'Duncanville' Episode 3: With enough random jokes to make it fun, just how far will the show's absurdity go?
Spoiler alert for 'Duncanville' Season 1 Episode 3 'Undacuva Mutha'
Mile-a-minute comedy in an animated series is a fairly commonplace thing. The medium allows and calls for a lot more absurdity to be crammed into a 24-minute episode.
The small-town family sitcom animated series format especially popular right now, made popular by 'The Simpsons', then revived with completely over-the-top series like 'Family Guy', 'South Park' and 'Bob's Burgers' to name a few. What separates them, besides the writing, is how absurd the series is willing to go.
Shows like 'Family Guy', for instance, made random absurdity a highlight early on in the series — and that became a big problem rather quickly. A show that relies on the shock value of its randomness is soon going to find itself struggling to outdo itself episode after episode.
Even in an animated series, escalation can only go so far. On the other end of the spectrum, you have shows like 'Bob's Burgers', that has its sillier moments, but finds its strength in its writing with believable characters in a much more grounded setting.
'Duncanville' would appear to be the latter, focusing on the lives and relationships of the average American small-town family. The show, while maintaining its humor, has a lot of scenes of people who are more or less just talking about very normal situations.
The show's art and the writing, both sell that feeling very well — which is what makes its cartoonish moments all the more surprising.
Talking bees, murderers in the backseat, sniggering police dogs and a divorce that falls into place out of sheer coincidence are very Simpsons-esque moments that, interestingly enough, never strongly affect the main storyline. They will interact with the show's protagonists, but tangentially at best.
'Duncanville' appears to be a show that's dedicated to keeping to a grounded storyline, but one that's comfortable throwing in random, absurd jokes if they don't get in the way. It makes for a fun, relaxing series, which is just what you want out of an animated series you can watch with the family.
The next episode of 'Duncanville' releases on March 8 on FOX.