Review: The Goode Family

Wednesday, May 27, "The Goode Family" debuted. The animated sitcom is powered by Mike Judge (along with two others whose names are new to me), creator of "Beavis & Butthead" and "King of the Hill". The Goode's are environmentalists who struggle to meet the PC demands of being responsible residents of the planet. For example, they actually ask themselves, "What would Al Gore do?"

Judge's previous work, this subject, and the previews gave me hope for a laugh. However, the first episode was a tremendous disappointment. While I did not expect the show to go so far as to embrace all of my values, I was looking forward to seeing some good-natured fun being poked at "greenies". The debut did have some fun by honestly pointing out the irrationality of some Liberal ideas, but also encouraged sympathy for environmentalists' sincerity. In stark contrast to such gentle treatment, the culmination of the episode's plot was a grotesque and flagrantly dishonest mockery of Christians and abstinence in the form of accusations of overt incestuous tendencies. I felt ambushed.

The Goode matriarch has said about Christian abstinence proponents, "They're not like us", making reference to their cross pendants and flag pins. After seeing Christian fathers and daughters participating in a mock wedding to celebrate abstinence (I know, it's weird and thoroughly divorced from reality), the Goode's daughter, who is struggling against the PC notion that everyone must have sex, says, "Mom was right, they're not like us". If those who assert themselves as higher than animals by exercising their uniquely human quality of self-control were the sexual perverts (and up were down and east were west) as The Goode Family would have viewers believe, then who would disagree?

But, "They", are only grossly misrepresented here. I'm careful not to judge a series by only its first episode, but so far, we have a giant, poisonous Politically Correct pill, lubricated with humor for easy swallowing.

It is interesting that a show about a 'green' family would attack God; there is no obvious opposition here. But perhaps, we see in this attack an acknowledgement, however inadvertent it may be, of the more subtle reality that environmentalism is indeed a religion. This introduction may also reveal that the show will not critique PC behavior as advertised, but rather support it just like nearly everything else from La La Land.