Review: Duncanville “Annie v. Fun” ; “Throw Momma from the Brain”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s time for Jing’s 5th birthday party in Annie v. Fun and everyone’s excited — except Kimberly and Duncan. They’re sick of ponies and princesses, so they decide to use some old fashioned suggestion trick and convince Jing to host her party at Teen Zone. Everyone’s having a blast until Annie has had enough of the price gouging and takes a stand for her principles. The only problem? Those principles are a problem for Jing and the rest of the family.

Throw Momma from the Brain finds the Harris family freaking out after learning their neighbor has been hiding an epic backyard complete with patio, swimming pool, and outdoor TV. But the party hits a snag when Duncan accidentally sees his mom and dad skinny-dipping and is scarred for life—until he finds a hypnotist and removes all memories of his mother.

Our Take:

After a brief hiatus, Duncanville is back with new episodes this week, and not just one, but a doubleheader. We’ve got a Jing/Annie episode first followed by a Duncan/Annie episode, and even though neither one are particularly stellar and I’m not sure they will standout when viewing the season as a whole, both of them are solidly entertaining and kept my eyes on the screen.

Annie v. Fun is the first new ep of the night, and it’s all about the lengths that Annie will go to in order to fight for her standards—and later re-friend her daughter. The basic setup revolves around Jing and her birthday, which gives the episode plenty of opportunities for hilarious Jing moments. Kids say the darnedest things, and Joy Osmanski does a great job channeling the freshly-minted five-year-old’s frenetic energy here.

On top of Jing’s one-liners, we get plenty of fun from the rest of the family as well. Annie and her Screech review group are straight from hell, and Kimberly getting continually torso-blocked was unfortunate for her but funny for us. The craziest side plot of the night had to be Duncan and his vomiting skydiving performance though, which ends up creating a Ratnado.

Throw Momma from the Brain is less fun at the outset, but coincidentally also involves a big party by the end of the episode. It’s definitely not as neatly plotted as Annie v. Fun, but it manages to be just as funny for the most part thanks to a bevy of hilariously awkward memories between Duncan and Annie. Amy Poehler plays both characters excellently and seeing them play off each other like this is super cool. I wasn’t as engaged with the whole ‘stolen backyard’ plot, but seeing Duncan zap a memory of his mom in VR saying foreskin

This rare doubleheader of Duncanville was a good chance to get thrown back into the Harris family hubbub after a week of missing out on the usual chaos. Annie v. Fun gave both Jing and Annie a lot to do and Throw Momma from the Brain allowed the whole family to share the spotlight for some of its runtime. I tend to think Duncanville is at its best when the family is together, and both of this week’s new episodes did a good job of keeping that connection while also adding in some of the side characters here and there.