Review: Duncanville “Jack’s Pipe Dream”

Overview:

Jack has lost all of his customers’ thanks to a younger, much more good-looking plumber starting up business. Losing purpose, the family gets behind the father in supporting him in fulfilling his dreams. They just didn’t realize his dream was to write and produce his own rock opera.

After Jack becomes obsessed with his new project, he enlists his family in performing the opera live on stage. In an attempt to avoid embarrassment, they do what they can to stop the show, until Duncan and Kimberley find inspiration in impressing their respective crushes.

The show, Rommy, begins just as the town suffers a drastic flood that only Jack can fix. But, will the plumber go back to the grind, or fulfil his life-long dream?

Our Take:

As we enter the backend of Duncanville’s inaugural season, we are comforted with the fact that the bright series has been picked up for another season. In Fox’s push to reinvigorate the Sunday night Animation Domination line-up, Duncanville will join Bless the Harts in returning for another round.

And why not? With stars like Amy Poehler and Ty Burrell front and centre, we can only expect this series to improve with age. The witty humour is a welcome addition alongside The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers. Meanwhile, the wholesomeness of the sitcom probably works well under the House of Mouse. The show avoids edginess while maintaining just enough satire to be relevant.

Thus far, there have not been many complaints with what Duncanville has to offer. The struggle has been to find a unique concept. Duncan himself is a quirky character, but everyone else just seems to play their parts around him without much to make them special or memorable. All of them except for Jack, who is quickly proving he deserves a place beside other animated sitcom dads like Bob, Peter, Hank, and Homer.

Thankfully, this was a Jack-centric episode, and we really get to dive into his psyche. While many of us are analyzing our own psyche through this pandemic, we get to see what Jack would do jobless and stuck at home. Turns out this strange creature is all about developing his own rock opera. Which is unique, to say the least. But, when Rommy hit the stage, I could not help but be enthralled.

The idea of having a low-budget production centralize the plot of a sitcom is not a new idea. We have seen it play out in a countless number of shows. “A Streetcar Named Marge” anyone? Yet, every stage play has its own unique embarrassments and quirks. Jack’s creation happens to be about a Skee-Ball champion torn between his oil mogul mother and army general father while featuring a number titled “Love Hole”.

Maybe I have seen a few rock opera’s play out before in shows like Bob’s Burgers, Big Mouth, and Home Movies, but all with memorable episodes. In fact, it is kind of become a lovable cliché. This episode of Duncanville will stand out when looking back at the first season. It helped define Jack as a character while putting Duncan in yet another embarrassing situation. Hopefully, we get some excellent follow up episodes in the coming weeks.