‘F Is For Family’: Bill Burr Cartoons His Rage
I bow to no one in my admiration for the comic irritation, even rage, that Bill Burr can project from a stand-up comedy stage. Yet I approached his new animated Netflix series F Is For Family with understandable trepidation: After all, wouldn’t Burr’s talent for the insult, the tirade, the tantrum, be defused by animation’s bright colors and the family-sitcom set-up?
Yeah, a little. But it turns out F Is For Family is an engaging portrait of a suburban family in the 1970s, co-created by Burr and Simpsons veteran Michael Price. Burr is the voice of Frank Murphy, husband and father to three children, employee of an airline baggage-handling department. Frank is a guy who tries to be a good man with a minimum of effort, and when that effort is easily expended, he explodes into the exasperated, resentment-filled fellow he truly is.
All of which could have made F a tedious show to watch: Who cares about another angry sitcom dad, especially when he and the show he’s in is animated to look like a cross between King of the Hill and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, a prime-time cartoon that originally aired during the same years in which F Is For Family is set?
Related: Ranking the Top 10 Netflix Theme Songs
Well, the redeeming qualities are in the details. As in his stand-up routines, Burr has a remarkable memory for what it’s like to grow up. Here he is on Conan earlier this week, talking about why he never got into Star Wars:
Burr’s blunt but imaginative way of phrasing his memories lends the three kids in F some vividness, especially the prog-rock-loving teen son, Kevin, voiced by Justin Long. And Burr’s peeved-guy stage persona is great for Frank’s resentfulness, which in turn inspires a complex mixture of reactions from his wife, Sue (Laura Dern), who is certainly no doormat of a mate.
Related: The Best TV Comedies of 2015
I like the way Burr and Price have broken with Simpsons/Family Guy tradition and given their show story-lines that play out over a succession of episodes. Thus, watching the first few, I was caught up in Frank’s dilemma at work: Should he accept a promotion that will compel him to oppose a unionizing effort on the part of people he’s labored alongside for years? There’s also a nice subplot about taking Kevin to a local football game, if he can improve his grades.
The opening theme music for F is Redbone’s 1974 hit “Come and Get Your Love,” the kind of good-time boogie tune whose cool vibes are a source of frustration for Frank, who knows he’s just a paunchy suburbanite whose funky times are already over.
When it’s good, F Is For Family makes Frank’s frustrations both funny and poignant.
F Is For Family begins streaming on Netflix on December 18.
