Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
Ahh. Young love. It makes 18-year-olds swoon, pine, obsess and, apparently, play lots of Truth or Dare.
But this time merely daring Tom Bellow to go nude in public again isn’t enough for Jessie Hill. No, she wants a challenge that will determine what her boyfriend is really made of. So, as they’re walking in a park together, she dares him to propose.
After locating a plastic bottle-top ring on the ground, Tom actually—and sincerely—drops to one knee and asks his longtime friend to marry him. She happily accepts.
So starts the comedic process of newlywed adjustment—in the Bellows’ attic—as the two teens grow into their marriage and their parents adjust to this new, strange reality. Tom’s folks think he’s simply too young. Jessie’s believe marriage is merely “an exercise in greed with absolutely no bearing in reality.” And the teens themselves? They’re left to unpack what marriage is all about, for better or for worse.
In a world full of youth who either scorn matrimony or postpone it until well into their thirties, it might seem refreshing to think that at least one young TV couple takes it seriously. And Tom and Jessie do seem to take their vows to heart and commit for the long haul. But it’s discouraging to see what this sitcom ultimately does to marriage—using it as little more than a gag reflex plot point designed to dredge up a few laughs.
As New York magazine contributor Josef Adalian put it, 18 to Life ends up being “a half-hour mash-up of Meet the Parents, Away We Go, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” More to the point, Megan Angelo writes, for The Wall Street Journal, “When a pop-culture tide brought us Juno and Knocked Up, critics decried the glamorization of out-of-wedlock pregnancy. A show about teens getting married just because they’re in love should make us all feel good. Shouldn’t it? Watch and decide for yourself—but stick around for episode two before you decide. It’s then that Jessie and Tom settle into married life—and man, do they settle in. She bosses him around. He becomes instantly crotchety. All of this would be enough to undermine the show’s appeal. But what makes it really hard to watch is Tom and Jessie’s casual discourse on sex.”
Dumb jokes. Dirty jokes. Sleazy sexual situations. Lame role models. Not one of those sitcom staples is stifled at all by the fact that Tom and Jessie get married.
“It’s My Party”
Tom and Jessie have no household wares, so Tom’s older sister, Monica, plots a post-marriage bridal shower that’s supposed to lure the Bellows’ mega-rich friends. Jessie hopes to bond with her new mom-in-law while planning the shower but, instead, Tom’s controlling mom takes over, ignoring and belittling the teen’s wishes.
If the girls get to throw a shower, the guys decide they should have a bachelor party, of course. And the idea of swizzle sticks shaped like naked women quickly comes up. The actual party is worse than that. A stripper gives Tom a lap dance in front of his approving father, and alcohol rules—never mind that the boys are underage. Jessie’s dad breaks out some homemade wine and gets falling-down drunk. He ends up vomiting and urinating in his front yard.
Tom’s tween sister tries to convince her mom that they should all play the drinking version of a Hannah Montana board game. Tom’s mom confesses to Jessie that she didn’t invite her friends to the shower out of embarrassment: If she doesn’t have to tell them her son married the girl next door, she won’t have to announce their eventual divorce, either, she says. Jessie is hurt, but later explains exactly when and why she fell in love with Tom. Hearing this, Monster-in-Law softens a bit.
God’s name is abused. Other bad language includes “h‑‑‑.”
“A Modest Proposal”
A Truth or Dare game ends with Tom popping the question, and Jessie accepting. Their parents then scramble to break them up, using everything from cajoling lectures to reverse psychology “acceptance.” Tom and Jessie find out about the high-stakes mind game that’s swirling around them, but instead of folding, they double down and elope.
Everyone assumes that Jessie is pregnant and needs to marry. She’s not, but she and Tom were sexually active before their engagement, we’re told, and Jessie admits to him that she lost her virginity to his best friend, Carter. Tom is devastated. The Kama Sutra is mentioned, and Jessie’s mom asks her (in front of her dad and Tom) if Tom satisfies her in bed. Jessie’s dad makes a crude joke about pubic hair. And he mentions and celebrates underage drinking. One exchange between families hints at racial (Jew/Gentile) tension. Carter laments the fact that he and Tom won’t have a chance to make college memories involving lots of nudity. He also tells Tom that he should have sex with a lot of women before settling on one.
Profanity includes several uses of “h‑‑‑” and misuses of God’s name.
“No Strings Attached”
After their “honeymoon” in their respective bedrooms, Tom and Jessie talk about how phone sex wasn’t enough. She also tries to “send” him her panties across the lawn. They make out in public several times. And when they share a bed (in the Bellows’ attic), Tom’s mom walks in on them.
In return for some independence and privacy, Tom promises his parents that he’ll stay in school, get a part-time job, pay some rent and do chores. Condoms are jokingly mentioned, as is “christening” their new home—and “not in the Jesusy way.” There’s a joke about murdering and cutting up a body, and another about homosexuality.
Foul language includes “d‑‑n,” “b‑‑tard,” “h‑‑‑” and “p‑‑‑ed.” God’s name is misused.
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