DuckTales Episode 7 Review: The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks!

This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Episode 7

“I can’t believe I spent a whole day obsessing over someone I don’t like.”

I know that line has almost nothing to do with the main plot of this episode but I just wanted to congratulate writer Colleen Evanson (and perhaps the entire DuckTales writers room) for writing the most real line of dialogue about social media. Ever.

Come on, you know you’ve done it. Don’t lie to yourself.

Anyway, I know this episode was supposed to be the big Mark Beaks intro episode but oh my god, Glomgold. I want a show about this guy. I want to follow every single one of his evil schemes. I want his entire power point presentation as a giant art print.

Glomgold, being a more comedic evil character, is certainly a change from the original show but I think it’s for the better, especially with the new DuckTales veering more into comedy. He’s the wacky villain who can team up with Scrooge and not pure evil, as Magica De Spell seems to be. I love the idea of a wacky villain who’s got a shark guy. More of Glomgold, DuckTales. Please. Keith Ferguson absolutely destroys that part and having him bounce off David Tennant only makes it better. 

Also, the best gag in DuckTales so far is seeing him put his beard back on it. It’s just… it breaks all laws of reality but who cares? This is a show with a duck jumping in a giant vault of money. I can accept it. No, dare I say, I need more of it. 

Actually… does he even have a real beard? Is it all a sham? DOES HE NOT NEED TO WEAR A KILT? My god, I need to sit down for like a year. 

Mark Beaks is a fun new character for the DuckTales universe, although I’d say the social satire about start up tech moguls was a bit more successful then the slightly easier jokes about the social media obsessed. They were of course hilarious, “when Scrooge tries to follow me, I’ll block him” but the idea of Beaks’ whole empire being built on a lie lead to some fantastic interplay between Huey and Dewey.

Huey’s frustration with Dewey’s laid-back attitude rang painfully true. No matter what field you’re in we can all (hopefully) identify with trying our best but someone who doesn’t actually deserve the praise gets it anyway. Huey does everything by the book but Dewey still beats him. It’s brutal. 

However, Dewey’s admission that he has to fake it so hard because people like Huey are so good at making it was a great way to turn it all around. It reveals that Dewey does have a lot of respect for his brother although I’m sure he hates admitting that.

I’m glad the episode did go out of its way to show Dewey’s “fake it till you make it” lifestyle does have its advantages. No character is totally right and they can all learn from each other.

DuckTales is so good taking a comedic plot and giving it real heart. Even with all the opportunities for jokes it still manages to tell us something about these characters that feels real, which helps to ground all of the silly action around it.

I wish Mark Beaks had a bit more depth to him (like Gladstone last week) but I’m sure he’ll be back in future installments. Still, major props for his plan. Hiring someone to steal a fake invention is kind of brilliant and demonstrates he’s a long game kind of “bad guy”.

DuckTales is just racking up positive reviews here and they’re all well earned. Very few series start off this good and manage to balance so many tones but DuckTales is absolutely crushing it.

Shamus Kelley badly needs a high quality download of that bagpipe remix. Follow him on Twitter!