I saw the premiere of this last night and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to future episodes and will keep my Wednesday nights open for this one.
Essentially, this is a lampoon of modern day political correctness. The Goode family consists of a caricatured ultraliberal couple who are hooked on every PC pop-culture trendy fad-chasing cliché under the sun. For instance, since they want to adopt an "African baby" (as did Madonna, Angelina Jolie, et. al.) they adopt a White South African boy who they name "Ubuntu" (admittedly a clever inside joke, as "Ubuntu" is a native Black South African word loosely meaning "the oneness of mankind."). They struggle over whether to call their Black neighbor "Black," or "African-American" etc. (The neighbor in question wittingly replies, "We hold a convention every year in Memphis to decide such things. You're not invited.)" Black people such as myself who have suffered such scenes from well meaning but silly and patronizing white liberals as the Goodes in real life could relate.
The Goodes (of course) are fanatical vegan/vegetarians, so their dog Che (after leftist icon Che Guevara, of course) constantly runs after smaller animals to eat in disgust of the Goode's refusal to eat meat.
The scene in the health food store (an intercom announces in a horrified tone, "Someone in Aisle 4 is driving an SUV!" while the patrons gasp) is a real hoot! Needless to say, these folks are straight-up boobs. However, as he does with the "just plain folks" of "King of the Hill," Mike Judge draws the careful line to make the Goodes just real and personable enough so that the viewer actually likes these characters while mocking their foolishness. The one drawback is that the gags are so straight out of today's headlines that it will date quickly and confuse future viewers.
On the whole, I'll rate this equally with Judge's "King of the Hill," slightly below the Simpsons, and far above the abominations of animation known as "Family Guy" and "American Dad."
Essentially, this is a lampoon of modern day political correctness. The Goode family consists of a caricatured ultraliberal couple who are hooked on every PC pop-culture trendy fad-chasing cliché under the sun. For instance, since they want to adopt an "African baby" (as did Madonna, Angelina Jolie, et. al.) they adopt a White South African boy who they name "Ubuntu" (admittedly a clever inside joke, as "Ubuntu" is a native Black South African word loosely meaning "the oneness of mankind."). They struggle over whether to call their Black neighbor "Black," or "African-American" etc. (The neighbor in question wittingly replies, "We hold a convention every year in Memphis to decide such things. You're not invited.)" Black people such as myself who have suffered such scenes from well meaning but silly and patronizing white liberals as the Goodes in real life could relate.
The Goodes (of course) are fanatical vegan/vegetarians, so their dog Che (after leftist icon Che Guevara, of course) constantly runs after smaller animals to eat in disgust of the Goode's refusal to eat meat.
The scene in the health food store (an intercom announces in a horrified tone, "Someone in Aisle 4 is driving an SUV!" while the patrons gasp) is a real hoot! Needless to say, these folks are straight-up boobs. However, as he does with the "just plain folks" of "King of the Hill," Mike Judge draws the careful line to make the Goodes just real and personable enough so that the viewer actually likes these characters while mocking their foolishness. The one drawback is that the gags are so straight out of today's headlines that it will date quickly and confuse future viewers.
On the whole, I'll rate this equally with Judge's "King of the Hill," slightly below the Simpsons, and far above the abominations of animation known as "Family Guy" and "American Dad."