Season One Review: F is for Family

Some Spoilers Below

Having a family as the centerpiece for an animated comedy is the oldest tradition in prime-time/adult animation. Ever since Fred Flintstone crawled his way out of a quarry so as to promote us the health benefits of Lucky Strike cigarettes, families of all walks of life have come to fruition. The Smiths, the Griffins, and of course the biggest of them all, The Simpsons, have each done their own spin on what a family-centered animated comedy is all with varying levels of success. On broadcast television, one could argue that there can’t possibly be anywhere left to go with this genre of animation…welp F is for Family is Netflix’s chance to try to do just that.

And it would have to. F is For Family, is by design, an adult animated series geared towards the binge-worthy audience that Netflix has created from years of effort. For F is for Family to truly make a mark, the series would have to do things that the other aforementioned families haven’t. Enter…the Murphys. An Irish Catholic working-class family from the 70s that instills values lost on today’s youth. It’s an era devoid of cell phones, iPads, hell even when the family gets their first cassette-based answering machine it blows their fucking mind!

That said, it doesn’t mean F is for Family isn’t showcasing some ushered change in 1973. Women are attempting to break out of the mold of a 1950s housewife and are trying to become independent while technology threatens to make menial jobs redundant, the latter which features a conclusion that comes to a head in the last five minutes of the season finale. And in the middle is Frank Murphy, a husband and father of three doing his damndest to try and put food on the table while working as the head of the baggage handling department over at the regional airport. Like every guy in the world, he has to deal with bosses that are near-death, but somehow want to keep a business floating for the next 30 years all the while trying to eek out everything they can from a union threatening to go on strike.

The interesting part is that Frank, both at home and at work, is the mediator. He’s the one sticking up for the union workers while trying not to get fucked over by his bosses. He’s the one who has to go home and make sure his kids are in line with the house rules when it comes to their schooling, dealing with bullies, and quite frankly not being a pushover in life. It’s a premise that I am sure is coming straight out of the mental diaries belonging to show creators Bill Burr, a Boston-bred international stand-up giant, and Michael Price whom has been working on The Simpsons for a better part of two decades and calls New Jersey home.

The experiences, both professional and personal, are fairly evident throughout F is for Family. The show gives us a good heaping helping of life in the suburbs in an era in which kids running around the neighborhood with no shoes on and full diapers weren’t worried about missing a Degrassi marathon and were instead more concerned with getting mud on every square inch of their torsos. Both husbands and wives and little brothers and sisters fighting like cats and dogs are the norm, and the Murphys are no different.

Let’s start with the kids. Kevin Murphy is a teenage learning the highs and lows of being a soon-to-be grown up. From discovering the joys of recreational drug use to facing the consequences of failing classes, Kevin, at his heart, really is a family man. Kevin is usually very supportive of his siblings and cares about his dad’s feelings. Voice actor Justin does due diligence to Kevin and does a fabulous job of growing in to a character as time goes on, giving us flashes of a troubled teen who really does seem to find himself and his purpose as we come to the conclusion of the six episodes.

Maureen and Bill Murphy are much younger and closer in age, with Maureen playing the role of the apple of daddy’s eye while Bill avoids his daddy’s foot up his own ass. Actually, Bill’s scenes are by far the funniest and the best written of the entire series as he makes his first encounters with public bathrooms, runs for his life from bullies, and is given the unfortunate task of being the kid that catches his parents in the “act”.

The kids, for the most part, act as the B-plots in most episodes which I think is a great idea because we get a lot of good stuff, but the writers were a bit more creative than just sticking us in class with the kids every day, and instead experiencing the hours leading up to dinner time that are largely ignored on other shows. Unfortunately, i have yet to meet any of the other kids that really stick in this show. Other than the bully Jimmy, the roster of kids is largely forgettable and don’t exhibit unique qualities that you would see in kids for other shows like The Simpsons or South Park. This could be a consequence of the six-episode order, so perhaps more episodes will help us meet a more impressive cast, but that remains to be seen.

The parents probably have a more interesting cast of recurring characters than the kids do. When Frank is working at the airport, the series turns from a family comedy to a workplace one, and THIS gets interesting. As mentioned, Frank is in the midst of trying to be loyal to his friends in the workers union all the while trying to impress upper management with his ability to take orders. It’s here we see Frank in a way more vulnerable state as compared to his home life especially when contract negotiations between both sides hit a boiling point. This kind of stress leads to Frank usually being in a bad mood when he gets home and it causes fights with his kids and every once in a while with his loving wife, Sue, voiced by Laura Dern.

Unfortunately, a lot of the struggle seems devoid of substance when we get home. With all of Bill Burr’s yelling and screaming, he does an outstanding job of conveying a father trying his best to please all while being true to himself. Really though, as time goes on, Frank does show a good heart towards everyone even when times are tough. In contrast, it seems to take a while before Laura Dern really starts getting into her zone as a voice actor, but I couldn’t help but think that her role as Sue is largely miscast. And really, this one’s on the producers. If you’re looking for a lead opposite Burr, I wouldn’t cast an actress that has been largely absent of any financial struggle during the course of her life. I mean shit, the show takes place in an obviously North East, United States-inspired setting, and Laura grew up in Los Angeles, do you think her father knew the struggles of having to get up at 5 am to shovel out his car before he went to work? Not likely. You could make the same argument for Debi Derrybeary as Maureen, but she’s not the one arguing with Frank about money and shit around the household.

Luckily, F is for Family makes me laugh enough that I can forget a lot of these oversights. Are you a fan of Bill Burr’s stand up comedy act and podcast? Then F is for Family is a natural extension for his brand of humor. Aforementioned contract negotiations are held at a Chuck E. Cheese like location and we proceed to watch an Italian lawyer shoot and kill one of the robots on stage in a scene that had me choke in laughter. Frank’s boss Bob is a fat piece of shit played by David Koechner and while I’ve seen some fat fucks in cartoons in my life, not since “Floyd” from Mr. Pickles have I seen a creature so vile and gross that I wanted to throw up.

F is for Family has some great parts here, but there are definitely some nuts and bolts that need to be tightened. For example, I’m not exactly thrilled with Gaumont International’s mouth animations, and I’m not sure the story arcs installed are compelling enough to require a binge all the way through. But, with only six episodes, it may not matter because altogether the whole show has a shorter run-time than a Lord of the Rings movie only way funnier. Personally, I applaud the decision to have a shorter season of F is for Family, because Frank is probably better served in smaller doses when it comes to his over-the-top dialogue, and I don’t think the ancillary characters are bulked up enough to carry an additional six or seven episodes the way BoJack Horseman can.

Overall, F is for Family still does enough to warrant a second season, and even shows those other major network guys a thing or two.