Drama
A Man in Full
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
After recent studies revealed that Americans long for simpler lives in small towns, Fox sent a documentary crew to spend time with the citizens of one of these rural communities: The village of Flatch, Ohio, population 1,526.
What they find is something of a mix between Schitt’s Creek and Parks and Recreation.
The people of Flatch are a colorful collection of characters. According to Cheryl Peterson, that’s just “part of its charm.”
Cheryl was a reporter in Minneapolis before following her then-boyfriend, Reverend Joseph Binghoffer, to this particular middle of nowhere. Then she got dumped and took over the town paper, The Flatch Patriot.
Joseph became known as “Father Joe.” And when he’s not swiping through potential Tinder dates, he actually tries to do his job, helping local youths turn away from their miscreant lives.
Shrub and Kelly Mallet are two such miscreants. These cousins live together and spend their days tormenting the county bus driver (who used to be Shrub’s soccer coach), competing against their frenemies and trying to impress the documentary crew filming them.
In most other mockumentaries, genuinely sweet people lie beneath ridiculous character quirks. Leslie Knope of Parks and Rec is obnoxiously perky, but she harnesses that energy to better her small town of Pawnee, Indiana. The Office’s Michael Scott makes some really, really dumb decisions, but the love he has for his employees is possibly only matched by the aforementioned Leslie Knope’s love of Pawnee.
Sadly, that’s not what we’re getting in Welcome to Flatch, at least at this early juncture. Is it funny? Sure. But it lacks heart.
The language is much harsher than what you’ll find in other mockumentaries. F-words and s-words are bleeped out, but those bleeps are heard a lot more often. Jokes range from absent fathers and marital infidelity to drunkenness and toilet humor to homosexuality and nudity. (We don’t see that last bit on screen, but we’ve come dangerously close.)
And then there’s the feeling of blasphemy I get from Father Joe. He was the lead singer of a Christian boy band back in the day (and he still knows the choreography). By itself, that probably wouldn’t matter. However, he used the church as an excuse to break up with his girlfriend right before joining the dating app Tinder, which is well-known for its hook-up culture. And while noting the strides the Mallet cousins have made with their foul language, he drops an f-bomb himself.
There’s no town pride in Flatch. There’s no spirit of community (most people spend their interview time with the documentary crew insulting their fellow residents). And there’s no real reason to watch this Fox mockumentary.
Shrub hopes to impress his crush by winning the scarecrow-making contest at the annual Scarecrow Festival. Kelly tries to win her dad’s attention by competing in the skillet toss, which he won seven years in a row.
Cheryl is resentful that Father Joe used the church as an excuse to break up with her.
We hear that a man tried to “feel up” another man’s wife. We see the underwear of two men when their pants fall down (and another time when one of the men is “pantsed”). A guy inadvertently makes a crass sexual comment about his grandmother. We learn a pastor uses Tinder. We hear about “twerking.” Shrub says his dad left when he was a baby. Kelly’s dad has a new family and largely ignores her.
A man is hit off-screen by a cast-iron skillet. There is a passing reference to pioneer women hitting their children with skillets. Shrub sets fire to a scarecrow, which then sets off several fireworks, though nobody is hurt.
Shrub and Kelly reminisce about the time Father Joe took them to get their stomachs pumped because they drank too many wine coolers. A woman pretends to drink from a moonshine bottle. Shrub’s dad was nicknamed “Busch” because he liked to drink that particular brand of beer. (Shrub got his nickname because a shrub is a small bush.)
Someone says a woman has the “personality of a diaper wipe.” A latrine serves as a town memorial and the local historical society struggles to stop residents from using it as a porta-potty (though we see one member sneak in to breast-feed her baby).
Kelly, Shrub and other residents all mock each other for the documentary cameras. Kelly and Shrub prank a bus driver by causing him to hit a slushie. Shrub gets into trouble after selling a local farmer’s pig and giving away the man’s potato crop without permission. Kelly takes advantage of local kids, bossing them around and getting them to do her bidding.
The f-word and s-word are bleeped a few times each, but we also here “a–,” “d–n” and “h—.” God’s name is also abused. A rude hand gesture is blurred out. We hear that a young man was removed from an online anger management class after sending middle finger emojis to the instructor.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
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