Brotha Andrew is back to gab on the latest batch of crazy, radical, bummer and outta sight episodes of F is for Family. Season Three to be exact.
This season - like the second - continued the plotlines that just continue on. After ending where things could be a fresh new start with smiles, lollipops and rainbows for the Murphy family and their friends, of course life dealt them the brutal slap in the face known as reality.
- Frank is back at work at Mohican Airways, and has been promoted to luggage manager. But things come to a boil when coworker and best friend Rosie quits after he isn't promoted, and runs for city alderman.
- Sue is now pregnant with the family's fourth child, and - after quitting Plasti-Ware after the owner steals her brilliant salad spinner invention - tries her hand at entrepreneurship by starting up her own company with friend and fellow quitter Vivian.
- Kevin is now in summer school and, after dropping his asshole acquaintances like ants on an apple, gets a new group of friends that are just as bad but are better in most regards.
- Bill is still the devil's plaything, seeing even more traumatizing things any child could get PTSD from just one, and now has a "girlfriend" (his bully's somehow even more twisted sister) treating him like her bitch.
- Maureen is ... doing stuff. I couldn't care less. I remember her getting on a clown show and actually close to winning a ring toss game, but the clown host fucked it up to keep the gifts for himself. (I actually felt sorry for her).
- Major is still around, humping anything and everything in sight.
Speaking on "major", the family's neighbors and friends have gone through changes as well.
-Sue's friend Ginny and her closeted gay husband Greg have finally divorced. While Greg is now living it up as an openly gay man (which made me extremely happy for him), Ginny is still a clingy, shallow, pathetic, questionable, self-absorbed excuse of a woman throwing herself at anyone with a pulse - including Otto Holtenwasser. Poor sweetheart.
-Otto, speaking of, is still our favorite sweetie of a Holocaust survivor, but has an edge to him.
- Bill's bestie Phillip has a diary that shows some... horrifying thoughts to people he doesn't like as a way to cope.
- Frank's co-workers are still doing their jobs at Mohican Airways.
-- But after being disrespected and passed over for a promotion, Rosie quits the company to tun for city alderman.
-- Bob Pogo has repented and is now on good terms with Frank and the other workers. I didn't remember much from him this season besides failing to save Bill in the finale.
-- Red and Carl are still shitty luggage carriers. And are still going on about Fuck School (their porno story).
-- After the deaths of the Dunbartons -- greedy asshole owner Roger and insane, brain-dead racist nephew Scoop, the former's wife Brandy takes the mantle as company owner. She was forgettable.
New characters:
- Chet Stevenson: He's a Vietnam vet who moves into town with his wife...
- Nguyen-Nguyen, Vietnam survivor whom marries Chet after the war.
- Bridget Fitzsimmons, little sister of Bill's bully Jimmy whom has a crush on and starts a relationship with the latter.
- Anthony Bonfiglio, baby brother of Bill's best friend Phillip. He's retarded. (What?? It was an acceptable word on TV back then).
- Jeffery Dahmer, neighborhood little asshole.
And now, what did I think of this season?
It was great... but I didn't love it. It's pretty much more depressing and somewhat repetitive - even for this show. While there was some hilarious jokes and compelling realistic drama (this show's hallmarks), there were some jokes and moments I didn't like.
- Bill still walking into vile people doing vile things: this season, we have the cray cat lady very hairy cunt and a half-naked hobo pissing in a payphone booth. Every time this happens makes me scream inside and out. That same music that pops up every times this happens makes my teeth hurt too.
- Bill still an unwilling victim of Murphy's Law.
- Anthony's little "YOU KNOW WHAT?" act (after a while).
- Vic is a drug addict.
No really, that's it. I thought we'd get more of a serious side of Vic after losing his radio manger job and kicking out his bust-it-wide-open whore of a girlfriend who had sex with Kevin. We'd see him fall in a more vulnerable state as he drops the habit and get his life back on track and get a job just as great and well-paid. And I honestly thought it was funny at first, but... All we get from Vic throughout is "Yeah, I love drugs! I still feel good! I can stop any time I want!" He never does. Wasted. Just (like him) Wasted.
- Goomer is still creepy as fuck
Frank's friend & nextdoor neighbor - and grade A snoop, Goomer took his nosiness and oddities to the next level here when, at one point, he pretends to be Frank. By wearing the outfit, he draws in the receding hairstyle and wore the glasses. And the background music at the start at the moment really set in motion this disgusting blight. It got funny as it goes on, and got even funnier when his wife Evelyn catches him with his pants down (not literally, but after his (Frank's) pants were down on the can), when he openly lies to her about the situation saying Frank is stealing from him.
- Ginny. That is all.
She continues to be everything we hate about her since her debut, but now is even worse. After divorcing Greg, she hops from poor guy to pitied guy she can get her slimy hands on, and her very presence raises the hairs on every appendage of the other characters. The only good thing about her is that she finally let Greg go from her whiny, abusive clutches and . But she gets worse when she jumps straight to Otto and basically rapes him. Even he hates her. And when Otto isn't on good terms with someone, you know they're fucked. King size.
- Bridget. She makes Megan Parker look like Mabel Pines (selfish tendencies aside).
- Frank being more of an inattentive taint.
Moments include:
- Ignoring Kevin when he wanted to conquer his fear of the motel pool he nearly drowned in.
- Not listening to Sue about who Chet really is (until it's too late).
- Avoiding Bill while the latter suffers through his latest form of punishment by the universe in the form of Bridget.
- The fight with Sue while she was heavily pregnant.
I just hope season four tones down the borderline morose undertones of this season, and presents the continuing story and plot-lines in a less darker way. I appreciate the (slightly off in spots) realism and linear development along with the proudly absurd jokes about a bygone era in American history that some many people reminisce while cheerfully glossing over the brutal shit back then that's really not much removed from what's happening today (just read the comments under random TV commercial videos on YouTube for just that). If not, I hope season five will be the last. That's how much I feel about season three (tone-wise at least).
And now, some moments I had more than a feeling about:
- Bill finally calling out his old man and old woman for all the abuse and neglect they threw upon him throughout. While in a life-or-death situation in the city river - with only a stuck shopping cart keeping him afloat. Seeing him finally grow a spine and speak his mind raw and genuine to anyone - after all the crap - is a very strong moment of catharsis. (Also, Maureen is good in my book for saving him.)
- Frank showing more glimpses of genuine emotion in some spots.
- Kevin facing his fear of swimming pool. In season 1, it's revealed that Kevin nearly drowned in a motel pool. This would more than probably explains his problems in school, which no doubt sent him to summer school. (Un)surprisingly, he nearly drowned again, but seeing him mature a bit and face his fears for closure is a very mature development and .
- Sue's determination to create her own kitchen appliance (even if if fails for her and Vivian pulls out of the partnership later on after a meeting).
-Rosie runny for local office as city alderman. It's great to see Rosie have more airtime and especially his own storyline, as he's one of my favorite characters. Sucks he lost but his
Bridget. While I didn't like the character as yet another example of Bill's poor showing in life, her story was... an interesting one (in a good way). Watching her be young, 70s example of a Meghan Trainor song was unsettlingly entertaining and delivered in its purpose in making us feel much more sorry for Bill. and most of her funny lines were admittedly very funny. I raged when she didn't get her comeuppance for her actions, I hope she will next season.
Debi Derryberry get a lot of mileage for her several roles on the show, but this role as Bridget (coupled with the writing) has to be her scariest of all that I've watched in my lifetime. And for that, I'll give her major props.
- The story of Chet and Nguyen-Nguyen.
Stevenson is a vet fighter pilot whom went to Vietnam, and Nguyen-Nguyen is his wife from the country. They're happy; Chet's an awesome, upstanding guy and Nguyen-Nguyen's a sweet, shy, wise, lovely lady. Nguyen-Nguyen a sweet and introspective confidant to Sue, and Chet was seen as a great friend to Frank (but other characters (like Sue) saw a monster in him; it's only too late where Frank discover's Chet's true colors when he goes off the deep end). But under the surface is a very unhappy (and then, very scary) union. Chet is revealed to be a petty, unhinged, volatile, abhorrent "person" who really snapped in Nam - and snapped again later, and Nguyen-Nguyen his prisoner who lost her family and village during the war - by Chet. From that end, Nguyen-Nguyen suffers mightily from her "husband's" abuse and towards the end (notified by her improving English) finally snaps and returns the favor by poisoning Chet, leaving him to possibly Chet-- uhh, die in the hospital. Nguyen-Nguyen is taken to jail, where we leave her
-- This storyline is incredible.
At first we meet a new interracial couple who seem happy, loving and all smiles; but as it progressed, it gets more and more upsetting, heartwrenching and nightmarish. As said earlier, Chet is a Vietnam pilot who went insane en route back to the States, and took out much of his (physical and emotional) rage on his immigrant/prisoner wife. And at first, Nguyen-Nguyen is a shy, quiet, sweet woman who learns English from watching our then-new TV shows. But later on, we learn she's not to be fucked with, and Chet learns the hard way.
Vince Vaughn (who is one of the show's EPs btw) give a phenomenal and shockingly genuine performance as Chet (especially during the latter half), which is a huge departure from his other characters with laid-back, devil-may-care slacker attitudes and a hidden heart of gold. Seeing him (or rather, hearing his voice) go from the usual to a raging, unhinged PTSD-suffering maniac under the surface was truly unexpected and the payoff was near-perfection.
Also worth a shining light is Eileen Fogarty as Nguyen-Nguyen. Her performance as Vietnamese woman fitting in in a new country with her homegrown "hero" husband and then suffering brutally under the shadow of the same man who helped kill her family, destroy her village and treat her even worse in her new home is both super hilarious and deeply harrowing -- in the same episode or sometimes even in the same scene. When Nguyen-Nguyen reveals her pain to Sue, it'll tug at the heartstrings and shed a few tears, and even more so during her last appearance when she reveals her revenge on Chet to Sue. You'll just want to give her a hug and all the love and care she truly deserves.
All in all, I thought the season was great, but it'll be a while before I'll give it a rewatch. The tone was way more dark and dreary than I was used to from this show, and left a much more bitter taste in my mouth. That's not to say the laughs weren't there, and there were mile a minute. Hopefully season 4 will IMO bring the series back on track to be an equally hilarious and poignant semi-autobiographical animated series based on a balding comedian who goddamn hates his father. Won't that be neato.
That's my review of F is for Family season three. And this has been Toony Tuesday. See you all next time for... whatever else. I'm Andrew and "may the good toons be yours!"
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