ABC’s new animated series, The Goode Family [Wednesdays, 9/8C], is the series from Mike Judge of King of the Hill fame. If it was a tenth as funny as that series, The Goode Family might be worth checking out. Instead, this comedy about the Goode family – vegan, non-confrontational, recycling, hybrid-driving – bends over backwards to balance the family’s save-the-planet sensibilities by making one character an Archie Bunker type. Instead of provoking genuinely spirited exchanges, however, it just renders both sides inoffensive.
The Goode Family – Gerald [Mike Judge] and Helen and their son Ubuntu and daughter Bliss – live by the simple motto, WWAGD [What would Al Gore Do]. Gerald is a college administrator and Helen a community activist. Ubuntu and Bliss are high school students. The family’s politically correct plans always go wrong – as when Gerald and Helen adopt an African-American baby and one who, though technically African-American [being from Africa] is as white as they are.
Whether they’re trying to put in an organically sound garden [elephant dung from a circus!!!], or find something that the hulking Ubuntu can do competently – besides eat [can you say “football family?”], everything the family does to minimize its footprint on Planet Earth goes horribly awry. Or, at least, that was the plan. Somewhere along the way, the series creators [Judge, John Altschuler & Dave Krinsky] forgot the funny once they got past the white African-American thing. Even the vegan pet dog, Che is a one-gag character.
To say that The Goode Family is boring is being kind. It’s more like the TV equivalent of an MST3K clunker waiting for its commentary track. Spare yourselves – unless you’re suffering from insomnia.
Final Grade: D
EM Review by Sheldon Wiebe
Posted May 26, 2009
If you put your free carbon offsets certificate next to the tv while you watch, you might be able to change that "D" to at least a "C".
http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com
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