Review: Bless the Harts “Hug N’ Bugs”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jenny Hart (Kristen Wiig) learns her family’s water will be shut off because her mother Betty (Maya Rudolph) has had a secret storage unit filled with not-Beanie Babies, which she believes will go up in value…but are actually worthless. After some talking with Jesus (like the literal Jesus, voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), she tries selling some off, only to find her mother has been buying them, meaning their already low funds have been going in a circle (and probably going down taking shipping into account).

In the B-Plot, Jenny’s boyfriend Wayne (Ike Barinholtz) notices Jenny’s daughter Violet (Jillian Bell) drawing a self-insert comic with a version of her unseen biological dad as a badass warrior, while he is portrayed as a stump. So, he tries to use his handyman skills to make a replica of a whimsical house from her comic, but it is deemed illegal by the zoning board. However, he eventually learns that the comic actually ends with the dad-character being banished and the stump saving the day!

The family decides to burn up all the easily combustible dolls in the treehouse, but then find that ONE of them did get a real bid, allowing them to get their water running again. And the buyer of the Colin Powell themed doll? …the actual Colin Powell.

OUR TAKE

Since the end of King of the Hill in 2009 (and the moving of American Dad from Fox to TBS in 2014), many ambitious shows have attempted to fill the vacuum left by them. Allen Gregory in 2011, Napoleon Dynamite in 2012, Bordertown and Son of Zorn in 2016. Now, the first of three challengers to the throne has arrived in the form of Bless the Harts, which many have noticed takes a bit of inspiration FROM King of the Hill in that it is about a bunch of white trash southerners dealing day to day and finding strength in the power of family. Only this is a bit of less conventional family structure than most Fox animated shows, having a main cast with three generations of women and a supportive boyfriend. Neat change of pace! There’s no reason it always has to be the same “idiot dad, naggy wife, weird kids and pet” set up every single time.

Though with that novelty, there must also come interesting stories and humor, which…I’m sad to say aren’t quite here in this pilot. The premise of finding out that stuffed animal fads are worthless now is kinda tired, so much so that even someone like me uses it as a throwaway joke in his first draft for Screenplay class, which makes me feel A LOT better about my future as a writer but not great about the future of this show. It also seems to be going for a grounded approach to its setting like King of the Hill and Bob’s Burgers…but then there’s Kumail Nanjiani as Jesus, and not even as a hallucination since he knows things that Jenny can’t possibly know. There’s also the main cast, who seem kinda underdeveloped in their personalities beyond their base traits. We’ve got a dozen more episodes to get to know them better, though this is not a great first step out the gate.

Granted, it is a PILOT, and the first episode of any series is going to be rough. Compare the pilots of Bob’s Burgers or Family Guy to where they are now and you’ll see how much they’ve evolved, and I’m sure that Bless the Harts could possibly reach such heights if given enough time. However, I’m not sure that Fox is going to GIVE them that amount of time to get good. Still, it could end up surprising me and grabbing a renewal…but I wouldn’t count on it.