PILOT REVIEW: Duncanville

DUNCANVILLE

Starring: Amy Poehler, Ty Burrell, Riki Lindhome, Zach Cherry, Yassir Lester, Betsy Sodaro

Created by Mike Scully, Julie Thacker Scully & Amy Poehler
Written by Mike Scully, Julie Thacker Scully & Amy Poehler, Directed by Anne Walker Farrell

Duncanville is the newest entry to the FOX animation library. It is centered on an average 15 year old named Duncan (Amy Poehler) who is always on the verge of making bad choices with his friends, much to the chagrin of his family. His mother, Debbie (also voiced by Poehler) is a pretty domineering mother while his dad, Jack (Ty Burrell) tries to be cool but is pretty lame.

I mentioned this in my review of Bless the Harts, but I am not a cartoon fan. There is not a single cartoon that I watch regularly. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was a live action sitcom. I readily admit that I have some bias against cartoon so take this with a grain of salt. I did enjoy this pilot more than Harts, so that's saying something. The show started pretty weak but the episode got better after the crashing into the tree. That's when I felt like we finally got to see some funny dynamics between the family and a glimpse of what the show could be when the characters are developed more.

That being said, the Duncan character is pretty well developed for a pilot of a cartoon. Amy Poehler brings a lot of good moments and it's impressive that she can do both the son and mother in very different ways. While Duncan had a lot of funny moments, Debbie was played as more of a one trick pony for much of the episode and involved a lot of screeching from Poehler. Similarly, Ty Burrell is great but his Jack plays somewhat similar to Phil Dunphy. I don't know if I would have thought that if I didn't know the voices, but knowing that made the similarities a little more pronounced.

As the episode was coming to a close, I started to think to myself "this isn't so bad, maybe I'll watch another one even though it's a cartoon." Then the very weird Captain Sully moment happened to end the episode and I ended up rolling my eyes and remembering what I don't like about animated sitcoms. There was nothing grounded in reality in that moment and that's what always goes wrong with these cartoons for me. If it's going to be centered on an average 15 year old in an average town, we don't need the fantasy elements.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
I might check in down the road but this won't be a regular appointment for me.