Focus Grill

Plot

Brendon, Melissa, and Jason decide to start screening their movies in front of a focus group that consists of their schoolmates Fenton, Junior, Perry, and Walter. The group members harshly criticize this latest movie, and in the midst of trying to find the flaw in it, the three friends discover that the first movie they ever made together — in which they are a biker gang contemplating whether or not to fight an unknown adversary — is missing an ending. The three cannot agree on a conclusion for the movie, so they decide that each of them will create their own, and then screen the three potential endings in front of the focus group. All of their endings, however, are harshly criticized. The three sit down and watch a reel composed of scenes from several of their film projects; they come to the consensus that their movies are designed only for them and should not actually be seen by anyone else.

Meanwhile, Coach McGuirk volunteers to assemble Paula's large and complicated new grill, but he proves to be both incredibly inexperienced and largely incompetent at performing such a task. When McGuirk believes that he has finally completed the grill, he gathers Paula and the three kids together to witness its first ignition, but he ultimately causes a large explosion. The five go off on a drive, covered in soot, and Brendon accidentally drops his camera on the road, where it is run over by a car. He groans "oh no," and almost begins to tell the others about what had just happened, but ends up getting drawn into a conversation about where to go for dinner.

The episode and series concludes with Paula, McGuirk, Jason, Melissa, and Brendon chattering about tapas, as Brendon's broken camera briefly shoots an empty road before the picture flickers and turns to static.

Production

The episode was written by Home Movies co-creator Brendon Small, and was the final episode of the series' production run. The episode was the fifty-second of the series, a number that allows for an even distribution of reruns of the series; Small noted that the technique is normally used on animated children's shows, though Home Movies is actually created for an adult audience.

Small knew before writing the episode that it would be the last. Mike Lazzo, executive vice president of Adult Swim, had never "responded to the show" as Small had noted, which was in stark contrast to Vice President of Original Series Khaki Jones, whose enthusiasm over the series was what Small admitted to keeping it alive. During the production run for the fourth season, Lazzo had informed the crew bluntly that the season would conclude the series, explaining, "No matter what the numbers are, no matter what happens – we're not going to bring the show back."

Having been informed of this definite end of the series' run, Small decided to write "Focus Grill" with the intention of it concluding the show. While penning the teleplay, he kept in mind the knowledge that "nothing positive [is] happening"; however, Small did admit that the final scene of the episode—Brendon's camera breaking on the road—was actually an optimistic footnote in the series' narrative. Small considers that now that Brendon is without his camera, "he doesn't need this crutch anymore. That he can actually start living his life as an actual earthling."

"Focus Grill", like all episodes, was directed by co-creator Loren Bouchard, and as with every episode of Home Movies after its first season, the episode was animated using Macromedia Flash. The Squigglevision animation program is briefly used in one scene in the episode, where Brendon, Melissa, and Jason watch various movies of theirs from throughout the series, some of which are from the first season, in which the show utilized Squigglevision.

Reception

"Focus Grill" originally aired on Adult Swim, a cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network, on April 4, 2004. After the episode aired, Small received several e-mails from various fans, who told him that watching the episode had made them cry. The episode received a largely positive response from reviewers. C.S. Strowbridge of The Numbers wrote that it was "able to really wrap up the series in a great way and show why the characters acted the way they did", and praised it for "[showing] some real character development." Pop Matters' Jesse Hassenger described it as both "bittersweet" and "hilarious".

Writing for his DVD Talk review of the show's tenth anniversary DVD boxset, Jason Bailey considered the episode "especially strong, drawing the series to a fine full circle, both structurally and thematically." Bailey concurred with Hassenger's description of it as bittersweet, writing: "It's an affectionate send-off, bittersweet and kind of wonderful and therefore perfectly in tone with this charming little show." Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed described it as the epitome of the show's various themes, including childhood, art, and family, calling it "a slightly nostalgic episode"; he considered it an excellent way to close the series, writing "Acting as probably both a reflection of the show's staff at the time and a final send off, I can't think of a better way to send Brendon Small and Loren Bouchard's creation into the sunset."