The Simpsons was something of a revelation when it first aired, a subversive animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family. It has since been followed by countless imitators jumping on the "edgy animated sitcom" bandwagon, and Allen Gregory is easily one of the worst. In fact, I'm not sure I can think of a cartoon I've watched that is worse. Simply put, the show is both outlandishly meanspirited and, more unforgivably, mindnumbingly unfunny.
The premise is paper-thin. A spoiled, pretentious seven-year-old raised by a rich gay couple has to go to elementary school. The eponymous Allen Gregory is obviously molded after Stewie Griffin, except without anything that made Stewie Griffin funny. He's just a brat you want to see punched in the face. Similarly loathsome is Richard, Allen Gregory's father, who's basically just a gay spoiled brat. The problem is I have no idea what the joke with his (or Allen's) character is supposed to be. With Homer Simpson you have an obvious caricature of working class America, and the humor comes from exaggerations of the stereotypes. But with Richard there's no actual joke. Similarly, Stewie Griffin was funny because he was a baby who A. was a sophisticated evil genius, and B. wanted to kill his mother. Babies depend on their mothers, so the image of a baby who hates his mother is ironic. With Richard and Allen, there's no real joke. They have one-note personalities and are utterly vile. There's a problem when the popular bully douchebag is one of your most likable characters.
The animation is very bland. Most of the time they use very flat angles with little effort to frame them, and there's little sense of motion. Limited Animation can work if you have good characters and writing (like with Rocky & Bullwinkle), but that isn't the case here.
Furthermore, apart from the relentless idiocy of Allen Gregory, Richard, Carl Trent, nobody feels like they're in a cartoon. Most of the other characters are fairly flat straight men except when the plot requires them to be idiots. Every episode ends with the two idiots getting away with everything, and while it attempts to be subversive, it's remarkably predictable because you just know that something's gonna happen so the little waste of space is gonna get what he wants.
And then the series ends on a rape joke. And now it's gone. Good riddance.
It's About as Bad as you can Conceive
The Simpsons was something of a revelation when it first aired, a subversive animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family. It has since been followed by countless imitators jumping on the "edgy animated sitcom" bandwagon, and Allen Gregory is easily one of the worst. In fact, I'm not sure I can think of a cartoon I've watched that is worse. Simply put, the show is both outlandishly meanspirited and, more unforgivably, mindnumbingly unfunny.
The premise is paper-thin. A spoiled, pretentious seven-year-old raised by a rich gay couple has to go to elementary school. The eponymous Allen Gregory is obviously molded after Stewie Griffin, except without anything that made Stewie Griffin funny. He's just a brat you want to see punched in the face. Similarly loathsome is Richard, Allen Gregory's father, who's basically just a gay spoiled brat. The problem is I have no idea what the joke with his (or Allen's) character is supposed to be. With Homer Simpson you have an obvious caricature of working class America, and the humor comes from exaggerations of the stereotypes. But with Richard there's no actual joke. Similarly, Stewie Griffin was funny because he was a baby who A. was a sophisticated evil genius, and B. wanted to kill his mother. Babies depend on their mothers, so the image of a baby who hates his mother is ironic. With Richard and Allen, there's no real joke. They have one-note personalities and are utterly vile. There's a problem when the popular bully douchebag is one of your most likable characters.
The animation is very bland. Most of the time they use very flat angles with little effort to frame them, and there's little sense of motion. Limited Animation can work if you have good characters and writing (like with Rocky & Bullwinkle), but that isn't the case here.
Furthermore, apart from the relentless idiocy of Allen Gregory, Richard, Carl Trent, nobody feels like they're in a cartoon. Most of the other characters are fairly flat straight men except when the plot requires them to be idiots. Every episode ends with the two idiots getting away with everything, and while it attempts to be subversive, it's remarkably predictable because you just know that something's gonna happen so the little waste of space is gonna get what he wants.
And then the series ends on a rape joke. And now it's gone. Good riddance.