The Cleveland Show

I didn’t sit down to watch The Cleveland Show until last night. Surprisingly I hadn’t heard a thing about it between its premiere on Sunday and yesterday.

It might have helped had I heard something about it.

Everything about this show was bad.

The reasoning for Cleveland leaving was quick and almost painful. So was his unnecessary marriage at the end of the show.

His reason for staying in his old hometown of Stoolbend, VA was about the same.

Everything about the show just felt forced. The jokes didn’t hit on any level and none of the characters presented themselves as likable.

Cleveland was annoying at best, contrived at worst. And his son? What happened? In the early seasons of Family Guy his son was an ADD jerk who flitted around the show like a hummingbird. Now…now, he’s a fat bastard who eats creme cookies.

Cleveland’s replacement friends are the worst of the lot though. One is a redneck racist, another is a 40 year old douche who lives with his mom, and the last is a Russian? bear. The bear…I don’t understand the bear. What’s the point? Do all of Seth McFarlane’s shows need a talking animal of some kind?

Family Guy has Bryan. American Dad has Klaus the German Fish and if you want Roger the Alien. Now Cleveland has a russian or something bear. The bear is a waste despite that.

Like Family Guy is a thinly veiled excuse to be a more “wild” the Simpsons, and American Dad is a thinly veiled excuse to let McFarlane’s personal politics into a show (though he does it more with the Griffins than the Smiths) The Cleveland Show is a thinly veiled excuse for McFarlane to be racist.

Despite Cleveland being an upstanding businessman and a well (sort of) rounded character all of his interactions with everyone in his show came through stereotypes.

His friends are clearly an example of that.

However it’s his “family” that is the worst about it. The wife is a large-assed woman who falls in with an abusive drunk (also black). The two kids aren’t as bad but there are undertones. Really it’s the wife that kills it.

It comes across that if the show references the racism by using bits that tell you it’s racist then it okay for them to do so. Literally there’s a bit where the daughter character says something about white producers making awful shows that they think black would like. Ooh-ho-ho Mr. McFarlane aren’t you so clever with that little ruse.

It’s out in the open the show so it’s okay if it’s racist.

In the end, it’s more uncomfortable and not just because of the obvious racism. The jokes were terrible and Cleveland is not a character that makes me want to watch the show. He’s boring at best and annoying at worst.

On the other hand, I do plan to make a drinking game out of this show so drunk Sunday nights here I come.

Scyo.

P.S. My recommendation? Save yourselves the agony and watch something else, like I don’t know…the Simpsons.