Universal Basic Guys

I see that the series is already getting a good amount of hate and I can see why. The art style is unappealing and the jokes can be lackluster. However, there are moments that did give me chuckles and there is some emotion I felt when watching the first two episodes, so, I can tell there's good intentions. The problem is that the series is really dull most of the time and can feel rather boring. At least Krapopolis gets me more hyper active as that show had more going on, and even modern Simpsons is doing a lot with experimentation, so at least I feel something with it. UBG is just mostly restricted and playing it safe, the unappealing art style is not helping either. Being safe doesn't mean it's bad automatically though, as I stated there are still some good jokes. Plus, I can sympathize with some of the characters with their struggles. Do I recommend it though, no, as I stated it's mostly safe and doesn't have much going for it, but if you wanna have a quick laugh while looking into some characters going about their struggles, this might be the show for you.

Awful show with awful characters and dialogue.

Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and even American Dad are smart comedies about working class families while this show is just dumb humor about a bunch of dumb people with no redeeming qualities. There isn't a likeable character in the bunch, nor does a single joke land.

I disagree with the one review that says this show is propaganda pushing Marxism and Universal Basic Income. I feel it's the opposite, showing how lazy people waste their money after receiving UBI. The message is "your tax dollars will go to idiots who will waste it on buying a monkey," not that UBI is a great thing.

This review is based on one episode - the airplane ride to a funeral. I wanted to check out the show.because the idea of working age guys suddenly finding themselves with no job and no need to work had some social relevance that might be interesting to explore. Bad news first - the premise was not particularly relevant to what happened in the show. This plot could have been grafted on to almost any show, and the lack of reliance on UBI would not have been noticeable. So, the most intriguing part of the show was completely neglected.

Now the good - the preview setup had a good hook to get me interested. There were some funny gags, at least one of which was pretty inventive - I did actually laugh out loud several times. I enjoyed the shock gags. The story and the subplots came together in a satisfying way similar to South Park.

In short, the whole reason for the show (adults creatively coping with time on their hands, but limited income and opportunity) fell completely flat. The characters did not have enough depth to make their place in the story interesting (e.g., the reactions that only Stewie and Brian would have in a given fact pattern). Without unique characters, even good plots, jokes and gags will not keep people coming back to watch.

Universal Basic Guys is probably the worst Fox cartoon since Bordertown and the worst in the new iteration of Fox Animation Domination. The only thing I can praise it for is that it is better than Allen Gregory, but that is such a low bar that doesn't even matter. There's some redeeming stuff in here but it's overshadowed by terrible stuff that it's so minor in the scale of how I am rating it.

It's a show about two brothers who lose their job and get indefinite severance from the company due to AI and robots taking over their jobs. It's not "universal basic income" as the show wants you to believe. If so, either no one would be working or everyone would be getting it. Honestly, the pilot episode, which hasn't even aired yet is the only episode that references the whole idea of the show. The episodes we've seen so far don't even mention UBI at all. The main character, Mark, is the fat guy with a wife, while his brother Hank, is single and really dumb. The wife Tammy, works as a nurse, while Mark's neighbor David, has a wife named Andrea who works as an executive of a company. There's two of Mark's other friends who I don't know their names and I honestly don't care either.

In the five episodes that are out right now as of this comment, I only chuckled once. The show's main problem is it's just not funny at all. The humor is very cringe and forced. Any attempts at trying to do "heart" are not very sincere and genuine. Take the sunset cruise episode for example, Mark doesn't change his mind on giving up fishing until he sees his rival get called out in front of his ex-wife. There's absolutely no sympathy or any sort of that beforehand which makes it hard to take it seriously. Plus some of the subplots are just terrible. The one with Mark's friend getting trapped by a snake was one of the worst things I've seen all year.

A big problem with this show is the characters. Mark comes off as very pretentious and insufferable. It's not that I care that he's fat and dumb like the other shows I see, it's that he's just not likeable or interesting. Wayne from Bless the Harts wasn't as dumb as him, but he was very likeable and had a good heart. You don't see that with Mark at all and seeing that he's the main character of the show, it's really hard to stomach some of the episodes just because of how unlikeable Mark is. The recent episode that aired about the "jaws" was so bad that it was probably the worst episode of any cartoon I've watched this year. There's not any sort of depth in the characters or the writing. The writing is just so messy that certain plots don't end properly or get mentioned in the beginning only to come back at the end. It just doesn't make any sense and if this show really wants to thrive, they need to work on writing third acts. The third act is the MOST IMPORTANT act of a sitcom and a bad third act is instantly more unforgiving than the first two.

Some redeeming qualities are that the voice acting is actually pretty decent despite almost no one in the cast being super famous other than Fred Armisen. I actually kind of like that. Also, Hank isn't so bad and he's actually kinda likeable. But he isn't very funny either. And the wife actually gets some okayish plots like the episode where she goes with other women to save the world. A lot of the episodes themselves are ruined by Mark to be honest. He's just a terrible character. I think the show just doesn't really work. It's a huge mess, not funny, and the characters are uninteresting and don't really have any depth.

Bob's Burgers did not have a good first season either but at least the show had some great episodes in the first even though half of them were terrible. This show has not a single good episode and the best one is just meh at best. I was not a fan of Housebroken at all, but I can at least praise that show for trying something different and having some creativity. And Krapopolis and Grimsburg aren't great shows either but at least they try to be shows. This show needs to go back to the drawing board in season 2 (since Fox already ordered a second season) and really work out the problems or it isn't gonna last at all.

I guess folks are missing the whole point to this dimwitted hilarious animated series about dimwitted folks who do really dimwitted things because they believe that their dimwittedness is their God given right to do what they desire, regardless of the mayhem they create and the harm to fellow humans - or even what professionals and academics folks say. So basically this is taking the Mickey out of dimwits who vote, drive cars, own guns and think they know everything (from unreliable sources) about everything. At least the makers of this series treat their dimwits with love and affection of dimwitted proportions...