I offered up my thoughts on "The Goode Family" pilot in Monday's column. Critics who were able to see more than one episode (notably Fienberg) found it a bit more promising than I did, so maybe it'll get better as it goes.Anybody watch? What did you think?
That show was rough to watch. I saw where Mike Judge wanted me to laugh, but none of the jokes were funny. The pacing seemed off, too. And right at the beginning they ripped off the colored/collard greens joke from The Office's Diversity Day.
ReplyDeleteI was actually pleasantly surprised. I thought at times it was really on the nose, almost like the writers were taking a checklist approach to the left-wing environmentalist stereotypes being lampooned to introduce them to unfamiliar audiences. But that was mostly in the first ten minutes or so. The stuff in the organic produce market made me laugh, as did the carnivorous dog. The characters are kind of thinly drawn, but that's to be expected with the first episode of a show like this. I was a little disappointed that they went the Chris Griffin route with Ubuntu and made him into another dumb fat kid - hopefully the writers have some more ideas for the character. Some of the writing was really sharp ("it's not that you drove, it's that you feel guilty about it"), some not so much (pretty much the entire first five minutes).
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't spectacular, but pleasant enough summer viewing with nothing else on, and I'll probably come back for a few more episodes. I think it could be a good show once they get things figured out. It was way better than a lot of recent Family Guy episodes, in any case.
Like Kevin said, a retread of the colored/collard joke from The Office at the very start turned me off. Rest of it wasn't much better IMO.
ReplyDeleteAlan, you lowered my expectations so I was happily surprised and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Whole Foods scene was the highlight. And very dead on.
As was the young self-important documentary filmmaker.
I think they might run out of targets, or at least easy targets, and then the characters will have to pull it through. And right now they're not that developed but it is only a pilot.
I'll be back next week for sure.
Shaky, and some of the observations about PC culture were painfully tired, but enough good stuff that I'll keep tuning in. I do like the KOTH-esque perspective of being able to make fun of both sides of the political/cultural divide and also sympathize with both sides. And hey, anything with Brian Doyle-Murray can't be all bad.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, my biggest beef in the pilot is the voice acting. Mike Judge and Nancy Carell both sound strained; you can hear them working to find the right voice rather than falling naturally into it. Then again, it is the first episode, and I'll bet the voices in the pilot of KOTH weren't fully formed either.
I thought it was okay enough that I'll give it a few more eps to gain its footing. That poor ravenous dog gave me the biggest laughs, too.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really bad. The characters all seemed kinda oblivious to stupid (especially the son, whats going on with him?).
ReplyDeletey husband and I were laughing the whole time, but then again the show dealt with exactly the sorts of things that we like to poke fun at, so we were a good audience. But we're also pretty critical TV watchers in most regards. (We also watch a large amount of Discovery Channel, History Channel, and the NFL Network, and pretty much any show that features explosions, high-speed chases, natural disasters, or anything that falls into the "really bad idea" category.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I thought it was a bit slow at first but really picked up about 1/3 in. I thought the jokes were sharp - "Ubuntu" had me laughing a couple hours later, as did a few others - and the episode was decently-paced.
My worry is that none of the characters are sympathetic as yet, and I'm worried that the writers will quickly beat the jokes to death and have nothing left. However, if it can find its way as a compelling show apart from itsd premise while still incorporating what's funny about the premise, then I think it will be good. In other words, I hope it can follow the model of "That 70s Show" rather than "That 80s Show", which was all about premise and had no characters or plot.
Perhaps the worst, puerile, diversity and politically correct program, directed at the obviously comic-strip
ReplyDeletementality of the youth audience
being spoon-fed Social Engineering 101 in the schools.
Even the animation was technically and artistically not much better than the usual Saturday morning animated fare for the little consumer-trainees.
Unfortunately, I expect much more of this.
Muse