LAST MAN STANDING: Back to School

LAST MAN STANDING’s Fall 2013 episode “Back to School” is one of the best TV sitcom episodes of all time. The plot problems are real issues. The dialogue is witty. The wisdom is incredible. Best of all, there is a clear witness to Jesus Christ in a winsome, loving way.

The program starts with Mike and his wife, Vanessa, discussing their grandson’s public school education. Evidently, he’s going to Woodrow Wilson Elementary, and he’s the only child that makes it a diverse environment. So, this is a dangerous school, and Mike wonders whether his grandson is going to be taught math or immersed in a dumbed-down, bilingual education system.

Meanwhile, Mike’s Latino housekeeper is applying for her U.S. citizenship. She off-handedly tells Mike that President Woodrow Wilson was a great man. Mike tells her Ronald Reagan was a great president, and Woodrow Wilson was a fool, echoing the great historian Otto Scott, who said Wilson was one of the four greatest fools in history, on a par with Robespierre.

Mike has trouble with his daughter and son-in-law, because his daughter wants his grandson to be exposed to diversity. However, he offers to let them use his address so his grandson can go to a better school.

Mike is also host of a hunting and fishing television show. Using the analogy of making a great hunting stew, he explains why immigrants need to be assimilated rather than isolated, in a wonderful comic bit called “Red, White, and Stew.” This echoes, of course, Theodore Roosevelt’s book that immigrants need to learn how to be good American citizens.

Mike’s other daughter, Mandy, is going to college. She comes across Descartes’ Cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”), but doesn’t understand the difference between Latin and Italian. She thinks Descartes was a woman, and when Vanessa tells her he was a monsieur, she thinks he was a masseuse.

Mandy’s boyfriend Kyle works for Mike at his hunting and fishing store. He’s depressed by all the philosophy she’s teaching him, especially Nietzsche’s nihilism. Willie and Uncle Si, two members of the Robertson clan from DUCK DYNASTY, come into the store to buy hunting equipment and try to deal with Kyle’s depression. The conversation ends up quoting the book of Mark and telling viewers that Jesus was the greatest philosopher and came to give him life more abundantly. Kyle remembers his Sunday School teaching and is set free from the depression caused by false philosophers.

LAST MAN STANDING is a great TV sitcom that’s really coming into its own this season. The “Back to School” episode is just a masterpiece. Acting is everything in a sitcom. Here, the timing is perfect, the lines are delivered intelligently, and everyone plays their role perfectly. Just when you think you can’t laugh anymore, this fast-paced episode gets even funnier.

Even so, in the midst of laughter, the political wisdom is profound and life-changing. Even better, there’s a direct, overt, and clear witness to Jesus Christ as LORD, including a prayer. In a year of great television, LAST MAN STANDING is running ahead of the pack.