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score 7/10
This show should have ended immediately after Aaron MacGruder left. The first season was easily deserving of a 10, the second season a fairly strong follow-up, the third season watchable. But this last season? MacGruder's name is absent from the credits, and the void shows big time.
It would be tough to analyze the vicissitudes of the first two seasons and the last two on an episode-by-episode basis, but just take a look at an episode guide to see how the show has changed. Most of the first season was comprised of sly satire. The second season, though not as potent as its predecessor, still delivered its fair share of laughs with The Story of Thugnificent (who could forget Eff Granddad?) and the return of misanthropic handicapped senior Col. Stinkmeaner. The third season, which shifted the focus from satire to parody, still managed to crank out some entertaining episodes like A Date with the Booty Warrior and the 9/11 parable in It's Going Down. The most recent episode of the fourth season is about the Kardashians.
Had the show premiered in the shape that its fourth season did, it would not have made it to a second running. It's vacuous trash. Periphery characters like Uncle Ruckus once served as outlandish yet deep distractions from the main action; he was a self-hating black racist, yet he had a heart and a personality--remember his consolation of Jazmine during the Christmas episode? Now, he barely even qualifies as a character; he's just a floating hive of virulence and racism who sporadically appears for a cheap laugh.
The animation--and even the premier dates--have been altered to reflect this change in format. Seasons one and two made their debuts in the fall and winter; seasons three and four aired their episodes in the summertime. The animation, which was a smooth western emulation of anime, is now the visual definition of TMI: any character exhibiting a modicum of emotion is drawn turns into a gnarled, demented silent-era movie villain. Just take a look at Granddad's "monkey face" in the season four intro; he barely looks human.
One of my favorite episodes, season one's A Date with the Health Inspector, concludes with Gin Rummy, Ed Wuncler III, Huey, and Riley taking a detour from the location of a free killer (for whose crime Tom was arrested) and stopping at a convenience store. Gin and Ed pull pistols on the Middle Eastern clerk, telling him to drop a gun (which he doesn't have, wink wink), turning the store into a warzone. The duo, having demolished the store, walk out to a volley of applause from a gathered crowd. Soft music plays as newspapers announce that the "war heroes thwart(ed) terror cell" and the screen fades to black.
You just know that, had the episode been made during season four's production, it would have ended with Granddad driving off a cliff.
thebrshaw 29 May 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3024864/ |
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22-11-2019 06:01:53
