F is for Family – Season 3 Review

F is for Family

I wasn’t planning on giving this show another chance after an atrocious Season 2, but I was curious to see if it had corrected course at all. To my surprise, I think it has. But that’s not to say the show is great now. While they’ve dialed down the grossness and ridiculousness, they still haven’t fixed some of the issues that have plagued the series since Day 1. The supporting cast has always been weak, and yet Season 3 introduces even more uninteresting side characters. Why is a show about family (the word “family” is in the name, for God’s sake) spending so much time following the lives of their neighbors?!

A large portion of Season 3 is dedicated to new neighbor Chet, who—in typical sitcom fashion—immediately wins over the heart of Frank while Sue sees right through his bullshit. And so a lot of Frank’s and Sue’s squabbling revolves around whether or not Chet’s a good guy. Spoiler: he’s not. His storyline unsatisfactorily wraps up in the penultimate episode, leaving the finale to scramble for some sort of theme to tie everything together. The ending, though, feels like the same ending from the last season and the ending from every other cookie-cutter sitcom. Frank realizes he hasn’t been fair to his kids and says sorry. Roll credits.

F is for Family is weird, because it pretends to be a show that pushes boundaries with free-flowing swears and traumatizing nudity, but if you take that away, the scenarios driving the plot are things we’ve seen a thousand times before. What really makes this show special is the love-hate (emphasis on hate) relationship between Frank and Sue and their children. They fight like real families. It’s so relatable, it hurts. But sitcoms gotta sitcom, yo, and the family keeps getting separated to interact with paper-thin, one-joke, grating neighbors and friends. Get rid of the side characters or actually flesh them out. Either way, something needs to change here…

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.