Idiot Boxing: Brockmire, season 4 (2020)

Jim dotes on Beth - the daughter he didn't know he had until
she showed up on his doorstep when she was eight years old.
There is a certain sweetness to their relationship, but it is
often lost amidst a season that was overly busy.

This show really swung for the fences with this final season, and ended up hitting a sacrifice, dribbling fielder's choice. It's a "productive" play that gets the run home, but it wasn't as strong as the first three seasons.

At the end of season 3, Brockmire had embraced sobriety and begun calling his first Major League Baseball games in over a decade, along with his new announcing partner Gabby. The future seemed fairly bright, even if Jim's relationship with Jules had all but fallen completely apart.

Season 4 does not go where you think it might. Instead of picking up with Jim (Hank Azaria) and Gabby calling Oakland Athletics games for the next season, we start with Jim being surprised by an 8-year-old daughter, Beth, showing up on his doorstep - a daughter he never knew he'd had by a romantic partner in the Phillipines, but who had died tragically in a massive hurricane. We then jump a full decade into the future, where the U.S. has become a near-dystopian land rife with no end of social ills. Major League Baseball still exists, but it is barely hanging onto to its small and ever-dwindling audience. Jim still broadcasts games, but his life is far more dedicated to Beth (Reina Hardesty), who is about to head off to college. In a desperation move, MLB elects Jim as baseball commissioner, hoping that his flare for the spectacular can somehow save the game from death. The succeeding seven episodes span the roughly four years between 2030 and 2034, as Jim deals with Beth going through college, the return of Jules (Amanda Peete) and Charles into his life, and his attempts to save the game he still loves.

This was such an odd turn for this show to take, and it mostly didn't work out very well. I fully respect the writers going way out on a limb to try and do something different and unexpected, but this just felt like an idea that should have been scrapped during the brainstorming session for this season. It wasn't terrible, and it had its share of laughs, but it was by far the weakest of the four seasons, which isn't how any show wants to go out.

Jules, Jim, and Charles at the corporate office of Limon. This
was a plot element that had several really good laughs, but
the theme gobbled up an amount of time that one would
expect more from a science-fiction show, not a comedy with
sports as its backdrop.

Setting aside the fact that the show completely jettisoned the story set up at the end of season 3 - Jim working with Gabby - I think the main problem is that the season never really seemed to know exactly what to do with itself. Making Jim and instant dad had potential, but that story often got washed out among the others: Jim's rekindled relationship with Jules. The return of his sex-addicted ex-wife back into his life. His trying to save all of MLB. And overarching all of this was a sometimes-funny but often just weirdly scary science-fiction/social satire which involved references to failed states. As if all that weren't more than enough for a season of eight 25-minute episodes, there's a story about a nearly-omnipotent computer gadget, the Limon, which plays a rather large role by season's end. All of a sudden, a show which always focused on two or three characters and one or two straightforward story elements gets strangely overstuffed in its swan song season. You just never knew what was coming; and while this can sometimes enhance a story, it only muddied the waters here.

This isn't to say that the show wasn't funny. It was. My wife and I had more than a few good laughs along the way, especially with many of the jokes surrounding the Limon tool. But the gags just weren't as numerous or consistently funny as past seasons, and the ever-shifting tone just made the lack of solid gags stand out all the more.

The finale of this series wasn't so bad that I would dissuade someone from watching it, or being a reason to never start watching the show in the first place. It's not a Game of Thrones scenario, in that respect. I would still recommend this show to people with dark senses of humor, as I feel that the first three seasons are well worth the time. I would just warn people to temper their expectations heading into this fourth and final season. To be ready for a weird, wild ride that may not always be as much fun as the first three seasons. 

Idiot Boxing: F is for Family, season 2 (2017); Brockmire, season 2 (2018); Runaways, season 2 (2018)

No longer the primary bread-winner, Frank has to adopt
some new roles within his family, including taking part in his
daughter's troop meetings. He doesn't take to it very well.

F is for Family, season 2 (2017)

An animated show that improves upon its solid first season and may be on its way to becoming a rather unique entry into the canon of excellent animated U.S. TV shows.

The first 10-episode season of F is for Family introduced us to the Murphy family, who are based on actor and comedian Bill Burr's own Irish-American family during Burr's childhood in 1973. The show focuses mostly on the father, Frank, a hard-working father of three who is thoroughly locked into the narrow perspectives typical of men in that era. To Frank, the concept of the nuclear family, where the man works and the woman stays home to raise the kids, is the only structure. But while Frank has the semblance of this "perfect" situation, he is a man with a hair-trigger temper, often set off by his disappointments in his kids and his own professional shortcomings. The first season actually had a legitimate, well-crafted arc to it, with Frank's already-agitated world getting further up-ended when he first loses his job at the local airport. This is all exacerbated when his wife, Sue, decides to get a job of her own.

Season 2 continues the story line, with Frank now working a reliable but menial job delivering concession sundries around town, while Sue tries to work her way up through a Tupperware-like company dominated by ultra-chauvinistic men. This second season takes the strengths of the first one, hones them a bit further, and goes deeper into the most unique thing about the series - the need for Frank to accept how his family and the world are changing around him. After losing his job at the airport, he's had to swallow his considerable pride and take a job delivering vending machine concessions. As he muddles through this existential crisis, Sue continues to put together a bit of a career in plastic-ware, though the misogyny continues to run thick. All the while, their three kids try to find their way through a gantlet of bullies, academic failure, and society's expectations for women.

I must confess that I had taken a breather from this show after watching the first three episodes, but I really got into it once I returned and finished the second season. It appears that the writers are actually making a very conscious effort to do something that very few animated series do - have the characters actually develop. Over the first 22 episodes, each of the five family members, and even a few of their friends and neighbors, seem to learn a few things. No, none of them comes anywhere close to evolving into a fully "healthy" person (where's the humor in that?), but they lurch or are pushed there in noticeable ways. And for anyone who has a sense of what typical life was like in the U.S. in the early and mid-1970s, you know just how many cultural shifts were happening. Watching the disillusioned and easily-enraged Frank deal with all of this is certainly hilarious, but it also provides some reasonably compelling drama between the laughs.

I'll soon be tuning into the third season, which was released not long ago on Netflix. I hope the show continues down the path laid out so far, as it has developed something of its own place in a landscape awash with animated series which can be uproariously funny but wherein there is little to no continuity or character growth.

The ever-responsible Charles drags the ever-intoxicated Jim
out of another drunken sinkhole. This image is a solid
metaphor for much of their relationship.

Brockmire, season 2 (2018)

A surprisingly strong follow-up season to a show that has impressed me simply by building on what could have been a one-note premise which could have grown very old very quickly.

At the end of the show's initial 8-episode season, the ferociously addicted Jim Brockmire had been offered a broadcasting gig for the minor league Crawdaddy's in New Orleans - a job which he promptly accepted, leaving behind the lowly Frackers of the burnt-out burg of Morristown, Pennsylvania. The second season picks up well into Brockmire's first season with the Crawdaddy's, where he has been doing fine work despite regularly indulging in nearly every vice known to mankind. The only thing that keeps him in any financial security is the management of Charles, the young man who was his assistant in Morristown. Brockmire experiences a bit of a hiccup in his dream of returning to the big leagues again when he is pitted against fellow broadcaster Raj, a handsome young man of Indian descent who, while knowing little about sports, knows exactly how to pander to his audience to raise his popularity and brand.

This season was just as funny as satisfying as the first, as we get a bit more insight into Brockmire's and Charles's backgrounds. We see Jim deal with the death of his father, and Charles have to confront his highly self-involved family. We get the addition of several new supporting characters, as well as heavy doses of the pitch black humor that set the first season apart.

The only reason I would steer anyone away from this show is that Jim Brockmire is a thoroughly depraved individual, and the show doesn't shy away from exhibiting him at his drug- and booze-drenched worst. People who find no humor in addiction will likely find no humor in this show, despite the fact that it is far from any sort of endorsement for substance abuse. For my part, I was glad to learn that the show has been renewed for both a third and fourth season.

The Runaways, plus one. The members of the crew tend to take
turns making poor decisions, which is something one would
expect from a group of teenagers from wealthy families.

Runaways, season 2 (2018)

A Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show that continues the tone and quality of its first season, even if the longer episode run more clearly exposes its weaknesses.

The ten episodes of season two still see the six titular runaways hiding from their parents while they attempt to learn the secrets of Jonah - the man, or creature, that is at the center of nearly all of their horrible crimes. The Runaways make various sorties from their hideout in a buried, secret old mansion just outside of L.A., and they learn more about their own mysterious powers and themselves as people.

The strongest part of the show is the plot. The story behind Jonah and his long relationship with the Runaways' parents is unfolded well, and there are more than a few curious twists to the story. The nature of his own amazing abilities is also compelling enough to carry the season fairly well. There was also one very intriguing connection to the greater MCU raised towards the end of this season's run. In fact, it is by far the question that I most want to know the answer to.

I did find myself tiring of the interpersonal drama, although I do realize that this is a show aimed more at viewers between ages 11 and 18. Beyond that, though, the dialog and scenarios can sometimes feel a bit contrived to achieve more dramatic effect. And there are some plot holes that rear their heads as the story moves along, both within the story's internal logic and in the show's greater place in the MCU.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll tune in for the third season, which is likely to happen. Like nearly every other MCU show, it is decent enough for a dedicated fan of the franchise to enjoy on some level. However, with more shows coming, I sense that I will likely be drawing a line soon. Shows geared towards younger viewers, such as Runaways, the worthy Cloak and Dagger, and maybe the forthcoming Disney+ shows scheduled to come out later in 2019 may be on the chopping block. There are only so many hours in the day, and there is only so much TV I have the time or desire to watch. The Runaways could be a casualty of those realities.