The Great North - Fox New Show S1E1 *Spoilers*

Not very good. Seems to be a vehicle for Nick Offerman and Will Forte to play to (toned down) type, but the story is lacking. They set a lot of things up, but I’m not intrigued as to how they will play out.

In contrast, I started watching Bob’s Burgers (same creator) cold with the 11th season premiere this fall, and I immediately loved it. So my heart’s not *all* cold and black.

 

I thought it has promise, or maybe anything looks promising following Call Me Kat. It was a rough start and the writing and delivery has to improve to approach Bob's Burgers-caliber, but most of the voice cast looks impressive on paper.

I missed the opening scene and spent most of the episode trying to figure out the characters' relationships to one another (which is obvious in BB and an advantage they have). At one point I thought there were 3 generations but was finally bailed out by Wikipedia. I might have made the youngest of three sons a precocious Louise-like girl instead but even though Aparna could probably pass for boy or girl she just doesn't have the quick comical delivery Kristen Schaal does. Jenny Slate, as the only daughter, I think is a natural for cartoons and could have played any daughter at any age.

 

Just because you have one show with a child who always wears the head part of a rabbit suit, it doesn't mean you have to up the ante for your second show and have a child who always wears an entire bear suit (even if you think it's cute).

 

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I have the show on deck but haven't watched yet. I like Offerman and I'm a HUGE fan of Megan Mullally (plus, they seem like such a great couple), so these are the reasons I decided to add the show. Bummer if it sucks but I'll wait til I watch the pilot.

 

I liked it enough and will stick with it for now. Bob’s Burgers is one of my favorite shows so that’s probably why i’m okay with the first episode and going to give it a long leash.

 

This was not good. I’ll give it a few more chances, but I hope it improves.

 

I didn't realize the same guy from Bob's Burgers (which I love) did this, and kept thinking it was a cheap rip-off of Bob. I thought it was terrible.

 

Watched about 10 min on Hulu, then watched a few old Bob’s Burgers (on Hulu). Might finish the remainder later.

 

Technically, it was created by a couple of writers from "Bob's Burgers" (the Molyneux sisters) along with another writer (Minty Lewis), and it has the same animation studio and other technical crew. Loren Bouchard, the creator of "Bob's Burgers," is listed as an executive producer, but probably doesn't have much to do with the actual writing and whatnot.

 

...any more than, just because they had one show that had a talking dog, the same co-developer needed a show with a talking fish?

 

Someone non-human has to be the voice of reason.

 

There have now been two episodes of this show that have aired as "special previews." Fox needs to be careful or they'll run out of episodes before it actually premieres.

 

I don't know why, but I have a gut feeling somebody at Fox didn't like the numbers that its first episode got, so airing an episode right after an NFL playoff game will get more people interested in it - and if the show does crash and burn, they can now air all 13 produced episodes before Memorial Day weekend. (There are 11 episodes left, and 15 Sundays from 2/14 through 5/23, but repeats are expected on Grammy night, Palm Sunday (for some reason), Easter, and Oscar night.)

 

I liked it better than the first, maybe due to being more familiar with it going in or maybe just a better episode. I liked the twin brother/sister secret handshake but it also felt like a ripoff of the Will Ferrell/Cheri Oteri Spartan Cheerleader skit from SNL.