“THE GOODE FAMILY” – BRILLIANT SATIRE (SO FAR)
[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]
A street racing, power-sliding Prius (covered of course with the obligatory radical left-wing bumper stickers)?
A vegan dog named “Che” who stalks the neighborhood on the Q.T. for fresh meat?
An adopted (South) African-American sixteen-year-old Caucasian decked out in African Nationalist garb that drives like Elwood Blues, scarfs plate-fulls of odd vegan cuisine, and apparently has a secret bent toward auto mechanics?
These were just a few of the gems awaiting viewers who took a chance on ABC-TV’s new animated series, “The Goode Family.” (9:00 p.m. E.D.T. Wednesdays)
Veteran satirical animators Mike Judge, John Altshuler, and Dave Krinsky took a blow-torch to many of the pretentious, hypocritical secular progressive tropes of modern holier-than-thou, politically-correct “Green” liberalism in the initial episode of “The Goode Family.”
The show’s premise is summarized as “A family obsessed with doing the ‘right’ thing environmentally, politically and socially.” Or better yet, in one of the throwaway phrases of the first episode: “WWAGD – What Would Al Gore Do.”
Truth With Speedzzter wonders how such an edgy program made it through the gauntlet of New York/Southern California political correctness in the humorless “Age of Obama” to air on a major television network.
While some allege that Judge & Co have plagiarized the BBC sitcom “The Good Life,” others will see an updated, if not nitromethane-fueled tweaking of the formula of the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties.” Still others will hear echos of the early years of “All in the Family,” albeit with most of the extremist pretensions from the radical left of the spectrum. However, unlike those politicized American satires, the intergenerational conflicts have thus far been more muted.
What “The Goode Family” did in its first episode was to broadside the conceits of secular progressivism and radical environmentalism in a way that will resonate with many ordinary Americans. Just as Rush Limbaugh sometimes claims that his success comes from saying what his listeners are already thinking, “The Goode Family” gives animated voice to some of our deeply held hunches about those who seek to impose their extreme, restrictive "green" value system on the community at large.
That’s not to say that “The Goode Family” has a perfect pitch. After all, the Prius DID apparently win the street race, which is highly improbable at best.
Moreover, Judge & Co’s handling of Church-related themes appeared inconsistent and lacked the precision of the show’s skewers of left-wing topics. The religious portions of the show oddly oscillated between a somewhat secularized fundamentalism (the deceptive “Safe Sex” abstinence booth at the Community College sex fair) and a mainline denominational approach (the father-daughter “Purity Dance”) which seemed to fit neither niche of modern Christianity particularly well.
However, the closed-mindedness, miss-perceptions and overreactions of the Goode parents and daughter Bliss Goode tracked accurately with how secular progressives fear and fail to understand or appreciate the value and intellectual richness of Christianity. Of course, the show presented a generic, inoffensive “Church” mostly stripped of Jesus Christ (architectural features, a “dog-collar” clad minister, and a few cross pendants were the only allusions to the actual “meat” of Christianity). The lack of precision evidenced a basic unfamiliarity with the intricacies of the subject matter.
By far, the most entertaining portions (other than the improbable driving antics of a newly-minted teen driver in a hybrid-electric automobile and a forced-vegan dog that cheats on his diet like a rabid pit bull) involved the send-up of “green” commerce. Judge & Co. did not miss a beat here, from lampooning the ridiculous cost add-ons for organic produce, “sustainability,” and "economic justice," to ripping the hypocrisy of the tedious reuseable shopping bag movement.
Given that Mr. Goode is a community college administrator, hopefully the pretensions and hypocrisy of academia will be roasted in future episodes. As it was, “The Goode Family” left a lot on the table in this department.
At the heart of “The Goode Family,” however is an ideological vacuity.
One reviewer called the show’s world view “pragmatic.” Undoubtedly, in its attempt to blend scorching satire with a venire of respectfulness, the show will track down a secular majoritiarian path. But the emptiness at the center and the inability of the Goodes to assemble their jumble of causes and prejudices into a coherent world view – as suggested by their struggle to determine the “right” thing, and their obsession with environmentalism and symbolic, secularized “social justice,” while mostly neglecting issues of personal piety under prevailing 1960s libertarian mores – is emblematic of the cold, vacant, rotten heart of secular progressivism.
The false “gods” of secular progressivism are collective, redistributive action masking private rebellions (the "morality of consent”) and prejudices, separated by a thin, inconsistent venire of selective non-judgmentalism and fealty to “acceptable” forms of “diversity.” Secular progressivism is focused almost exclusively on external appearances and mostly neglects the inner man and the soul.
Thus, a icy river of empty sadness, self-isolation, and existential futility underpins the all of the surface satire. Whether this reflects the actual world view of Judge & Co is unknown. But to some degree it is inherent in an accurate depiction of post-modern liberal extremism.
The inaugural episode of “The Goode Family” was brilliant satire. It was a worthy effort at lampooning the radical left and the bi-coastal, elite, quasi-intellectual tropes of this age. Only time will tell whether it will gain sufficient traction in the shallow network marketplace and whether the episodic quality will remain “Goode.”
But perhaps more importantly, will “The Goode Family” manage to escape the P.C. buzzsaw that will undoubtedly be aimed at it from the humorless secular progressives that the show relentlessly lampoons? Truth With Speedzzter is skeptical of that.
[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]
A street racing, power-sliding Prius (covered of course with the obligatory radical left-wing bumper stickers)?
A vegan dog named “Che” who stalks the neighborhood on the Q.T. for fresh meat?
An adopted (South) African-American sixteen-year-old Caucasian decked out in African Nationalist garb that drives like Elwood Blues, scarfs plate-fulls of odd vegan cuisine, and apparently has a secret bent toward auto mechanics?
These were just a few of the gems awaiting viewers who took a chance on ABC-TV’s new animated series, “The Goode Family.” (9:00 p.m. E.D.T. Wednesdays)
Veteran satirical animators Mike Judge, John Altshuler, and Dave Krinsky took a blow-torch to many of the pretentious, hypocritical secular progressive tropes of modern holier-than-thou, politically-correct “Green” liberalism in the initial episode of “The Goode Family.”
The show’s premise is summarized as “A family obsessed with doing the ‘right’ thing environmentally, politically and socially.” Or better yet, in one of the throwaway phrases of the first episode: “WWAGD – What Would Al Gore Do.”
Truth With Speedzzter wonders how such an edgy program made it through the gauntlet of New York/Southern California political correctness in the humorless “Age of Obama” to air on a major television network.
While some allege that Judge & Co have plagiarized the BBC sitcom “The Good Life,” others will see an updated, if not nitromethane-fueled tweaking of the formula of the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties.” Still others will hear echos of the early years of “All in the Family,” albeit with most of the extremist pretensions from the radical left of the spectrum. However, unlike those politicized American satires, the intergenerational conflicts have thus far been more muted.
What “The Goode Family” did in its first episode was to broadside the conceits of secular progressivism and radical environmentalism in a way that will resonate with many ordinary Americans. Just as Rush Limbaugh sometimes claims that his success comes from saying what his listeners are already thinking, “The Goode Family” gives animated voice to some of our deeply held hunches about those who seek to impose their extreme, restrictive "green" value system on the community at large.
That’s not to say that “The Goode Family” has a perfect pitch. After all, the Prius DID apparently win the street race, which is highly improbable at best.
Moreover, Judge & Co’s handling of Church-related themes appeared inconsistent and lacked the precision of the show’s skewers of left-wing topics. The religious portions of the show oddly oscillated between a somewhat secularized fundamentalism (the deceptive “Safe Sex” abstinence booth at the Community College sex fair) and a mainline denominational approach (the father-daughter “Purity Dance”) which seemed to fit neither niche of modern Christianity particularly well.
However, the closed-mindedness, miss-perceptions and overreactions of the Goode parents and daughter Bliss Goode tracked accurately with how secular progressives fear and fail to understand or appreciate the value and intellectual richness of Christianity. Of course, the show presented a generic, inoffensive “Church” mostly stripped of Jesus Christ (architectural features, a “dog-collar” clad minister, and a few cross pendants were the only allusions to the actual “meat” of Christianity). The lack of precision evidenced a basic unfamiliarity with the intricacies of the subject matter.
By far, the most entertaining portions (other than the improbable driving antics of a newly-minted teen driver in a hybrid-electric automobile and a forced-vegan dog that cheats on his diet like a rabid pit bull) involved the send-up of “green” commerce. Judge & Co. did not miss a beat here, from lampooning the ridiculous cost add-ons for organic produce, “sustainability,” and "economic justice," to ripping the hypocrisy of the tedious reuseable shopping bag movement.
Given that Mr. Goode is a community college administrator, hopefully the pretensions and hypocrisy of academia will be roasted in future episodes. As it was, “The Goode Family” left a lot on the table in this department.
At the heart of “The Goode Family,” however is an ideological vacuity.
One reviewer called the show’s world view “pragmatic.” Undoubtedly, in its attempt to blend scorching satire with a venire of respectfulness, the show will track down a secular majoritiarian path. But the emptiness at the center and the inability of the Goodes to assemble their jumble of causes and prejudices into a coherent world view – as suggested by their struggle to determine the “right” thing, and their obsession with environmentalism and symbolic, secularized “social justice,” while mostly neglecting issues of personal piety under prevailing 1960s libertarian mores – is emblematic of the cold, vacant, rotten heart of secular progressivism.
The false “gods” of secular progressivism are collective, redistributive action masking private rebellions (the "morality of consent”) and prejudices, separated by a thin, inconsistent venire of selective non-judgmentalism and fealty to “acceptable” forms of “diversity.” Secular progressivism is focused almost exclusively on external appearances and mostly neglects the inner man and the soul.
Thus, a icy river of empty sadness, self-isolation, and existential futility underpins the all of the surface satire. Whether this reflects the actual world view of Judge & Co is unknown. But to some degree it is inherent in an accurate depiction of post-modern liberal extremism.
The inaugural episode of “The Goode Family” was brilliant satire. It was a worthy effort at lampooning the radical left and the bi-coastal, elite, quasi-intellectual tropes of this age. Only time will tell whether it will gain sufficient traction in the shallow network marketplace and whether the episodic quality will remain “Goode.”
But perhaps more importantly, will “The Goode Family” manage to escape the P.C. buzzsaw that will undoubtedly be aimed at it from the humorless secular progressives that the show relentlessly lampoons? Truth With Speedzzter is skeptical of that.
Labels: ABC-TV, Christianity, environmentalism, Mike Judge, morality of consent, Prius, secular progressivism, Street Racing, The Goode Family, Vegan
posted by Editor at 08:20
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