It’s like “Take Your Kids to Work Day”, but with more lasers!
My Dad the Bounty Hunter is a 2023 sci-fi animated series created by Everett Downing and Patrick Harpin. It stars the voices of Laz Alonso, Priah Ferguson, Jecobi Swain, Yvonne Orji, Jamie Chung, Yvette Nicole Brown, Rob Riggle, Jim Rash, and Leslie Uggams.
The series follows two kids visiting their estranged father for a weekend. When Dad is forced to go to work, the kids sneak along and discover what their old man does for a living... he’s an intergalactic bounty hunter.
The first episode received an early premiere on YouTube January 12, 2023. The full series premiered on Netflix on February 9 the following month. A second season released on August 17 2023.
Previews: Teaser
, Trailer, First Episode
My Dad the Bounty Hunter features the following examples:
- Afrofuturism: The planet Doloraam, introduced in Season 2, has this aesthetic, styled after African societies but highly technologically advanced.
- Ascended Extra: Blobby, the liquid alien that Terry captured in the Cold Opening of the first episode of season 1, returns in season 2 with a larger role.
- Art Shift: Flashbacks are drawn in 2-D animation rather than 3-D.
- Badass Adorable: The entire Chilla race — especially Chakalau — turn out to be this, being a species of cute Furby-like creatures who are actually a Proud Warrior Race, and most definitely have the combat credentials to live up to it.
- Badass and Child Duo: Well, trio. The main characters are a notorious human intergalactic bounty hunter and his two children who stowed away on his ship.
- Bad Guy Bar: A G-rated version. Bucky Quanto’s is a popular hangout for the most vicious aliens in the galaxy… mostly due to having the best wings in the galaxy. Which would later get gentrified in season 2.
- Bland-Name Product:
- Blobby orders dinner off an app called "Flor Grub", which has a logo very similar to GrubHub.
- Later that episode, Lisa attempts to get under Terry’s skin by suggesting they watch Snow Dad, a movie about an absentee father who dies and comes back to life as a snowman - a plot very similar to Jack Frost (1998).
- Bounty Hunter: As the title indicates, this is Dad’s secret job. The first episode opens with him on the job, tracking down a bail jumper.
- Brick Joke: Grandma's dog Peanut accidentally gets warped by a warp pod in episode 2 and doesn’t stop until the season finale.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The second half of the first season becomes much darker as the truth about Dad’s bounty and the Conglomerate come to light and the tensions between father and daughter boil over.
- Company Cameo: In the second episode, Grandma falls asleep while watching Netflix.
- Company Cross References: In episode 2, Grandma is shown to have fallen asleep watching Maya and the Three on Netflix.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: Doloraam is an afrofuturistic take on this. The planet is quite well-off and technologically advanced with space travel capabilities, weapons like spears and blades that can sometimes shoot laserblasts, ruled by royalty, and sometimes settles disputes through one-on-one combat.
- The Dog Bites Back: A guard on Chillion-5 was throwing stones at an Octoclops when the forcefield protecting him from it goes down thanks to Lisa. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for him.
- Given Name Reveal: Tess' real name turns out to be Janeera.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Sean and Lisa are technically this.
- How Dad Met Mom: Terry and Tess tell Lisa and Sean how they met each other during one of Terry’s bounty hunting jobs.
- Human Alien: Lisa and Sean's mother, Tess would turn out to be one.
- I Should Write a Book About This: Sean decides to write about all his adventures in space as everyone on Earth thinks it's a story he made up and that he's a gifted writer.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Lisa gains this attitude towards Earth after being exposed to the wonders of space.
- Insistent Terminology: In the season preview at the end of episode one, Dad admits he doesn’t like the negative connotations that come with the term “bounty hunter” and prefers “fugitive recovery specialist”.
- Medium Blending: The show is mainly 3D, but certain flashbacks will dip into hand-drawn animation at times.
- Megacorp: The Endless Horizons Conglomerate, EHC for short, a vast corporation that employs Terry for the bounty the first season is centered around.
- Octopoid Aliens: Rival bounty hunter Glorlox is a humanoid alien with a tentacled head and squid beak.
- Persona Non Grata: "Tussling" gets you banned from Bucky Quanto's for life. Enforced by an energy blast from the server bots that causes the word "banned" to appear on your forehead. Since they've got the best wings in the galaxy it's treated as Serious Business.
- Pragmatic Villainy: When the EHC attacks Doloraam in the season 2 finale, B'Caal gives Tess Pam's location and fights the invaders alongside his people. When Tess questions his honesty, he says he still isn't happy about her family's rule, but doesn't want Doloraam destroyed.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Tess turns out to be the princess of the planet Doloraam, who ran away from home about 14 years ago.
- Retraux: The Brok and Glorlox ad in episode 2 is meant to resemble a cheap local ad from the 80s and 90s filmed on video with poor production values. The episode even does an Aspect Ratio Switch for it.
- Sassy Black Woman: KRS' default personality is that of a standard neutral AI, but after Sean messes with her setting, she becomes something closer to her voice actress Yvette Nicole Brown’s usual characters.
- Sentient Ship: KRS/"Chris" is the AI that controls the protagonists' ship. She takes the form of a small spherical robot that can attach and detach from the control panel. She initially sounded very robotic, but Sean reprogrammed her to have a Sassy Black Woman personality and voice, which everyone preferred.
- Sequel Hook:
- At the end of the first season in The Stinger, the Fixer's ship detects that he is dead and starts sending a signal out into space.
- At the end of the second season in The Stinger, a Conglomerate warp gate reactivates as an unknown ship comes in, presumably to track down and find the Kendrix family.
- Shout-Out:
- Armored bounty hunter with a T-shaped visor.
- A poster on the wall in Terry's home is for something called Dragon Brothers.
- Lisa does a school play musical based on Highlander.
- When holding the gun on Terry, Zeno's eyes blink sideways like the alien James chased at the begining of Men in Black.
- Souvenir Land: Chillion-5 is home to a popular amusement park that has enslaved the indigenous life forms as an attraction and as slave labor.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even with a PG audience and toned-down violence, the show doesn't shy away from the fact that Terry's job as a bounty hunter not only keeps him away from his family for extended periods of time, but is also very dangerous as he's regularly risking his wellbeing fighting malicious criminals who are more than happy to maim him to keep their freedom. Terry's armour helps protect him from the worst of the damage, such as getting attacked by a knife at Bucky's, but it's not a catch-all protective. As Terry recounts in the season one finale, even when he did manage to show up for one of Lisa's plays, he was left badly injured and visibly bleeding from his patched injuries, shown onscreen, and Tess all but says outright that they separated in part because she was afraid Terry would be killed eventually on one of his jobs.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Lisa is skilled at poker, setting up a gambling ring at school, and even knows how to count cards. She learned at least the basics from Terry, although he certainly didn't expect her to use the skill for sharping.
- Twitchy Eye: Sean has a nervous tic that manifests as a twitchy eye. His mother says it’s brought on by stress.
- We Used to Be Friends: Terry and Glorlox used to be partners, with Glorlox getting Terry into space bounty hunting in the first place.
