 by Heather Hogan |
TV Alert: "The Goode Family" tells "A Tale of Two Lesbians"ABC's new animated comedy The Goode Family has been hit-and-miss on funny (and viewers) since it premiered last month, but here's hoping tonight's episode "A Tale of Two Lesbians" brings all the right antics.
The Goodes are the greenest family ever, with solar panels on their house and buckets for harvesting rainwater. They've got reusable grocery bags, a hybrid automobile, a vegetable garden and an adopted son from Africa. They wanted him to be black, but they loved him just the same when they discovered he was from South Africa, and actually just as white as them. They're also Vegans who force their dog to eat only vegetables.
The problem with the Goodes being good is they just try too hard, and always end up jacking everything up.
In the premiere, the Goode Family mom, Helen, sees her teenage daughter, Bliss, chatting up a guy at their local Whole Foods-equivalent grocery store. The other moms encourage Helen to have a lengthy conversation with her daughter about sex. ("Who is she going to learn about sex from? The Internet? The Pussycat Dolls? Oh, it's skanky out there, Helen.") Helen tells them that Bliss must know at least a little something about sex ("One time when Bliss was at the age of sexual discovery, well — we had a jacuzzi.") but they advise her to get over-involved, so she does, which sends Bliss over the edge to a Purity Ball at a local church. Helen ends up drunk on organic wine and confesses to their African American neighbor: "I just want to be close to my daughter. And buy organic apples. And call minorities by the right name. Is there like a big convention where minorities get together to decide what to call things? What to wear? Hairstyles? Like the Afro. That was a good one." "It's in Memphis," the neighbor tells her.
That should give you some idea about what's going to happen on tonight's episode when the Goodes befriend a lesbian couple. Apparently they already had a token lesbian couple as friends, but they offended them. Now they must find another lesbian couple to hang out with in order to impress the arts council. We'll have a recap of the show on Monday, but if you want to laugh/cringe along, it airs tonight at 8:30 (EST) on ABC. Do you plan to tune in? Submitted by on June 19, 2009 - 12:00pm. |
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yep
oh goodie for the goode family
i don't know what's the
i don't know what's the deal with Family Guy, but South Park mocks mostly stupidity and hypocrisy.
ironically the fact that they don't make any exceptions makes me feel more, hmm... accepted?
for me it's better to be ridiculed as much as everyone else than to be treated differently just because i'm gay. that's discrimination ;).
having trouble
Yeah, I'm having trouble liking this. I'm a HUGE King of the Hill fan and it's just weird listening to Gerald who sounds exactly like Hank minus the southern twang. I know it's Mike Judge who does the voices for both so it's hard for me to listen to it. Good for Nancy Carell for doing Helen's voice and Linda Cardellini for doing Bliss.
But are the Goodes "Good" Enough?
I'm still undecided on whether I like this show, although I will admit that in the episode with the Latino handymen and Asian woman, the irony of the Goodes becoming the oppressors despite all of their best efforts not to was a pretty good reversal.
However that leads to the predictability of the series. What? Now that they encounter a lesbian couple will they be Homophobic despite their best efforts? See what I am alluding to?
Hmmm
Trying too hard
It's usually pretty funny when people end up being offensive basically because they are trying not to be. It happens on Old Christine a lot and I seem to recall it happening on Ellen as well (although usually she was just out of it). And there was a hilarious Sex and the City episode where Miranda pretended to be gay because her boss wanted to be chic and have a lesbian couple in their crowd. Funny now too because Cynthia Nixon is out.
I'm not a huge fan of animated series, but if this sticks around I may have to check it out. My dad has a dog that he feeds vegetarian dog food to, by the way - I hope that and the vegan thing are not made tooo much fun of, because they're totally valid choices and good for the earth, if you can do it. I also have a cat that would probably be a fruititarian if I would let him, but it's bad for them so I don't. =) It is not bad for dogs, though, they are more omnivores like humans.
It sounds like the lesbian one will mostly be picking fun at the Goode family and the sort of reverse-discrimination of "let's be friends with a lesbian couple because they are different!" or them making assumptions based on stereotypes, so it will probably not be offensive to us.
Are they supposed to be white, though, because they don't really look it, especially compared to their white south african son.
I think I've seen all the
I think I've seen all the episodes so far and I love this series. I was never a huge King of the Hill fan but I'm not sure why (if that makes sense? I thought I'd like it but I never got into it).
I think my favourite so far is the episode with Gutterball.
I thought the episode with their lesbian neighbours was pretty well done. It was funny without having the lesbians being the butt (s?) of the jokes. I thought them celebrating Lucy Lawless' birthday as a holiday was priceless.