Not So Goode
Thanks to TDK, I finally got to see Mike Judge’s new animated series, The Goode Family, which follows an environmentally obsessive PC household and their ostentatious concerns. Here are the first three episodes.
Given Judge’s previous creation, King of the Hill, there are inevitably some good moments. There’s an amusing scene involving carrier bag anxiety, and the local overpriced whole food store has an electronic display informing customers of the latest ethical shopping practices, which change in real time. And there are odd flashes of demented ingenuity, as when a visiting Freegan uses his own tears as seasoning. Unfortunately, these moments are spaced much too far apart. What we get instead are misfires like this scene, in which the Goodes fret about the correct way to refer to their black neighbour. There’s a joke lurking in there somewhere, but nobody managed to find it. And that’s pretty much the default setting for the first few episodes.
King of the Hill quickly grew beyond Texan small town caricature and, however grotesque its protagonists could be, they felt both plausible and deserving of some empathy. Comedy emerged from character and didn’t depend entirely on stereotypes, knowing references or the weekly plot contrivance. Viewers soon came to share the producers’ obvious affection for the Hills, despite – or because of – Hank’s unwavering squareness and preoccupation with propane. And while Hank was often stuffy, unadventurous and emotionally repressed, he remained above all an honourable man – something of an oddity in modern animation. The rooting of comedy in character and culture – as opposed to politics – also made possible a collision of surrealism and genuine poignancy. Peggy’s need for oversized shoes and her subsequent, unwitting friendship with a transvestite springs to mind or Khan’s off-meds mania and all too brief grill-building genius. Likewise, Bill’s near-constant teetering on the brink of despair – a gag that could only be sustained over 13 years because his innumerable failures were offset with moments of real pathos and humanity.
In contrast, The Goode Family is laboured and affected, as if built by committee from the outside in, with unlikeable characters and a premise that’s somehow both obvious and thin. There’s no evidence yet that Judge or his writers have any sympathy for the Goodes and their self-inflicted predicament, and it’s not clear whether we’re supposed to see them as victims of their own politics or just unrelenting grotesques. The daughter, Bliss, is presented supposedly as a foil for her dysfunctionally PC mother, but the tension on offer is between preening political concern and preening teenage ennui. Perhaps these are teething troubles and The Goode Family will find its footing and become much funnier and less self-conscious. But if so, it needs to improve a hell of a lot, very quickly. Right now, the protagonists seem more suited as secondary characters in a show about someone else, and the air of contrivance leaves the series feeling almost as fake and unappealing as the pretensions it mocks.
While I do enjoy the vegan dog and the missing neighborhood pets, I keep wondering who the joke is on with the Goodes – Is the show making fun of the ultra-PC left-winger, or is it making fun of the preconceptions that people have against the PC left-wingers? I fear that it’s a little of both, and thus misses both points.
Of course, one wonders how much fun a comedy about the antics of a German progressive family in the 1930s would be….
-S
Simen,
It does seem to be trying to have it both ways, while committing to none. In some respects it’s also much too gentle, in that it doesn’t really acknowledge the vindictiveness and passive-aggressive attitudes that so often go with ostentatious eco-piety, or with socialism in general.
Helen’s “friend” Margo is the token bitch but everyone in the Goode family has pure motives. They’re stupid and fake but they “mean well”. They should all be bitches. It would be more realistic.
“They should all be bitches. It would be more realistic.”
Heh. Well, yes, it’s a bit of a fudge to offload the really unpleasant attributes to an incidental character. We’re allowed to dislike Margo, who’s depicted as an obvious bitch, but not the main characters, even though they aren’t really that much different. It feels like we’re supposed to forgive their neuroses and pretensions and like them anyway, though for reasons that aren’t clear. Maybe we’re supposed to see them as victims, but that doesn’t seem to work.
I have no objection to anyone being vegetarian or green or whatever, provided it’s in their own space. It’s when they demand that I live as they do that it becomes irritating. So attacking people for their beliefs will come off as small minded; attacking them for being proletising prigs is a different matter.
Evangelism always invites ridicule but the Goode family are too meek and ordinary to be ridiculous.
The Goodes should be demanding that power consumption is cut by 80% and then finding they have cut theirs by just 1%. They should be attending conferences and rallies to save the planet and finding they’re US Air’s best customer. They should hate the maternal grandfather for being a Republican (who we know hate) but then be undercut by the fact that he’s actually a nicer person. They should perpetually be talking about giving to the needing but always finding that others like Grandad always gives more to charity.
We don’t know anything about the lecturer’s study area. Surely he teaches something ridiculous. The potential comedy from him teaching X and then live “Not X” must exist.
In addition the bureaucracy of PC needs to be a target. Our recycling people collect paper. However, paper doesn’t mean cardboard or window envelopes. If there’s a staple it gets rejected. Then we know that the bulk of this just ends up in landfill anyway. This kind of petty mindedness attached to high expectations is ripe for ridicule.
As to cutting only 1%.
I strongly recommend the Finnish-American Katastrofin Aineksia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892773/ ) – an idealistic American documentary-maker and his Finnish family go on an ‘oil-diet’ to prove to themselves (he to himself) that they can live green.
His wife is a saint of patience, until she finally boils over…
Trailer available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dptitTZqRMc ).
-S
Simen, does it end in divorce or does she just murder him and go on the run with the kids?
Anna, Neither, I’m happy to say. Although she’s Finnish, no axes are involved.
It does end on a bitter-sweet ‘it didn’t matter but it brought us closer together’-note, again showing that it is the experience and the suffering that matters – at least more than tangible results.
-S
“…again showing that it is the experience and the suffering that matters – at least more than tangible results.”
That might explain the urge to publicly fret about the politics of showering and deodorant…
https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/05/sweet-moral-ago.html
And those who declare a deep, deep concern with peanut butter residue.
https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/03/credentials.html
“The Modern Parents” in VIZ did it so much better. The comedy was much more vindictive, and, err, I guess I liked it that way.
A key difference between the two shows is that the main characters in King of the Hill are by and large sincere. Yes, Dale is paranoid and borderline insane, and Peggy may sometimes indulge in grandiose delusions, but by and large the characters are who they appear to be. In The Goode Family, at least half of the characters are chronically insincere. And it’s hard to feel much empathy with characters that are not only deluded but dishonest too.
Berke Breathed skewered all of this decades ago. As much as I enjoy mocking dim-witted self-righteousness, it’s really been done to death. I’ve never liked Mike Judge’s artless drawing anyway.
However, if Camille Paglia writes about this, it might become interesting again.
Yes the “Modern Parents” were very good.
More episodes here
http://www.yidio.com/show/the-goode-family
Note that the first link to each episode is ABC which cannot be viewed outside the US. So try the subsequent links for each.
Episode 105 is an improvement – captures that awkward feeling like The Office. Sample: Grandad knows all about Lesbians – he has an extensive video collection.