It’s been a while since I have reviewed an episode of Last Man Standing due to the fact that there have not been any new episodes recently because of the holidays and such. The good news is that there was a new episode this past Friday, which is the one I am reviewing today.

This episode is all about how Mike, Ryan, and Boyd all go on a little trip to go fishing. They were originally supposed to go to some other event, but Boyd really wanted to go fishing with his grandfather. They eventually end up going to a balloon race.

One of the first things that happens is that Mike and Ryan get into a heated discussion about who should get Boyd for the weekend. What ends up happening is that they both start to insult each other personally and also based off their political views. However, what is really happening is that Mike is trying to be nicer guy by letting Ryan do what he wants, but Ryan, being the Canadian he is, is trying to be the even nicer one and not let Mike get his way and let him have the weekend with Boyd.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Mandy are trying to solve a murder that they are hearing about in a podcast they are listening to. Mike makes them think that Ed could be a suspect. Of course, he is just messing with them, but they don’t know that.

One of the things that I first liked about this episode was that it got back to the old days when Mike and Ryan used to argue with one another about politics, such as when they did in the season two opener, “Voting.”

As Mike, Ryan, and Boyd are on the road, the political banter goes back and forth between Mike and Ryan, mostly about politics. The line that I love the most is that even though Ryan says something along the lines of how there are things that conservatives don’t want to hear, so then they put their fingers in their ears. Mike fires back with how when liberals hear stuff they don’t want to hear, they put fingers in their ears…to which the fingers go right through their head.

After that, Ryan’s car breaks down and they have to pull over so that Mike can attempt to fix it and hopefully get them back on the road.

Getting back to the story of Kyle and Mandy, they do find out that something happened to Ed in the town of where the murder happened. To my understanding, it was that Ed did not commit the murder but that he did some sort of embarrassing act over there and that he did not want anyone to find out about it.

At the end of the episode, it shows Mike, Ryan, and Boyd in the car on the road again and Mike and Ryan explaining to Boyd (who usually hates people bickering and fighting) that the two just enjoy..fighting and bickering over politics. The good thing is that it is all in fun and I guess you could say that Mike and Ryan bond over it in a way.

Overall, I would give this episode 3/4 stars. It was not my favorite episode and was not too entertaining, but it was just good enough to fill the void of not having new episodes on LMS for a few weeks. This episode is available to watch on Hulu and the FOX Now apps.

Rating: 3/4 stars

The next episode is called “Common Ground” and features the foreign exchange student we saw earlier in the season. It will be this Friday on FOX at 8 PM ET.