STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
It's 1993, and a teenage John Bennett (Max Burkholder) lives with his dysfunctional parents, Susan (Alanna Ubach) and Matt (Scott Grimes), older sister Blaire (Georgia Whigham), and Ted (Seth McFarlane), the teddy bear he wished to life as a prepubescent, and with whom he now smokes pot, casually swears and talks about girls. As hormones rage and rites of passage emerge, these two outsiders have each others backs throughout.
Nearly ten years after the last film hit theatres, writer/director Seth McFarlane transfers the format of his hit films, to a more condensed, nine part series on Sky Showcase, so at the very least I didn't have to shell out on another streaming service to catch it. A major obstacle it must overcome, telling John Bennett's backstory as a teenager, is the absence of Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, having been such a major presence in the films. But Max Burkholder more than does him justice as his younger self, and the series holds its own against the films.
McFarlane really seems to have sensed his creation's absence in our cultural landscape, and seems to be on a kamikaze mission to create something even more outrageous and boundary crossing than his films, creating a hilariously offensive piece, loaded with enough foul language and explicit sexual talk to make even the remotely faint of heart want to stay as far away as possible. Most uncontrollable is Grimes as John's irascible, Vietnam vet dad, the pretty Whigham as his frustrated sister, and Jason Kravits in a supporting role as a teacher who can't stop blurting his frustrations about his home life out in the classroom.
Somehow, MacFarlane has managed to condense the format from his two successful films into an effective TV series, which does wear its welcome out a little toward the end, but is still a fun, wild ride up to that point. ****
It's 1993, and a teenage John Bennett (Max Burkholder) lives with his dysfunctional parents, Susan (Alanna Ubach) and Matt (Scott Grimes), older sister Blaire (Georgia Whigham), and Ted (Seth McFarlane), the teddy bear he wished to life as a prepubescent, and with whom he now smokes pot, casually swears and talks about girls. As hormones rage and rites of passage emerge, these two outsiders have each others backs throughout.
Nearly ten years after the last film hit theatres, writer/director Seth McFarlane transfers the format of his hit films, to a more condensed, nine part series on Sky Showcase, so at the very least I didn't have to shell out on another streaming service to catch it. A major obstacle it must overcome, telling John Bennett's backstory as a teenager, is the absence of Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, having been such a major presence in the films. But Max Burkholder more than does him justice as his younger self, and the series holds its own against the films.
McFarlane really seems to have sensed his creation's absence in our cultural landscape, and seems to be on a kamikaze mission to create something even more outrageous and boundary crossing than his films, creating a hilariously offensive piece, loaded with enough foul language and explicit sexual talk to make even the remotely faint of heart want to stay as far away as possible. Most uncontrollable is Grimes as John's irascible, Vietnam vet dad, the pretty Whigham as his frustrated sister, and Jason Kravits in a supporting role as a teacher who can't stop blurting his frustrations about his home life out in the classroom.
Somehow, MacFarlane has managed to condense the format from his two successful films into an effective TV series, which does wear its welcome out a little toward the end, but is still a fun, wild ride up to that point. ****