Mike Judge — the same guy who brought us such animated comedies as Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill — is premiering his new series The Goode Family on ABC tonight. As we’ve mentioned before, the show follows an obsessively “green” family who live a politically correct lifestyle. Vegans, vegetarians, treehuggers — anyone at all connected in someway to living a more sustainable life — will probably be offended. Moving past the jabs and finding the perspective to laugh at ourselves is what Judge is hoping happens. Can he find the right balance? Below are some early reviews we’ve dug up from around the web:

“What Judge is trying to get at here is a richly mockable comedic target; satire about the tensions between environmental responsibility and convenience, the tendency to proselytize about hybrid cars, whatever — there’s plenty of raw material. And there are probably two or three decent jokes that demonstrate the direction they could have gone. But the execution just isn’t funny enough to justify watching an entire half-hour show to get to those moments — even in the summer.” – Linda Holmes, NPR

“But the show feels aggressively off-kilter with the current mood, as if it had been incubated in the early to mid-’90s, when it was possible to find global-warming skeptics among even the reasonable and informed. Who really thinks of wind power — an allusion to which is a running visual gag in the show — as mindless, left-wing nonsense anymore?” – Ginia Bellafante, NY Times

“The fireplace is boarded up, with a sign reading, “Don’t kill wood.” The digital message board at the local organic grocer doesn’t alert shoppers to sales but to what food’s organically correct or incorrect at any given moment — though the poor confused thing can never seem to make up its mind. “Goode” is never savage. There’s even some wisdom here. The characters? Green but never mean and all likable.” – Verne Gay, The Chicago Tribune

“The first line of dialogue in ABC’s new animated series is, “Look who’s got elephant dung!” That pretty much sums up the show.” – Scott D. Pierce, Deseret News

Categories: Film/TV.

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

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