The Goode Family are a socially-conscience Eco-friendly clan who always want to do the right thing (in their eyes), but have troubles going about it. In the pilot we're introduced to ultra-liberal mom Helen (voiced by Nancy Carell) who tries way too hard to be PC, which leads to her wondering what to refer to black people as, hippie caring father Gerald (the great Mike Judge), their daughter Bliss (Linda Cardellini) who's frequently off-put by the actions of her parents, their adopted African son Ubuntu who's white (leading to some jokes), and the family dog, Che who's resorted to eating various neighborhood pets in order to get meat (the family wants him to be vegetarian). We also briefly meet Helen's meat-loving no nonsense dad, Charlie (Brian Doyle-Murray, great in whatever he does) whom Helen is embarrassed by.
I was waiting in anticipation of this show a good while before it actually aired, having loved "King of the Hill" and being heart-broken to see that show reach it's demise. So any new Mike Judge show was eagerly looked forward to. Was it enough to sooth the pain of the aforementioned show ending? Too early to tell really. The pilot episode was a bit too over the top and a tad rough. But it has potential, parts of this episode were pretty funny. They were able to take ot shots at both the eccentricities of the far left (the supermarket scene & interaction with the Goode's black neighbor come to mind) and the far right (the purity rings & abstinence dance). South Park satired much of this in the past & handled it in a much better way, true. But I'm more than willing to give the Goode Family a bit more time to find it's way. I owe it to Mike Judge if nothing else.
One last thing, I want to see much more of the character of Helen's father on later episodes. Brian Doyle-Murray is great.
My Grade: B
I was waiting in anticipation of this show a good while before it actually aired, having loved "King of the Hill" and being heart-broken to see that show reach it's demise. So any new Mike Judge show was eagerly looked forward to. Was it enough to sooth the pain of the aforementioned show ending? Too early to tell really. The pilot episode was a bit too over the top and a tad rough. But it has potential, parts of this episode were pretty funny. They were able to take ot shots at both the eccentricities of the far left (the supermarket scene & interaction with the Goode's black neighbor come to mind) and the far right (the purity rings & abstinence dance). South Park satired much of this in the past & handled it in a much better way, true. But I'm more than willing to give the Goode Family a bit more time to find it's way. I owe it to Mike Judge if nothing else.
One last thing, I want to see much more of the character of Helen's father on later episodes. Brian Doyle-Murray is great.
My Grade: B
