© 2009 ABC THE GOODE FAMILY "A Tale of Two Lesbians"

Television:

TV Review: THE GOODE FAMILY - 'A Tale of Two Lesbians'

Stereotypes galore, but still an average episode

Grade: C+
Writer(s): Shane Kosakowski, Franklin Hardy (II)
Director: Jennifer Coyle
Rating: NR

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By CARLOS DELGADO, Associate Editor
Published 6/22/2009

Last week’s episode, “Helen’s Back,” was great. This week’s episode, not so much. There were a few moments of genuine laughter, but there were also several minutes when the show crawled to a halt. Like much of Judge’s work, THE GOODE FAMILY is an up and down show tuned to a certain type of audience. For those not in alignment with Judge’s brand of entertainment, THE GOODE FAMILY could be a very long half hour.

Helen (Nancy Walls) desperately wants to join the city art council, but continually finds herself shut out. She finally makes some ground when she meets Jenn (Grey DeLisle) and her partner, Souki (Cree Summer), a chic couple who just relocated from Manhattan. Things are looking up for Helen until Harold (Mike Judge) crassly calls them lesbians. Not wanting to be labeled homophobes, Helen and Gerald quickly befriend Mo (Laraine Newman) and Trish (Julia Sweeney), a pair of, how to put it gently, rather abrasive lesbians.

Helen and Gerald are at first a little reluctant to socialize with Mo and Trish, but soon find they have a heart of gold. Their friendship, however, is put to the test when Helen gets a second chance to redeem herself to the hip art crowd, led by Jenn and Souki. Helen must choose between being accepted into the art council or defending her new lesbian friends.

“A Tale of Two Lesbians” is a classic story about acceptance and genuineness. It’s also an obvious play at stereotypes. “A Tale” portrays urbanites as snobby and elitist while endearing the working class as an honest but loving people. The stereotypes continue as Jenn and Souki are well educated artists while Mo and Trish are beer drinking lunkheads.

Fortunately, I happen to like exaggerated uses of stereotypes. Needless to say that all urbanites aren’t as sophisticated as Jenn and Souki. Conversely, working class folk aren’t the brutes their shown to be. THE GOODE FAMILY uses extreme characterizations to prove a point, and it’s done efficiently and effectively.

The big question, as always, remains: was the show entertaining? The answer: at times. Some of the jokes come off as annoying and redundant. Take Mo and Trish playing bloody knuckles or giving headlocks, for example. We get it already. They’re manly lesbians. Yet a few minutes earlier, we hear Charlie (Brian Doyle-Murray) brilliantly profess that he’s a lesbian expert due to his extensive “film” collection, and that all lesbians love pizza.

It’s this constant battle between mediocre and lame versus entertaining and brilliant that makes THE GOODE FAMILY often difficult to watch. I find myself often wondering how the writers could nail one joke perfectly yet completely fumble the next. I openly admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of Judge’s work. However, when THE GOODE FAMILY gets it right, they get it Right.  

Let’s see if the trend continues. The writing and quality of THE GOOD FAMILY has improved since the pilot, with “Helen’s Back” being the high water mark so far. As this show continues to separate itself from KING OF THE HILL and find its own voice, the hope is that the quality continues to improve. It seems at times that GOODE will have some growing pains to work through, such as being inconsistent in regards to entertainment, but I remain optimistic that the show will continually improve itself, and that such lulls will be reduced to a minimum.

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