I will have to compare to Rick & Morty, that's inevitable. Mild spoilers ahead.
Basically, this show should have worked on paper. The premise is interesting enough, it's the total inversion of R&M in a sense that, while it's precursor was about exploring the dynamics of a dysfunctional family, nihilism, abuse and self-destruction through the lenses of the protagonists travelling from earth towards the 'beyond' (be it alternate realities or the corpse of a hobo), SO is basically about the elements from 'beyond' trying to fit into earth's north-american suburban structure. It's an 80's or 90's sitcom waiting to happen.
In practice, it doesn't work.
And it doesn't because the inverted lenses should explore the BlueAndOrangeMorality, why they have such morality, how it interacts with ours. Think of Worf from Star Trek, his morality was completely different from our own (heavily drawn from japanese culture and others, but still...) or the Coneheads and the show explored how it was different. It doesn't work because most of the family, except Jesse, is an unlikeable psychopath, and the show uses the BlueAndOrangeMorality not as a plot device, but as an excuse for their behavior. This would be grating enough, but they also go to great lengths of destruction to be hand-waved with a StatusQuoIsGod, even poking fun at it in the very first episode. Just because you poked fun at the StatusQuoIsGod trope, it doesn't make it fix the damage.
Even in that it's a direct inversion of R&M, for there, everyone EXCEPT Rick had visible redeeming qualities, and even in the first season their actions, if escalated too far, had consequences (them having to basically skip to another universe because they messed up too bad). And in the end, R&M had an evolving aforementioned theme within it that slowly evolved, here we have at most a group that is desperately trying to fit into a society that they literally abhor, for reasons unknown. Plot twists will be pulled solely for the sake of shock value only to be discarded afterwards, nullifying any impact, present or future.
But because Hulu is desperately trying to compete with Netflix (and they poke fun at that too) there will be certainly a second season. Some of the jokes actually made me laugh in the most interesting moments (such as, when trying to understand what is a 'man cave' they grab 'cold ones', as in, literal number 1's made of ice) but overall I won't be following these series.
What happens when you get a show, flip it, and remove its core?
I will have to compare to Rick & Morty, that's inevitable. Mild spoilers ahead.
Basically, this show should have worked on paper. The premise is interesting enough, it's the total inversion of R&M in a sense that, while it's precursor was about exploring the dynamics of a dysfunctional family, nihilism, abuse and self-destruction through the lenses of the protagonists travelling from earth towards the 'beyond' (be it alternate realities or the corpse of a hobo), SO is basically about the elements from 'beyond' trying to fit into earth's north-american suburban structure. It's an 80's or 90's sitcom waiting to happen.
In practice, it doesn't work.
And it doesn't because the inverted lenses should explore the BlueAndOrangeMorality, why they have such morality, how it interacts with ours. Think of Worf from Star Trek, his morality was completely different from our own (heavily drawn from japanese culture and others, but still...) or the Coneheads and the show explored how it was different. It doesn't work because most of the family, except Jesse, is an unlikeable psychopath, and the show uses the BlueAndOrangeMorality not as a plot device, but as an excuse for their behavior. This would be grating enough, but they also go to great lengths of destruction to be hand-waved with a StatusQuoIsGod, even poking fun at it in the very first episode. Just because you poked fun at the StatusQuoIsGod trope, it doesn't make it fix the damage.
Even in that it's a direct inversion of R&M, for there, everyone EXCEPT Rick had visible redeeming qualities, and even in the first season their actions, if escalated too far, had consequences (them having to basically skip to another universe because they messed up too bad). And in the end, R&M had an evolving aforementioned theme within it that slowly evolved, here we have at most a group that is desperately trying to fit into a society that they literally abhor, for reasons unknown. Plot twists will be pulled solely for the sake of shock value only to be discarded afterwards, nullifying any impact, present or future.
But because Hulu is desperately trying to compete with Netflix (and they poke fun at that too) there will be certainly a second season. Some of the jokes actually made me laugh in the most interesting moments (such as, when trying to understand what is a 'man cave' they grab 'cold ones', as in, literal number 1's made of ice) but overall I won't be following these series.