Fangirling for “F is for Family”

Kristin Devine

Kristin has humbly retired as Ordinary Times' friendly neighborhood political whipping girl to focus on culture and gender issues. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

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11 Responses

  1. Mike Schilling says:

    My kids (in their early 20s) love this show. I (slightly older) could not make it through the first episode. I’ve seen Burr’s character (ignorant, dishonest, resentful bully) way too often to want to see him again. Which is a shame, because I love Burr’s standup.Report

  2. atomickristin says:

    The first episode is not at all indicative of what is to come. I had the same thought at first – oh this guy is just a loudmouth bully type but he isn’t, at all. It was really not at all a good example of the show or the dad’s personality. (it almost felt like false advertising TBH – like maybe they were trying to suck in some Family Guy fans before changing it up) I think you should give it another try, there’s really a lot to like there.

    Interesting your kids like it! there goes my theory. 🙂 Thanks for reading.Report

    • Good to know.

      I did really like the alienated, nobody-beats-up-my-kid-brother-but-me older son.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to atomickristin says:

      IMO not much changes in that respect through the end of the third season. At some level he means well, but he’s still almost constantly lashing out at everyone around him over every little thing.Report

      • I can understand why you say that, but that’s not even remotely my take on the character. He is not at all a Peter Griffin or Ralph Kramden who doesn’t even try to be a better person and is just an unrepentant borderline abusive jerk. He tries to do better, he screws it up, and you can see all the reasons and pressures and personal failings that contribute him being the way that he is.Report

  3. aaron david says:

    This sounds good. My wife and I are of that age and grew up in various stages of middle-classness. Good to know about the first episodes too. Comparing it to Family Guy is, in my opinion, kinda silly as I feel FG is probably the worst animated TV going.

    Also, I am going to recommend Bobs Burgers again. The adults in it are obviously Gen-Xers so that angle is covered pretty nicely, while the kids are become fully drawn so to speak over the series. It also has, according to my wife, the best depiction of a girl starting to realize her sexuality, and not in a cheap way. And while the characters can be human with all that entails, the show is never mean, not like Family Guy (which is my dislike for the show.)Report

    • I love Bob’s Burgers, but why are two of the three main female characters voiced by men? Anyway, Kristen Schaal’s Louise may be my favorite cartoon character of all time.

      Bob : Louise, I need your help to sabotage Gene.
      Louise : First of all, I’m flattered.
      Bob : All right. Now, do you have any ideas?
      Louise : Dynamite in the burgers!
      Bob : Subtler.
      Louise : C-4.
      Bob : Move away from explosives.Report

      • aaron david in reply to Mike Schilling says:

        I am torn between Louis and Tina. The moan is awesome

        “Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”Report

      • I *love* Louise and wish I had her callous bad-assery (which is underlain by “sweet little kid,” but she’s good at hiding that).

        Sadly, I am much more like Tina. Well, less-obsessed with guys’ butts (and not obsessed by zombies at all), but the awkwardness, the not-fitting-in, the friends who are really more frenemies….it resonates.

        (I am hoping that if they ever do a “whatever happened to them” ending episode where the kids have grown up, that Tina winds up with Zeke – who is far better for her than J-Ju is, I think, and Louise winds up running the burger joint, and Gene winds up with some kind of career in entertainment…I want the kids to grow up to have happy futures, if that doesn’t sound too weird for me to say about fictional characters)Report

    • I despise Family Guy, but some people like it, and some of us are living with those people LOL Let’s just say the day Family Guy was taken off Netflix was a very happy day for me.

      Ok. I will watch Bob’s Burgers and report back. (salutes)Report

      • I Just Can’t with the Seth Macfarlane cartoons (like Family Guy) but I love Bob’s Burgers.

        To me, the difference feels like the writers for Bob’s Burgers actually *like* their characters. All of the characters carry the “idiot ball” at different points in different episodes, and all of them get dumped upon by life on a regular basis, but there’s no one character that seems to be “despised” and always the butt of jokes (like Meg Griffin is) – not even Tina.Report