just more important that she too is confronting John about him being horrible at offering emotional support during these kinds of difficult situations. He may be incredible at his job. But he simply doesn't know how to be there for the people that he loves. Sure, his success at work is being questioned as well because he doesn't know how to train the volunteers he now oversees as a part of this program. He worries about an accident happening on a call that could result in a tragedy. He is right to fear that. But all of this is mostly a way to create more tension to ensure that John keeps ruffling as many feathers as he can. Not everything in this show can be as joyous as a penguin just wandering around the new West home.
