The Goode Family: The Complete Series

Mike Judge, whose King of the Hill was a Fox staple for years, attempted to make a mirror-image version of the show with this 2009 animated ABC series. Instead of quintessential good ol' boy Hank Hill and his goofy family, we get Gerald Goode (voiced by Judge)—a community college administrator in a burg called Greenville—who is devoted to every politically correct cause. Gerald's wife, Helen (Nancy Carell), is even more obsessive, terrified of being thought insufficiently dedicated by her neighbors or failing to keep up with the proper terms to refer to minority groups. But ineptitude often undercuts their good intentions: their effort to take in an African infant, for example, resulted in their adoption of a hulking white teenager from South Africa named Ubuntu (David Herman). Meanwhile, daughter Bliss (Linda Cardellini) is rebellious in the face of their doctrinaire liberalism, and Helen's meat-eating, SUV-driving father, Charlie (Brian Doyle-Murray), ridicules the family's little hybrid car and vegan diet—which extends even to their dog, Che. Had The Goode Family survived beyond 13 episodes, the characters might have become more rounded and the scripts less schematic; but while there are some good lines and amusing situations here, the series is hobbled by a one-joke feel, and Judge's deadpan humor too often seems flat. DVD extras include episode audio commentaries, deleted scenes (most just pencil drafts), and promo videos. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)