Duncanville, Fox’s latest addition to the Sunday evening animated block, is not out to reinvent the wheel. Created by Amy Poehler and The Simpsons‘ Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully, the present blends proper into the cartoon comedy scene already populated by The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy, and it does not appear to thoughts bringing us extra of the identical snickers. In reality, that is form of its factor.
Duncanville follows Duncan (voiced by Poehler), a 15-year-old who’s completely atypical and unremarkable, save for just a few wild desires, and his household is simply as primary as him, if no more so. His mother, Annie (additionally voiced by Poehler), is the quintessential nervous mom, whereas his dad, Jack (voiced by Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell), is well-meaning but additionally wrapped up in his personal pursuits, together with his bustling traditional rock assortment and his all-consuming concern of turning into his personal disappointing father. Duncan additionally has two youthful sisters, Kimberly (Riki Lindhome) and Jing (Joy Osmanski), and a handful of mates in school who assist him by way of the trials of being a youngster, so he does not even have the excellence of being lonely at residence or an outcast amongst his friends. He is only a easy boy residing in a easy household who faces easy issues, even when it does not really feel that solution to him.
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Past its rote animated household sitcom set-up, Duncanville does not trouble to go towards the grain a lot with its plotlines, both — at the very least not those from the handful of episodes screened for critics. This is not a daring exposé of the pratfalls of puberty à la Big Mouth, and you will not discover a lot of the snark and four-letter phrase utilization sewn into reveals like Household Man and F Is for Family, both. As an alternative, it is what would occur if Bob’s Burgers was constructed utterly round a much less awkward Tina Belcher. Duncan is proven coping with conditions like studying to drive a automobile and competing along with his sister over a online game match, whereas his household is consumed by much more menial duties, like clearing out the storage.
Nonetheless, there’s respectable expertise behind the scenes of Duncanville who assist to make it simply punchy sufficient to keep away from being labeled as filler (or as a Bless the Harts placeholder) because it slides into Fox’s Sunday evening lineup. You should not go into Duncanville anticipating to see one thing groundbreaking or surprising, but it surely’s nonetheless a comfy sufficient solution to tune out the bitterness of the world for half an hour or so. Duncanville is just not a present we would have liked, precisely, but it surely’s nonetheless a very innocent addition to the style that options some voices we all the time take pleasure in listening to.
Duncanville premieres Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8:30/7:30c on Fox.
TV Information Ranking: 3/5
