The Goode Family

Obviously Mike Judge is a comedy genius. He created two smart and hilarious animated sitcoms BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD and KING OF THE HILL. Shows that appeal to both teens and adults. After KING was unfortunately cancelled by Fox (big mistake!), Judge took on another animated sitcom, THE GOODE FAMILY. Like a lot of viewers, I didn't care for the show at first but as I watched a few episodes it started to grow on me. The show is meant to be a political satire taking a shot at liberals and their common environmentally friendly lifestyle however this show takes that lifestyle so far to the point of comedy. I feel that if THE GOODE FAMILY stayed on the air for at least one more season it could developed into a fantastic show that could've become a hit. Did THE SIMPSONS or FAMILY GUY start off great in it's first season? No. Those shows grew over time into their own unique humour and style. So give THE GOODE FAMILY a chance, it's a pretty good show if you take the time to watch all thirteen episodes. Perhaps the show will obtain a cult following! Judge has brought us another brilliant piece of animation, shame that it couldn't last...

I think animation lovers will know Mike Judge only too well from 'Beavis and Butthead' and 'King of the Hill'. Very different shows but they grew on us. King Of the Hill in it's prime was wonderful and now in auto-pilot is still amusing to watch. I love both shows and wish B & B could make a comeback minus the music videos. Mike's new show 'The Goode Family' is a little more like KOTH. In the sense that it feels like a sitcom with live actors except that it's animated. The pilot episode was amusing through out with some good dialogue and interesting characters. The title character Gerald Goode is voiced by Mike Judge doing a reprisal of the hippie teacher from B & B. The consensus on the web seems to be that the show is too risqué with it's hyper-liberal goody two shoes family at the heart of the story. Others plain don't like it. I think like Mike's other two shows, this one needs some time. Give it a season, if it's still good...

To start off, this show is no King of the Hill. After watching the first four episodes consecutively, I am left with sadness and a feeling that the legacy and comedy of King of the Hill will not be coming back into this show. It is true that all good things must come to an end at some point, but that is not to say that The Goode Family isn't a good thing. It does have it's high points, such as poking fun at what is now considered to be the good American mentality, has characters that resemble King of the Hill characters (i.e. their neighbor who resembles Hank Hill in almost all ways except he's black), realistic animation such as that in King, as well as some plain old funny moments. But it's not laugh out loud funny. There's no crazy moments or situations that drive the episodes, and the characters are hard to get into.

I know I've compared this show to King of the Hill a lot, but quite frankly it's all I can think of. Even if I had never seen King I'd still probably say the same stuff as mentioned above. The show isn't genius. It had a wonderful idea and when I heard about the characters' personalities I thought that the show had a great chance. But it's just not that good. But at this point in the game it's a little to early to tell,

Shame on FOX for getting rid of one of the, if not the greatest animated comedy of all time.

The opening paragraph is a little off-topic rant/opinion dump, If any potential reader is interested in the review itself, I would recommend skipping it.

It's sad how prematurely this show was scrapped due to low ratings. Now, I'm sure people can find a whole bunch of reasons "The Goode Family" never amassed the necessary popularity to survive, but I personally see it as tragic case of preconceptions determining public opinion. Now, I'm not from the USA myself, so any political BS people throw around about satirical shows such as this one was never that interesting to me. If I'm not mistaken, the main creative force behind the show (Mike Judge) once stated, that his work is more about people's way of thinking and social processes - not political events. Even so, people just love to label things as "conservative" or "liberal" to simplify them. It really sucks when folks can't appreciate a good joke, or a piece of art in general, just because they have a stick up their arsenal about some recent political event that no one will give a fudge about in 5 years or so. Quite sad, indeed.

The show itself is based around episodes with individual plot lines - there is no connection between episodes, save for the characters and setting. The humor is varied, ranging from lighthearted jabs at different stereotypes that doesn't really stand out that much from other satirical shows to slapstick moments which work surprisingly well and occasionally - surprisingly cynical and nuanced humor, which is the highlight of the show.

The series does have several shortcomings, some of the running jokes, namely the dog not being fed properly, could have been handled better. Some of the supporting characters aren't developed properly and don't fulfill the potential their overall concept had planned. Out of the 13 episodes created, the later ones show more refinement and potential, (especially the "lime dew" one) proving the series had a good starting point. Sadly, corporate pulled the plug.

In its unfinished state the series exists as more of a curiosity, but I would still highly recommend seeing it, as it still shows time, effort and creativity was put into it, what little there is.

This show did not get enough time on the air to catch everyones attention. One season does not give this show justice. I felt I was just getting to know all of the characters and now I can only imagine who they would have become. It was a unique show working with ideas I haven't seen in any animated show before. Mike Judge is always doing good work and I hope this show can get picked up on another station someday. But for now we can all catch the reruns on Comedy Central! I mean doesn't everyone remember when Family Guy was cancelled and how big of a following it received while it was off the air? It was too bad that King of the Hill ended in 2009, but then this show comes on and I felt a little better because it was still the same animation and some of the same humor.