Few Sunny Moments in ‘Paradise PD’

A few weeks ago, The Weekender featured a not-so-wonderful review on ‘Game Over Man’, and although not at all related, ‘Paradise PD’ leaves the same taste in your mouth.

It seems as if comedy has parted ways with wit, timing, puns and delivery, and teamed up with ignorance, vulgarity and boredom. ‘Paradise PD’ is a snooze. But… A good kind of snooze. The kind that you put on when your brain has literally been fried and you just need to zone out for a few minutes.

And in these moments, when you are at your worst, shows like this might actually rouse a laugh from you.

Animated sitcoms have been popularised since ‘The Simpsons’ aired in 1989, and the trend has sparked some marvellous and classic shows such as ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’, ‘Family Guy’, ‘Futurama’, and of course ‘The Boondocks’, to mention a few. And one thing these shows have in common is the essential picking on societal issues with brilliant satire.

‘Paradise PD’, although having somewhat of a story line, seems to be trying too hard to match its animated counterparts with its line-up of typical character casting. You have the angry father, clumsy son, uppity mother, talking dog and side cast with issues from being perverts to having self-esteem issues, and the lone black guy.

The series was created by Waco O’Guin and Roger Black and premiered on 30 August on Netflix. It stars Dana Snyder, Cedric Yarbrough, David Herman, Tom Kenny, Sarah Chalke and Kyle Kinane.

Though there could have been many ways to improve the Netflix series, a good, naturally talented writer would get the job done.

The show has received mixed reviews from television critics, with Florian Ques of Konbini saying: “The most thrilling aspect of ‘Paradise PD’ is its natural ability to slip in some real burns aimed at pop culture figures. The humour used to criticise them is very well-executed.”

Others criticised the extreme gross-out comedy and lack of likeable characters. Joel Keller of Decider said: “If it were just a little bit funnier, we’d recommend it. But it’s just not worth sitting through the many unfunny, dirty gags to get to the good stuff.”

‘Paradise PD’ is definitely not the paradise you’re looking for if it’s a good show you want to watch.