Allen Gregory

Always a fan of good animated comedy, I tuned in Allen Gregory to see what it held for me. Before the show even started, there was a "not suitable for children under 14" blurb, which gave me hope that this might be the new South Park - raunchy and scatological, but also inventive and funny.

The reality is much, much less. The humour (such as there is) is of the cruel, taunting variety, and the title character lacks any characteristics that make him sympathetic or likable. Set up as an intelligent overachiever by the show's promoters, he comes off more like an arrogant, impolite poseur with no compassion whatsoever for his fellow human beings.

Perhaps he gets this from his home situation, or perhaps he has managed to become this out of touch with reality all on his own. At any rate, the result is not worth watching.

I've read a large amount of criticism for this show and have been trying to figure out why there is such widespread hatred towards it.

The most prominent issue seems to be its 'meanness.' The reviews available at the time have all berated the lack of redeeming qualities in Allen, wondering why he can't learn a lesson or be the misguided soul that we eventually feel sympathetic towards. They're crying out for the tried and true formula attributed to each one of these characters in thousands of comedies gone before. One of the reasons Allen is so great to watch is to see him completely humiliated, by who we'd usually consider to be the bullies, and feel a sense of justice only to see his delusion go even further, to which the response is laughter of disbelief. This is definitely not the feel good, life affirming romp that everyone wants to see. You don't feel sympathy for the main character but that emotion manifests in other characters such as Julie (Allen's adopted sister) and Jeremy (His father's life partner). In fact I really began to like Jeremy's character; a once straight man with a family who, for all appearances, should be a strong, confident man but has been completely subdued by a person who borders on psychopathic. Maybe he's staying with him to save Allen from becoming a duplicate or maybe it is just one of those relationships. We'll have to wait for the characters to be fleshed out.

The performances are brilliant. Jonah Hill has fantastic phrasing and delivery as always and really suits the fast paced dialogue. French Stewart gives an equally great performance as Allen's manipulative father along with a personal favourite, Keith David, who's velvety smooth voice is always a joy to hear ;) Some of the humour can rely on shock a bit too heavily but the dialogue really stands out at times with its characters making small remarks that get lost in the sea of, usually, Allen or Richard's obnoxiousness. They represent a type of person perfectly and the frustration of the supporting characters is definitely felt.

If you're a stalwart fan of comedians such as Michael Mcintyre, that make you go "Oh my life is like that!" or require your main characters to learn a life lesson while backed by soft piano music then you will probably hate this show. But if you're not looking to befriend fictional characters, you may find an enjoyable show with some brilliant dialogue.

Allen Gregory has got to be my 10th least favorite show next to Small Potatoes and Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go, this is the worst show from 2011 along with Jake And The Neverland Pirates, Secret Mountain Fort Awesome and The Problem Solverz. I would rather watch The Amazing World Of Gumball better than this show.

It is actually the worst show I've ever seen in my life. I can't stand any of the characters. Allen and his father are pretentious and not in any sort of entertaining way. Also what's the deal with Jeremy being with that guy when he's not even gay. That made no sense at all. The part when Jeremy has a talk with Allen, I was hoping he would actually have something meaningful to say. He didn't. He just said "I'm not gay. I'm only with your father because he's a creeper who wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted, and if you behave the same way, you'll get want you want." Well, pretty much.

I hope this show gets cancel very soon. It probably will. I don't understand how anyone could ever like it.

just watched the first two episodes of Allen Gregory... good try Jonas, but not many people find a pretentious protagonist funny or likable when they absolutely learn no lesson or face no consequences (whether that consequence is funny or not). Stewie Griffin at least shows some signs of being human instead of being the love child of a man who forcibly made a straight man his bitch. The point of pilot is to get audiences intrigue...not to alienate and offend gays, straights, teachers, kids, parents, basically everyone except for...I can't even think of who would like this. It's pretty obvious that you were aiming to please the "1%" or trying to be "smart" funny by not having a "lesson learned", but all you accomplished was making me cheer for the douche-bag class president kid when Allen put himself into a situation where he deserved to be mocked and made fun of. Good luck getting a renewal for Season 2....