mightyfastpig

Even given that this series is aimed at married men in their 40s, there's a curiously dated feel to it, both in the home and in the workplace.

For instance, in the real world newspapers are full of women reporters, columnists and editors, but the newspaper Mickey works at seems a throwback to the days when the only women around are secretaries and personal assistants. It's also implausible that all of those 20-something women seem eager to get into Freudian-transference father-daughter relationships with their bosses, whom they know are married. Sure it happens, but it was an old story when Nora Ephron wrote about it more than 20 years ago.

Also, was there ever a time when people were secure enough in their employment to screw around at work as much as these people did? Is this some parallel reality with no sexual harassment policy? When was this project conceived? It also portrays married life as a never-ending sublimated power struggle between husband and wife. I don't think I've ever seen a bleaker portrayal of gender relations outside a Neil Labute movie.

I caught the pilot off BitTorrent.

The lead of "Boondocks" is supposed to be Huey, but his character takes a backseat to Grampa, who gets more screen time. This is a curious parallel to the gradual eclipsing of Bart Simpson by Homer over the years.

Huey comes off the worst. His complex character - fearless, passionate and dedicated, yet paranoid, self-righteous and generally a pain to be around - is barely noticeable. It mixes up his fringe conspiracy ideas ("Ronald Reagan was the devil. His names each have six letters.") with his genuine concerns about government secrecy. His voice is wrong too. I always imagined him talking with a deeper voice.

Instead of comparing Huey with the assimilated, bourgeois Tom Dubois and his family, the Freemans are compared to a one-dimensional caricature of upper-class WASPs.

The jokes that worked best were actually the subtler, deadpan ones. E.g. in a flashback, Grampa (always the pragmatist) explains to a bunch of angry, soaked civil rights protesters that he was off getting his raincoat because he expected to be hit by firehoses.