11/8/13
View Logs: Dads S1 Episode 3
Episode Title: Clean on MeI'm going to break character for this one. I didn't think I'd ever have to do it ever. After all despite my harsh criticisms I am doing this to have fun and perhaps blow off some critical steam after a few shows. But this episode... no... this episode is where we get serious because the terribleness of it is so overwhelming that I have to preface my own personal life to this show... Don't worry, I know reviewers shouldn't ramble about themselves I'll keep this short :P
I am a graduate student at the moment. I'm getting my Masters in video game production (it's not as fun as it sounds trust me) and while I've never actually worked in the industry yet I've met a lot of pros who have and have taken a peek inside studios such as EA. My undergrad was in Film, specifically screenwriting. It's where I found my love for TV. I have a large range of education when it comes to the storytelling arts (not... necessarily including games... depending on your perspective on whether games are a storytelling medium). I've also taken a lot of theory classes relating to my field as well.
This sounds like I'm boasting. I'm not. My education background is really not that big of a deal and I'm one of a million liberal arts educated lowlifes out there blogging instead of looking for a job. But, atleast it can be a some kind of indicator that I'm coming from an educated opinion that can talk about this show from multiple perspectives and I'm not just some random couch potato who decided to play critic one day.
Most of you out there already know this show is horribly written. I've detailed how the show currently barely has a storyline in the pilot's view log. Hell, this show barely has jokes. You can bash Family Guy for going off weird tangents that detract from the story but atleast Family Guy knows how to set up and pay off jokes (usually... :P). I am 2 minutes into episode 3 and I already had to stop the video... Let me recap what happened that almost offended me.
Giovanni Ribisi's Dad comes into the studio and describes his morning. There's atleast a joke here. I personally found it lame because I thought it was an obvious joke but eh, atleast it's setup and paid off (I can't believe I'm pointing the absolute minimum as a positive here...) Then he goes into another joke and it's less funny because I have no idea what it's really referencing... He said
"When I was a kid when you had diarrhea you got slapped." *audience laughing* "And you learned real quick" *audience laughing*
First of all, who are these people in the audience laughing?... Seriously... Second of all, why is that a joke? Is it because traditional old world parents are strict? Is that a thing in America? Where... it was looked down upon to have diarrhea?... You could make so many (albeit insensitive but hey, it's the writers of Family Guy) jokes about maybe old world homophobia... or old world machismo... whatever. Diarrhea? Why would you get slapped for having Diarrhea?... And what is there to "learn" from being punished for having diarrhea?...
Anyways whatever. This is, atleast structurally, a joke. Kinda. Now here's the part that ruined my mind:
*Phone Call*
Brenda Song, while in the middle of something, picks up and says "One of our customers is having trouble flying his dragon"
Seth Green: "What game?"
Brenda Song: "Dragon Fly"
*audience laughing* (ummm... ok...)
Giovanni Ribisi: "Troubleshoot it"
Brenda Song: "Sure... I'm not doing anything..."
*audience laughing* (easiest audience in the world oh my God...)
Brenda Song: "Ok it's Down, X, Left, Left, Y, Left, Start, Trigger, Right, Right and D! THANKS FOR PLAYING!"
*audience laughing* (THESE... PEOPLE... ARE DELIRIOUS!)
Picard?... Do the honors for me?
This is so wrong on multiple perspectives. First of all, we're back to "let's use non-jokes as jokes" land... which, maddeningly enough, apparently people are laughing at in the show. Secondly... WHAT?! "Down, X, Left, Left, Y, Left, Start, Trigger, Right, Right, Up, Up and B"? Are you sure you didn't just give the customer a cheat code Brenda? Also, why would this EVER be the controls to activate ANYTHING in a game?
And what is "trigger"? You understand that consoles have MULTIPLE triggers right? Did the writer just google "console controls" then think "DUHHH I KNOW, LET ME JUST GRAB THESE TERMINOLOGIES AT RANDOM DUUHHHH THE AUDIENCE ARE TOO STUPID TO CATCH THAT"
Well I fucking caught it buddy.
Also, this is not what a video game studio looks like or even remotely runs like. Even if it's indie. Yeah yeah yeah I know "tv isn't suppose to be reality". Well there's a line with that and Dads is not even a surrealist show. In fact, if anything, it's a show that's meant to lampoon real life situations like Modern Family or The Office. Sure Modern Family and The Office exaggerates real life situations to the point where it's "unrealistic". But Dads isn't "unrealistically exaggerated". It's just flat out wrong. There's a subtle but very important difference.
I'm done. The rest of the episode isn't even worth talking about. Honestly if it wasn't for the fact that I've dedicated myself to doing a view log for Dads I would have deleted this from my TiVo after that "video game joke". Also, I'd like to say that the Latino maid (I don't know what country she's actually from I don't think the show bothered to specify a country because that'll actually take research...) is basically Consuela from Family Guy... which makes me just want to watch Family Guy... and the most recent Family Guy hasn't even been that great... I hope this show gets cancelled and cancelled quickly...
Anyways, I'll let the CritBox handle the rest of the show ;)
