REVIEW: UNSUPERVISED “PILOT”

In the opener of this animated comedy about two teen best friends with no parental supervision, Gary and Joel want to hook up with girls but realize that they’re considered just kids, so they set out to change that image.

Spoilers Below

Times they are a changin’, and that’s how we meet our two new friends, Gary (played by Justin Long) and Joel (played by David Hornsby) who are 15 year old best pals that are just starting to hit puberty. With that goes the years of doing crazy shit with your friends like ninja fighting and disco dancing, and in comes an age where guys only care about one thing…boobs, and if you haven’t figured it out by now that’s all us guys think about when we hit that ripe age which of course just HAPPENS to coincide with freshman year in high school where most girls start coming into their own.

In high school the thing that everyone tries to do the first few weeks is fit in, right?  And what better way to fit in then at home throwing a huge bash with all the other kids at school? For most this would be tough to do, but as it turns out Gary’s dad isn’t in the picture anymore and his stepmom is nowhere to be found, so he basically has the whole house to himself on the weekends. Joel’s parents are just as absent in their son’s life, and what’s great is typically when you think of broken homes you think depression or whatnot, but Joel and Gary are funny ass kids. Maybe a bit more inclined to succumb to peer pressure than other animated kids, but that’s just who they are and really they aren’t terrible kids, they are just trying to find themselves in a cruel young adult world.

During the course of the show we are introduced to Megan (played by Kristen Bell) a girl who ummm hasn’t really “peaked” yet who acts as a sort of a goody-two-shoes, despite the embarrassing angst from her mother of whom is the exact opposite of a guy named Martin that lives across the street from Gary and despite his best efforts has to deal with your typical teenage spoiled daughter named Christine, who drinks and smokes just like all the other cool kids. Lastly, we are introduced to Darius, who is just about as cool as the other side of the pillow, and maybe just as fluffy.

Last year we were introduced to a show called Good Vibes another animated show that featured lead characters with broken families but with dorky kids still trying to make the best of the situation by fitting in at school with the cool kids. As such some might draw some comparisons between that show and Unsupervised but really if you look at both shows and hell even throw in a show like Napoleon Dynamite, you will see all the characters, albeit all from high school really have different situations to deal with as a result of the drastically different settings. Good Vibes is a show about being weird lovable kids living in SoCal, Napoleon Dynamite is about a bunch of kids from Franklin County, ID ala setting comprised of mostly farm towns, and lastly Unsupervised gives us more of a NJ/Philly suburbia type vibe (which makes sense if you do a little research on the show’s creators, PS BIG SHOUT OUT TO LOCAL GUY SCOTT MARDER). I actually read a review somewhere comparing this show to Beavis and Butthead and this show is nothing like it, B&B are about 2 borderline retarded kids who cause a bunch of trouble wherever they go, this show is far from that. Granted the lead characters in both shows are obsessed with boobs, but seriously who doesn’t like boobs?

In closing, David Hornsby and Justin Long work incredibly well together here, I felt like by watching the show even for the first time that yea, these kids are best buds trying to help each other through rough backgrounds and into the crazy jungle that is high school. The writing for the show is absolutely superb with jokes that help old guys like me reminisce about particular school kids and scenarios, and coupled with outstanding animation coming from whom I think might be some of the best in the business in Floyd Productions and you got a sure fire winner. Overall, it’s very funny, smart, and acts as a great companion to the zaniness that is Sterling Archer. For those out there on Thursday nights who are missing Beavis and Butthead ladies and gentlemen I give you Gary and Joel and as such an early contender for best new animated show of the year, Unsupervised.

(9.0 out of 10)