F Is for Family (2015–2021)
7/10
It grows on you
28 November 2020
I started watching this when it was new, but wasn't that interested - put it on the back burner. I wanted to watch it, knew it was my type of show, but wasn't super excited about it. I started adulthood loving shows like King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Futurama, and F is for Family seemed similar. But, why wasn't I interested? First of all, the former are not like F. It is not really an episodic sitcom, but rather made for the streaming era with long form storytelling and more plot development. There are real life struggles in F, and it may be animated, but I wouldn't really call it a cartoon. It is more similar to King of the Hill in that way - the characters don't often do literally cartoonish things. Also, the explicit nature of F is far beyond what you would ever see on network television, although HBO has had some similarly raunchy animation. This is fine and not over the top, but it is worth noting if you have delicate sensibilities.

When I finally binged F, I found myself missing it immediately. You start to get invested in the characters because they are so believable. The story telling is probably the hook, and the voice acting is fantastic. It's not a touchy feely show that will leave you feeling warm and optimistic, but it will give you some shift in perspective because of its unique setting. This gives it an element of escape, to a time before cell phones or home computers, when the traditional nuclear family was still the prominent norm, yet roles were in the beginning stages of shifting toward more progressive times. It's set just long ago to feel foreign, but not so far away that it is unfamiliar.

Overall, the story is centered on a patriarchal figure of a fading culture - the failed father. It could be considered partially as an allegory really, for the beginning of the downfall of modern traditional life. It seems like there's something deeper there that hasn't quite come to fruition, but I will be looking forward to see where it goes.
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