The Real O'Neals impressions

[mr3urious]

Watching the first two episodes last night, I actually kind of liked this show, but I don't see how its concept of a "perfect" religious family who all hide dirty secrets would carry itself as a TV show. Unlike the other ABC sitcoms on today like Fresh Off the Boat and The Goldbergs, the O'Neals are dysfunctional and have hang-ups they need to overcome, and when they do function a little and overcome those hang-ups, what level can the writers take it from there? It's just like what went down with Back in the Game: you have this loser baseball team constantly losing ad nauseam, but having them win too early gives you no reason to keep watching, and the result was a swift cancellation with 3 of its 13 episodes dumped online.

I will say, I do like the two sons, as the former isn't a camp gay stereotype (and has a wild imagination!) and the latter isn't just another dumb jock -- he has a fairly large vocabulary, for one. It's the mother who has the least personality, as she really feels like Beverly Goldberg Lite to me. But it's still 2 episodes in, so we could see some more character development later on.

All in all, I wouldn't go out of my way to watching O'Neals, but I'll stick around for a little longer to see how it plays out. The only thing I don't want is for it to get renewed over the muppets.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

We have to pray this thing bombs ratings-wise so that The Muppets stay on the air.

 

[Drtooth]

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I don't like it nearly as much as Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, or Goldbergs. It's certainly not the worst sitcom ABC has put on the Tues/Wed night comedy slots, but I'm mixed if I'll watch it regularly. I mean, other than the fact it's perfectly between FOTB and SHIELD.

This could very well be the same case of "Back in the Game" or "Super Fun Night" and have worked better as a movie than a sitcom. How much mileage can they get out of the concept when the divorce and gay son revelations are there in the first episode? And can this be a case of "American Dad" and can the parents rise up beyond their conservative one note-ness to become three dimensional, sympathetic characters? Will it take a sympathetic backstory to make the parental characters lovable, like Stan Smith?

That said, if this gets renewed over The Muppets I'd be a little annoyed, but I'm not going to blame the show for it. ABC did their darndest to get audiences to watch Muppets, but if it didn't take, it's not ABC or Disney's fault if audiences don't want it. Other than the lack of promotion the last 2 weeks, it's not like they were trying to torpedo the show. Personally, I'd rather this show get a Friday renewal and have them can that thing that turns the lovable Tim Allen into a complete d-bag. Dagnabbit, I love Buzz Lightyear, don't make me prefer Patrick Warburton even more.

OH. Anyone else catch the cameo by Scott Menville (Teen Titans Robin) as the punk in the back of the cop car? I'd love to see him as a semi-recurring character, much like Greg Cipes has a semi-recurring role in The Middle. That's, like, 2 Titans right there.

 

[minor muppetz]

I haven't watched this show yet. I've seen the promos constantly (it seems at least one always plays when I watch The Muppets on ABC.go.com), and I can't decide if I really want to watch this or not.

I just saw that the first two episodes are online (I assume you can watch without signing in or something), I might have to at least give those episodes a chance.

 

[Drtooth]

That said, I loved the hypocrisy of the mother forcing the youngest son into premarital relations because it's a smaller sin than being gay. At least there was good story potential there. I just hope if this show last long enough (without harming the Muppets chance of being renewed if possible), we get some nice backstory into why these values were driven into the mother so hard.

Seems like the second episode went for Family Guy-esque cutscenes. Don't know if I like that or not.

 

[Muppet Master]

We have to pray this thing bombs ratings-wise so that The Muppets stay on the air.

It didn't do very well on premiere, 1.8 with mass promotion and TG as a leadin and it's going to go much lower on Tuesdays, it's possible The Muppets gets renewed as winter filler.

 

[Muppet Master]

Honestly, I didn't like this show, I liked Fresh off the Boat, but this tried too hard to rehash the rest of the ABC comedies with families, and I didn't really like it, not going to watch it on Tuesdays, though that might be more, because of my anger of it replacing The Muppets, but even then I didn't think it was a good show.

 

[Drtooth]

Honestly, I didn't like this show, I liked Fresh off the Boat, but this tried too hard to rehash the rest of the ABC comedies with families

That's my biggest problem with the show. If The Muppets was late to the party with their The Office style series, then RON was just another in a long line of "dysfunctional family narrated by one of the main characters." But to be fair, that's been solid since Malcolm in the Middle. While it's hard to explain without getting deep into it, it's like... when there's a lot of movies in the same genre (say, superhero comic book) and while they're somewhat alike, you don't really notice much or mind. Then that one project comes out and regardless of it being good or bad, it manages to point out there's too many like those just by existing.

Of course, you all know my rich hatred of the 2000 era According to Jim/8 Simple Rules/My Wife and Kids/Hope and Faith ABC family sitcoms. They followed strict formula and frankly weren't very good. I did somehow like George Lopez, but it worked best when it was just between George and his mother. I give My Wife and Kids credit for being one of the two not white shows on at the time, but...seriously... Daymon Wayans was a trillion times funnier in "In Living Color" when they were doing bold things. Here, he was serviceable in a mediocre sitcom (which, sadly, was one of the better ones). I'd take an over-influx of The Middle wannabes than those any day.

It's just like what went down with Back in the Game: you have this loser baseball team constantly losing ad nauseam, but having them win too early gives you no reason to keep watching, and the result was a swift cancellation with 3 of its 13 episodes dumped online.

I realized what my real problem with that show was. It was tonally too similar to another short lived sitcom I just can't remember the name of. Something about a down on his luck guy having to take over his father's handyman business and the father was a lovable grouch played by J.K. Simmons. I think some of the writers from the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon wrote for it. But Back in the Game was the same tone with the same cantankerous old guy, and that turned me off because they cancelled that show to put on a similar one, only gender flipped in the main role. And very much chick flicky type tropes tossed in too.

As for the concept of the show, that was it's problem. They either start winning and they stop being the underdogs, or they continue to lose and come off as more pathetic than relatable. The chick flick-esque premise of a single woman trying to make it and find love also had a large slash against it.

 

[mr3urious]

That's my biggest problem with the show. If The Muppets was late to the party with their The Office style series, then RON was just another in a long line of "dysfunctional family narrated by one of the main characters."

Though with FotB, they stopped with the narration after the 2nd season, mainly because Eddie Huang reduced his involvement with the series.

 

[Drtooth]

And the show is better for it, anyway. I like Goldberg's narration mainly because the show's supposed to be a time capsule and the more obvious that it's Patton Oswalt... obviously you can spin that to say Nom-Nom is narrating the events of Jeff's life. And Black-ish's narration is to give perspective to audiences that can't empathize. The Middle and O'Neals seems to be of the "this is what's going through my mind" type and that's mixed... O'Neals just somehow makes it come across more obvious that only a few ABC sitcoms don't do that.