Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
If we could change one thing in the past, would we? Should we?
Jake Epping is determined to try. Due to a convenient wrinkle in the space-time continuum that shows up in a local diner closet, Jake has easy access to the fall of 1960. Hats and tailfins are in vogue. Slices of pie cost 60 cents. There’s a tight election race underway between Vice President Richard Nixon and the young Senator John F. Kennedy.
All we know of that turbulent decade is still to come—the assassinations, the wars, the social upheavals. The future is a slate unwrit. Or so it would seem.
Al Templeton, Jake’s longtime friend and owner of the diner, spent his life trying to change the past—to prevent the assassination of JFK. Al believed preventing that one death could save thousands of others’. Maybe even change the world. Save John’s life, and his brother Robert stays alive, too. The Vietnam War never escalates. The U.S. retains the promise it once had and bounces toward the 21st century with buoyant optimism. That’s the thought, anyway. So when he succumbs to cancer, he passes the diner keys over to Jake and gives him the same quixotic quest.
But the past is a stubborn thing. It does not take change kindly, and when someone tries, it pushes back—hard. The bigger the change, the harder the push, and it seems that with each life saved, another must be spent. Perhaps the past will not allow Jake to rewrite world history, he begins to wonder. But someone’s personal history? A little favor for a broken friend? Perhaps it will acquiesce to that.
Based on a book by Stephen King, produced in part by Hollywood golden boy J.J. Abrams and starring James Franco, 11.22.63 is Hulu’s highest-profile show to date. This eight-episode series is a high-gloss effort, with King’s words working, in some ways, better in this small-screen serialization than in his movies, which tend to be hit-or-miss affairs. Here, his neatly crafted characters and built-in cliffhangers make for a near-perfect miniseries match.
Alas, King’s compulsive “tune in next week” narrative abilities stand in stark contrast to the crude content he ladles into his books and, by extension, the films and TV shows based on them. And while CBS’ surprisingly long-lasting series Under the Dome (also based on a King book) managed to throttle things back enough to be allowed on broadcast television, Hulu has no such restraints. Blood flows easily and often, staining the story’s supposedly more innocent time. Sexual trysts are, if not core to the story, still a threat in every episode. Obscenities gravitate toward the f- and s-word variety.
A show like 11.22.63 would, in terms of its story and sci-fi vibe, feel right at home in 1960s—what with The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents in full swing back then. I’d venture to say that Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock, given the space and time, could have brought this show to life as effectively as J.J. Abrams and his team does for Hulu.
And, to be honest, I really would have liked to see what that looked like. Because they would have culled out most of that “extra” (read: unneeded) content, preserving the story and the vibe without smearing us with grime.
Pushed by his dying friend, Al, English teacher Jake walks into the closet and prepares to spend three years in the past—with the end game being the prevention of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. But as he explores the possibility that Lee Harvey Oswald was, perhaps, contracted to carry out the killing, the past “pushes back,” leading to both mayhem and death.
A dead boy lies on the sidewalk, his face charred, as his mother mourns. Another woman is killed in a car crash, blood coating her face and pooling under her head. (She opens her eyes and tells Jake, creepily, that he doesn’t belong there.) In flashback we see snippets of another murder—a father who killed his wife and two of his three children with a hammer. (Blood spatters on walls and drips from dead hands; screams are heard, and a boy is yanked from under a bed.) A man coughs blood into a handkerchief. Someone shows Jake the terrible burns he suffered from a freak fire. Jake clocks a guy, and he himself is also knocked on the back of his head.
The camera catches a couple copulating. (We see partially clothed movements and explicit sounds.) A campaign sign uses Richard Nixon’s name to evoke oral sex.
Jake vomits into a trash can. He easily accepts the notion that lying and bribery are the only way he can get along. He makes money by cheating at gambling. People drink and smoke cigarettes. Several times Jake and others abuse Jesus’ name—once in front of Catholic schoolgirls. God’s name is six times paired with “d–n.” We also hear more than a dozen f-words and eight or nine s-words, along with “a–” and “h—.”
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
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