NYCC 2015 Recap: Bordertown on FOX very well could be best new series of 2016

When people look back on 2015 when it comes to animation and cartoons in general, it’s been a busy year when it comes to new. New movies are starting to become a regular thing, new distribution models are continuing to show, and by far 2015 has been the busiest year when it comes to new television. Disney XD, FOX, FXX, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and a slew of other networks have all debuted new programming much to our delight. As we begin to take 2015’s final lap, the view for 2016 gets clearer, and with it, more new programming.

In terms of best new series of 2015, that hasn’t been decided yet…but it will. In terms of best new series of 2016, Bordertown may have taken the ball and spiked it in the face of every other network out there. How do I know this? New York Comic Con.

Enter yesterday’s panel where cast and crew for FOX’s newest series set to premiere next year dropped by Comic Con and took questions, did trademark voices, and most importantly…showcased a full episode entitled “Borderwall”. The episode follows Bud Buchwald as he helps finance a new wall to be built around Mexifornia. Because of the wall, Bud loses his job as a Border Patrolman, so he opens up an underground (literally) immigrant smuggling operation where he rakes in a bunch of cash and starts to eat away at the profits of his next door neighbor and former boss Ernesto. Ernesto owns his own landscaping business, so the increase in immigrants means the decrease in potential open jobs, so he starts to suffer, but when the town decides to destroy the wall once and for all, Ernesto lands the contract and Bud gets his job back.

Overall, fans of old-school Family Guy may find solace in Bordertown. While the producers made sure to mention that when it came to writing that they wanted to stay away from jokes and plot devices already done by the likes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park, and for the most part, that’s exactly what shines through. But, Bordertown exhibits the stuff that Family Guy simply doesn’t do anymore. The series is laden with gags, and hits at the jugular of celebrities the way Seth MacFarlane’s namesake used to before he became famous and friends with a lot of the stars that he went after. Remember when Family Guy used to joke about Ashton Kutcher? Welp, this season he’s married to one of the voices of the show (Mila Kunis) and is an upcoming guest star.

Bordertown eschews these constraints, and one episode in they SLAY and I mean SLAY the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman all the while making the show feel more like a cartoon. Bud getting sucked up in a leaf blower, or people made out of different body parts, you’ll see the Family Guy-DNA of yesteryear in full effect, and because present-day Family Guy doesn’t do any of that anymore, Bordertown seems fresh. It brings the stuff that made FOX network into FOX network, the network that had TV shows that challenged paradigms with programming like MADTV, The Simpsons, and Married with Children. Bordertown could be FOX’s next flagship for an established mixed-racial audience yearning for content on a major network that’s ripe for them.