Review: Duncanville “Pilot”

Overview(Spoilers Below):

Teenage Duncan is being pressured by his father to learn how to drive. Reluctant at first, the young man is persuaded after finding out that his crush thinks that driving is cool. However, instead of allowing his dad to share this valuable moment with his son, Duncan asks his mom to teach him.

When Duncan and his friends get tickets to the EDM Fest, it is up to him to drive. When he can’t get permission from his parents, he has to sneak out and steal the car. Unfortunately, he hits the towns beloved Oaktree, which is the smoking gun for him to be caught by his parents. Disappointed in himself for breaking his parent’s hearts, Duncan sets himself on smoothing things over. When simple tasks won’t do the trick, he must go all out to show how terrible he feels.

Our Take:

Duncanville has arrived!

There has been a lot of reasons to get hyped about this show airing. Reason number one is the creator/talent Amy Poehler. The brilliant comedian has already given us some of the best television with Parks and Recreation (plus, many others). Now, she is here to help Animation Domination find its groove again. Adding to her reputation comes Mike Scully, who we all know as the long-time Simpsons showrunner. The calibre of these two names alone makes Duncanville a show worth watching. But the roster is filled out with star cast members like Ty Burrell, Rashida Jones, and Wiz Khalifa.  

Absolutely, a show with some potential.

Finally, we get our first taste.

I would have to say, first impressions are positive. For a change-up, we are not following a young family. Instead, this family is already quite established, and the main character is in the deepest, most awkward of teenage years. In place of following an eight-to-ten-year-old, we have a character that can truly get up to no good. Where a Bart Simpson can throw some graffiti on the walls, Duncan can be driving a car through one.

Voiced by Poehler, Duncan is a funny kid with more than a couple of lines that earned a laugh out of me. “I wanted something, and you said “no”.  What was I supposed to do? Respect your boundaries?” He is a teenager with typical teenage problems, but the way he handles them should make for great television. Surrounded by a mom with typical Poehler humour, Ty Burrell as an ambitious father, and a group of strange friends, the potential is there for many hilarious storylines.

The pilot episode does suffer from being broken up. Two separate stories were going on in the episode which most likely wasn’t intentional. First, the story is about Duncan learning to drive, which should offer enough content. Yet, things take a drastic turn when Duncan steals the car to go to an EDM music festival. Everything does come together in the end, but both ideas could have held their own as a plot. Then again, this could just be a peak at how many great plans these writers have in store for us.

This show does do one significant thing right, and it involves the baby. In place of having the youngest not talk, or be a super genius with bicurious tendencies, Jing acts like the toddler she is. And why not? Kids are already adorable the way they are. Allowing Jing to do things like slow-motion cartwheels and telling her brother she is going to marry him one day, makes her absolutely lovable. Voiced by Joy Osmanski, this little girl could earn her mantle of adorableness beside Baby Yoda and Groot.

Expect good things from this show. All of that talent and potential had to offer us something decent, and on first inspection, Duncanville may go beyond expectations. As with any sitcom, it is hard to tell the full direction from a pilot.  However, this is one of the better Fox animated pilots that we have seen in years. No shade thrown at Bless the Harts, Duncanville has the recipe to be something great. Only time will tell. For now, we can be excited to watch the next episode and see how this one goes.