I love this thread title and I hate Allen Gregory. I really want to like this show, and am amused by the premise of an annoying, unlikeable 50-yr old man in a child’s body. I don’t mind that he’s an asshole or belittles his teacher, I’m not offended by edginess, and I don’t think the title character needs to have any redeeming qualities. I just think the show is unfunny.
I wanted badly to like it, as Jonah Hill playing an insufferably arrogant second grader who drinks Riesling at lunch is the kind of crap I would ordinarily fall for, but the show tries entirely too hard without ever getting there, lost me within the first ten seconds of the pilot episode, and never won me back since. If Allen Gregory never stopped being an obnoxious little jerk, but the show’s jokes got funny without being over-the-top to the point of just being asinine and boring, I’d be fine with it.
I never thought I’d say this about a show because I love smart, cynical, smarmy humor, but for me the problem with Allen Gregory is it could be too smart for its own good!
And I’m still on the fence about it. While I thought the OP was very funny I just don’t feel unbridled hatred for this show (and I was ready to). I like its animation style, I feel it fits its sense of humor. The characters have some real three dimensional depth to them. For me, this is what matters, not whether or not they’re ‘unlikable’. In fact, for comedy, unlikable lead characters can be great (think Master Shake in ATHF).
I was pleasantly surprised when the episode about the gay prom didn’t devolve into typical, political correct, tolerance is soooo fucking important, pablum. The previous episode about the phony sex tape had some whit to it as well, although the funniest scene in that episode was the dialog between the principal’s husband and the video store guy at the very end.
It’s certainly no Bob’s Burgers, that show is fucking perfect, funniest new show since Archer (also starring Jon Benjamin). Nor is it in the same league as Futurama (the new episodes just get funnier & funnier!) but I think it could still turn out to be better than goofier fair like MTV’s Good Vibes.
And is it just me, or does it seem like the bald gay father was meant to be played by Andy Dick? He looks and acts just like him, and a poor man’s Andy Dick *is *French Stewart…
I must be supes poor because I would much rather watch French than Andy. (This is not a moral stance because I’d rather watch Andy Dick than Jon Lovitz.)
I turned off Allen Gregory because it is supposed to be somewhat of a realistic animated series and it was just stupid. Him having a sexual crush on his senior citizen, obese principal was the thing that turned me off.
I disagree that Americans only like shows where the characters have redeeming qualities.
I personally dislike the show House M.D. because I find the lead character to be an insufferable asshole who lacks compassion for people who need his help. When I did watch it, I was thinking that if Greg House was a real person and what he did to the other characters, I would love to kick his ass. The other characters are not necessarily lovable either. Unlike most ensamble shows, the characters are not necessarily friends.
Saying that, this show has been on the air for about 10 years now and is still going strong on AMERICAN television. Another show that was on a long time was The Sopranos. Really, are any of those characters really “likeable”? The lead characters were murderers, thieves, thugs, adulterers, sociopaths, gamblers etc.
I am an American and loved Fawlty Towers. John Cleese made that show work. Fawlty was a jerk, but he was so stupid at the same time. None of these characters were friends either. The Fawltys were in a loveless marriage of convenience, with Basil lording over Manuel and Polly. Fawlty like House disliked people, even thought they were in a profession where they were forced to meet with the general public. As a matter of fact, the only part of House I found enjoyable was whwn he was stuck doing “clinic duty” dealing with clueless people with minor problems.
I watched Ab Fab too. Basically a story of two old, rich drunk tarts with a long suffering daughter at home. I liked all of them. That show wouldn’t work in the USA because the religious people, and the MADD people would be mad about it. “Alcoholism isn’t funny!”
I don’t know how “realistic” it was supposed to be. Obviously no 6 year olds talk like that.
It is hard, nearly impossible in fact, for a show with a patently unlikeable lead to get picked up by a major American TV network. House is very much the exception, not the rule.
Not me. He lacks compassion for everybody and people who need his help need his help, not his compassion. And in fact, compassion would merely cloud his judgement. Part of his genius is that he recognizes this, and his ability to totally separate the two. Being the absolute medical genius he is means doing what he does and treating people that way. An early story arc where David Morse played that asshole, scumbag cop is an example of the difference. He DOES NOT get to be that way because he’s just a fucking cop. Cops mean nothing special to House because almost anybody could do what they do. He deserves no special treatment and if House’s attitude annoyed his power-hungry cop ego, well good. I always hoped that asshole pig would show up later on, severely injured in the ER and the last thing he gets to see is House telling him he’s going to die and that he’s glad because he was the one that was a selfish, abusive, egotistical, all around terrible human being.
I always liked to compare Basil Fawlty and House, but again House gets away with being Basil Fawlty because he’s a genius and because what he does isn’t based on simple snobbery but the real truth.
The drinking isn’t so much the problem (they weren’t visibly drunk that often) but the way they treated Saffy would be. A big difference between Britain and the US is acceptance of meanness toward kids. Even in a comedy setting audiences here in the US would be upset at seeing Edina and Patsy constantly berate her daughter like that.
This show isn’t even fit to be on Adult Swim at 3 a.m. I hope it’s just some elaborate ploy to make us miss Bob’s Burgers and boost its ratings when it returns.
Partly because it’s a non-realistic, zany cartoon and also because Meg isn’t exactly a saint (but in fact, a total slut) that I think people don’t feel too much sympathy for her.
While Meg was always the butt of jokes, the family didn’t start heaping abuse on Meg until Family Guy came back from its cancellation. Even then, the abuse Meg themes got started before they portrayed her as a “slut.”
In fact, you could make a convincing case that her slutty behavior came about as a result of her low self esteem caused by the abuse heaped on her by her family.
It annoys me, but I’ve learned to let it go. But there was a recent episode that addressed this exact question and I must say I was pretty happy the way it resolved.
Really? I HATED that Meg decided to continue passively accepting the others’ abuse – particularly Lois’s. Lois is the worst of the bunch, because even though she doesn’t physically abuse Meg the way Peter sometimes does, she knows better. Peter at least has the excuse of being an idiot who is incapable of learning.
Yeah, that episode left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, if the characters changed for the better then it wouldn’t be the same show any more. Seinfeld had the right idea: no learning, no crying.
I caught some of last week’s show of Allen Gregory, where he blackmailed the principal into going on a dinner date with him while wearing a tight black dress (maybe it was a repeat, this being the holiday season and all). This was the first episode I had seen since the pilot, and I found it more nuanced and less revolting.
However, the character of the father is still irredeemably horrible and unwatchable.
Roddy
I’ve caught bits and pieces of the show but I’ve never been able to sit through the whole thing. It’s just not funny to me for whatever reason.
I disagree with the idea that Americans don’t like shows with disagreeable protagonists. Sure, you can list things like Cosby and Everybody Loves Raymond, but that’s being selective.
Here’s another list: Gregory House, Walter White, Dexter Morgan, Denny Crane and Alan Shore. Is anybody on Seinfeld not disagreeable? Hell, you can go back as far as the 70’s with Archie Bunker. There are plenty of disagreeable protagonists on American television.