The Neighbors
Episode 1: Family Conference
Season Two
By: Carlos Uribe
The Neighbors
is a show about a normal family who moves into a neighborhood filled
with aliens. This is a special review.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
With this
review, I'm introducing a new weekly feature where I pick an episode
of a currently airing series I don't follow weekly and review it.
Next week is: Bones.
I'm going to
be honest: I am now a fan of the Neighbors. The series started out
with an average pilot and I commented how I didn't mind it's
existence. I kept watching because it was a part of the ABC Comedy
Block and I gradually fell in love with this show. The writing didn't
just get better but it's confidence in doing anything for a laugh,
it's big heart, and strong cast has helped win me over. I'm not the
only one as even some of the people who derided the show at the
beginning has come around. It's a bit disappointing that the Friday
ratings indicate that the show is doomed: it's currently doubtful it
will actually last for it's entire order. If any show deserves your
attention, this might be it. The show is funny, the characters are
great, and it's entertaining. I get why some people might be
skeptical of tuning in. Why should you tune in for a show that isn't
going to make it? I think that's the wrong attitude to have. Yes,
falling in love with a show and then having it taken away is one of
the worst parts about being a television viewer. It's heart-breaking
due to our capacity to fall in love with fictional characters and to
get invested in stories. It's what has made television a billion
dollar industry for advertising. At the same time, I think that
those shows I fall in love with but don't last have still made a
positive contribution in my life. It was still worth it go on the
journey. An example is Ben and Kate. I fell in love with it, it ended
too quickly, but I'd still have watched it knowing it's ultimate
faith. I wouldn't change a thing. The fact is it's always worth
checking out a good show because television is never about the
destination but the steps taken. There's also the argument that if
you don't watch then the show is doomed. At the same time, unless
you're a Nielsen household, that argument doesn't hold water.
Okay, so
obligatory “watch this show because it's worth watching” request
out of the way I'm going to try to justify that. What exactly makes
The Neighbors special? Why SHOULD you watch? I think that's a really
good question. What is the Neighbors? It has a silly premise: a
family moves into a neighborhood where the residents are all aliens.
The premise has allowed the Neighbors to explore some pretty serious
human ideas like racism by offering an outsider's perspective (the
aliens) on it. The Neighbors is basically a quirky, odd, fun comedy
that is very traditional and subversive at the same time. This is the
kind of show where the alien neighbors can form their own broadway
musical. In many ways, the alien neighbors allows the series to do
what Community became known for: making fun of entire genres and
being versatile in what it's able to portray within it's universe. I
think a great example in the premiere is when there's a small Mission
Impossible satire when Jackie acrobats through lazers before clapping
them away for everyone else. It's the kind of show where typical
comedy moments can happen: a teenage couple is discovered by their
parents. In fact, the whole premise follows a familiar situation
where the families try to decide whether to allow the relationship or
not. Only the Neighbors complicates it on two levels: the alien
family holds a formal family council with rules and a moderator and
it gives the boy a literal soul mate from his planet. In other words,
it's fun in how it pokes fun at our culture and society but it's also
quirky in the way it explores familiar concepts.
The Neighbors
is a very familiar comedy. The whole nuclear family at the central of
the show could easily have had their own show without any of the
supernatural elements. There's the typical dad, the typical mom, and
the typical kids. It is in their typical nature that the show
actually gets a lot of humor by juxtapositioning the strange with the
normal. The typical family supports traditionalism. At the same
time, the aliens and the ideas it presents are more progressive than
conservative. In many ways, the Neighbors is therefore able to
subvert it's traditional nature. What's more is that this a family
comedy. It's wholesome so that the whole family should be able to
tune in without running into significant objectionable content. At
the same time, it subverts it's wholesome nature with it's sly
references to more mature material. The Neighbors is in many ways
familiar but it uses familiarity to explore different ideas. So what
appears to be a typical comedy is actually more than that. In many
ways, this allows it's science fiction nature to work in it's
benefit. It's not just mined for wacky laughs but also to get to a
deeper truth. That's exactly what science fiction should be about: to
explore the ultimate humanity of it's characters. So why should you
watch? It's a comedy that will simply surprise you with it's fun and
quirky nature. There's a very good chance you won't even know what's
going to happen next week despite being so typical. This blending of
predictability and unpredictability make the Neighbors fresh,
relevant, and exciting. Of course, the biggest reason to watch is
because it's very funny.
The season
premiere of The Neighbors is a pretty good episode. It's not the best
it's had but it does show a lot of what I'm talking about. Reggie and
Amber have been dating throughout the summer hiatus. They've been
keeping it a secret from their parents for different reasons. Reggie
is afraid his family won't approve but Amber just doesn't want to
talk to them. They get caught at the beginning of the episode.
They're forced to admit the truth. The immediate fallout shows how
each of the adults take it: Debbie is freaked out, Marty doesn't know
what to think, Larry doesn't approve, and Jackie wants to approve
because she realizes she has to let go no matter how hard. The series
sets up how their taking the relationship because it's going to put
them in one room, a family conference, to have them argue their
points. This creates a lot of laughs. The conference comes to an end
when Abbie talks about how she's so happy to see her sister actually
smile with teeth and all. It's a traditional cute kid being cute but
Isabella Cramp sells it in spades. Only she's too late because Larry
has moved ahead of the universe and summoned Reggie's soul mate.
Debbie's surprise that alien spaceships keep visiting without being
noticed is a great way that the show makes fun of itself. It's very
meta. As I said, this show is a lot like Community. Anyways, Reggie
is able to convince Amber that he's committed to their relationship
but his literal magnetic attraction is going to make that hard. A
love triangle is familiar in television but this interesting because
Reggie has two options: a human female or his literal soulmate. This
promises to be a unique exploration of love triangles.
The Neighbors
is one of my favorite comedies on the air. You won't hear me say this
a lot because I'm not going to cover this show weekly: I love it too
much as a fan to sully it with a weekly critical analysis. It's a
show you should be watching. It's a show that is fun and quirky which
allows it to cover a lot of territory. It's traditional and
subversive at the same time. The season premiere is a lot of fun in
it's exploration of families finding out their teenagers are dating.
It's a good episode of television and overall I hope the show is able
to last through it's order: this is a show that deserves to last six
seasons and a movie.
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