'Duncanville' Season 1 Episode 4: Grounded aesthetics is thrown out with bizarre annual festival 'Witch Day'
Spoiler alert for 'Witch Day' — Episode 4 of Season 1 of 'Duncanville'
'Duncanville' has, up to this point, walked a fine line between utter absurdity and the grounded aesthetic of a small-town American family. However, in Episode 4, the grounded aesthetic is thrown right out the window, to be burned at the stake like the paper mache witch containing all of the town's secrets.
One can't forget the most entertaining staple of small towns in America — the unique, annual festival celebrating a bizarre tradition that is the town's pride and joy. Witch Day certainly takes the prize home for one of the stranger days to be featured on television, even for an animated series.
The residents of Duncan's hometown apparently completely missed the lesson of the Salem witch trials, and are instead using the day to vilify witches and the darkness inside people, burning them all at the stake with postcards of all their dark secrets. It's a Puritan holdover with Ferris Wheels and carnival rides! What could be more fun?
The episode is a definite step up in what 'Duncanville' can be, taking full advantage of its cartoonishness. It runs the risk of losing what makes it unique in its groundedness, but it's certainly entertaining. There's a lot of fun to be had with an entire town embracing just how silly it can get, and everyone's joining in. We find out one of the Harris' neighbours was a witch with award-winning chilli, who was literally raising her very own Hansel and Gretel.
Duncan (Amy Poehler) is celebrated as the Town Virgin, and Jing (Joy Osmanski) is put on a leash and made to sniff out truffles for her parents' chilli.
Amidst it all is the one voice of reason trying to point out that witches weren't, in fact, real, and just poor falsely-accused women, but nobody's ready to listen to Mia (Rashida Jones) and that somehow just makes the strangeness of 'Witch Day' all the funnier. Small town folk really dig their heels in when it comes to their unique traditions, and by the end of the episode, even Mia has to admit — Witch Day is a lot of fun.
The strangest episode answers the question of whether or not absurdity is going to intersect with the central plot. It absolutely will, and the show can only get sillier from here on out. Like Witch Day, it may be bizarre, but it's certainly a lot of fun.
The next episode of 'Duncanville' airs on March 15, on FOX.