Allen Gregory: Pilot

The show almost lost us in the first scene. There is a fine line between hilarious pretentiousness and obnoxious arrogance (a line the show Frasier toed perfectly). The introduction of Allen and one of his gay dads made us almost dislike the characters enough to not think they were funny. We are speaking particularly of the Tony Nomination speech and intro. However, we really liked the gay dad’s introduction of Julie. “Add Julie to cart.” We don’t say this a lot, but ROFLMAO.

The arrogance might not even be necessary for Allen’s character. For his dad, it works. But Allen might have done better just being blunt, smart, precocious, and not good with authority. Allen has dark hair, blue eyes, and glasses. On his first day of school, he befriends a red-haired, freckled kid. Aaaaand now we want to go watch a Harry Potter movie.

The Hermione Granger of the operation is Julie, Allen’s adopted sister, whom he hates. She seems to be the sanest character on this cartoon, and we love her. All of the side characters are funny, actually. We loved that Allen was attracted to his school principal, even though it makes no sense. Why does a seven-year-old have a libido? Maturity does not equal puberty.

Jonah Hill’s delivery is good, and we like the dysfunctional gay couple. Usually on TV, gay people have to be saints for good PR. This couple is horrid, and the show is funnier for it. We also liked the Bones reference and the choice of background music throughout the show. Lots of the pretentiousness is right on.

We can see lots of people hating this show, because it’s super mainstream, the characters are unrealistic, and this is a cartoon in every way. It’s a little immature too. One of the main gags involves Allen sharting in front of his new true love. But we laughed and enjoyed this half hour, for the most part. It’s not brilliant, but it’s not bad.

Episode grade: B-