Channel Surfing: Dads - "Pilot"

Left to right: Martin Mull, Giovani Ribisi, Seth Green, and Peter Riegert

Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.

With fall season starting to kick up, no show has gotten as much publicity as the latest Seth MacFarlane-produced vehicle Dads that pits two sons with their obnoxious fathers in a comedy that is chocked full of MacFarlane's familiar brand of schizophrenic pop culture gags and occasional attack on racism and geriatrics. It almost seemed predated to fail, though not as much as a notorious scene that made the rounds early on in which Asian character Veronica (Brenda Strong) dresses up as a school girl in order to land a deal with some video game clients. It is simultaneously fetishistic and serves no point beyond racism. Even in the promos, the buzz was so bad that the show asked people to watch it to rebel against good tastes and critics.

This way of thinking has always seemed a little reductive and is a big reason that I am opposed to the latest trend of films turning to Twitter for blurbs. It is without a doubt going to be the case with this show, which has been lambasted so much that it is hard to think of anyone liking it. Then again, the notorious double feature of 2 Broke Girls and Whitney a few years ago seemed to be int he same boat filled with stock characters and boring shock humor. Instead, they each got multiple seasons.

But what probably ranks them above Dads is that at least they have a cohesive premise. It is tough to imagine anything that involves MacFarlane these days to be a failure. His theatrical debut with Ted was one of the most successful comedies and while the Cleveland Show met its end, there is a good chance that Family Guy is the biggest reason that Fox's Animation Domination continues to stay afloat. He is edgy and very lowbrow with an unapologetic attempt to go anywhere. Some see it as brave, but consider that he has built an empire out of this formula of randomized jokes, it is hard to stay fresh for over 10 years, let alone on three shows currently airing this fall.

Of course, of the Family Guy team, MacFarlane is only an executive producer. Alec Sulkin is the mastermind behind this project and one of the main writers on the debut episode. Still, with Sulkin and MacFarlane being long time partners, it almost seems easy to find either's name indistinguishable when it comes to this brand of comedy. Add in MacFarlane's pal Seth Green and Ted co-star Giovani Ribisi and this seems like the least inspired casting decisions of the fall's current line-up. Still, Green has been an entertaining performer in the past, having made Robot Chicken into a great pop culture satirized machine. There was still some hope that he could elevate the material beyond the ads, which had potential to just paint the show in a bad light.

The reality is that it was much worse. The show seems to exist simply as an example of powerful figureheads with too much power forced to fill up time slots. Maybe blame could be placed on the likes of Ben and Kate and Raising Hope who met their demise this past season. Fox's attempt to make a Tuesday night comedy line-up hasn't been successful with exception to New Girl and therefore that feels like the reason that this show exists. Not necessarily because of an idea, but because there was a time slot to be filled and someone with star power was able to do something about it.

Dads is probably the least compelling plot of new series. There isn't even a draw in its description of two video game programmers who have their deadbeat fathers move in with them. The gimmick doesn't even withstand the first episode. It would be one thing if the chemistry worked, but it just feels like a series of rehashed jokes. In many ways, the most unfortunate role goes to Martin Mull as Crawford, Warner's (Ribisi) father who is bumbling to the point of dropping his towel in the kitchen in front of Warner's wife and exposing himself. He also ruins Warner's big debate with the Asian market by trying to walk in without any self-awareness. Never mind that there's a sexy school girl standing in the room meant to arouse the clients. It makes no sense how they could be that powerful or handle management that well.

The show's biggest downside is that there's no basis of reality. Even if these employees are bumbling in ways almost plagiarizing Green's own past (Old Dogs), they don't even have good chemistry. They complain about their fathers being obnoxious and deadbeat and there is nothing redeeming about them to suggest otherwise. There's even a scene where Green's Eli imitates hurting his father with air motions. It is meant to be humorous, but nothing gives a sense that either character is redeemable enough to care about the gesture. Also, with the episode ending around an extended riff on the smallness of Asian genitalia, what exactly is this show trying to say? It is just as much an exercise against minorities as it is trying to point out how bad these people are.

Even the stereotypes are bad. The closes that the show comes to humor is when the two dads are meeting for the first time and trying to decide who pays the bill. By pushing the check back and forth across the table, it is showing a brief sign of ingenuity that is sadly missing from the rest of the episode. There's plenty of pop culture references, but they are overpowered by incompetence. David (Reigert) gets insulted by Eli's maid (Tonita Castro) for being ugly by comparing him to a picture from the movie Mask. It is a brutal exercise in trying to see who is the meanest person in the show. Also, with all three of the central women (Warner's wife, the Asian school girl, the maid), none of them rise above the shrill stereotype that manages to make dumb guys look somewhat smarter just by being superior.

This is a very regressive show and an unfortunate lead-in for the somewhat progressive Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In many ways, it is the anti-thesis to the following show by taking everything about the characters and not applying the humor to them. It is shallow and lacks a connection to the story, which makes it seem more meandering than the lack of plot actually does. When David turns to Eli at the end of the episode for support, it makes no sense. This is in a scene immediately following Eli excited to have David out of his life in a very visceral manner. There's no continuity.

There is little hope for this show beyond the brand name of MacFarlane which is even a questionable name in terms of success nowadays. His last live action show, the Winner, quickly met its demise. With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuting soon, it is only a matter of which draws a bigger crowd. In shortest terms: The Avengers outgrossed Ted by a significant margin. If you apply that to TV, nobody is going to stick around for episode two, especially after the cruel but accurate feedback. In a way, the real victim here is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, unless they manage to save it from the inevitable black hole.

I don't understand where the show is planning to have a lucrative run. It feels very much dated down to the fact that it has a laugh track. My biggest comparison would be to that of Whitney, which was nothing but a rehash of old relationship comedies. Laugh tracks in general need to die, as they have become an outdated technology in a world where the average sitcom can go more places. Even Martin Mull's character, who is probably the most clueless and racist, feels like a regressive version of Community's use of Chevy Chase. Both have equally vile remarks, but on Community, they feel justified. On Dads, it only feels like he is saying it for a laugh, which is the wrong way to do humor.

Of course, the show's choice to go with the Two and a Half Men model is sort of tragic and a sad realization of the times, as every year seems to dump these shows upon us. Guys being guys is a concept that maybe used to work in the 90's, but as we have become more of a nation with more progressive thinking on women's politics and gay marriage, these viewpoints are becoming the minority. Maybe it is still too tragic to think that complaining will not work because these shows will still exist, but hopefully the long run of these show's existence slowly disappearing is a good sign of things to come. It is ironic that the network's two main shows are spearheaded by women, which only makes this look more regressive. Still, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the way, this may as well just be another failure on the MacFarlane brand and proof that he can't just do anything.