Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
Terry’s family is falling apart, and he’s got a feeling it’s his fault.
He and his wife, Tess, are separated. His daughter, Lisa, is acting up in school and picks constant fights with him. And his son, Sean, has a nervous tic and a tendency to let himself be pushed over.
So why does Terry feel responsible? Well, it’s because he’s their father—but he’s never there for them. Even when he’s physically present, he’s almost always late or distracted.
It’s not like he can helpit, Terry reasons. His job (a truck driver, he tells his family) always keeps him away, and it’s that very job that allows his children to be able to do all those things Terry has to miss. In fact, he’s just gotten hired on for a job that’s supposed to give him a massive payout. What else is he supposed to do?
More than that, his kids think. And they’re determined to make him pay attention to them—so determined that they stow away in the trunk of the car to go to work with him. Only, when they pop out, they’re not at some truck stop. No, they’re in a spaceship. In space.
It’s not long before they’re clued into the truth: their dad’s not really a truck driver. He’s actually a famous bounty hunter—or, “fugitive recovery specialist.”
“Bounty hunter comes with a lot of negative connotations,” Terry says.
Terry would really like to take Sean and Lisa back home where they’ll be safe. But remember those cases the two threw out of the trunk? Those contained the warp cores they need to jump back to Earth, and they’re quite expensive. So the only way Terry’s going to be able to get his kids back is by completing the bounty, getting paid and buying another core.
Well, at least in space, he’ll finally have a chance to bond with his children.
And bond they did. After blowing up a good portion of the villainous Endless Horizons Conglomerate in Season One, the family managed to return home and settle back into normalcy.
Well, almost.
That adventure, come Season Two, weighs on Sean and Lisa in different ways. Sean’s become the talk of the town ever since he wrote about the journey in a neat sci-fi story and shared it with his class. But the adventure’s left Lisa a bit bored of the dullness of Earth in comparison to the excitement of space, and she’s been in trouble with her teachers because of it.
And Terry? Well, he’s still just trying to provide for his kids, punting the bounty business and working a tiring job at a (space-themed) shoe store in the local mall. And that’s when another bounty hunter bursts in and kidnaps Terry—all while his family watches in horror.
And this time, it’s Tess who is suiting up to fly into space. She chooses to leave the kids behind. After all, it’s extremely dangerous, especially with the massive bounty on her own head.
But a parent’s “no” has never deterred Sean and Lisa before, and that’s not going to change just because it’s coming from Mom instead of Dad now. And with the help of one of their father’s old bounties, they manage to find and fly a ship into space to catch up with their mother.
“You think Mom’s gonna be mad about this?” Sean asks.
“I mean, probably,” Lisa responds.
Any show with “bounty hunter” in the title doesn’t exactly scream a Y7 rating. After all, the whole job centers around hunting down typically dangerous people unwilling to be captured without a fight.
To be clear, My Dad, the Bounty Hunter does have a lot of fighting in it, but it’s more in the realm of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. People are shot with laser pistols, blown up, crushed, sliced in half and more in ways that would likely spell out death for your average human. But the animated show isn’t keeping the camera on the bodies for you to figure out whether or not they’re just unconscious.
But those episodic action sequences only cover the latter half of the series title, so let’s not fail to mention the content that falls under the parental beginning. My Dad, the Bounty Hunter is, ultimately, the story of two children who desperately need their father. It’s not enough for fathers to simply provide the resources for their kids to grow up, the show puts forth: They need to have active relationships with their children, too. And in case any mothers are feeling left out, Season Two will dive a bit more into Mom’s complementary role in that relationship.
Of course, the show does have a whole lot of animated fighting, and some fight scenes might be a bit intense for younger viewers, such as when an alien is stabbed through with a spear (and regrows its flesh) or when another alien has its head knocked on the side of a sink. Violence gets particularly more frightening and intense the deeper into the season you get.
Light language, though scarce, is present, too, such as “d–n,” “crap” and roughly one misuse of God’s name an episode. A bit of bathroom humor, a few sexual asides and a couple references to an LGBT relationship also make the trip to space, including a planetary trial which leaves Terry wearing little clothing. And one planetary adventure brings our characters to a gambling ring, where Tess must repeatedly reject a cat alien’s uncomfortable advances. So, while we appreciate the show’s message about fathers being present for their children, we’d probably bump this TV-Y7 show’s rating up to TV-PG.
After Terry is abducted, Tess, Sean and Lisa all return to space to find him.
People are shot with laser blasters, and others are knocked out in a fistfight. We see a spaceship dogfight. An alien captures Terry after trying to shoot him, and Terry chokes the alien during the confrontation. We see a montage of explosions and laser-blaster fire to recap the climax of Season One, when the family fought the Conglomerate. Lisa runs into an invisible forcefield.
Tess wears tight, form-fitting clothing.
Lisa argues about the existence of aliens with her teacher. “It’s a little hard to focus on your class when you realize that Earth is literally a tick on a hair on a pimple on the butt of the universe,” she nihilistically says. A man talks about an infection somewhere on his body.
God’s name is misused twice. Someone is called an “idiot” twice. Someone says that something “sucks.”
Lisa and Sean stow away on Terry’s ship and discover his real occupation.
Terry pins an alien under a door. The alien escapes, and Terry shoots the alien with his laser weapon, leaving a hole through the alien’s center. However, because the alien is liquid-based, it doesn’t harm him. Terry freezes the alien, shatters him, and reconsolidates him in a containment device.
In a video game, Sean accidentally blows up his teammates with a grenade. An enemy player runs over to his dead teammates and “teabags” them. Lisa references a movie, and she describes its plot. “It’s about a dad who flakes on his family all the time, but then he gets in a car crash and dies.”
A giant beast is said to be “signaling that it wishes to mate” with Terry’s ship. We’re told that, “as part of courtship,” the beast tries to bite the off the head of the ship.
Lisa gets in trouble with her school for setting up a gambling den in order to raise money for a new gym. We hear a reference to vomit. Terry jokes “who’s ready for cocktails” to his children.
Someone is called a “dummy.” We hear a use of the word “heck,” too.
Terry takes Sean and Lisa to chicken-wing restaurant Bucky Quanto’s in order to meet with an informant.
We see an offscreen explosion from a laser. Terry fights aliens in a bathroom, and he slams a couple alien heads into the sides of toilets or sinks. He also extracts information out of an alien by spraying it in the face with a bidet, and he uses the same alien as a whip against another attacker. People are shocked by laser blasts. People in an infomercial say, “If we can’t find them, they’re probably dead.”
People are seen gambling. One alien urinates.
We hear “butt,” “jeez” and “screw” used.
Terry stops at a gas station to refuel the ship, but they find that the place has a horrific bug problem.
A giant hermit crab-like bug monster chases Sean and Lisa, ripping apart robot attendants. The bug is melted by acid. Terry is caught in a shootout with a target.
A candy is called “Sour Brain Blue Butt Blasters.” A bumper sticker reads “Parsec-sy and I know it.”
We hear one misuse of God’s name. We also hear “butt” and “jeez.”
Terry travels to nearby Pulga to fix the ship.
On Pulga, the insect-like inhabitants ride on Moog, giant dog-like creatures that serve as buses. The Moog are considered sacred by the insects, and Sean is considered special and “chosen” when one licks him.
An alien is punched in the face. Sean fights a giant robot that spews flames and wields a buzzsaw. Glorlox, an old partner of Terry’s, shoots a Moog, and the insects attack him. We see generic fistfights and shootouts. One of the alien insects is seen bathing. Someone says that they “swear on the war gods of Lox.”
We hear God’s name misused once. We also hear a single instance each of “d–n,” “crap,” “dang,” “heck” and “idiot.” “Butt” is used twice.
Terry and his children arrive on Chillion-5, the “happiest place in the galaxy.” But they soon discover a horrific truth.
The planet hosts a theme park based around cute creatures called the Chillas. We’re told that the creatures are endangered, and they’re only useful for doing tricks for visiting guests. However, we soon discover that the Chillas are actually enslaved by the Endless Horizons Conglomerate, a galaxy-wide organization that also employs Terry. They’re shocked from their shock collars and forced to mine crystals.
An alien hits Terry and takes his gun. Terry lies to his wife.
We hear a misuse of God’s name.
Lisa assists a group of resistance members in freeing the Chillas from slavery.
Lisa tasers guards. One of the guards is repeatedly shocked because he won’t fall unconscious. A guard hits an animal with rocks, and the animal smashes the guard with its tentacles. Rebels fight many guards in a fistfight. Guards are also attacked by Chillas—one guard is tossed far to the ground and another is hit with a pickaxe. A building explodes. A woman is knocked out. One guard fires a laser gatling gun at rebels. In a musical, a man is “decapitated” as part of the plot, and we see fake blood shoot from the “wound.”
We hear God’s name misused once, and we hear one instance each of “crap” and “jeez.”
Terry explodes in anger at his children, causing them to run away—directly into a dangerous situation.
Lightning strikes a ship. A ship is shot by aliens. A ship explodes.
We hear a misuse of God’s name. We also hear one instance of “d–n,” “jeez” and “idiot.”
Captured by the enemy and their father’s fate unknown, Lisa and Sean focus on escaping their cell.
Guards are taken down by Chillas and shot with lasers. One is hit with a dart. Aliens are punched, and fistfights break out.
A female guard comforts another female guard during the fighting. One of them is ripped away by a tentacle and thrown into the air. The other screams “I love you” at her as romantic music plays.
A criminal wears cross earrings.
We hear the start of the s-word before it is cut off. We also hear “crap,” “dang” and “jerk.” Additionally, fake crude language is used, such as “gakbag” and “Marf licker.”
The Endless Horizons Conglomerate arrives to collect the bounty.
A Chilla says “I will consume your bowels.” Guards are tasered. Aliens and guards are shot at by laser guns. Some are crushed by a ship’s wing, and others are sucked into space. A room explodes with an alien inside.
We hear a misuse of God’s name. We also hear one instance of “crap,” and we hear some tell others to stop “screwing around.”
Having escaped the Endless Horizons Conglomerate, Terry rushes to get the kids back home before their mother shows up.
We see a bit of blood on someone’s bandage. Terry is shot by a laser gun, and Tess (the mother) is punched across a room. The two fight with an enemy who chokes and throws them. The alien also tosses Lisa and Sean. Terry and Tess chop the human-looking alien’s arm off, and the arm grows back. Likewise, Tess stabs a spear through the alien’s chest, and the alien pulls the spear deeper inside itself. We can later see through its body because of the wound, but the alien regrows that flesh, too. The alien is hit with a car, which explodes. Later, when the alien is stabbed through once more, the family places a warp core inside its exposed abdomen, and the alien is disintegrated when the warp core activates.
Characters dance in revealing clothing.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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