The latest addition to Fox's beefed-up Sunday-night animation lineup comes with a pretty impressive pedigree; Duncanville was co-created by longtime The Simpsons writer-producers Mike Scully and Julie Thacker-Scully, along with comedy star Amy Poehler, who voices two of the main characters. And the show has its share of funny moments in the two episodes available for review, enough that fans tuning in after The Simpsons or before Bob's Burgers will probably stick around for the easy-to-watch half-hour episodes, and give the show a chance for at least a few weeks.
Like all of Fox's other animated comedies (including this season's fellow new entry, Bless the Harts, which had a shakier start), Duncanville is about a slightly dysfunctional, but ultimately, loving family. The title character is 15-year-old Duncan Harris, an awkward doofus ruled mostly by his hormones, as most teenagers are. Poehler voices both Duncan and his perky mother Annie, a rules-obsessed parking enforcement officer, and Poehler gets the bored, annoyed cadence of the self-involved teenage boy down perfectly. Duncan may be a bit clueless, but he's more like the lovable Bobby Hill than the bratty Bart Simpson, albeit dealing more directly with raging hormones than either of them.
Duncan lives with his mom, his aging classic-rocker dad, Jack (Ty Burrell), his tween sister, Kimberly (Riki Lindhome), who is already much more popular than him, and his precocious five-year-old adopted sister, Jing (Joy Osmanski). The series' first episode pretty effectively establishes the family dynamic, with Duncan fumbling his way through interacting with his crush, Mia (Rashida Jones), Kimberly relentlessly mocking Duncan, Annie enforcing the rules and Jack clinging to his youth and trying to be a "cool" dad. The characters' basic archetypes may expand and change over time, but for now it's easy to grasp the concept and tune in at any point, which is an asset for the kind of show that's going to pick up fans via casual viewing.
At this point, the humor is more grounded than the ever-increasing surrealism of Family Guy or even Bless the Harts, which started out with the device of its main character talking to a manifestation of Jesus Christ. Still, the jokes are often based on the kind of cutaway humor that Family Guy pioneered (and drove into the ground). The first episode opens with Duncan dreaming about beating Free Solo star Alex Honnold (appearing as himself in a voice cameo) at rock-climbing, and then making out with Wonder Woman. At the end of the episode, he imagines flying away on the arms of hero pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.
As is often the case with joke-heavy shows, about half of the bits land, which is not a bad success rate, really. A running joke in the pilot about Jing being "in love" with Duncan is especially uncomfortable and misguided, but it's thankfully dropped by the second episode. The show's character-driven humor works more effectively than the random pop-culture references, and Duncan's friend group is full of believably awkward, self-involved teens.
Burrell, who has years of experience on Modern Family playing a dad desperate to be liked by his kids, helps make Jack into the most fully realized character in these early episodes. The character has a sad little ponytail and is unable to let go of any of his classic-rock memorabilia, which reminds him of his younger days when he was part of the hip crowd. Rock legend Alice Cooper has a good-natured cameo as himself in the second episode in flashbacks to Jack's misspent (or in his eyes, extremely well-spent) youth.
But Duncan is definitely the show's star, and his efforts to sort out his teenage sexual awakening seem to be the main focus of the plot going forward. In the opening episode, Duncan's efforts not to be visibly aroused in Mia's presence lead to him hearing the voice of his erection in what feels like a rather weak imitation of Netflix animated sensation Big Mouth.
Duncanville isn't bold enough (or uncensored enough) to dive into the pure grossness of puberty the way that Big Mouth has, and it mostly wants to be heartwarming and pleasant. Duncan gets in trouble with his parents, and then makes it up to them with a heartfelt gift. He fights with Kimberly and threatens to expose her darkest secret (a crush on Duncan's friend), before stopping himself. He's a good kid, which is sort of boring.
The characters' designs are bright and expressive, with more emotional range than some more cheaply produced animated shows, and they look like they'd be right at home in a crossover episode with any of their Fox siblings. That's the point, really; for this show to fit in seamlessly with the expanded animation lineup that Fox has recently invested in. The show has a few funny moments, some likable characters and plenty of room for future celebrity voice cameos. In that sense, Duncanville delivers exactly what's expected. If viewers are lucky, it'll go a little beyond that as the season progresses.
Starring the voices of Amy Poehler, Ty Burrell, Riki Lindhome, Betsy Sodaro, Yassir Lester, Zach Cherry and Joy Osmanski, Duncanville premieres Sunday on Fox at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.